Edit your profile

Use this guide if you want to change information on your profile by yourself. Alternatively, skip this guide and just ask听David听辞谤听Shelly听to make changes on your behalf.听Note to faculty: you can only edit the upper part of your profile page by yourself (due to a severe limitation of Web Express).

Regardless of your approach, David and Shelly can offer assistance to help make your profile what you want it to be, while fitting into the overall INSTAAR context.

听

Do not edit your profile on a shared computer听

Logging out is is not reliable on UCB's Web Express system.听After clicking the "Log Out" button, it can take hours before you are actually logged out.听This delay is a serious security issue on a shared computer.听听

Step 1. Request & accept your invitation

First-time user (I need an invite)

First, you need an invitation from the university's Web Express website system to join the INSTAAR website.听To get your invitation:

Email David (david.lubinski@colorado.edu) and ask for an invitation.
David will have Web Express email an invitation to you (typically within 24 hours of your request).
You have five days to accept or else you will need make another request.
Follow the included instructions to accept your invitation.
Upon completion, you should recieve a confirmation email.

Step 2. Log in

Regular user (I have already accepted my invitation)

Anytime after you've accepted your invitation, log in as follows:

Log in at /instaar/user with your 听username and password.
Upon logging in, you'll听be in your Dashboard. Select听the Authored Content tab and click your linked name.听Alternatively, navigate to your profile page as per usual.
When you听see your profile page,听click 鈥淓dit鈥� on the blue bar near the top of the page.

Step 3. Edit

Once you've logged in and clicked the "Edit" button on your profile page as outlined above, you'll see an editing screen with a number of form fields spread across three tabs: Personal, Contact, and Other. Open the tabs below to see instructions and tips:

Video tutorial

Editing basics (5 min)

听

Adding more content, like Bio, Research, Teaching, and Outreach - for non-faculty (8 min)

听

Personal

Example screenshot

The orange labels show the fields you can edit via the Personal tab.

See live page for Nova D. Doggo

Instructions

Enter at least your name, INSTAAR people category, and title.听

First name

Can either be your first name, or your first name plus any middle names or initials.

Last name

This name puts you in alphabetical order in lists. If you have a two-part family name, this is where you can ensure you show up in the right place!听

Let鈥檚 say your last name is Maria Statten Munoz.听

If you should be listed under M for Munoz, then put Maria Statten in the First Name box and Munoz in the Last Name box.听
If you should be listed under S for Statten Munoz, then put Maria in the First Name box and Statten Munoz in the Last Name box.

Job type/INSTAAR people category

Did you change status鈥揻or instance, going from a grad student to a postdoc? Start typing to see and choose an existing category鈥揹o not create a new category. For instance, type 鈥渇ac鈥� and choose one of the three faculty options. Only one category per person.

The options are

Faculty Fellows
Faculty Research Scientists听
Faculty Fellows Emeriti
Research Staff
Postdocs
Students
Affiliates
Admin Staff

Title (and specialties)

Overview

We鈥檙e using this field for both your titles and research specialties.
Keep it all as short as possible, since otherwise the list view of people gets really awkward and long.
You鈥檒l need one item (entry box) for each title or specialty.
You'll need to add several html tags to increase legibility.听

Example

Here is an example with two titles and three specialities, totalling听six entries:

Titles

Stick with one to three titles; the fewer the better.
Make them consistent with other people鈥檚 titles (i.e., use Professor, Associate Professor, PhD Student, MS Student) rather than inventing variants (like Geography Professor).
To ensure the titles can be easily seen, bold each with a bracketing听html strong tag. For example:听

Separate the titles and specialities sections by entering a single html line break tag, like this:

Research specialties

Specialities in total should be < 70 characters including spaces and bullets. Keep 鈥榚m concise, please. We will edit your specialities if you get carried away.
Enter each term on a separate line.
Capitalize the first letter of each item; the rest of the phrase is lowercase. (Example: Stream ecology)

Partner Dept/Unit

Start typing and choose one of the existing categories:
- 听ie type 鈥済eo鈥� to choose from Geography or Geological Sciences.
- If you want to add a new partner dept/unit, talk with Shelly or David. We can set that up for you. Don鈥檛 just add it yourself please.
Separate multiple dept/units with commas.

