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Digital Strategies Communications and Marketing

Omni Exercises

These exercises should take about 30 minutes.

Notes before you begin:

Please verify that the website to which you will request access upon completing this course runs on OmniUpdate.

Browsers

OmniUpdate supports the following web browsers:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer versions: 9, 10, 11
  • Mozilla Firefox versions: ESR 31, 33, 34, 35
  • Google Chrome versions: 37, 38, 39

Apple Safari versions (Mac OS X Only): 6.x, 7.x, 8.0.x

We encourage users to access their OmniUpdate sites via Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Although Internet Explorer is supported, it can sometimes cause issues when editing pages.

Accessing Omni

You can connect to OmniUpdate and these exercises anywhere you have an internet connection. To access the sandbox site, log in with your VUnetID and ePassword.

Getting Started

Request an OmniUpdate Test Environment Account

  1. Open a ticket and request a user account on the Omni test environment
  2. Access will be granted within 24-48 hours. Look for an email from Digital Strategies

Once You’ve Received Access

Step 1: Log in to OmniUpdate

  1. Go to this test site: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/omni101/
  2. Log in to the site by clicking the copyright symbol in the footer.
  3. Navigate (Content – Pages) to the current month. (E.g. If you are training in September 2022, select the “09-sept-2022” folder).
  4. Note: Do not attempt to edit the training site home page (the first page you visit after logging in to the Omni sandbox). You will receive an error if you attempt to edit this page. Follow the steps detailed in steps 2 and 3 to create a NEW directory and page.

Step 2: Create a New Directory

Reference: Chapter 10 video “Create Directory”

Name a directory with your last name and first initial — all lowercase with no spaces or special characters. (E.g. John Smith would be “smithj”).

Step 3: Create a Page

Reference: Chapter 3 video “Create a Page”

Create a 3 column page.

  1. Title: Enter your first and last name
  2. Display page title: Yes
  3. Filename: Enter first name-last name followed by .pcf. Use lowercase letters. (E.g. John Smith would be john-smith.pcf.)

Step 4: Edit Your Page

Reference: Chapter 5 “Editing Pages”. Chapter 6 “WYSIWYG Editor pt 1”

  1. In a new browser window, go to https://www.vanderbilt.edu/omni101/sample-text.php
  2. Copy the text in the main column starting with the words “My page” and ending with “End of my page.” Do not copy anything below this line.
  3. Paste this text into the center column of your page.

Step 5: Links

Reference: Chapter 7 “WYSIWYG pt 2”

  1. Create a link that goes to http://www.vanderbilt.edu
  2. Next, create an email link.
  3. In the next step you will upload and link to a file.
    1. In a new browser window, go to https://www.vanderbilt.edu/omni101/sample-files.php
    2. Right click and download the “Download me” PDF file
    3. Change the file name of your downloaded file to “first name-last name-file.pdf” (E.g. john-smith-file.pdf)
    4. Upload the file to the directory “/files/students”
    5. Link to this file on your page

Step 6: Images

Reference: Chapter 8 “WYSIWYG pt 3”

  1. In a new browser window, go to https://www.vanderbilt.edu/omni101/sample-files.php
  2. Right click and download the light bulb image and save it to your computer
  3. Upload and add this picture to your page. Add the image to the center column and align it to the right or left.
    Note: Do not place the image in the right column when completing the image alignment step. The image should be in the center column with text wrapped around the graphic. Review these instructions if you are unsure of how to align an image in Omni.

Step 7: Publish

  1. Go to Content – Pages
  2. Change the name of your file by adding “-completed” to the file name — “firstname-lastname-completed.pcf” (E.g. john-smith-completed.pcf)
  3. Publish your page.
  4. You will see the message “This page has been published successfully and is now live on the web. View in new window” at the bottom of the screen. Click on “View in new window.”
  5. Make note of the new page URL. You will need this URL for the next step — submitting a Work Review request.

Almost Finished!

You have completed your OmniUpdate training exercises; now you must open a new ticket so your work can be reviewed.

Please include the following information in your ticket:

  1. The URL of your completed page on the Omni test server.
  2. The URL of the website you would like access to once you’ve completed the course.
  3. The first and last name and email address of the primary website contact or the manager authorized to approve your site access.

You will receive an update when your exercises have been reviewed and your site access approved by an authorized contact.

Still need help?

If you need additional help, please review the OmniUpdate tutorials or open a help ticket.