Drupal documentation.

Funcoast.com was built on Drupal 5 and ran on Drupal 6 for most of my time in Sandusky. I learned how to combine the powerful built-in tools (content types, taxonomy, custom fields, and more) and add-on modules (Views, Rules, Token, PathAuto) so well that I transitioned into a site building role serving multiple newspaper properties. We built robust new websites for these brands, and I was in charge of training newspaper staff on how to use their new tools. When I arrived at Echo & Co. years later, I was once again responsible for training client teams on how to use their websites, built on Drupal 7 and 8.

Most of the content created for these trainings is proprietary, but here is an outline with sample content that might be included in onboarding new users to Drupal.

 
 

General tips and tricks.

This contains basic Drupal terms (nodes, taxonomy, content types, etc.) and orientation (toolbars and shortcuts, what you’ll see when you log in, gears and tabs, that kind of thing).

User management.

Every site would have a unique set of user roles and permissions. It was important to distinguish the different roles and what they can do and give guidance about who should have what role. For clients who need to be able to add/remove users and assign roles, I would include a step-by-step of how to do that and an orientation to the Users page.

Managing your content.

This is where it gets extremely specific to the way the site was built, with in-depth explanations of the site’s content types, taxonomies, and menus. Each content type has an explanation of when to use that type of content and where that content appears on the site. This section also typically includes applicable modules and tools, such as:

  • Using nodequeues

  • RSS feeds

  • Approving content for publication

  • Embedding videos

  • Moderating comments

  • Promoting content across networks

  • Promoting content across the site

  • Managing menus

  • Managing taxonomies and terms

  • Setting URLs

  • SEO & social fields