Existing categories:

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences听
Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering听
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology听
Environmental Studies听
Geography
Geological Sciences听
Graduate Certificate in Oceanography听
Hydrologic Sciences Graduate Program

Photo

Would you like to switch out your picture on your profile? Great! It鈥檚 a nice way for other INSTAARs, students, and colleagues to recognize you. That said, there are lots of reasons why people don鈥檛 want a photo on their profile. Just let Shelly or David know and we can remove your photo from your profile and replace it in lists with an icon.

Here鈥檚 what your profile picture should be:

Headshot

A picture of you that shows mostly just your head and is cropped near your collarbone or upper chest. Even if you are in a beautiful or meaningful outdoor setting, please crop to just your head and upper chest. The goal is to be able to see you well enough in that little picture that your fellow INSTAARs can recognize you in real life. Keep in mind that your picture will be even smaller when听on a group listing page like Faculty Fellows or Students, especially on phone screens.

Good resolution

Try to find a decent resolution image with face+neck spanning at least 700 x 700 pixels. But if necessary, use a lower resolution like 400 x 400 pixels.

Face & eyes visible

The best photos show your face pretty straight-on and without dark sunglasses.听

Adjusting color

Please take a few seconds to make sure the color of your face is good. Try auto levels to see if it makes an improvement. If using MacOS Preview, choose Tools > Adjust Color > Auto Levels button. If your face remains too dark, too red, etc., make a small adjustment.

Centering

You can be centered or a little off-center when you听crop to a circle (next step), whichever looks better.听听听

Cropping

Crop to a circle (1:1) before uploading. Use any app that works for you.

Cropping with Preview (MacOS only)

Double click the image to open it in Preview.
Then choose View > Show Markup Toolbar or click the pencil icon in the upper right as shown here:
The Markup Toolbar is now visible. Note its boxy Selection tool icon in the upper left. It defaults to a square selection, so click on the adjacent dropdown arrow and choose Elliptical Selection as shown here:
Then hold down shift before you click and drag your circle. Holding shift constrains the elliptical selection to an exact 1:1 circle.听
Once you like your circle, click the Crop button, choose Tools > Crop, or type 鈱楰 (ie command k). Then Save. Save in .png format.
Double check that your cropped image has the same number of pixels for width and height. Check your results by opening Tools > Show Inspector (鈱業) and looking at the pixel dimensions. Otherwise the non-circle may get truncated when showing multiple people on a people listing page.

Cropping with Canva (free web-based app)

Gather/download the photo to your computer.
Login to Canva (free version is sufficient).
On Canva home page, click the big purple "Create a design" button in upper right.
At the bottom of the resulting pop up window in the section called "Start creating from your media", choose Import file.
Select the file on your machine.
Choose to use your file in a new design.听
Chose custom size.听 It needs to be square.听 The default of 980px by 980px is fine. Click the Create new design button.
Your image should be on top of a white square design.听 Select Elements in the left sidebar and scroll in the sidebar until the Frames section.听 Click on the circle frame.
You should see the circle frame听on top of your image.听 Click on your image (not the frame) and drag your image听into the circle听frame and let go. You should see the cropped image inside the circle.
Resize the frame+image by dragging the corners (or use alignment + dragging) to fill the whole听square design area.听 If you don't do this step, your image will be too small on the INSTAAR website because of the extra white space.
Zoom the image听by double clicking on it and then dragging one of its corners.听 You want the person to be cropped in the circle very close to the top of their head and near their collarbone.听 You can听recenter the image听by听clicking on it and dragging.听 Once your zoom and centering looks good, click Done.
Transfer the cropped circle image to your computer by going to the blue menu bar near the top and choosing听File > Download and clicking the Download button.听 Whew!

