Per the site request, your organization's Web site was configured with default pages

• Home page
  • Shortcut to the home page
  • Contact page
  • News page (optional, departments/business units only)
  • Search page (departments/business units only)
  • Storage page

The page tree you see for the new site will look very similar to the site tree shown at right, where the page names will be appropriate to your organization's name.

Each of these pages serves a special purpose and different rules of what must be done (or should never be done) apply for each page.

Default pages	Add content	Delete/modify default content	Change page title	Delete page	Scope
Home page	Strongly suggested	N/A	Not recommended	Will delete entire site	All CMS sites
Shortcut to home page	No	N/A	OK	No	Varies by template
Contact page	Strongly suggested	N/A	With caution	No	All department/ organization sites (not individual faculty)
News page	OK	With caution	With caution	OK	Varies (not individual faculty)
Search	OK	Not recommended	With caution	No	All department/ organization sites (not individual faculty)
Storage	OK	Modification strongly suggested	No	No	All CMS sites

The highest-level page (hierarchically) in the page tree is your organization's home page. In the default page tree above, the home page is named "Web."

Page content may be added and removed freely on the home page.

You may change the Pagetitle of the home page in Page properties, but you are strongly advised against changing the Speaking URL path segment. Doing so may make your site unavailable to visitors. Instead, visitors may see an "Error: Page not found" appear.

If you need to change the name of your site (e.g. www.ndsu.edu/business to www.ndsu.edu/cob), you are advised to submit a help request.

For more information, see home pages demystified.

The shortcut to home page is the first page on the second level of your organization's Web site. It does not contain any content. Its only purpose is to act as a shortcut to your organization's home page. In the default page listing shown above, the shortcut to home page is named "Web Operations Advisory C..."

This page should have page type "Shortcut" in order that it serves as a link to the home page. If it is a regular page, it will take visitors to a new page rather than the home page. Note that the page icon for the shortcut to home page confirms its status as a shortcut page .

The position of this page in the page tree is important. If another page is inserted above the shortcut, or if the shortcut is hidden or deleted, the resulting page navigation will not appear as expected. Below is a view of a site that has hidden the shortcut to home page and the result in a page preview. Instinctively, we expect the bold green link to point at the home page, but instead it points at a different "Biography" page because it is the first visible page in the page tree.

The contact page is the second default page in the second level of your site, but you may insert other pages between the shortcut to home page and the contact page, if desired.

You should add contact information or a mailform to the contact page so that site visitors can contact you.

The contact page is linked from all "page not found" error pages (www.ndsu.edu/cms/nopagehere, for example) so failing to provide content on this page will result in the display of a blank page if a visitor follows the "contact us" link from the error page.

You may change the Pagetitle of the contact page in Page properties, but you should confirm the Speaking URL path segment is set to "contact" at the same time. Failing to do so may result in visitors seeing a "page not found" error after clicking the "contact us" link in the "page not found" page itself.

Deleting the contact page will also result in a recursive "page not found" error after clicking the "contact us" link.

The contact page is hidden in menu by default, but if you want it to appear in the navigation menu, you may un-check the Hide in menu checkbox of Page properties.

If you requested to use the News application in your site, a news skeleton is present in your site menu.

You may change the Pagetitle of the news page in Page properties, but you must enter a Speaking URL path segment of "news" at the same time. Failing to do so will cause parts of the news application to fail in your site.

Deleting the News page (recursively) will effectively remove the news application and any news entries you have added. You may delete this page if you are sure you do not wish to use the News application any longer.

The News page is hidden in menu by default, but if you want it to appear in the navigation menu, you may un-check the Hide in menu checkbox of Page properties.

The search page is the "center of operations" for searching for your site.

You may add content elements to this page, for example to direct visitors to another location if they don't find what they are looking for. The ITS search page demonstrates this.

You should not modify or delete the default search plugin inserted on the page. Doing so may cause searches in your site to fail.

Though it is not recommended, you may change the Pagetitle of the search page in Page properties, but you must enter a Speaking URL path segment of "search" at the same time. Failing to do so will cause searches to fail in your site

The storage folder of your site is home to content elements that are reused many times in the site, such as footers.

Adding content elements to this folder will have no effect (they will not be visible on any page).

You should not change the title of the Storage page (or create another page named Storage) in your site, as doing so will break the functionality of your footers and other content elements referenced from this page.

If the Storage folder is deleted, footers and any other content elements referenced from this page will fail. In the event this occurs, you should submit a help request through the ITS Help Desk. Creating a new page called Storage will not repair the problem.

The storage folder may be located anywhere in your tree, though it is recommended to keep it at the far top or far bottom of the pagetree so that administrators are able to locate it in the event you require assistance.