Main Body

I've added or edited some text through the CHCS content management system, but it doesn't look the way I want it to.

Here are some tips to make your edits look good on your site.

  1. Let the content management system do your work for you. You shouldn't need to add fonts, colors, justification, or most other formatting. CHCS has developed a style sheet for your site that controls these elements. If you don't like the way they look, contact CHCS and we can edit the style sheet for you.
  2. Make sure that all of your text has a format. The drop-down menu at the right end of the top row of icons in your editable area shows which format your text has. Headers will be marked Header 1, Header 2, etc., and body text will be marked Paragraph. If you see any text where the drop-down menu says -- Format -- , change it.
  3. Be consistent. Almost always, you'll want the title of your page to be formatted as Header 1. Main headers in the body of the page should be Header 2, subheads should be Header 3, etc.
  4. Don't use "hard returns" unless you really need to. Everyone's screen is different, so you can't really control where text breaks.
  5. Use breaks instead of returns if you don't want to make a new paragraph. When you press Enter, you'll make new paragraphs, which generally have vertical spacing between them. If you don't want such space, press Shift+Enter to make a break.
  6. Tabs don't work in HTML. Use indents instead. Click on the Indent icon, which will make the entire paragraph indent.
  7. Don't try to add vertical spacing with breaks or paragraphs. If you want more verical space between an element, contact CHCS and we can change the stylesheet accordingly.
  8. Don't try to add extra letter spacing at the end of sentences. HTML will ignore such spacing.
  9. If you see diamonds with question marks in them, you've probably pasted some text with smart quotes or other special characters. Edit the text to replace these characters with regular straight quotes.
  10. Use bullet points for lists. You can make numbered or unnumbered lists. Click on the Unordered List or Ordered List icons. Such lists have their own styles, so if you don't like how they are formatted, let us know and we can make changes.
  11. If you get extra spaces between paragraphs after you've inserted and edited text, there was probably extraneous formatting that our system was unable to remove completely. Edit the text to remove the spacing.
  12. When all else fails, look at the code. Click the HTML button and you will be able to see what code is actually being inserted. You may be able to troubleshoot formatting issues.