Chrome is preferred, but most modern browsers (Edge, Safari, or Firefox) should work, depending upon your firewall settings. Internet Explorer is minimally supported by Microsoft and should be avoided.

For training, you will need to login with your username (your VA email) and the default password. PIV login doesn't work for the training environment. For the production environment, log in with PIV or other Smartcard, and follow the VA authentication instructions.

The training environment isn't connected to VA.gov. It's a copy of the production environment at a specific point in time. Edits you make in the training environment won't go to the production environment or VA.gov, and are removed on a weekly basis.

Follow the VA Content Style Guide and federal plain language guidelines for general writing approach.

• When you click Edit, the node is locked so no one else can make changes at the same time. You must Save or Unlock the node to unlock it.
• You can find who has a node locked on the content search page or at the top of a node when you click Edit.
• There is a break lock link if you think the content was accidentally left locked, but first check with the person who locked it so they don't lose any work.
• If an editor has locked a node but hasn't made any changes for a couple of hours, the node will be automatically unlocked.

Yes, but be careful about copying and pasting any formatting, especially headings, into a rich text field. If you're not sure about formatting, click the Source icon on the rich text menu to review if any formatting was pasted.

Text fields with character limits indicate the maximum number. For example, titles are limited to 150 characters. Some limited fields display a character countdown.

Drupal CMS doesn’t have a spelling checker, but your document or browser may have one. Check spelling there before copying and pasting into Drupal CMS.

Content that is saved as Published will go live on VA.gov after the next content release finishes. Go to the Knowledge Base article on content releases for the current schedule.

To unpublish content that is currently saved as Published, you must save the content as Archived.

To prevent accidental deletion, you can't delete a node in Drupal CMS. Save a node as Archived instead, and add a Revision log message. In the future, nodes that are archived for a long period of time may be deleted on a set schedule.

Drupal CMS checks links to external pages for links that don't work, links that are being redirected to a different URL, and links to internal Drupal content.

Tips:

• Test your link in a browser to make sure it works.
• Make sure your link works when not on the VA network. Links that have "vaww" usually indicate a VA intranet page that the public can't get to.
• Don't copy a link directly from a VA Outlook message. Outlook messages in the VA system are run through a security checker, which adds extra code into links.
• Don't link to your system's old TeamSite pages. They will be redirected to your system's new homepage (Drupal CMS).
• If you link to an internal Drupal node in a rich text field, you can only link to nodes that are stand-alone pages (like a staff profile with a bio page). You can't link to nodes that are accordions or paragraphs (like a staff profile without a bio page or a health service).
• Link to an internal Drupal node using only the part of the address after ".gov" or by clicking in the URL field and starting to enter the name of the node.