Making Your Section a Template

If you designed at the section level or made changes to your section once you assigned a template, you will want to promote your section to a template. To accomplish this, select Content Manager from your My Vista page. Once you are in Content Manager, make sure you are in the Template Manager tab.

In the Template Manager area, you can view a list of your sections in the left-hand navigation bar under Sections. Select the name of the section you want to make into a template.

The section template information is displayed. Click Save this Section as Template.

You will need to determine a few settings:

1.       Decide a location where you want to create the template.

2.     Decide if you want to keep all links and subscriptions within the template or make copies of everything.

3.     Create a name for the template. You can rename the template in the Save as entry field. The default name is the section name with the word “default” after it. You may want to make the name more intuitive or simpler. You want the name to be short but descriptive. You may also want to include a designation that the template is yours, like including your name, which will help you assign the correct template to your section and not accidentally assign the template to someone else.

Once you have determined your settings, click OK.

The next screen will allow you to decide who will be the owner and any editors.

Note: To be an owner or an editor, users must first be a designer at the course level.

You have the option to make the template Public or Private. If the template is Private, only you and your editors can view the template. If you want to make a template that other people can work from, make it public and the other designers can copy and use it. Be aware that once you make a template public you cannot make it private again.

On the Ownership drop-down menu, select who the owner should be. This should be the instructor of record for the course. To add an editor, select a user’s name from the Available field and click the top green arrow icon to add them to the Selected field. You also can select names from the Selected field and move them back to the Available field by clicking the bottom green arrow icon should you decide you do not want them to be editors. To add more than one person at a time, press the Ctrl key and click the names of the persons with your mouse to select them.

When you are done managing template permissions, click Save.

Once the template has been created, you will be directed back to the Template Manager to save the section as template. Select the Template Manager to view your newly created template. Now you can select the template name to make any changes to the template.

Make sure you associate your template to the course (see the next section). You can now select the new template name and edit the template.

Associating Templates

Initially, a course in Vista will not recognize your template. Since you have already created a template and want to be able to assign it to a section in the future, you need to associate it with a course.

Click the drop-down menu next to the course name and above the template. Once you click the menu, you can then click View/Manage Associated Templates.

You can view a list of all templates associated with the course. If your template is not listed, click Associate Template.

If your template is not associated with the course, there will be a checkbox next to the template name. Check the templates you want to associate and click Save.

Once you click Select, your template will be added to the list of templates you can assign to the Section Level. Click Done and you will be returned to Template Manager.

Now that your template is created and associated with the course, you can begin working in it by selecting the title of the template.