Guide: Editing Contact Information and People (Directory Information)

Historically, questions about updating Directory Information in Guide have ranked at the top of the "most frequently asked" list. This KnowledgeBase article will hopefully address these questions and help Guide editors feel confident in making and requesting these edits.

"Directory Information" is an umbrella term covering both the Contact Information box which appears on the right-hand side of a Guide page under the navigational menu (or under the content when viewed on mobile) as well as the content contained on the People tab found in the navigational menu. The Update Principles of our institution allow for Directory Information to be updated at any time of year. There is one small caveat to that: all editing in the Guide is done manually, and at certain times of year when the Registrar's Office is preparing the Guide for publication or for the opening of the edit window, they will be unable to make updates to the live Guide immediately and there will be a delay for the updates to appear.

In the above screenshot, the Contact Information box is circled in pink, and the People tab and content is circled in orange.

Steps for Editing Directory Information

NOTE: All dates in this document are rough estimates. You must check with your School/College Guide Coordinator to confirm exact deadlines for editing the Guide.

First, be aware that the Guide is a catalog. Although the URL for it is static, every semester a new version of it is "published" to that URL that quite literally takes the place of the preceding version. Every year, Guide editors are given a window to directly edit all the non-governed content on their Guide pages. When they do so, they are actually editing the new version of the Guide that will publish the subsequent June 1. This new version of Guide completely replaces the existing version on June 1. This means that when that window is open, edits to Directory Information should be made in both the existing (live) Guide that is published now but will be archived on June 1, and the new Guide that publishes on June 1 and replaces it.

In other words, from about November 1 - February 1, when the editing window is open for editors to make edits to non-governed content, these are the steps that must be taken to update Directory Information:

1. Find your program's page(s) in the Next-Guide editing environment.
2. Edit the Contact Information and People for how you would like it to appear after June 1 (see below for instructions).
3. If you also want those edits to appear immediately, before June 1, next email guideeditor@office365.wisc.edu and request that the live Guide be updated to reflect the edits in Next-Guide.

From February 2 - October 31, Guide editors no longer have this direct access to the Next-Guide editing environment. The only way to request updates during that time period to Directory Information is to email them to guideeditor@office365.wisc.edu. If the edits are complicated, it is most helpful to copy and paste the content into a Word document, make tracked changes, and send that. Please be clear about which specific pages in Guide need the edits (and remember your program might have a Doctoral Minor page--many forget about this).

How to Edit Contact Information

When the editing window is open from November 1 - February 1, these are the steps to edit Contact Information.

1. Find your program's page(s) in the Next-Guide editing environment.
2. Click "Edit Page" in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. This will open the edit toolbar.
3. Click on "Contact List" in the edit toolbar (you may need to use the small blue arrows to toggle left and right on the bar).
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4. This will open a new window.
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5. To edit the very first row of the Contact Information box, the information at the bottom that starts with "Label" is where to look.
6. To edit all the other rows of the Contact Information box, click on the name in the little window at the top of the pop-up (next to the Move Up and Move Down buttons).
7. Please note the Graduate School has some requirements for Contact Information boxes which can be found at this KB. Programs in the School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) are also required to list their Grievance Advisor; do not delete this.
8. Make sure to click "OK" when you are done! This will save the changes.
9. Remember, editing it in the Next-Guide editing environment does not automatically update it in the live Guide. You must email guideeditor@office365.wisc.edu to request that next.

And remember, from February 2 - October 31 you no longer have this access. The only way to edit Directory Information during that time period is to email guideeditor@office365.wisc.edu.

How to Edit People

When the editing window is open from November 1 - February 1, these are the steps to edit People.

1. Find your program's page(s) in the Next-Guide editing environment.
2. Click "Edit Page" in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. This will open the edit toolbar.
3. Click on "People" in the edit toolbar (you may need to use the small blue arrows to toggle left and right on the bar).
4. This will open a new window.
5. If you see something that looks like this in the edit window (a blue box surrounds the text and you can't edit it directly)...
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6. ... Your People page is using Borrowed Content! There is a special way to edit this. Please refer to this KB article for instructions on what to do.
7. Otherwise, edit the text how you would like it to appear. Please note that there is one requirement for this content--that you do not insert links to individual faculty webpages. We recommend you simply link to the index on your program's website for your people (the way African Cultural Studies did in the first image on this KB article).
8. Make sure to click "OK" when you are done! This will save the changes.
9. Remember, editing it in the Next-Guide editing environment does not automatically update it in the live Guide. You must email guideeditor@office365.wisc.edu to request that next.

And remember, from February 2 - October 31 you no longer have this access. The only way to edit Directory Information during that time period is to email guideeditor@office365.wisc.edu.