Add Features to your Browser

This page lists a number of ISS-created time-saving add-ons, for your browser.  They mostly make using the t4 CMS easier but some are for more general use.  They are known as bookmarklets because they are applets that sit on your browser's bookmarks bar - when you click them they work on the page you are currently viewing.

ISS-Provided Bookmarklets

All of the below bookmarklets have been created by the University's WWW Technologist for your use.  You can add as many of them as you like to your browser.  See the right-bar for instructions on how to do this.

T4 Bookmarklets for All Users

  1. Launch Site Manager
    Use the Site Manager bookmarklet to launch the CMS with one click. It will open in a new browser tab so you don't lose what you were looking at beforehand.
  2. Edit the Live Page you're viewing
    When browsing the University website, you can click on
    to open up the correct section / content list in Site Manager in a new tab. If you're not logged in, you'll be brought to the login screen first.
    Note:Look out for your browser's pop-up blocker (normally on the right of the address bar), the first time you use this. You may need to tell it to always allow pop-ups from universityofgalway.ie.
  3. Easily Open the Section you are Editing in the Site Structure
    When you use the above bookmarklet, or follow a bookmark in T4 to a section, you can edit the content in the section but the site structure has not expanded to show you that section on the left hand side. This can be annoying - especially if you need to click into a sub-section to complete your edits. Save yourself the hassle of manually drilling down to the section in the site structure with this bookmarklet: Site Structure: Open this Section
  4. Search the section/content you are editing for 'NUI Galway' and Replace with 'University of Galway'
    Use Change University Name in T4 when editing content. It will change any instance of our old name or web address to the new one. Then, all you need to do is Save Changes.
    Also use this whenever you edit a section (to automatically change the University name in page titles, tag lines, and the search engine description). Again, you'll need to Save Changes afterwards.
  5. Lengthen the Media Library Left Bar
    In the media library, the category bar sizes itself to the available screen height when it first loads. Then when you scroll down, you're left with a category bar that's roughly half the available space on the screen. Fix this by clicking on Show Full Length Left Bar
  6. Working with lots of Content in a section
    In the Content Tab, you can Count Content Types. A breakdown of the number of Approved (and publishing), Pending, Draft, Expired, and Deleted content types will appear at the top of the content list.

    You can also Select Multiple Content Types.
    Note: This is case sensitive. T4 v8 lets you do this by using the Filter and the 'Select All' checkbox; however you cannot filter on content status in T4. This bookmarklet will allow you to easily select, say, all 'Pending' content types.
    (Also works in the Media Library, allowing you to filter on anything you see - it's inbuilt filter only filters by Name column)

    Or you can De-Select Multiple Content types. This works exactly like the above bookmarklet, but always de-selects what it found, allowing you to undo selections you made previously.
  7. Discover a Published Page's Customisations
    When browsing to any live University webpage, click Page Customisation Keywords to see what DC.Keywords were used to create that exact page customisation.
    Note: You do not need to have editing rights to the page to see this information.

Bookmarklets for Power Users / Administrators

  1. Media Library: Category's Publish URL
    When you edit a Media Library Category, you can click Media Category URL to translate the Media Library Path into the web address of that part of the Media Library. This is inserted into your clipboard for easy pasting and is very useful for when linking to auto-uploaded media items, in emails or custom code blocks.
  2. Copy Group Info
    To quickly get the complete list of people who are in a group you are looking at, use the Copy Group Info bookmarklet. This puts the info into your computer's clipboard for pasting (with Ctrl-V).
    Warning:This version will only copy the group members listed on your screen, so ensure you view All group members before clicking the bookmarklet.
  3. Enable the Approve option for Courses

    Even If you have approver rights for courses, power users cannot 'Save and Approve'. And, when you save a course, the 'Approve' link in the content's Actions menu won't work. This bookmarklet works around this limitation.
    Enable Approve
    When viewing content types in a course section, you can use this bookmarklet to enable the 'Approve' option in the Actions menu (for 'Pending' courses only). Then, when you click the Approve option, the Approval screen will load in a new tab, filtered to show that piece of content only. Please note, the Approval page can take a long time to load (30 seconds - 3.5 minutes) - and will continue to be this slow until we can reduce the number of 'Pending' items on the system.

Other Useful Bookmarklets

  1. Show Header Information on a page
    You can see what Headlines have been used on a page with Show Headlines (useful for checking whether you are complying with accessibility guidelines).

    Note:

    This won't label headlines in t4's WYSIWYG editor - so, when in t4, preview your content before using this bookmarklet.

  2. Label Elements for Common User Error Detection
    Common issues, users can introduce by mistake, include forgetting to:
    • Ensure the next level of Heading
    • Web-optimise foreground and background images
    • Add scope to table headings
    • Add titles to iframes
    To see if any page (either in T4's preview or on live pages) include these common Accessibility or SEO errors, use Label Elements
    Note: This does not identify any issues for you - it simply displays information that must be interpreted: i.e. Headline levels, Image sizes, Image/iframe titles, Table scope direction ('!' denotes no scope).
  3. Show Anchors
    You can link directly to an anchor in a page. Anchors are invisible but the browser scrolls down to it as soon as the page loads. If the anchor is in an accordion segment, that segment will automatically open. Show/Hide items automatically create anchors and they will also open automatically if you follow a link to their anchor.
    Link to an anchor by adding #anchor_name to the normal page web address. E.g. www.universityofgalway.ie/training/faqs/images/#web-ready
    You can look for the anchor name in t4 but it's faster to use this bookmark, which shows the names of all anchors on the current page. Simply click on the anchor name that displays to copy the web address that links to that anchor: Show Anchors
    Originally this bookmarklet only labeled the achors. In this updated version, if you click any label, a link to that anchor will be placed in your clipboard, ready to be pasted into an email.
  4. Mobile Device Simulator
    Our website is responsive, meaning that our page layouts and content types can appear differently, depending on the screen width of the device you are using.
    Modern browsers allow you to use their developer tools to see what a webpage looks like on a phone or tablet, but this is cumbersome / off-putting for many people. For an easier way to see what your pages look like on mobile devices, use this Device Simulator bookmarklet.
    Note: Only works on published University of Galway web pages. Not compatible with the T4 preview.
  5. Search Link Targets
    When you search a page with Ctrl-F (or Command-F if you use a Mac), you only search the visible text on the page. So use this to search for links that contain your search phrase in the web addresses they point to: Search Link Targets
  6. Count the Selected Text's Length
    Some content types will only allow a certain number of characters to be added. If you go over the limit, it is useful to be able to count how many characters are in the text quickly by selecting it and then clicking on Selected Text Length.
    Note: While this works great on normal websites, using it on WYSIWYG editor text will report zero characters. To get the true length of a WYSIWYG editor's text, you must select 'View' - 'Source Code' and then count the characters.

Installing Bookmarklets

1. Make sure your browser's Bookmarks bar is visible.

All browsers:Use the keyboard sequence:
Ctrl-Shift-B
to show/hide the bookmarks bar.

2. Drag any or all of the highlighted links in the body of this page up to your bookmarks bar.

Legend

Bookmarklet that works on all versions of T4
Modified to work on T4 v8
New Bookmarklet
Updated Bookmarklet
If you're using any of the modified or updated (i.e. blue- or purple-highlighted) ones, make sure you right-click and delete your old version - then drag the new version up to your bookmarks bar.