Content management and authoring
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editing
The NetDevPlus Editor is entirely browser-based. However, the interface is similar to standard Microsoft Windows Office® applications, so that users with just a basic knowledge of word-processing and spreadsheet tools can quickly become productive.
NetDevPlus’ features a true 'in-context' WYSIWYG editor, which makes it easy to publish new or update existing content quickly and easily. Changing content in NetDevPlus 4.0 is like typing directly into your web pages. The users see exactly how the page will look as they are working.
Managing content
Creating new content and adding pages to your website is quick and intuitive with NetDevPlus 4.0's improved editing functionality.
When you create pages in NetDevPlus, the system automatically builds navigation menus. Your website menu appears in the familiar Windows folder format. You can also hide pages from the menu to ensure usability standards are maintained.
The following features are part of the NetDevPlus content editor:
- In-line spellchecker
- XHTML 1.1 compliant output and interface
- Integrated XHTML validation module
- Accessibility compliance
- Multilevel undo/redo with action trails
- 7 ways for pasting from Word, Excel and email
- Content reuse
Ability to publish content as XML
With NetDevPlus, you can share or duplicate content across multiple pages, which means you can select content from any other area in the site and then decide to re-use it or share it. When content is shared, only one set of content exists so that if it is updated, all pages using that piece of content will be updated. Essentially shared content is edited in one place only and all places where it is used are updated.
Content sharing is an integral part of NetDevPlus 4.0, and as such, the ability to share content with 3rd parties has been added to the system. Any content item can be published individually as XML, so that trusted parties can pick up this content and use it on their own sites
Formatting and styles
All of the standard editing functions are accessible through the NetDevPlus toolbar such as insert image, find and replace text, numbered lists and bullets, spell check, font formatting, etc. Styling is applied using the Editor Toolbar which looks and feels like a standard Office® application. NetDevPlus also features image manipulation tools including: crop, resize, brightness and contrast and sharpen.
Styling content
Text styles are applied identically to those in Word®, by selecting the text and applying the style from a WYSIWYG drop down list. The styles are driven by standard cascading style sheets. Users cannot add their own fonts etc. This supports better accessibility and ensures the uniform application of Visual Identity. It also provides useful separation of content from the look and feel of the site.
Creating hyperlinks
Hyperlinks, image links and document links can be added to any page simply by choosing the text or image to be linked and then clicking the 'Add Link' icon from the Editor Toolbar. You can specify the link behaviour (spawning a new window, etc). NetDevPlus automatically manages main navigation links and reports broken in-page links through the reporting manager.
Page preview
In addition to editing in a true WYSIWYG format, a preview option is provided that fully processes the page to give an exact representation of the page in its published state, in a new browser window.
Dynamic content controls
A suite of controls will be included in the standard installation, and custom controls can be developed on request. These controls allow the content manager to drop onto any page a data collection form, poll, news summary list or other dynamically generated content.