MODX: Creating & Managing Pages

MODX: Creating & Managing Pages



You can create a new page from the Document Tree. To create a page in the top directory simply right-click on your website name. This will display a series of options which you can rollover to select. (Some options will only appear if you are an administrator.)
If you rollover Create or Quick create, another set of options will pop out; from here you can select ‘Create a Document Here’ to create a new page or ‘Create a Weblink here’ to create a new link.
This will open the editor window and you can configure the page as you normally would when Editing Pages. Note that your page will inherit the default template for your website — if you wish to change the template, do so before adding any content.



If you right-click on an existing page you’ll see a series of options including ‘Quick Update Resource’ which is useful for making quick amends to the title or heading.
If you select ‘Create’ as above you can create a new page. In this instance it will turn the page you select into a Container and create your new page inside this, inheriting the Page Template as it does.

Editing Pages



When you click on a page in the Document Tree it will open in the editor window.
The editor window has a number of useful sections.

Document Tab

This tab is where you specify the basic settings for your document which includes the following details:
  • Title: This is the name of your page that will appear in the document tree.
  • Long Title: This is the title that appears as the heading at the top of the page; it is very important that you fill this in as it will be used by search engines to locate your page.
  • Menu Title: If the page appears in the main menu this is where you specify the Title it displays.
  • Resource Alias: This defines what appears in the page URL or address — it should all be in lowercase with no spaces; use - or _ instead of a space — and not contain any special characters such as & or ?.
  • Uses Template: You can change the page template using this dropdown. A full explanation of Page Templates is available in Page Templates.
  • Hide From Menus: By unchecking this box the page will appear in the Main Menu.
  • Published: Check this box when your page is ready to be made live.
It helps your pages to be found by search engines if you fill in all of these details and use appropriate key words in their aliases. If you don’t set an alias, the system will make one up based on your page title, which is usually OK, but may end up quite long.

Content Pane

You edit the main text and content of your page in the Content pane.
This is a WYSIWYG text editor that includes text editing and formatting settings. You can add links, specify header and paragraph settings and edit the HTML directly if you have sufficient experience.

Text Styles

You will note that, although you can make text bold, italic and so on, there are no tools for setting the size or colour of text. This is because the look of the website is set with a range of named ‘styles’ for text.
These are called things like ‘Heading 1’ and ‘Heading 2’, and you should use them in the appropriate hierarchy to format your pages. This is important for the accessibility of the website for e.g. blind users with screen readers, as well as for a consistent look and feel.
You can change the style of a piece of text by selecting it and choosing the relevant style from the dropdown menu in the toolbar.
Using text styles, you don’t need to individually adjust the size, weight or colour of text, as all this information in held in the definition of the style within the website templates.
Note that the appearance of text in this editor follows the way it looks in the live website. However, the width of the editing area is not the same as the columns on the website. So, always check your changes by saving them and viewing the results on the live website — then make further amendments as needed.

Pasting In Text From Word Or Emails

Be careful not to simply paste in text from emails and Word documents, as this may copy over extra codes, which can cause problems with formatting that are hard to sort out.
Instead, use the ‘paste as Word’ button in the toolbar to enter text from Microsoft Word, and similar documents. But do not try to paste in anything with complex formatting as this is likely to cause problems.
Very occasionally, the editor also adds unwanted <p> tags. Either delete these or change these to <div> tags in the HTML window if you feel comfortable doing this.

Deleting Pages

To delete a page, right-click on the page in the document tree and choose ‘Delete Resource’ from the menu.
A deleted page will remain in the tree, and will be shown with a red line drawn through it. In this state, it can be selected and ‘undeleted’ if you have made a mistake.
From time to time the administrator will remove all deleted pages permanently by clicking on the ‘purge deleted documents’ button at the top of the left-hand area of the manager screen.

Settings Tab

This tab is used to specify advanced settings including published status, menu order and folder settings.
In most cases you do not need to change any of the Settings tab features.
There are two exceptions to this:
  • if you create a new page, you may find that it has the same Menu Index as another page; give this page a Menu Index one more than the Menu Index of the last page on the left; it will then become the last page and you can move it to wherever you want it and MODX will adjust the Menu Index accordingly;
  • if you wish to make a page into a folder; tick the Container checkbox which also changes the page URL so that it loads up without displaying .html at the end — for instance https://localparty.greenparty.org.uk/donate rather than https://localparty.greenparty.org.uk/donate.html.

Template Variables Tab

Template Variables contains a powerful set of features that you use to specify the content and structure of the page; a full description of these settings is in Template Variables.
The Resource Groups tab is usually only displayed for admin users.
All MODX guides were written by volunteers, and haven't been updated in several years. If you spot any errors use the thumbs down icon below to leave feedback.

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