Filename

Try to rename your image with your name, ideally in the format lastname_firstname. This isn鈥檛 critical, but it improves internet search results for images.听

Uploading

Okay! You鈥檝e got your new picture all ready. Now upload it:

Under the Photo section at the bottom of the Personal tab, click the Remove button to get rid of what鈥檚 there now.听
Click the Browse button to select the file on your computer. But don鈥檛 click the Upload button yet!
First, enter 鈥淧icture of Yourfirstname Yourlastname鈥� in the Alternative Text box. (This lets people using screen readers understand what this picture is鈥損lus the form won鈥檛 upload your picture without the alt text.)
Now hit the Upload button.

You鈥檝e just done the hardest thing to do on your profile. Good job.

Contact

Example screenshot

The orange labels show the fields you can edit via the Contact tab.

See live page for Nova D. Doggo

Instructions

Enter whatever information you have. Most folks have an email but fewer show their phone number.听

Email

All lowercase letters
Example: shelly.sommer@colorado.edu

Phone

Preferred format: 听303 492-7071听

Address field: used for offices and pronouns

Use this field for office and lab rooms as well as pronouns.

A simple example

听听听听Office: SEEC S209

A more complex example

听听听听Offices: SEEC S210, Benson 462A
听听听听Lab: SEEL 376
听听听听Pronouns: he/him

Formatting

Format each line with a title and colon that are italicized; then the content of the line is in plain text. The title should have its first word capitalized.
Do not include the word 鈥渞oom鈥� or 鈥渞m鈥�.
Do not capitalize pronouns.
Use shift+return between lines to keep your entries nice and tight together (if you use a regular return, it adds an extra space).

You are doing great! Save your changes so far by clicking the green Save button at the bottom of the page. Check what you changed to make sure it looks right. Click on Edit again if you want to make more changes.

Other (not faculty)

Example screenshot

The orange labels show buttons you can edit via the Other tab. You can also add a bunch of content below those buttons.

See live page for Nova D. Doggo

Instructions听(if you're not faculty)

If you're not faculty, enter any additional content you want as outlined below. You will enter nearly all content in the single Body field of the Other tab. Postdocs and students should at least enter a summary and听their advisor's name.听All other content is optional.

Edit Summary field

If you are a postdoc or student, entering a summary听is required.听For everyone else, the summary is optional.听

Your summary does not appear on your webpage.听Instead, it is used as metadata for search engines like Google, increasing the chance that people will find you.听Search engines may also show your听summary on their search results pages.听We suggest using a one-sentence summary that encapsulates your research听interests, teaching, etc. Rather than start from scratch, you might want to recast existing text from your bio or elsewhere.听

The summary听for postdocs and students will automatically appear next to their photo on their advisor's听webpage.听The layout of the advisor's page can get messy if the postdoc/student does not enter their summary; bthe first 75 words of the Body field are used instead.

Finding the entry field for the Summary is a little tricky in Web Express. Look for the "Edit summary" link right next to the Body field label:

Click on the link and a new entry field will appear. Add your summary sentence there.

Call-to-action blue button

If you have a personal or primary lab/group page that you should be linked to, add a blue button for it.听
The button is optional, but it鈥檚 pretty common for faculty, students, and research staff.
Each person is limited to one button (to prevent visual clutter).

To start from scratch, click the Button generator shortcode icon听听听
and fill out the button fields, choosing blue, small, and regular style

Or just copy, paste, and edit the following example shortcode
[button url="" color="blue" size="small" style="regular"]Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System[/button]

Note that you can click the 鈥淢ore information about text formats鈥� link on the right hand side below the body field to see the shortcode code for a button and many other shortcodes.
If the button text isn鈥檛 too long, add an action verb at the beginning, like 鈥淰isit the Stable Isotope Lab鈥�

If you want to include an icon in your button, click the shortcode icon and choose an icon.听 See this link for Icon choices (visible when logged in).

Advisor's name white button (for students & postdocs)

If you鈥檙e a student or postdoc, manually add your advisor鈥檚 name.听

Enter their name directly below听the optional blue button (no blank line in between, use shift+return).
Use a combination of text and white button:
- Advisor: [white button with advisor鈥檚 Firstname Lastname]
Click the Button generator shortcode icon听听听听& fill out the button fields, choosing white, small, and regular style.
Or just copy, paste, and edit the following example shortcode, which includes听text and button:
Advisor: [button url="node/67" color="white" size="small" style="regular"]Holly Barnard[/button]
Multiple advisors are fine, just add more white buttons.
If your advisor is not within INSTAAR, just use text, like:听
- Advisor: Peter Molnar (GEOL)

Filter 1 field: Advisor's name (for students & postdocs)

If you鈥檙e a student or postdoc,听start typing your advisor鈥檚 last name.

