The CMS was recently upgraded from version 6.3 to 6.5.  While the main impact was to the look and feel of the authoring experience,  there are some changes to the way you access and interact with some functions.  

You can find more details on what changes were brought about by the upgrade by looking through the CMS Upgrade pages.


General Tips

Below are some fundamental new concepts to remember as you work in the upgraded CMS. 

CMS Access Issues

To access the new authoring environment, make sure you are either on an NYU network, logged into the VPN if you are offsite, and are accessing the author environment via the new URL: cms.nyu.edu

If you on an NYU network and still not able to  access the new url, please connect to the VPN for access. We are looking into this issue and hope to have it resolved soon.

Opening a Page

To access the actions available for a page, including opening it to edit, click or touch the page's icon (not the text or page title). There will be a white checkmark that will appear. Once selected, there will be a top bar of actions where you can begin editing or anything else you would like to do.

Learn more about selecting and opening a page.

white checkmark indicating page selection

Broken Links

If the system suspects that a link may be broken, you'll see the text bound by red brackets with a broken link icon before it in Author. This won't publish but is a good indicator to authors that a particular link may be broken. Always double check any such links on your pages.

No Double Clicks

AEM 6.5 features a touch user interface. This renders double clicks unrecognizable as an action. Instead, most of the actions that occurred when you used to double click require just one click (or touch, if you are not using a mouse).

Dynamic Distributed Features

The floating toolkit ("sidekick") feature that appeared on each page has been retired. Functions that were housed in the sidekick have been distributed throughout the Site Admin, Side Panel consoles or Page Information options. Action options are dynamic and depend on where you are within the system.

Component Placeholders

Not every component will place a graphic placeholder icon onto the page.   To make sure that your component is on the page, hover (or tap) over content areas until the space is outlined in blue and the name of the component is displayed near that space. 


Components

Below are component-specific tips regarding changes to commonly used components.

Column Control

Once you add and configure a Column Control on your page, you must access it through the Content Tree if you need to edit or delete it. 

  1. With your page open, open the side panel and select the third (lowest of 3) icon in the side rail. This opens the content tree for that page. 
  2. Locate the Column Control that you want to edit and click or touch on it in the Content Tree. The area will appear on the page. 
  3. Edit as necessary. 

Learn more the Column Control component.

Image Crop in Promos

You no longer are required to apply a 4:3 crop for images when configuring your promo components. The CMS will automatically crop the selected image for you.  If you wish to specify a crop you may either crop and edit prior to uploading and using in the component, or you may use the CMS to specify your crop using the "pencil" icon once you select your image, save, and click the component. Learn more about cropping images in promos by reviewing the Basic Promo or Feature Promo tutorials.

Rich Text Editor

The Rich Text editor menu will appear only if the cursor is within the text box in the configuration dialog. Learn more about changes to this component in the Rich Text Editor tutorial.