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Guides

Working with Pages and Guides

Think of the guide as the frame into which content is inserted. Creation of a guide does not add any content. A guide is the place onto which page content is added after the guide is created. 

Another way to think of it is to think of the guide as the structure underneath. Pages - including the home page on the home guide - are added "on top of" the guide.

A "home" page is automatically created when a guide is created, but the home page won't have any content until content is added.

Other pages can be added "off" the home page as needed.

**RILINK strongly recommends always adding pages to your home guide, working from only one guide created for and assigned to your library.**
Of course, there are always exceptions. :) 

Each RILINK Schools LibGuides CMS home guide is created by RILINK staff and is given a friendly URL that looks like this:

Once you add content to the home page of your site, both the home guide and the home page serve the same function as the home page of a website. You may direct visitors to either your home guide or your home page on the home guide.

**Please do not create another home guide for your site. Always work from the home guide that has been created for you.**

When a home guide is first created, it looks like this.

 

 

Let's take a closer look.

This is what a visitor to your site would see if this guide were published as is, with no added content:

Let's take our home guide from the previous tab and add some content to the home page.

Once published, visitors would see this

Q. When should I create a standalone guide and link it back to my home guide, instead of just creating a page on my home guide?

A. Standalone guides work best in the following circumstances:

  • When you have a need for more than one level of subpages to best organize content
  • When you need to restrict collaborator access to a single standalone guide so the collaborator does not gain access to your entire site

For more information about linking guides to guides, please see the next tab.

Q. How do I link a standalone guide to my home guide?
Please note: Guide #1 refers to your existing home guide. Guide #2 refers to the new standalone guide you have created. Please create guide #2 before proceeding below.


1. Click the + icon to add a page to the existing home guide (guide #1). Give the new page a name that is consistent with guide #2 (the standalone guide you are linking to guide #1). Leave description blank. Add as a top level page, unless you need the new page on guide #1 to appear as a sub-page. Click Save. The new page will show as a new tab on guide #1.
 

2. Go to guide #2 (the guide you want to link to guide #1). If guide #2 does not have a friendly URL, consider creating one. To add a friendly URL, click the pencil icon at the end of the top URL edit field, next to Last Updated, and type in friendly URL keyword in the box and Save. Then copy the entire URL, from https:// to the end.
 

3. Go back to guide #1. Click the tab for the new page created in step 1 to make it the active page. Click the Page gear icon and click the Redirect URL menu option. Paste the URL for guide #2 (copied in step 2) into the URL box, decide whether to open the new page in a new window (this is recommended), and click Save.
 

4. Test the new page tab on guide #1 to make sure it redirects successfully to guide #2.

 

5. Your standalone guide (guide #2) will have no direct link back to your home guide (guide #1) unless you add a new page to the standalone guide and redirect it to the URL of your home guide (or to the URL of your choice).