SERC > SERC Content Management System > Editing Text

# Editing Text

Once you've selected a particular content element you'll be presented with a big empty box in which you can start typing.

In addition to the familiar information about where you are and how to view the current page, you're provided with a link to previous versions of the text. While there is no one-click undo feature you can look back (and copy out) any and all past revisions (these are kept separate for dev and live pages).

Immediately above the main text box there may be a brief line (or two) providing some guidance as to what sort of information might be appropriate for this particular content element.

The text box itself works as expected; type words in and click "Make these Changes" to save your typing. Normally it's helpful to keep two browser windows open: one with the editing window and one with a view onto the final dev page. You can refresh the view in the latter window to see your work as you go.

To format your text you'll need to insert various 'tags': snippets of text surrounded by brackets which are interpreted as formatting rather than being displayed literally. If you've worked at all with html many of these will be familiar. If not rest assured that it's quite easy to pick up with a little practice (witness the bevy of web pages created by 9 year olds--this isn't rocket science). The most basic tag is the paragraph tag: <p>. It should precede every new paragraph, and its counterpart the close paragraph tag </p> should be placed at the end of every paragraph. Feel free to add carriage returns and extras spaces into your text to make it more readable while you're editing. But keep in mind only the paragraph tag (and its various compatriots) will affect what actually appears in the final web page.

What follows in the next couple of pages are detailed explanations of all the tags available for formatting your text. You can always access these lists by following the 'Formatting help' link immediately above every text editing box.

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