If offered an existing name, choose it.听
Otherwise, type in a new lastname firstname. Be careful that you aren鈥檛 making duplicate names (which will mess up the taxonomy).
Separate multiple advisors with commas.

This process will automatically add your picture and brief info听to your advisor's profile page, in their Teaching tab.

Adding more content, like Bio, Research, Teaching, and Outreach

Ready to make some more edits? The Other tab 鈫� Body field below the optional blue button is the container that holds the rest of your information.听

If you only have a little content, like a sentence or a single paragraph, then place it in the body field directly below the optional blue button. No need for any headings. You鈥檙e all set! Save and enjoy your completed profile.

Got more to add? Arrange your info into the structure below, and add headings听to separate the sections. Headings听are the little headlines that label each section of your bio. They help readers 鈥渃hunk鈥� your content into pieces they can read more easily.

Every section is optional, so just fill in what makes sense for you and skip the rest.

Okay, HEADINGS. We鈥檙e gonna get persnickety here because headings matter on the web. Using headings in precise order means that all our profiles look like they belong together. And it means that folks using screen readers or other assistive technologies can read your page without friction. So using headings correctly means you鈥檝e helped make the internet more inclusive!

When you paste or type in your heading, format it using听the toolbar at the top of the Body field. Look for a pulldown menu that says 鈥淔ormat.鈥� Click on that to see Heading 2, Heading 3, and other choices. Select your headline by clicking on any of its text, then use that pulldown menu to choose Heading 2 for main sections and Heading 3 for subheadings within each section.听

Bio heading: statement, education, awards

Bio [Heading 2]

Text statement: introduce yourself, amazing person that you are. Use a single phrase, several paragraphs, or anything in between to describe yourself and your work. Consider setting off an initial phrase or sentence in larger font size by clicking in the sentence and changing the Style to Lead.听

Education [Heading 3]

Bulleted list, formatted like this

PhD (Geography): Oregon State University, 2009
MS (Geological Sciences): Colorado State University, 2000
BS (Environmental Studies): University of Washington, 1998

Awards [Heading 3]

Bulleted list, formatted like this

Excellence Award, Boulder Faculty Assembly, 2021
Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 2009

Research heading: statement, publications

Horizontal line?

If you using a听H2 Bio header above your Research section, add a horizontal line to separate the sections. The easiest way is to click on the Horizontal Line button in the toolbar:

Research [Heading 2]

Text statement: briefly describe your research interests and goals.

Publications [Heading 3]

Do you fill out a FRPA to get your publications into the CU Boulder Elements (CUBE) system? If you do, email David and he can set up an automatic feed of your pubications on your profile.听
If you鈥檙e not part of CUBE鈥搘hich is most people鈥搕hen听manually add publications, most recent first, following this format:
- Gan, T., Tarboton, D. G., Dash, P., Gichamo, T. Z., Horsburgh, J. S. 2020: . Environmental Modelling & Software, 130: 104731. doi 10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104731

Teaching heading: statement, courses

Horizontal line?

If you using a听H2 Bio and/or H2 Research header above your Teaching section, add a horizontal line to separate the sections.听The easiest way is to click on the Horizontal Line button听 in the toolbar.

Teaching听听听[Heading 2]

Text statement: briefly describe your teaching experience, approach, and/or philosophy.

Courses听听听[Heading 3]

Bulleted list, formatted like this

GEOG 5700: Geomorphology Seminar
GEOL 5100: Geomechanics

Outreach heading

Horizontal line?

H2 Outreach [Heading 2]

Text statement: write anything you wish that describes your outreach and engagement activities, approach, goals, or philosophy. You can link to online materials if you wish.

Fancy options like quotes, columns, & maps

If interested, you can spice up your profile with options like blockquotes, column layouts, and Google maps.听 These options are entered via succinct special text codes enclosed with [square brackets].

