Waterloo LibGuides for guide authors: Create a LibGuide

In an effort to make all Guides consistent, we recommend you use the following template to create a research or course guide:

To work directly from this template: 

• Select "Copy content/layout from an existing guide" from the "Choose layout or reuse" dropdown menu when you create a guide.
• Select the template from the "Select a guide" dropdown menu.
• Click on the box to "Copy assets" so that you can control the contents. 

The following Best Practices were developed in 2018 by Emily Christofides, User Experience Specialist.

Use the template:

• Label the Guide and each page with a Friendly URL
  • Use all lowercase
• Add tags and subjects to your Guide
• Always include your Profile which has the appropriate information
  • Put your Profile box on the right-hand column of the first page
    • Title it "Your librarian"
• The first page is always titled "Get started"
• Keep page titles short (preferably 3 words or fewer)
• Use only two columns
• Use prime real estate wisely
  • Be aware of “F” scanning, the reading pattern most frequently used for webpages. In this reading pattern, users will often scan the page in a vaguely F-shaped pattern across the content bar, down, across a shorter horizontal section of content, then down. 
• Limit extraneous words, links, images
• Break down information into bite-sized pieces
  • Use headers, bullets, lists
• Make processes clear
  • Number any steps
  • Use “next” feature to move to next tab
• Use visual design to group and differentiate info
• Use boxes judiciously

Accessibility specific

• In general, leave all the settings at DEFAULT which will help keep your website accessible
• Consult the Accessibility page of this Guide for more in-depth information on how to ensure AODA and WCAG 2.0 compliance.

Content format

Use the built-in editing features to maintain accessibility and help with maintenance:

• Use appropriate and sequential headings
• Make limited use of formatting for emphasis (ie. bold, italics, etc.)
• Don't change the font size. Let your reader control it via the zoom function of their browser
• Use the appropriate content box of your content types (e.g., link box for links)

Guides can serve different purposes, and it is important to indicate this purpose when you create a guide.

• General purpose: Default guide type.
• Course guide: Relate to specific courses, such as ENGL 100.
• Subject guide: Relate to specific subjects, such as English.
• Topic guide: Relate to specific topics, such as research practices in a specific field of study.
• Internal guide: These guides will not appear on the "Research guide" list or searches. Instead, a link will be needed.
• Template guide: Useful when creating blueprints for other guides. Like internal guides, they will be hidden from users without the URL.

The pages on your guide  - which appear as tabs across the top - hold various types of content boxes. They can be copied from another guide or made from scratch by clicking on the "+" icon to the right of existing tabs. The order of these pages can be changed by selecting "Pages" in the "Reorder/move" section of the "Page" dropdown menu. Limit the number to five or less.

To hide pages needing updates, go to the "Page" dropdown menu and select "Do not show on public guide" under "Visibility". 

For page layout, use the pre-formatted column widths in order to provide responsive website content.

• Do not customize the widths.

Boxes can be used for text, links, database lists, images, and more. To add a box, click on one of the "Add box" buttons. These boxes can be copies of ones from other guides or pages. To reorder boxes, select "Boxes" in the "Reorder/move" section of the "Page" dropdown menu. To reorder box contents, select "Content items" instead. 

You can keep boxes hidden in a published guide by checking the "Draft mode" box in the "Edit box" widget. 

Standard box

This is the default box type. It can be used for various types of content.

Gallery box

Gallery boxes will display multiple images with a scrolling display. Text may also be displayed as captions.

Gallery boxes can be created with the following steps:

1. Select "Gallery" from the "Type" dropdown menu as you create the box.
2. Add content (books, images, etc.) by selecting the gear icon and selecting content type from the "Add new slide" dropdown menu.
3. Add alt-text.

Tabbed box

Do not add boxes of this type. They may be inaccessible to users. 

Keep content items concise and limited in number. 

Rich text

The "Rich text" content type can be used for text, tables, lists, and images. Although text formatting can be changed, avoid changing font size or style. These changes may affect accessibility. Alt-text, padding, and borders can be added to images for screen-readers and appearances.

When adding images, we recommend that you set the percentage of the box width that you want the image to fill (e.g., "100%" under "width" to fill the box), so the image size will adjust based on screen size. Add or edit alt-test for the image by right-clicking it and selecting "Image Properties."

Links

When adding links, use the "Link" content type, as opposed to writing HTML code

• Always display the description beneath the item title
• Do not use the "Hover over" option

From W3 Techniques: "The objective of this technique is to limit the use of links or buttons that open new windows or tabs within Web content. In general, it is better not to open new windows and tabs since they can be disorienting for people, especially people who have difficulty perceiving visual content. However there are some situations where it is preferable from an accessibility perspective to open a new window or tab. Here are two such situations:

1. Opening a page containing context-sensitive information, such as help instructions, or an alternate means of completing a form, such as a calendar-based date picker, will significantly disrupt a multi-step workflow, such as filling in and submitting a form, if the page is opened in the same window or tab.

2. The user is logged into a secured area of a site, and following a link to a page outside of the secured area would terminate the user's logon. In this case opening external links in an external window allows the user to access such references while keeping their login active in the original window.

It is recommended that when links are opened to a new window, there is advance warning."

Databases

When adding databases, you can use the "Database" content type. Then, search for and select the appropriate database.

• By doing this, you will ensure that changes made to the "A to Z list of databases" will be updated automatically in your guide. Information that you add manually will remain the same. 
• These databases will be tagged with subjects, so LibGuides with similar tags will be listed to the right-hand column. These tags can be modified by editing the content and selecting/ deselecting options from the dropdown menu in the "Subject associations" pop-up.

If you do not want the information to be updated automatically, use the "Link" content type instead.

• The option "Use Proxy?" is not needed for our databases.
• Use the database URL as found on our "Research and journal databases" page

Books from the catalog

Book images, titles, and descriptions can easily be added to LibGuides.

1. Add content type "Book from the Catalog".
2. Find the ISBN number for the book and add it to the appropriate field.
3. Remove any dashes or spaces.
4. Click on "Get book info". 
5. Save and close.

Alerts

Add the "Rich text" content type, then move to the HTML section by clicking "Source". Add the code from the following document to the HTML section.

Changing the source code will affect the appearance of the alert. For example, the alert can be set as a success, info, warning, or danger alert by changing the class (i.e., replacing word "warning" in the code). 

Below is an image showing the success, info, warning, and danger alerts, which are green, blue, yellow, and red. 

Unpublished guides can only be viewed by editors, whereas private guides can only be viewed by people with the link. 

When a guide is published, it will be listed on the "Research guides" page on the library website. This is not the case, however, if it is an internal or template guide. 

Prior to publishing a guide, you can view a preview by selecting the "preview" button with an eye icon. It can be found next to the publication status dropdown menu.