SIMS Articles

1. Click on the Articles Tab in the Admin Menu to expand your options.
2. Select the first option Create Article.
3. The SIMS Editor will now open up on the right side of the screen.

Menu Title

This is the text that will appear on your main navigation menu. This should be kept fairly short, though not at the expense of clarity, as this will be what your visitors will be presented with to navigate the website. In short, this should be clear and concise.

Header Title

This is the text that will appear in your browser's header tab when you view the article.

For example, the Header Title of this article is "Articles"

Page Title

This is the text that is used as a header on the article, displayed at or near the top of the page, typically in a larger font. This text will also assist in Search Engine Optimization. Think of the Page Title as the equivalent of a Chapter Title for a book.

Redirect URL

You can select this option to redirect the article to a file, another article or an external website.

Selecting the file icon will allow you to select a file from the File Manager. Selecting the page icon allows you to select a page on the website. To link to an external website, copy the direct URL and paste it into this field.

Alias URL

Keywords

For Search Engine Optimization, choose words here that are relevant to your article, separating words &
phrases with a comma. Think about the search terms and phrases your visitors are likely to enter on a search engine, and avoid using esoteric terms (such as esoteric).

Description

You can add a brief description of your page here. These descriptions are used by search engines to use as a content preview snippet for search result pages.

It is best to keep meta descriptions beween 150 and 160 characters max. Descriptions longer than 160 characters may be truncated by search engines. To make limiting descriptions easier, the description panel includes a character counter along the bottom of the field.

Article Image

This section is reserved for special uses, such as images that display as previews in a news feed, images in a fader/ slider, or in other customized ways.

Article File

This is similar to how an image can be attached to an article, though they are controlled separately.  As with the Article Image, the Article File will be implemented on a site-by-site basis.

Article Groups

Here, articles can be assigned to groups.

This is an optional security feature for articles.

Incognito Mode

For pages you do not wish to be indexed by search engines, you may select the Incognito toggle. This feature will strongly encourage search engines from indexing the page.

Once selected, you can also opt if you would like to apply Incognito mode to all children (sub menu items) of the current article.

Lock Article

Here you can toggle Article Lock.

Adding existing content from a word processor

1. Open your document in the proper word processing program.
2. Using your mouse, select and copy (or cut) the desired text.
3. Paste the content into the Publishing Window of the SIMS Editor. Either use the Paste icon, or use the hotkey (ctrl/ command V)

If you are pasting from an external source, use the Paste as Text icon. This will strip any additional formatting that the content may have and prevent any style consistancy issues on your website. In all other cases, use the Paste button.

Insert an existing HTML file

1. Upload your existing HTML file using the File Manager.
2. Either open an existing article or create a new one.
3. Select inside the Publishing Window of the SIMS Editor where you want to insert the uploaded HTML file.
4. Inser the file via one of two methods:
   1. Select the Insert File button at the top of the page
      or
   2. From the Insert menu at the top of the editor, select the Inser File option.
5. The Insert File Window will open.
6. Select the template you wish to use from the dropdown menu, then select OK.
7. The template will now be inserted into the SIMS Editor.

1. Click the Insert/Edit Table icon on the SIMS Editor Toolbar.
2. Next to the Insert Table dropdown, select the desired approximate size of your table (grids, columns) - you can always add more rows/columns later as required.
3. Once you are done, click the grid.
4. Your table will be inserted into the article.

Editing & Formatting a Table

1. Select the table within the SIMS Editor that you would like to edit and the Table Options menu will appear:
2. Choose the appropriate option. You may edit settings, such as table width, height, cell spacing, cell padding, border or alignment. You may also wish to add or remove cells, rows or columns, or even delete the entire table.
3. Alternatively you can select the table you would like to edit and then from the toolbar Insert/Edit Table Icon , select Table Properties. You will be presented with a number of editable properties.

Cell Spacing

This value specifies how much spacing there will be between table cells.

Cell Padding

This value specifies how much padding
there will be on the inside of cells.

Alignment

Sets the alignment of the table in your content area.

Border

This value specifies how thick the border on the table should be. To remove the table border, enter 0. The higher the number, the thicker the border.

Width

This value specifies how wide your table will be. A newly created table is defaulted to 100% the width of your screen or containing column. You may also set it to a specific width in % or px value.

Height

This value specifies the minumum height of your table.

Class

If you have a custom class created for tables, you can assign it to the table by selecting it from the dropdown list. Otherwise leave this blank.

Table Caption

Selecting this option will give your table a caption (or title), which you can edit after you insert or update your title.

Heading Styles

Options include : Paragraph (default setting), Address, Preformatted and Heading sizes 2 through 6.

To Apply Heading Style :

1. Select the area you would like to format by selecting within a line of text.
2. Click the Heading Dropdown menu and select the style you wish to use.
3. The style will be applied to your selected area.

Font Styles

Options include : Bold, Italic and Underline. You may also apply other inline styles such as strikethrough, ^Superscript, _Subscriptand code

To Apply Font Style:

1. Highlight the text you wish to format by clicking and dragging the mouse cursor over the text.
2. Click on either the Bold, Italicize, or Underline icon. You may also click within the Styles Dropdown for options such as; Strikethough, Superscript, Subscript or Code.
3. The appropriate style will be applied to the selected text.

Aligning Content

Left Aligned

Center Aligned

Right Aligned

To Align Content:

1. Highlight the text you wish to format by clicking and dragging the mouse cursor over the text.
2. Click on the Left Align, Center Align, or Right Align button.
3. The appropriate alignment will be applied to the selected text.

Ordered Lists

An ordered list is commonly referred to as a “numbered list”. An ordered list is identical to an unordered list, but the list marker is a numeral, instead of a circle. Examples of ordered lists include the lists on this article, as they are prefixed by numbers.

1. Click in the Publishing Window where you would like to place the ordered list. (Alternatively, if you would like to turn text that already exists into a list, you may highlight the text by clicking and dragging the mouse cursor over the text.)
2. Click on the Ordered List button.
3. To add another list item, hit the Enter key on your keyboard. A new line with a prefixing number will be created.

Unordered Lists

An unordered list is commonly referred to as a “bulleted list”. Each item in an unordered list is marked by a bullet. For the purposes of this example, the following instructions are contained in an unordered list.

• Click in the Publishing Window where you would like to place the unordered list. (Alternatively, if you would like to turn text that already exists into a list, you may highlight the text by clicking and dragging the mouse cursor over the text.)
• Click on the Unordered List button.
• To add another list item, hit the Enter key on your keyboard. A new line with a prefixing bullet will be created.

Adding Links

1. Add the text or image that you wish to turn into a link to the SIMS Editor Publishing Window if it is not already added.
2. Highlight the text or image by clicking and dragging with your mouse.
3. Click the Insert/Edit Link icon. The Hyperlink Properties Window will open.
4. Enter the appropriate information into the Hyperlink Properties Window.

From the Article Properties window, you can toggle an article as either Visible, Hidden, or Disabled.

Visible

A Visible article will be included in the Navigation Menu of your website, and will be visible to all site visitors.

Hidden

A Hidden article will not be included in the Navigation Menu of your website, and will not be ordinarily visible to site visitors. A Hidden article can, however, be accessed directly if the visitor has, for example, bookmarked the article. It is not easily accessible, but it may still be accessed.

Disabled

A Disabled article will not be included in the Navigation Menu of your website, nor will it be accessible to visitors either directly or indirectly. Any visitor, who is not logged into your SIMS Administration Panel, that attempts to view the article (through a bookmark, for example) is given a 404: File Not Found error.