ITS 200: Content Management with SharePoint

This content is currently being updated to address Microsoft SharePoint and should be available in early 2026.

In December 2022, we migrated our New River intranet from Joomla to Microsoft SharePoint (see project details).

A) Overview of SharePoint and Web Site Management

What is a Content Management System? Well, this video provides a brief overview of Content Management Systems. And what is a Web Content Manager really expected to do? Well, this sample position description provides some of that information.

SharePoint is a Microsoft application that provides a reasonably intuitive web interface for managing online information. SharePoint provides three levels of user access so that access can be restricted and managed.

SITE OWNERS (IT staff) have full control of the content and are responsible for assigning roles to other users.

SITE MEMBERS have limited control, meaning they can read and write to only the content assigned to them (typically, this is department heads and administrative assistants who need to modify and manage information on behalf of their department). Department heads must request the Site Member role for the employees who need it. Please send this request to our Help Desk.

SITE VISITORS have read-only access to all the intranet content. All New River employees should have this level of access (unless a higher level of access has been assigned).

If you haven't been assigned one of these three roles, you don't have access to the intranet content. This means that general Internet users (including our students) do not have access to the intranet content.

There are a number of tasks that Site Members should be able to perform with very little or no assistance (after completing our workshop). But first you'll need some background information.

1. Common Internet file types (TXT, RTF, HTM, HTML, PDF, JPG, GIF, TIF, PNG) and Non-Internet file types (DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX)
2. Naming conventions (no_spaces, lowercase, descriptive names, including file suffixes)
3. Areas of Content Manager Responsibility (see SharePoint Site Map) (see outdated site map from Joomla as a comparison - see diagram)
4. Understanding Styles, Formats, and Basic HTML

Each of the following tasks are considered part of the Site Member's responsibility:

How to...

1. Login to the INTRAnet
2. Upload Files
   1. Create Links
      1. To Content
      2. To Media Files
      3. Mailto Links
   2. Insert Image (video tutorial)
   3. Paste Content from a DOCX File (video tutorial)
   4. Edit an Article
      1. Understanding Article Elements (Status, Category, Access, and Author)
      2. Use the Available Styles and Formatting (H2, H3, ordered lists, unordered lists, and Undo)
      3. Create a Table (video tutorial)
      4. Use Metadata (Meta Description and Meta Keywords)
3. Create PDF documents (see steps) (video tutorial)

Exercises and Frequently Asked Questions

(1) What are the steps for getting my information from a Microsoft Word file to the College's web site as a PDF file?

1. Open the document in Microsoft Word, click the File menu and choose Save As PDF. Be sure to name the file without spaces so that it will comply with web naming conventions and it should have a .pdf file suffix.
2. Login to the back-end of Joomla then choose Media Manager. Click into YOUR folder then click the Browse Files button to locate the PDF file you want to upload.
3. Click the Start Upload button.
4. Navigate back to the Control Panel using the Site menu.
5. Click the Article Manager button and locate the article where you want to create a link to your PDF file. You can locate YOUR article by (a) searching for it by name or (b) using the author filter to select YOUR name.
6. Create your link to the PDF file and Save your changes.

(2) I see some information on a College web page that is not accurate. The page is not my responsibility but I think the information should be fixed. What should I do?

Every page on the College's site should have the name of the author published at the top of the page. For example, Dave Ayersman is responsible for the Information Technology Services information so when you go to that page of the site you'll see his name at the top. As others begin contributing to the site additional names will be shown on pages to reflect who is responsible for the content. If a name is not provided it is okay to contact Dave Ayersman but please provide the complete URL of the page with the error(s) as well as a brief description of the problem that should be corrected. If the issue really must be fixed and you can't contact anyone else, please correct the issue yourself and politely inform the owner of the page of what you've done. Clearly, this applies to obvious errors that must be quickly resolved (accidental profanity or blatant spelling errors) and not to content-related issues that you might not have expertise with.

(3) How do I login to the College's Web Site?

To access the front-end (Intranet) navigate to the Faculty and Staff menu option and click the Intranet Login/Logout link. To access the back-end use the link http://intranet.newriver.edu/administrator

(4) I need to create an entirely new HTML page but I need it to be available through the Main Menu in my area. How do I do this?

Creating new Articles in Joomla doesn't automatically create links on the Main Menu (or anywhere else for that matter). You have to create a new Menu Item (or a new link) and link to the article you've just created. Also, organization of the site is achieved through the use of Categories that have been created. There are so many steps for creating brand new HTML pages in Joomla that we will reserve this task for advanced users. Anyone else can just contact Dave Ayersman with the request.

(5) How do I create a Page Title?

The Page Title is actually NOT something you have to include in your page, but instead the title is pulled from the field "Title" from the Article Manager screen. Here is a brief video explaining it.

(6) How do I view past events on the official College Calendar?

We have the College Calendar configured to hide past events. The reason we've done that is that most folks are not interested in past events and they tend to make finding upcoming events more difficult. Here is a brief video explaining how to hide/show the past events.

(7) Who are the people responsible for updating the College calendars?

Each category of the calendar (see all Calendar Categories and Overview of Calendars) has someone assigned to manage the events (see list of Calendar Managers). All Content Managers can add, edit, and delete events on the calendar from the front-end, but only Calendar Managers can do this from the back-end. Each calendar category has one or more calendar managers assigned (see these assignments).

(8) Hands-On Exercise: Demonstrate some basic HTML editing skills.

I've created one Practice Article and assigned it to you. Locate it by logging into the Intranet, then navigating to Key Contacts and finding your name. Then click on your list of Articles to find your Practice page. Try to apply the changes listed below:

1. Create an H2 header.
2. Make something bold.
3. Indent something.
4. Create an ordered or unordered list.
5. Create a link to a PDF file (sample PDF).
6. Create a link to another Article.
7. Insert an image (sample image).
8. Create a table.

(9) How can I tell if an Article is in need of an update?

Some information is timeless while other information needs to be updated frequently. You'll need to read the information on your page to determine if it is in need of an update. If you need assistance, your supervisor should also be able to help determine if your page needs to be updated. And every Article has the "Last Modified" date on it. That can also be a good indicator of when to update a page.