Jesse reminds me that I meant to point out that there is a "Paste from
Word" button in the RTE that will strip out all that microsoft nonsense.
Not quite what you were asking for (suppressing tags from the RTE--I passed
that suggestion on to the devs) but it's what we refer people to who break
their formatting accidentally with a massive paste. There's also a "Paste
as Plain Text" button that has a similar effect.
On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 1:32 PM, Jesse Martinez <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> I can commiserate!
>
> The tactic we've used at our university was to use the data migration from
> LGv1 to LGv2 as a means to convene guide authors and rethink
> * the future overall layout of our guides (new side menu has been our
> design choice but complicates preexisting three- and four-column layouts);
> * their intended use (pastiche of related but independent boxes on the
> guide or something with a simple flow/concise content -- it's a
> philosophical discussion, for sure);
> * breakdown of content (when it is appropriate to have long detailed pages
> or break down into sub-pages, which have their own issues...);
> * the strict use of accessibility policies (must set up strict policies
> about funky colors & fonts, minimize use HTML tables, content column layout
> w.r.t. responsive design, etc.).
>
> I feel our internal conversations and meetings about rethinking LibGuides
> v2 with our staff have gone over well, and reiterating appropriate "best
> practices" or suggestions whenever I field a LibGuides question have
> birthed some improvements in guide construction. It's an ongoing battle, of
> course!
>
> There are some heavy-handed tactics in place here too. For instance we've
> hidden the Fonts button in the guide editor using CSS.
>
> span#cke_12 {display:none;}
>
> This doesn't stop custom html or copy/pasting Word content (ugh) from
> getting through, but it does allows us to say, "nope, we're not supporting
> Comic Sans!"
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 12:56 PM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > I lol'ed several times reading your message. I feel the pain. Well, it is
> > nice to know I am not alone. You are right that this in particular is an
> > organizational problem and not a LibGuides problem. But unfortunately it
> > has been an organizational problem at both of the universities where I've
> > worked that use LibGuides, and it sounds like it is a problem at many
> > other libraries. I'm not sure what it is about LibGuides that brings out
> > the most territorial and user-marginalizing aspects of the librarian
> > psyche.
> >
> > Does anyone have any positive experience in dealing with this? I am on
> the
> > verge of just manually enforcing good standards even though it will
> create
> > a lot of enmity. LibGuides CMS has a publishing workflow feature that
> > would force all guide edits to be approved by me so that I could stamp
> > this stuff out each time it happens.
> >
> > To enforce, or not to enforce, that is the question--
> > Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of
> > outrageously poor usability,
> > Or to take arms against a sea of ugly guides,
> > And by forcing compliance with standards and best practices, end them?
> >
> > Josh Welker
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> > Will Martin
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 11:34 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
> >
> > > 4. Admin controls are not very granular. With most aspects of editing
> > > a guide, you either have the option of locking down styles and
> > > templates completely (and oh your colleagues will howl) or allowing
> > > everything (and oh your eyeballs will scream). Some of these things
> > > could very well be improved in the future, and some probably will not.
> >
> > This! My librarians have successfully resisted every attempt to impose
> > any kind of standardization. Visual guidelines? Nope. Content
> > guidelines? Nope. Standard system settings? Nope. Anything less than
> > 100% free reign appears to be anathema to them.
> >
> > The result, predictably, is chaos. Our guides run the gamut. We have
> > everything:
> >
> > - Giant walls of text that no one ever reads.
> >
> > - Lovingly crafted lists of obscure library sources that rarely (if
> > ever) bear any relation to what the patron is actually trying to do.
> >
> > - A thriving ecosystem of competing labels. Is it "Article Indexes",
> > "Article Databases", just plain "Databases", or something more exotic?
> > Depends which apex predator rules this particular neck of the jungle.
> >
> > - Green text on pink backgrounds with maroon borders. Other pages in the
> > same guide might go with different, equally eye-twisting color schemes.
> > I'm not even sure how he's doing that without access to the style sheet,
> > but he's probably taught himself just enough HTML to mangle things in an
> > effort to use "friendly" colors.
> >
> > - Some guides have three or even FOUR rows of tabs. With drop-down
> > submenus on most of them, naturally.
> >
> > - A few are nicely curated and easy to use, but they're in a distinct
> > minority.
> >
> > I've tried. I've pushed peer-reviewed usability studies at them. I've
> > reported on conference sessions explaining exactly why all these things
> > are bad. I've brought them studies of our own analytics. I've had
> > students sit down and get confused in front of them. Nothing has gotten
> > through, and being the only web type at the library, I'm outnumbered.
> > Just the thought of it makes me supremely tired.
> >
> > I'm sorry if this has digressed. LibGuides is not at fault, really.
> > It's an organizational problem. LibGuides just seems to be the flash
> > point for it.
> >
> > Will
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Jesse Martinez
> Web Services Librarian
> O'Neill Library, Boston College
> [log in to unmask]
> 617-552-2509
>
