Content Starter Pack Guide

The Content Starter Pack is used by University Relations and IT’s Web Services teams to build 3 to 5 pages in the working shell of your website. Once the shells is ready, IT will train you to add the remaining content to your new site yourself.

  • The Content Starter Pack is actual content for your site. It includes all copy, images, and assets (PDFs, Word docs etc) for the 3 to 5 pages that IT will set up.
  • A separate folder for each individual webpage should be created, and the folder should include all assets (copy, images, linked PDFs etc.) related to that page (see full instructions below).
  • It is ideal to choose 3 to 5 pages with varying layouts and components, particularly pages with complex layouts. The following pages are recommended:
    1. Your homepage;
    2. A full-width level two landing page with multiple components;
    3. A level three page (with left-hand navigation) that includes at least one component (ie. not just text).

Please do not use standardized, templated pages—undergraduate program pages, graduate program pages, contact-directory pages—for your Content Starter Pack.

Writing and Formatting Your Copy

For you Content Stater Pack, format your document as follows:

  • Ensure each webpage is in a separate Word document.
  • Ensure each image, and all components are clearly annotated. IT should be able to follow the Word doc and see which content goes where without having to do much interpretation.
  • Use larger fonts to clearly mark new sections on pages.
  • Use notes or symbols to show things such as accordions, tabs, or other components
  • Embed links directly on the words that you want to have linked
  • Use comments if you need to clarify anything

Please download and look at the following sample Word documents that show the recommended formatting:

Sourcing and Sizing Photos

If you need assistance finding photos for your site, contact the University Relations design team.

Once you’ve selected photos, you can either size yourself or engage the University Relations design team. You can provide images for placement only for your Content Starter Pack; however they must be the correct size and you are responsible for switching them out as you populate the rest of your site.

Quick Tips:

  • Images should not be saved as 100% image quality, but at 65%. This quality still looks good and drastically reduces file size, which is better for page load speeds.
  • Some components require images with specific dimensions (eg. a landing page hero image requires a 1920px x 780px image for desktop and 780px x 780px cropped version for mobile; square story tiles require a 1000px x 1000px image)

Instructions

If you require specific icons etc, contact the University Relations design team.

Submitting your Content Starter Pack

You can submit your Content Starter Pack to University Relations via OneDrive or email.

All items of the Content Starter Pack—plus your final approved sitemap—are then placed in your web project folder on the University Relations shared K: drive.

University Relations will submit a ticket on your behalf to have the site shell created by IT WebApps.