Skip to the content

Kansas State University

Housing and Dining Services
104 Pittman Building
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6453
888-568-5027
housing@k-state.edu

Website Support
  1. Home >
  2. Welcome to HDS CMS
Welcome to the Housing and Dining Content Management System!

To get started right away, click the link below to log in, or, if you're unsure of anything, you can browse this page. It's probably a good idea to keep this page handy, as it includes tips and an explanation of the most commonly used functions in the system.

Click here to log in.

Welcome to HDS CMS

Housing & Dining Content Management System

A new way to communicate!!!


Welcome to K-State Housing & Dining's new content management system, or CMS for short.  Just what is a CMS?  Why does Housing & Dining need one?  What can I do with a HDS: CMS account?
  • What is a 'Content Management System'?
    • A CMS is essentially a self-contained way to manage large amounts of content -- in this case all the material on Housing & Dining's entire website.  More simply, it's a system based around a text editor that allows for easy, simple and fast creation, removal and updates of web content.  This means more relevant information for students, and more time spent doing other, more important things for you, the user.
  • Why does Housing & Dining need a CMS?
    • Housing and Dining runs a huge website, with a ton of content, some of which changes daily, some changes monthly, and some may only change once per semester or year.  Regardless, the people who know what needs to be on the webpage are often not the same people who know web programming.  The CMS closes that gap, because there is absolutely no web programming experience required to use the system.  If you can use a word processor, you can use the CMS.
  • What can I do with a HDS: CMS account?
    • Your account is limited to pages you can edit.  So, if you're a Residence Assistant in Goodnow, you can't change the Kramer Dining Hall Dessert Menu.  On the pages that you are allowed to edit, however, you have near complete control.  While you can't change the header, footer or navbar for consistency reasons, you can write whatever you want and format it however you want.  As soon as you click save your changes are published, and will be seen by any visitor to the page.


Requirements:

Getting your feet wet in FCKeditor is simple, and you'll likely be a pro in no time.  To get started, you'll need a few basic things:

  • A browser such as:
    • Firefox (1.0 or higher).  Note that firefox is the recommended browser, and will allow the most functionality
    • Internet Explorer (5.5 or higher)
    • Mozilla (1.3 or higher)
    • Netscape (7 or higher)
    • Please note that Safari and Opera are not supported.
  • JavaScript must be enabled

If you are unsure if your computer meets these requirements, talk to a tech support worker, or simply test the program out for yourself (you certainly won't hurt anything, and the vast majority of computers meet these requirements).



Features:

There are a number of features that make editing with the CMS as easy, reliable, and powerful as possible.
Ease of Use:
With an interface modeled off of Word 2003, extensive Undo / Redo capabilities, drag-and-drop rearranging, publishing web pages from your browser has never been easier.  Plus, since KSU's stylesheets have already been integrated with the program, you'll won't have to spend any time formatting to match the rest of KSU's new look.
Reliability:
The internet can be an unpredictable place. 
  • Backups
    • With network outages and power failures, you want your work to be safe, so every 30 seconds, as you type, your work is backed up and saved, until you open a new paragraph for editing.
    • The entire process is transparent -- you'll never know it's there until you need it.
  • Snapshots
    • Everytime you log in, the page saves itself, so if something does go wrong on our end, yours, or somewhere inbetween, you can instantly restore the entire page you were working on to it's previous condition.
    • You can go back three log ins -- more than enough to undo even the most critical errors.
    • Also convenient in case you implement a new look and feel, only to realize you liked the old one better.
  • Undo / Redo
    • For those everyday mistakes, there is a 10 step undo / redo feature so you can go back or forward with one click.


ProTips:

These simple ideas will help you get the most out of the CMS.
  • When dragging text boxes, grab the box by the side closest to the direction you want to move.  That is, if you want to drag a box up, grap it near the top, and if you want to move a box down, grab it at the bottom.
  • Though it works either way, it's normally a good idea to grab and drag the largest of the boxes first.
  • When you restore a paragraph, it will be saved (should you choose to save it) to the bottom of the page, not where it used to be.  However, you can immediately drag it to where you want it.


Commonly Used Features in HDS: CMS

 What is it
  What it does
 MS Word / Corel Wordperfect Equivalent
The Save Button  Save Button Writes all changes to the master database
 Writes all changes to your hard drive or USB Key
 The Undo Button  Global Undo Button Undoes the last change written to the database
 No MS Word Equivalent
The FCKeditor Undo Button  FCKeditor Undo Button Undoes the last editing change, only available in the editor Undo
  Global Redo Button Redoes the change that was last written to the database No MS Word Equivalent
  FCKeditor Redo Button Redoes the last editing change, only available in the editor Redo
The Public Preview Button  Public Preview Button Renders the page as a non-logged-in user would see it
Print Preview
Save Paragraph Button  Save Paragraph Button Saves the current order of paragraphs to the database.
 No MS Word Equivalent
Logout Button  Logout Button Logs you out of editor mode, you will have to login again if you want to make further changes No MS Word Equivalent
The Picture Button  FCKeditor Picture Button Opens the 'Insert Picture' Dialog Insert > Picture
  Restore from Backup Button Undoes all changes since the time specified on the button.  Restore points are generated each time a user logs in, whether the page is modified or not.
 Exit without saving, open an old version of the current file
The Maximize Button  FCKeditor Maximize Button Fills the current window with editor space
Maximize
The Open Backup Button   Open Last Backup Button
 This opens the text editor with the last thing you were working on, in case you accidentally close the editor or get disconnected.
AutoRecover
  Work on Another Page Button This takes you back to the page selector, so you can work on another page without logging out and logging back in Open a new file
  Paste As Plain Text Button This pastes what is one your clipboard as plain text, without any formatting Paste, then "Keep text only"
  Remove Formatting Button This removes all formatting from your text, so it matches the KSU default look No MS Word Equivalent