Finding Previously Published Content and Creating and Submitting a Revision of it for Publisher Review in Public Website WordPress

Creating a brand new page (or other item of WordPress content) and submitting it for review is a relatively simple process, but correctly finding and editing something that has already been published is a much more common activity when maintaining an existing site and requires a couple of extra steps to be done correctly and completely.

Note: The below instructions are written for users with Editor access to the Section containing the item being updated. Users with Publisher access can follow the same steps up to the part where the user is instructed to “Submit for Review”, at which point, as Publishers, they would instead simply publish their update directly.

There are two main methods to find and create a revision of a page (or other item of WordPress content) that you want to update. For both methods, you will want to have first logged into WordPress and selected the correct Section for the content you want to update. Both methods will create a new copy of the item for you to edit. Nothing you do to the content will affect the published version until the revision copy has been been published by your Publisher.

Note: You may notice that the permalink changes to indicate the your revision copy is a “child” of the original. This is not a cause for concern. Do not attempt to edit the permalink. When the revision is published, the revised content will simply replace the content at the the correct permalink.

In WordPress:

Click on the content type for your previously published item in the WordPress menu (Pages, Events, Programs, Program Umbrellas, etc.).
- Note: The lists will usually default to showing “All” items in the section. To eliminate from the list any draft or pending revision copies, click on the Published filter.
Navigate to item you wish to change, either by scanning down the list until you find it, or by using the search filter and searching for the name of the page you wish to edit.
Hover your mouse over the Title and click Create Revision from the options that appear below it.

Before you can use this method for first time, you will need to follow the instructions to add the “Toggle BCIT website” bookmarklet to your browser. This bookmarklet lets you go from viewing content on the BCIT public website (www.bcit.ca) to viewing the same content on the WordPress site (kb.bcit.ca) or back again with a single click.

Once you’ve added the bookmarklet to your browser:

Navigate to the content you want to update on the public website.
Click your “Toggle BCIT websites” bookmarklet in your bookmarks/favourites bar. The content should reload, the URL will have changed, and you should now see the black WordPress Admin bar across the top of the site.
- Note: If you believe that you do have access to create a revision of the content in question but you do not see the Create Revision button, there are two possible explanations:
  1. You have access to more than one section and your currently selected section doesn’t match the content in question. If that is the case, use the section selector in the Admin bar to choose the correct section and the Create Revision button should appear.
    OR
  2. If you are sure your currently selected section is the right one to access this content, then it is possible that the content in question has been locked because you or another user has already created a revision of it in WordPress (only one revision copy can exist at a time, for obvious reasons). To confirm this, you’ll need to find it in the list in WordPress which will show you whether it is marked as “Locked”. If so, the revision copy should be visible below the original in the list (though some views shift it away from the original, in which case it may be easier to find it by filtering the list by “Draft” or “Pending” in order to identify the revision copy).
Click the Create Revision button in the WordPress Admin bar.

Trashing a revision rather than submitting it for review

In some cases you may discover after starting a revision that you no longer want to make the change you originally intended to, or that you’ve made edits to the content that you regret and want to start again with a fresh copy. Any user, whether Editor or Publisher, can trash a revision copy. There are two ways to approach this and which to use depends on where you are in the system when you decide to trash it.

If you are not currently editing the revision you decide to trash, you do not have to re-open the revision to trash it.

Click on Pages in the WordPress menu.
Click on the Drafts filter above the list of pages (if you have not yet submitted it for review; if you have, use the Pending filter instead).
Find your revision in the list and hover your mouse over the row containing it.
Click the Trash link that appears below the page name.
Note: If you do not see a Trash link, it is likely that the revision page is open for editing, either in another browser on your computer, or by another user.
Note: Trashing the revision immediately unlocks the original published page and you can start again by creating a new revision.

Regardless of how you trashed the file, you were likely not asked to confirm your decision to do so. If you change your mind after doing so, or if you clicked the link by mistake, you can bring the revision back from the Trash for up to 30 days (items in the Trash will eventually be purged):

Click on Pages in the WordPress menu.
Click on the Trash filter above the list of pages.
Find your revision in the list (if you created the revision, it will have your name listed as the Author) and hover your mouse over the row containing it.
Click the Restore link that appears below the page name.

Submitting a revision for Publisher review

Once you’ve created a revision in the previous procedure you can go ahead and make all necessary edits to the content, including media files, panels, etc. Once you have completed all necessary changes you’re ready to proceed.

Important: Preview yone last time to ensure that it looks the way you would expect it to look. Just as you would when creating a new page, check for formatting and content errors, for conformance with all BCIT Public Website Standards, and also check that the page looks good not only on desktop machines but also on mobile devices.
Click the Submit for Review button in the Publish sidebar.
- Note: All Publishers for your Section will be emailed to let them know that you’ve submitted content. If you need to provide additional information about the changes you’ve made, you’ll need to email or call them directly as there is currently no way for you to do so from within WordPress.

Finding Previously Published Content and Creating and Submitting a Revision of it for Publisher Review in Public Website WordPress

Method 1: Creating a revision after finding the item in the pages/posts/events lists within WordPress

Method 2: Creating a revision after viewing the published item on the public website

Trashing a revision rather than submitting it for review

Trashing a revision from within the Edit page

Trashing a revision from the Pages list

Restoring a trashed revision

Submitting a revision for Publisher review

More information about creating and editing pages

More information about public website WordPress