Copy text

What is a Copy text Block?

Copy text is a Block type that formats and styles text.

Note: This does not mean you should copy and paste content from a website, Teams content, or any other tool that may create unnecessary formatting in the source code of the text. If you choose to copy external content, paste the text onto Notepad or another tool that will strip the formatting before pasting the content to a Web page.

Note: When copying and pasting content from a Word document, a window stating “The text you want to paste seems to be copied from Word. Do you want to clean it before pasting?” will appear. Select Ok so that the copied text is stripped of any formatting that may interfere with web content functionality.

Screenshot of paste cleaning pop up in WCMS 3

It is best practice to apply formatting directly in the text editor, such as applying bullets, bold, headings, etc. to ensure the content will not interfere with functionality.

Create Copy text

A Web page must be created first to add a Copy text Block.

  1. From the administration bar, select Workbench, and then select My Dashboard.

  1. Navigate to the Content list panel and select the content you wish to add Copy text to.

  2. Select the Layout tab.

  1. Select + Add section if applicable, then Select + Add block.

  2. From the Choose a block list on the right, select Copy text.

  3. Enter a Title. Select whether you want the Title to display by checking/unchecking the Display title checkbox. The Title will appear as the heading for the Block if Display title is checked. 

  4. Under Copy text, add the desired content in the text editor.

  5. Select Add block.

  6. Select Save layout.

Copy text elements

All copy text elements can be found when Configuring a Copy text Block. To Configure a pre-existing Copy text Block:

  1. On the intended web page, select the Layout tab.

  1. Select the Pencil icon on the top right of the intended Copy text block, then select Configure from the drop-down menu.

Abbreviation tags can be used to provide abbreviations or short forms of an element. When the user hovers over the abbreviation, the full text is displayed as a pop-up text.

How to use Abbreviation tags

  1. Select the Source button in the top left corner of the text editing window. The text editing window is now displaying the HTML code for your page.

  2. Insert the abbreviation tags where necessary.     

    1. For example, to make an abbreviation tag for the acronym UK, find "UK" in the source code.               

    2. Insert the opening tag to the left of the acronym and the end tag after the acronym,
      <abbr title="United Kingdom">UK </abbr>

    3. Ensure that the title appears in quotation marks.

  3. Find all the acronyms you wish to use the abbreviation tag for, and complete steps 6(a) through 6(c).

  4. When finished, select Add block (or Update if this is a pre-existing Block).

  5. Select a state from the Change to: drop-down menu.

  6. Select Save layout.

Anchors are used to mark the location of an element within a page. Anchors can link to both internal and external elements.

  1. Place your cursor in front of where you want the anchor inserted.

  2. Select Anchor from the toolbar.

  3. Enter an Anchor name.

    • Only use lower-case letters, numbers and dashes (-). Dashes should be used to separate words when naming anchors (e.g. sample-1). Note: Anchor names cannot begin with numbers (e.g. 1st).

  4. Select OK.

  5. Highlight the text you want to link to the anchor, then select Link in the toolbar. Note: Avoid highlighting punctuation marks/white space at the beginning or end of the text.

  6. Enter the anchor URL.

    • When linking to an anchor on the same page, the URL must begin with a pound/hashtag sign (#) followed by the name of the anchor (e.g. #sample-1).

    • When linking to an anchor on a different page on the same site:

      1. Copy the URL of the page being linked.

      2. Remove the "https://uwaterloo.ca", from the beginning of the copied URL and paste the remainder.

      3. Append a pound/hashtag sign (#) to the pasted text.

      4. Append the anchor name.

        • e.g.  http://uwaterloo.ca/web-resources/communications#sample-1

  7. Select Save.

  8. Select Add block (or Update if it's a pre-existing Block).

  9. Select state from the Change to: drop-down menu.

  10. Select Save layout.

Bulleted lists can be used to list objects that have no sequential order.

Create a bulleted list

  1. Select the text you would like to be organized as a list and select the Insert/Remove Bulleted list button in the toolbar.

  2. You can also use the tab key or Increase indent button to create sub-list items.

  3. Select Add block (or Update if it is a pre-existing block).

  4. Select a state from the Change to: drop-down menu.

  5. Select Save layout.   

Note: To remove the list, select the text which has been ordered in a list and re-select the Insert/Remove list button.  

Horizontal rules are used as dividers within a page. Careful use of horizontal rules can make pages easier to read and are visually appealing.

Create a Horizontal rule

  1. Select the Insert horizontal line icon in the editing toolbar. 

  2. Select Add block (or Update if it is a pre-existing Block).

  3. Select a state from the Change to: drop-down menu.

  4. Select Save layout.

Highlight text is used to draw attention to specific words or phrases. It should be used sparingly to keep a page visually accessible.

Changing text style to Highlight

  1. Enter the text you wish to highlight, or select it if it already exists.

  2. Select the Formatting styles drop-down menu in the editing toolbar and select Highlight from the list.

  3. Select Add block (or Update if this is a pre-existing Block).

  4. Select a state from the Change to: drop-down menu.

  5. Select Save layout.