CASCADE USER GUIDE
Welcome! This handy reference is your guide to The College of Agriculture’s (CoA) choice of Content Management System (CMS) named Cascade. Use this always up-to-date guide to help you learn, access and use Cascade more efficiently to create and edit web content as a content manager and/or content creator.
Use the Contact Us information for any additional Cascade support requests.
Welcome!
This handy reference is your web guide to all things Cascade. Cascade is a Hannon Hill software solution and is a major CMS used at colleges and universities around the world. The College and Indiana State Extension use Cascade to maintain and manage content for the following site domains:
- The College's main and department sites are found at: ag.purdue.edu
- Indiana State Extension sites are found at: extension.purdue.edu
Use this always up-to-date guide to help you learn, access, and use Cascade more efficiently to create and edit web content as a content manager and/or content creator.
Note: This guide cross-references Cascade’s official help site, which is an extremely useful resource for any Cascade user.Test The Guide's New ChatBot
We are excited to introduce a new feature that will help you find answers to your Cascade User Guide questions faster and easier. We have teamed up with Chatbase Custom ChatGPT to create a chatbot demo that uses artificial intelligence to answer your queries. But we need your test questions to improve this tool, so please give it a try and ask it anything you want to know about Cascade. For example, you can ask “How do I add a new Cascade page” or “How do I edit images”.
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Latest Site Insight
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- How do I create a Cascade account?
- How do I create a Cascade site to include lab and grant sites?
- How do I create a Cascade page?
- How do I create page-based navigation?
- How do I create a Cascade event?
- How do I create a Cascade news post?
- How do I work with Tags?
- How do I work with images in Cascade?
- How do I edit social media meta tags (title, description, images)?
- Unpublishing vs. Deleting Content - Which is best?
- How do I restore something I deleted from the trash / recycle bin?
- How do I work with long-term drafts?
- Search the guide
- Cascade keyboard shortcuts
Site maintenance is at the core of The Web Stewardship Best Practices Agreement. Learn how you can keep your site content fresh the easy way.
- How do I find broken links on my site?
- How do I easily replace assets on my site (replace images, documents, etc.)?
- How do I archive past-due events?
Weekly site maintenance actions you can perform:
- A weekly broken link report is available for all sites. Learn how to access these reports for your sites to help you identify and fix these access issues. This report runs each Saturday.
- Purdue has purchased a product called Siteimprove to automate site compliance testing. Siteimprove is a comprehensive tool that tests for accessibility and broken links. It works from within Cascade, requires no installation, works on Mac and PC, and there is no charge to use it. Please email AGCOMM via this link for Siteimprove information and access.
- Review our ADA guide to verify your digital documents (web pages, pdfs, word docs, Qualtrics forms, etc.) are compliant.
- If you have content that you are still working on and it’s not ready to be published, please keep that content in an unpublished folder and change its properties by unchecking the Include when publishing box. Read more about how to keep your content unpublished.
Siteimprove reports
Purdue has purchased a product called Siteimprove to automate site compliance testing and reporting. Siteimprove is a comprehensive tool that tests for accessibility and broken links. It works from within Cascade, requires no installation, works on Mac and PC, and there is no charge to use it. Please contact us for information and access and visit Siteimprove's training resources.
Siteimprove reports run weekly and can be accessed here once you establish a Siteimprove account:
- We have many ADA training resources available including guides on Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, and a video series. Purdue offers additional accessibility guidance.
- Review our ADA guide to verify your digital documents (web pages, pdfs, word docs, Qualtrics forms, etc.) are compliant.
- Review our SEO guide
- Google Analytics Looker Studio (formerly known as: Data Studio) for College
- NEW 07-2023 - GA4 College of Ag Looker Studio dashboard
- Google Universal Analytics Looker Studio (formerly: Data Studio) for Extension Sites
- NEW 07-2023 - GA4 Extension Looker Studio dashboard
- Google Analytics Looker Studio (formerly known as: Data Studio) for 4H Sites
- Getting Started with Siteimprove SEO
digital MEDIA RESOURCES:
- Purdue Brand Requirements (see photo/video resources)
- AGCOMM Photo Repository PhotoShelter (Libris) request access via an AGCOMM request
Photo Tools:
Resize/Edit your Images (crop or change the dimensions (length & width))
- How to resize an image for the web - in pixels and kilobytes (kaydee.net)
- Simple Image Resizer, resize online images without losing quality
- Bulk Image Resizer | Bulk Resize Images Online - RedKetchup
- Pixlr.com's freemium photo editor, animation, and design tools
Compress your Images (reduce file size to below 1MB)
GRAPHIC RESOURCES and tools:
Purdue RESOURCES:
COLLEGE OF AG resources:
These Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) go beyond what Cascade CMS currently offers and answer other web-related topics:
Q: How can I view Microsoft-based digital documents in my browser?
A: Compatible operating systems and browsers support viewing of Microsoft Office documents. Browser plugins for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, Apple iOS devices, and Android devices also enable digital document viewing.
Q: How can I view Adobe PDF digital documents in my browser?
A: Modern operating systems and web browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari have this ability built in.
New Cascade Solutions
You can now add a Document Library listing to Cascade with some planning and the use of a pre-built Cascade Asset Factory. This new solution allows Cascade users to provide their site audiences with a searchable, filterable, paginated list of documents or links. Learn how to add a document library to any Cascade site.
learn how