Best Practices

• All portlets (except for a "contact information" portlet) should be placed in the right-hand column.
• The "contact information" portlet is a static text portlet that we encourage everyone to add to their site. It should be place in the left column under the navigation.  It should be visible on your site's homepage, and should include some way for users of your site to contact your organization.  A linked e-mail address is preferable; phone numbers, fax numbers, and addresses are also encouraged.
• Images & Flash contained in right-side portlets should be no more than 185 pixels wide, otherwise it will break the columns.
• Avoid using long email addresses (longer than roughly 20 characters, symbols included). Since there are no breaks/spaces in an email address, the system will word wrap part of the email to another line.  One way around this is to simply link the words "Email" or "Email Us" (for example: Email or Email Us versus Michelle_Johnson@med.unc.edu).

Editing an Existing Portlet

1. At the bottom of the left or right-hand column click on the Manage Portlets link. You will be taken to the Manage Portlets interface in which you will see a list of all portlets in their respective columns.
2. To edit the properties of an existing portlet, simply click on the name of the portlet.

Rearranging Portlets

1. At the bottom of the left or right-hand column click on the Manage Portlets link.
2. You will be taken to the Manage Portlets interface where you can create new Portlets, remove Portlets, rename and rearrange Portlets.
3. To rearrange your portlets, simply click the blue up or down arrow. This will affect the order in which your portlets are displayed on the page.
4. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the column.

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Hiding/Showing Portlets

1. At the bottom of the left or right-hand column click on the Manage Portlets link.
2. You will be taken to the Manage Portlets interface where you can create new Portlets, remove Portlets, rename and rearrange Portlets.
3. To hide a Portlet, click the Hide. (To show it again, click Show.)
4. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the column.

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Removing Portlets

1. At the bottom of the left or right-hand column click on the Manage Portlets link.
2. You will be taken to the Manage Portlets interface where you can create new Portlets, remove Portlets, rename and rearrange Portlets.
3. To remove a Portlet, click the red 'X' associated with its name.
4. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the column.

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Inheritance & Blocking

By default, portlets added to any folder within the site will be inherited to display on sub-pages and folders. For example, if you add a portlet with contact information to the home folder of your site, that portlet will be displayed throughout the rest of the site.  If you add a portlet to the About Us section/folder of your web site then, that portlet would display on everything within the About Us folder. You can, however, prevent portlets from being inherited.

Portlet blocking for the left and right columns is controlled independently of each other—it affects all inherited portlets on that side. However, you have the ability to re-add any of the blocked portlets. This is useful for if you wish to keep only one of three inherited portlets. Initially you will need to block all three portlets, and then you will go back and re-add the portlet you wish to keep.

Block Portlets on an Individual Page or Folder

1. Navigate to the page or folder you wish to change (i.e., the one where you want the portlets disabled), and click manage portlets.
2. In the Parent portlets drop-down menu, change Do not block to Block.
3. Click Save settings at the bottom of the edited column, in the Manage Portlets view.

Add a New Portlet to an Individual Page or Folder

1. Navigate to the page or folder you wish to change, and click manage portlets.
2. Select a portlet type from the Add portlet... menu.
3. Edit and save your portlet.
4. Click Save settings at the bottom of the edited column, in the Manage Portlets view.

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Portlets on the Default View of a Folder

While viewing a folder that has a page set as the default view, clicking "manage portlets" takes you to portlet management for the page, instead of the folder. This is more intuitive, and opposite the behavior of older versions of the web system, which always directed you to the folder.  So now, whenever you click "manage portlets", you should look for the portal message that alerts you that you're managing portlets for a page, just to avoid any confusion:

In addition, you can tell whether you're managing portlets for the page or folder by the address in the address bar. The address will always specifically reflect what's being edited ("site/folder/@@manage-portlets" versus "site/folder/page/@@manage-portlets").

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