Editing privileges for Organization Administrators

Users with the Organization Administrator role now have the ability to edit content or manage settings on any OpenScholar site for their organization. This role is typically reserved for a few individuals at each organization who are responsible for overseeing and managing all of their institution’s OpenScholar sites. Learn more about the Organization Administrator role.

Copy-and-paste improvements

We’ve added a plugin to the WYSIWYG editor that will automatically clean up any text that you copy and paste from another website or an application like MS Word or Google Docs. This supports brand compliance and readability by ensuring that the typography matches the site’s styles instead of accidentally applying custom colors, font faces, or sizes. Having consistent typography reinforces professionalism and authority.

Better drag-and-drop for placing widgets

We updated the design that you see in layout mode when moving widgets around on the page. Widget blocks are now smaller when you pick them up, so they are easier to manipulate and move around the regions. You can also edit widgets now when you are in Layout mode (previously, you had to return to edit mode).

New media browser for Attach Files

The new media browser is now available on the Attach Files fields that appear on most content types and publications as well as News and Person Image fields. You will be able to upload new items or select one from the library using a cleaner interface for browsing. We support several different media file types in OpenScholar (images, documents, audio recordings, presentations, archive/zip files) as well as embedded videos that are hosted on third-party services like Vimeo or YouTube.

The new media browser will be added to the WYSIWYG editor and widgets with media fields in the coming months.

Maintenance, security, bug fixes and enhancements

We fixed some bugs and optimized settings to make the platform even more accessible and user-friendly. Our development team updated a few Drupal modules and server packages, including a Drupal core security update (Drupal is the content management system underlying OpenScholar). We take care of the hosting and software, so you can focus on managing your content.

What’s coming soon

New administration theme

As mentioned last month, we are working on a major upgrade to the administration theme, which will give all of the settings and editing screens a new look and feel. They will be closer to the experience users get when they set up a brand new Drupal site, following the latest practices in design and usability. 

Larger fonts and more generous spacing will improve readability. Buttons for key actions like “Save” will be pinned to the top of the content, so you won’t have to scroll as much to find them. Toolbars and modals will receive some design polish as well. We are excited to modernize the appearance of the admin areas.

AI-assisted content generation

We plan to start incorporating features like suggestions for image alt text or page titles soon. Adding options in the WYSIWYG to make recommendations about composing or rephrasing text is on the roadmap too. Organizations will need to opt-in to having these AI features enabled, so they may not be available on all sites.

What’s being retired

Reminder that legacy themes are not actively developed and support for them is limited. Users are encouraged to transition to one of the fully supported standard themes. To learn more about the difference between standard and legacy themes, please see our page on Theme Life Cycles.

Thanks for reading

Questions or comments? Please reach out to our product team at support@theopenscholar.com.