ID&D KB How-to Guide
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The biggest challenge you will have with using the DesignPLUS Content Editor Sidebar will be choosing which features you want to use!
DesignPLUS offers a wide range of tools for many types of content. The Sidebar enhances your ability to create interesting and engaging pages for your students. When you launch the Sidebar to create a page, you will immediately be taken to the "Add New Elements" tab which displays the tools based on categories in the order listed below. When using the categories display some elements will appear in multiple places, as they may serve multiple functions. The categories you will most likely use are described in this document (click on the link to be taken to a specific category):
Recently Used Tools - keeps the tools you just used, right at the top.
Favorite Tools - tag your favorite tools to always be near the top.
Getting Started - provides links to all the tools you'll need to start building a page.
Basic Content - provides the most basic content that is used on most pages.
Navigation - gathers all the navigation tools you might want to use, in one spot.
Page Layout - assists you in organizing and displaying information on your page.
Other categories which appear under the Add New Elements tab are listed below. These categories offer more advanced features and are described in other documents in the KB.
Interactive - tools that will make your students interact more with the page.
Visual Enhancements - tools that will help you draw your students' attention to something on the page.
Themed Elements - tools that ensure consistency in all the elements on the page that are using a theme.
Custom Content - Tools that allow incorporation of different kinds of customized content in the page.
Page Information - allows you to provide information to your students about the page, such as read time, or perform a quick check on student understanding.
Course Information - tools to link to specific parts of the course, such as shortcuts, course links, module lists.
Media - tools to insert and edit images on the page.
Editor Action Items - tools you can insert on the page to remind yourself to do things but the students won't see these.
Refer to the DesignPLUS User Guide for step-by-step directions on how to use each of the tools described in these categories.
If you forget what an element is used for, simply hover your cursor over the item in the Sidebar and a popup will appear with a short description
Recently Used Tools/ Favorite Tools
These two categories will always be listed at the top of the Sidebar, to provide easiest access to the tools you use frequently.
The display under the first category "Recently Used Tools" will vary based on what you have used most recently.
For tools to appear under the "Favorite Tools" area, you must select them as a "Favorite".
Getting Started
The next category displayed in the Sidebar is the Getting Started category. These are the tools most commonly used when creating a new page. There are four tools available under this category:
Banner Title: This element adds a header including the page title and other information to the top of the page.
Content Block: This element groups page elements into sections of content.
Template Content: This element adds page templates to content from various sources.
Theme: This element applies thematic styling to page elements.
Basic Content
The Basic Content category contains tools associated with content display, helping you make information more clearly understood by your students or providing interactivity to engage them in the content. This category has several elements that you may wish to investigate:
Button: This element inserts and edits a link using a button.
Course Links: This element incorporates links internal to your course, such as to other pages, assignments or discussions.
Description List: This element allows you to insert a list of terms and their descriptions or definitions.
Divider: This element allows you to insert a horizontal line between content sections to separate them visually.
Image: This element allows you to insert and style images.
Image & Caption: This element inserts a figure with an image and caption.
Link: This element allows you to insert a URL/hypertext link in your text,
List-Ordered: This element creates a numbered (ordered) list of items.
List-Unordered: This element creates a bulleted (unordered) list of items.
Table: This element allows you to build and style a table for information display.
Text: This element gives you access to heading and style options for selected text.
Text-Highlighted: This element allows you to add highlighting styles to selected text.
Navigation
The Navigation category contains elements that relate to moving within your course environment. These tools can increase student engagement with your course materials, and drive behavior. The category contains the following elements:
Button: This element inserts and edits a link using a button. (Also found under Basic Content)
Content Shortcut: This element adds shortcut buttons for commonly used course functions,
Course Links: This element incorporates links internal to your course, such as to other pages, assignments or discussions. (Also found under Basic Content)
Link: This element allows you to insert a URL/hypertext link in your text, (Also found under Basic Content)
Link-Grid: This element creates a grid-formatted link display.
Link-List: This element creates a navigation bar with hyperlinks.
Module List: This element allows you to add a hyperlinked list of course modules.
Page-Nav: This element inserts a fixed top-right menu of page headings.
Progress Indicator: This element allows you to add an indicator bar that shows a student's progress within a module.
Page Layout
The elements in the Page Layout category assist you in organizing and displaying information on your page. These elements include:
Accordion: This interactive element creates vertically expanding panels of information to reduce the need to scroll on a page. Only one panel can be open at a time.
Banner Title: This element adds a header including the page title and other information to the top of the page. (Also found under Getting Started category)
Callout: This element places important information in a callout feature to add emphasis.
Columns: This element allows you to format a page with columns based on the content you wish to display.
Content Block: This element groups page elements into sections of content. (Also found under Getting Started category)
Divider: This element allows you to insert a horizontal line between content sections to separate them visually. (Also found under Basic Content category)
Expander: This element creates vertically expanding panels of information, but allows all panels to be open at the same time.
Tabs: This element creates separate panels of information that are opened via a tab at top of the panel, overlaying the previously viewed panel.
Template Content: This element adds page templates to content from various sources. (Also found under Getting Started category)
Theme: This element applies thematic styling to page elements. (Also found under Getting Started category)
Play and Practice! If you would like to try out the newer DesignPLUS Tools, the articles listed below can show you how to use them! Request a Playground course to practice and play with these tools!
Related Articles
- Advanced Styling and Design Techniques
- Conflicts between the Rich Content Editor and Cidi Design Tools
- The DesignPLUS Content Editor Sidebar
- DesignPLUS Multi-Tool
- Creating Content Pages with DesignPLUS
- DesignPLUS Upload/Embed Image Tool
Visit the DesignPLUS Training Series Tutorials for more videos. For more step-by-step guides, visit the DesignPLUS User Guide.