Helpful hints for online editors

Amount of menu levels

In the interest of user-friendliness, the number of menu levels is limited (the amount of elements within a certain content element). You can create more than the limited number of pages/elements in the backend. However, these are not displayed in the frontend.

The maximum amounts are:

Menu levels

  • Structure/menu level 1 (page header): 5
  • Structure/menu level 2 (flyout menu): 8
  • Structure/menu level 3 (navigation left column, click to view): 9
  • Structure/menu level 4 (navigation left column, appears automatically below level 3): 9
  • Lower structure/menu levels: 7

Content elements

  • “Verteiler Standard” distribution pages/tiles: 9 per block, 12 per page
  • “Verteiler Standard” distribution pages/tiles with a dropdown menu: 7 links per dropdown list
  • “Verteiler Service” distribution pages: 9 links per service box
  • Detail page/links and downloads: 12 links or files
  • Detail page/accordion: 9 per accordion (recommendation)
  • Detail page/timeline: 9 per timeline (recommendation)

Images

Websites can use colour images. There are two main rules of thumb:

  1. Header images are always in colour, all other images are black and white.
  2. Images that are unclear in black and white (for example, necessary complex graphics) may be shown in colour.

If you are using landscape format images, we recommend using images with 1280x720 pixels. Images with good resolution should have at least 600 pixels, but not more than 1000 pixels. Pictures with these measurements look good on any size of screen and use up relatively little storage space.

Images in team directories should be 500 px wide (minimum requirement: 250 px) and have a resolution of 72 dpi. The person’s face should be in the middle. There should be some space just below the person’s head for their name and function.

Alternative texts for images: We are legally obliged to provide alternative texts for informative images and graphics on our website. Instructions

Images you are free to use are available from the “Bilderpool” (image pool) in the TYPO3 file tree. If you cannot find a suitable image there, you can download licence-free and copyright-free images from various online photo databases, for example. Please take a screenshot with the URL, the image, the note that it can be downloaded free of charge and the date. Save this screenshot for as long as you use the image.

Glossary

Only use the glossary at the top of the page. There are various ways of creating a glossary of terms:

  • List of definitions: if you only have a few key terms
  • Accordion A-D, etc.: If you only have a few key terms per letter and only a few letters at one time
  • Table of contents/glossary + header + one accordion per letter: use this version if you have only a few letters with several terms each, e.g. the glossary for the Controlling Data Portal.
  • Glossary ( = alphabet with jump marks per letter): if you have many letters with only a few terms per letter, e.g. University A-Z (in German)

Contact boxes

It is best to create an extra “contacts” page which you should hide in the menu (via page settings). You can then create every contact box that you need on this page, simply referencing individual contact boxes whenever you want them to appear on any other page. Making changes to contact boxes is particularly quick and easy that way. Please read the detailed sample text for contact boxes (in German).

Tables

Please only use tables for numbers, and even then, use them sparingly. Tables filled with text, which are often used in Word files and print layouts, are ill-suited for online use. Such tables cannot adjust to the responsive design, since they only have a limited ability to change their size/spacing, and this makes them less user-friendly for those with mobile devices.

Possible alternatives could include using lists of definitions, numbered lists/bullet points or sub-pages instead.

Limit access to content elements

  • If you want to make some content elements available to internal users only: In the content element, go to the “access” tab to define which user groups you want to have access to the element: you can either enter “All users + uni network”, “EMPLOYEES” or “Show, if logged in”.
  • If you want to restrict access to parts of an element, e.g. a picture, or if external and internal readers are to be shown different kinds of content, simply double the element. Then set the access options for the internal element to “Show, if logged in”. For the externally visible element, set the access options to “hide after login” and leave the picture (or whichever part of the element you don't want your internal readers to see) out.

This and that

  • Please use the table of contents only at the beginning of the page. You can give the table of contents a title, such as “topics” or “archive”.
  • We recommend that you arrange the elements in the right-hand column as follows: contact box(es), link(s), social media box(es).
  • Please check the responsive design, i.e. the view using various screen sizes including, for instance, smartphones. To do so, you can either manually reduce the size of your browser window or you can access your browser settings to view the available options for various screen sizes. If you are using Firefox, please follow this path: open menu/developer tools/test different screen sizes.
  • All content stored in TYPO3 is backed up in regular intervals. You can restore previous versions of a page by using the “history” option and will find deleted objects in the recycle bin.