Freestlye provides a point-and-click interface within a web browser window to facilitate the development of official Denison web pages.   Web pages are built using a series of templates provided by Denison's Web Services department.

Page maintainers and approvers of official Denison sites.  These include offices, departments, athletics, and a few organizations that use the Denison look and feel.  Student organizations, personal sites, and other sites that do not use the Denison template will continue to edit sites however they wish.  If you are unsure, contact Web Services.

Freestyle was implemented in response to feedback received from the community of page maintainers. A few of the reasons include:

• For most Denison web maintainers, editing raw HTML code provided a learning curve that was steeper than necessary.
  
• Many page maintainers would only edit a few times a year, not nearly enough to retain a solid HTML skill set.
  
• Much time was spent training maintainers on the intricacies of HTML, time that would be better spent training on how to create compelling content.
  
• Editing pages in HTML was often a time consuming process that left many users frustrated.
  
• Editing pages required users to learn to use four applications.
  

While Freestyle has a learning curve and its own set of idiosyncrasies, that curve is not as steep as learning to code HTML, nor is the latter required of the maintainers. Furthermore, it combines the functions of four applications into one, greatly simplifying the page editing process.

If you have been added to the system as a page maintainer or approver you can log in with your e-mail username and password at https://freestyle.denison.edu.

Any modern web browser should be fine;  Firefox 3+, Internet Explorer 8+, and Safari 3+ are known to work well.   Other browsers may vary. 

Note: Internet Explorer may display warnings about "unsecured" connections when previewing documents; this is normal.

The login is case-sensitive, so make sure you're typing your e-mail username (the part before @denison.edu) and password correctly.

If you are typing your username and password correctly, there is the possibility that you do not have an account in the system.  Please see our web publishing FAQ for instructions.

After logging in, you should see gray menu options down the left side of the screen.  These are called Workflows. 

1. Click on the Pages workflow for the site that you want.
2. Click on the Find Stories action.
3. In the Search box, type the name of the file (the last part of the url - "somefile.html") you want to edit.
4. Select the Checkout box, and click the Check Out button.
   
5. You're ready to edit!
   

Scroll down to the white number 2 in the small red box.  It should be labeled "Content".  This is the box with all your content. If you're editing a Standard Page story type (see the first box on the page) you'll probably see things with labels like "Enhanced Paragraph" "Table" or "Heading."  If you're editing a Faculty/Staff Bio Page, you'll see information for that person.  And if you're editing a photo gallery, you'll see lots of pictures listed.  Notice you can edit some of the items on this screen, while others require you to click the "edit" button right below it. 

Adding links will likely be novel at first, but it's easy once you get the hang of it.  You'll see a drop down at the bottom of the aforementioned box #2.  When you are editing a "Enhanced Paragraph" area, your options will include

• Link - Internal Story
  
• Link - Email
• Link - External
• Link - Internal Media

To link to another page, you'll use either the first or third choice above using the following steps:

1. In the Text area, place the word "link" followed by square brackets with a key name inside where you want the link to appear.  It will look like this, except with no space between the word link and the first square bracket:  link [denisonrodeo]
2. Select "Link - Internal Document Link" or "Link - External" from the drop down menu and click on "Add Element" to the left of it.
3. In the "key" area, enter the word you put in the square brackets.  In this example, that would be "denisonrodeo".  Link Text is what you would like to appear to the reader on screen.  Something like "This is a link" would be good to try out the first time.
   
4. For an embedded Internal Story link, you'll go to the #3 box and relate a story. Click on the Edit button at the right of the #3 Related Story box and search for the page on the Denison web site you want.
   
5. For an embedded External link, you'll enter the URL.  Site Name is what will appear when a user mouses over the link. 
   
6. Click Save and you'll be back at the Enhanced Paragraph Area.  Click on the Red URI link in box #1 and see if it worked.

If there is a problem, Freestyle will throw an error when it attempts to preview the document.  READ THE ERROR MESSAGE.   Common problems are embedded link elements with no related story or URL, or link keys that don't match.  You can delete embedded link elements with the check boxes and "Delete" button to the right. 

If you are editing an element like the "Enhanced Paragraph" area, click the Save button until you see the word "Content" next to the white #2 in the small red corner.  Scroll to the bottom of the page.  On the pull down menu,  next to the "Check In" button, select the Approval Desk for your site.  Click the "Check In" button, NOT the "Save" button.

In your Pages Workflow on the left,  Click on the Approval desk. You should see your page.  Check the "Publish" check box, and click "Publish Assets".  You will be presented with a confirmation screen.  Click "Publish" again. Your changes will be scheduled for publication and appear within 30 seconds under normal circumstances.

You probably only have maintainer privileges.  Let your site approver know the documents are ready so they can be published, or contact Web Services if you need to be granted approver privileges.

You still can. Just use the Raw Code element in your pages and away you go.

You'll need to use a program such as iPhoto or Photoshop Elements to resize your image.

Bio images have their width set to 200 pixels for uniformity.  Uploading your bio images at this size will ensure they look sharp and clear.

Media files need to have their names be all lower case with no spaces before the are uploaded to ensure they work properly.

The best way to report a problem with a page is to use the "Report a Bug" link at the bottom of the page.  You can then use the form provided to detail the bug to the page maintainer.  At this time, all "Report a Bug" links go to Web Services.

Common causes include not having a Source selected at content creation time, using the back button, or uploading a corrupt image.  If you are in a situation that doesn't fit one of those descriptions, please report a bug.