Spring 2025 Web Editors Newsletter: new Dashboard, expanded Intranet, new Roles, Social Media footer blocks

Exciting New Dashboard

Top block of the new HSDP Dashboard, which includes a section of recent announcements.

We are excited to announce a new dashboard to greet you when you log in. Our goal is to provide information at your fingertips to help you make decisions, keep your site fresh, and present opportunities for improvement. The dashboard will launch with a few blocks of information, but you can expect additional blocks to be added over time. Over time, the dashboard will also replace the maintenance reports you’ve received in the past. 

At this time, you will find the following blocks: 

  • HSDP Announcements
  • My Latest Edits
  • Pages with Accessibility Issues
  • Duplicate Profiles
  • All Active Site Editors
  • Importers
  • University policies

What’s coming later:

  • Reorder Profiles and Other Listings
  • Pages with Broken Links
  • And more

Check out the full guide to the new Dashboard in our Wiki

We will host a Town Hall Q&A session for the new Dashboard over Zoom on Friday, May 16th 2025 from 10-11am. We encourage you to check out the Dashboard beforehand and bring your questions and suggestions to the session.

Event Cancellations or Postponements? 

Life happens, and sometimes event plans change. If your website imports events from Stanford Events, you may notice that not all changes are synced to your website. Depending on the type of change, additional action may be required. Learn more about managing canceled, postponed, or unlisted events

New Intranet Capabilities 

We have noticed a significant increase in demand for private page content, and as a result, we are working on making additional components available on private pages. They will be rolling out over the next couple of months. 

We have also been working on expanding the H&S Drupal Platform’s intranet capabilities to allow for separate intranet spaces. You can now define a faculty intranet, for instance, that is separate from a staff intranet, also separate from a grad student intranet. The work is currently being piloted on a few sites and refined. If you’re interested in this new capability, please submit a support ticket, and we will be in touch to discuss the scope and timeline. 

New Roles: Preparer, Reviewer 

We have released two new roles. 

The “Preparer” role can create unpublished content only. Preparers can neither publish new content nor edit existing published content. This role has been requested for some student editors. Because they don’t publish content, those with the Preparer role do not have to take the accessibility training.

The “Reviewer” role can view and review unpublished content. This role has been requested for faculty (Chair, DGS, etc) to review content in draft mode before it goes live. Because those with the Reviewer also do not publish content, they do not have to take the accessibility training. 

Learn more about these new editor roles, as well as how to assign them.

Social Media Footer Block

Previously, the social media footer blocks were in full HTML, making it impossible for you to edit. We’ve switched to an easy interface you can edit yourself.  

Unless your footer block includes a mix of social media icons and text, we have already made the switch for you, and you can take advantage of this new capability. Learn more about adding or editing your social media links.

Tall Banner Height Option

A new height option has been added to Banner Images. For regular Banner Images (those with no text or overlay), you can now choose a “tall” or “short” image height. Images uploaded before this release will default to the “short” option. Learn more about changing the height on Banner Images. We have also updated our recommended image sizes to include the new height options.

New Self-Help Troubleshooting Library

We’ve added a Troubleshooting section to the Wiki user guide to help you resolve issues when things aren’t working as expected.This series of troubleshooting pages is intended to assist you in addressing various problems independently. If you still need help, please submit a support ticket.

Missed the Spotlight Seminar on Digital Accessibility?

We had great attendance at the March Spotlight Seminar on Digital Accessibility. Even then, we know not everyone was able to make it. In case you missed it, here are the seminar slides and updates to some of the questions that came up. As a reminder, here are the top 3 asks from the seminar: 

  1. Work with us on website document remediation
  2. Prioritize digital accessibility training
  3. Connect us with other site owners (faculty labs, research projects, etc)

Web Editor announcements are sent to the hswebeditors mailing list. Feel free to click this link to unsubscribe if you no longer edit an H&S website, or conversely, encourage a new web editor colleague to subscribe.