Office of Communications & Events
Web Guidelines and Best Practices
Web resources
Training materials, online tools, resources, and more. Note that you will see a list of resources when you login to your website.
Drupal Cloud Documentation and Help
Online documentation and training for the Drupal Cloud web content management system (CMS).
"Secret" codes? Not exactly, but you can use these styles in the source code to do advanced formatting within a Rich Text Editor field. Create colored boxes, buttons, and more. Some understanding of HTML is required.
Quick reference of major Drupal Cloud training points
Web policies and guidelines
All web editors are expected to comply with Brown University policies. Note that you will see a list of resources when you login to your website.
Note important use of "alt" tags on all images.
Departments and centers are responsible for their own social media presence, and are expected to follow university guidelines.
Brown has an image use policy that establishes standards for use of still or motion images in Brown communications that include recognizable individuals. Brown University is subject to state and federal laws regarding privacy that require permissions for images highlighting individuals for marketing or promotional purposes.
Did you know?
• Use Ph.D., not PHD or PhD; but do use MPH;
• use 10 a.m., not 10AM or 10am;
• use the title Dr. only when referring to a medical doctor;
Those and more in the Editorial Style Guide.
• Use Ph.D., not PHD or PhD; but do use MPH;
• use 10 a.m., not 10AM or 10am;
• use the title Dr. only when referring to a medical doctor;
Those and more in the Editorial Style Guide.
Other web solutions and systems
Sites.brown.edu is a self-service platform for Brown faculty and staff who wish to host individual, lab, conference or other non-departmental or non-administrative organization websites on the brown.edu domain. Sites.brown.edu facilitates the creation of accessible, secure websites within the Brown web environment. Every site on sites.brown.edu is based on WordPress.
Divi is a highly flexible visual builder which is available as an optional theme in "Sites dot Brown." This video will help you get started using Divi.
Digital Scholarship at Brown is your place to share digital research, engage in public scholarship and experiment with new platforms on the web. Students, faculty and staff may acquire a domain and web space to install software and create content. Digital Scholarship at Brown is provided by the Center for Digital Scholarship in the Library to support teaching, learning, and research activities at Brown.
The University Events Calendar provides feeds which populate many websites and digital signs. Of particular note is the section on "sharing events." Never duplicate events; instead, share them.
Extensive training on how to use the University Events Calendar
Frequently asked questions about Vivo. Who gets a profile, how you do get one, and more.
Online tools
Is your page URL too long to share on social media or elsewhere? Use this Brown-provided self-service URL shortener. It only works with brown.edu and google URL's.
Note that you must create a “static code” not a “dynamic code” if you want the free QR Code option. The dynamic code utilizes a forwarding service which you must pay for. (This service is external to Brown)
Neither Drupal Cloud more sites dot brown support forms or surveys. Qualtrics is a web-based tool for the creation and distribution of online survey which Brown University Communications recommends.
Resources for your online video conferencing
Full list of OIT tools
Full list of over 200 tools and services available from Brown's Office of Information Technology
Images, Audio, Video & Multimedia
Resources for imagery, photography, audio, and video production