BSD Website Template FAQ

What is a BSD template website?

The template is used for all of our BSD academic departments, divisions, and the Pritzker website, as well as a few other sites.

It features common design elements such a standardized home page layout, various components to display photos and information, and a UChicago color scheme. There are hard-coded aspects to the design that include font size, picture size, etc. See the style guide for more details. Changes, updates, or customizations have to be pushed out to all of the departments because the platform has the same code base. As it is an image heavy design, departments are strongly encouraged to allocate resources for professional photography (for example, UC Creative).

The BSD template is available for divisional sites, but it comes with a small incremental cost to pay our vendor, IfThen, to launch it (~$6,000). Contact us at website@bsd.uchicago.edu if you want to discuss this option. To see more custom development options offered by IfThen, visit their product guide site.

As an alternative, voices.uchicago.edu is completely free, but you have to be willing to figure out the platform and build the site or pay IT services to do it for you.

The university has contracted with six outside website design firms to assist in larger projects. You may read more about the preferred website developer list here.

Using your web browser, go to <your department website’s URL>/user/login (for example, biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu/user/login). Enter your CNetID and CNet Password. If you have permission to edit the site, you will see editing menu bars appear at the top of the page after a successful login.

Please email BSDIS@bsd.uchicago.edu with the following information:

  • Website URL
  • Name of employee who needs access
  • CNET ID
  • Email address
  • Website permission level (see below)
  • Name of department/center/institute EA who can approve this request
Admin – this role should be reserved only for those users who you want to give the most access to, they will be able to edit global elements, templates, and edit, delete, and manage anyone’s content.
Content Manager – this role allows a user to create, edit, and delete content. This user can also edit and delete anyone else’s content.
Content Editor (most common) – this role allows a user to create and edit content. This user can also edit anyone else’s content.

Please reach out to the website team regarding options.

The University provides several options as alternatives:

  • Voices – request and build a website and enable this feature, then link to it.
  • Box
  • CRI and CBIS file shares
  • Canvas (set up for course management)
  • RedCap – a secure, web-based tool for data collection/forms, managed by CRI.

You can have your photo taken by UChicago Medicine Marketing and Communications. See more information on the UCM intranet.

Through the website, you can schedule on an available Photo Shoot Date. There is more detail on the page about directions, recommended attire, etc.

There are two main ways to upload photos when you are logged in to the site. The first is through the Media section.

  1. In the menu bar, hover over Content and then click on Media in the drop-down.
  2. Click the Add media button in the top left, then click on Image. This brings you to a page where you can choose an image file to upload from your computer and give it a name, an optional caption, and an optional credit.
  3. Click Save to finish uploading the image. 

You can also upload photos directly while editing a page.

  1. Find any image component that does not yet have an image, then click on the white button that says Select media. Clicking on this button will bring up the Media Entity Browser, which by default shows you all the images that have already been uploaded to your site.
  2. At the top, click Upload to be brought to the file upload section.
  3. Drag-and-drop an image file from your computer into the box, or click on Select files to browse files on your computer.
  4. Hit the blue Select media button to finish uploading the image.

The image you uploaded will now be available to use in any component of your site that can house an image.

If you would like to change a photo on a page, edit that page and find the component where the photo is housed.

  1. Click on the Remove button to get rid of the photo.
  2. Click on Select media to bring up the Media Entity Browser.
  3. Navigate through the uploaded images to find the one that you want (if you know the name of the image, you can also search for it in the bar at the top).
  4. Once you find the right image, click on it so that a green checkmark appears on it.
  5. Click the blue Select media button in the lower left.

Your chosen image will now be set on the component.

Uploading a document is similar to the first process for uploading photos as described above.

  1. In the menu bar, hover over Content and then click on Media in the drop-down.
  2. Click the Add media button in the top left, then click on Document. This brings you to a page where you can choose a file to upload from your computer and give it a name.
  3. Click Save when you are finished.

Now, you can link any page body text to the document you have uploaded.

  1. While you are editing a page, highlight the body text that you want to link and click on the Link button.
  2. Type in the name of the document, and it should appear in a drop-down list.
  3. Click on the document and then click Save.

The document will now be accessible by clicking on the linked text.