The online documentation for the Hunter WebCMS has moved. You can now find all of our tutorials and frequently asked questions at:

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/hunter-webcms

Information about this particular topic is available here:

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/hunter-webcms/tutorials/how-to-i-edit-an-externally-published-page-or-content-item

Please update your bookmarks. The information below may be outdated.

You have an externally published subsite on the CMS, and you need to update it, but you want the old version to exist on the web site until you have published the new one. You also want the new document to replace the current one, but you'd like to keep the history of the old one, just in case. “Check out” – “Check in” makes all this possible!

Essentially, you "check out" a version of the currently published document, which creates a "working draft" of the document. You then edit the working draft (for as long as you like) and when you're ready for the new version to go live, you "check in" your working draft, and it's live.

Behind the scenes, the Hunter WebCMS will replace the original document with the new one in the exact same location and web address, as well as and archive the old version as part of the document's version history!

Using "Check out"

• First, navigate to the page you want to “check out”:

• Then click on the "actions" drop-down menu:

• Select "check out" from the “actions” drop-down menu:

• Next, you will be brought back to the “view” tab of the document you just checked out. You will notice in the “Info” box the “Check-out created” message:

Note: You will edit a “working copy” of the page while the original remains live.

• You will also notice in the contents of the folder, under the “Contents” tab, that there are two versions, an “Externally published” version and a “working draft” version your folder:

• Now you're free to edit your own local copy of a published document. During this time, the original document is "locked" so no one else can edit that published version while you have a working copy checked out.This will prevent other changes from being made to (and subsequently lost from) the published version while you edit your copy.

Using "Check in"

When you are ready to have your edited copy replace the published one, simply:

• Choose "check-in" from the "actions" drop-down menu:

• You will then be prompted to enter a “Check-in Message” (this is optional). Fill it out and click on the "check in" button located below the message box:

• Your updated document will now replace the published copy and become the new published copy!

• You will also notice that there is no longer a “working draft” of the document in the folder.

Canceling a "Check out"

If for any reason it becomes necessary to cancel a check out and you don't want to save any of your changes, simply:

• Navigate to the working copy, click on the “actions” and select "cancel check-out":

• You will prompted to confirm the "cancel checkout" or to "keep checkout":