You can use most of Web Express's standard shortcodes, including those for:

Buttons
Blockquotes
Boxed text
Columns of text
Callouts
Expanding sections (accordions)
Google maps
Icons

Unfortunately, you cannot use shortcodes听for:

Image captions
Masonry images听

For quick hints on shortcodes, click on the "More information about text formats" link to the lower right below your Body field.听 For detailed info, search for the shortcode at听.听 If you need further help,听email Shelly or David.

Video, but not photos

You can鈥檛 add photos into a non-faculty person鈥檚 profile because WebExpress is dumb sometimes.
Use the video shortcode to add videos already on Vimeo, YouTube, YouTube (Playlist):
- Either click the video icon (it looks like a strip of film) in the shortcode toolbar and enter the URL.
- Or type the shortcode directly, like this example
  - where your URL is something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1CPE6WWsAQ
- Either method will embed the video within the text block.
Unfortunately, Web Express does not allow photos for non-Faculty person pages.
If you want to show some image content, you might consider turning a slideshow into a video and uploading it to YouTube or Vimeo.

If anything looks wonky, you have questions, or you couldn鈥檛 quite figure out how to get what you want onto your profile, email David or Shelly. We鈥檙e happy to help make your profile meet your needs.

All done! Save and admire your fresh profile.

Other

Example screenshot

The orange label听shows a blue button you can edit via the Other tab.

See live page for Nova D. Doggo

Instructions (if you're faculty)

If you're faculty, consider entering the optional summary and a call-to-action blue button. To edit content lower on your page, you need to ask David or Shelly to do it for you (a really annoying Web Express limitation). This includes content in听your horizontal tabs (ie Bio, Research, Teaching, Outreach, News). See more information about that below.听听

Body field: Edit Summary

Your optional summary does not appear on your webpage. Instead, it is used as metada for search engines like Google, increasing the chance that people will find you. Search engines may also show your听summary on their search results pages. We suggest using a one-sentence summary that encapsulates your research听interests, teaching, etc. Rather than start from scratch, you might want to recast existing text from your bio tab or elsewhere.听

Finding the entry field is a little tricky in Web Express. Look for the "Edit summary" link adjacent to the Body field label, like this screenshot:

Click on the link and a new entry field will appear. Add your summary sentence there.

Body field: Call-to-action blue button

If you have a personal or primary lab/group page that you should be linked to, add a blue button for it.听
The button is optional, but it鈥檚 pretty common for faculty, students, and research staff.
Each person is limited to one button (to prevent visual clutter).

To start from scratch, click the Button generator shortcode icon听听听
and fill out the button fields, choosing blue, small, and regular style.

Or just copy, paste, and edit the following example shortcode
[button url="" color="blue" size="small" style="regular"]Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System[/button]

Note that you can click the 鈥淢ore information about text formats鈥� link on the right hand side below the body field to see the shortcode code for a button and many other shortcodes.
If the button text isn鈥檛 too long, add an action verb at the beginning, like 鈥淰isit the Stable Isotope Lab鈥�

If you want to include an icon in your button, click the shortcode icon and choose an icon.听 See this link for Icon choices (visible when logged in).

Asking David or Shelly to edit your horizontal tabs (Bio, Research, etc)

So鈥ou know how we mentioned that WebExpress required making some tradeoffs? And that sometimes to get more visual power or flexibility, we had to make a sacrifice on the back end? You鈥檙e about to run into the biggest of these.

The tabs set apart your profiles from others at INSTAAR and accommodate all your information, which often overwhelms the single-page format most INSTAARs get. The tabs also let you have photos in your profile.

BUT. You cannot edit them. You have to ask Shelly or David to change your info in the tabs.

The Web Express platform developers haven鈥檛 allowed tabs to be edited on a page-by-page basis. You need full administrative access to the entire site to edit tabs. We have asked the Web Express team to improve access.听

But until they do, we need to make your edits for you.

We can make changes really quickly, so please email us anything you want changed. We can:

Add or take away tabs.
Add, change, replace, or delete any text.
Change between your publications feed from CUBE and a link to your publications on Google Scholar or another online source.
Add in photos with captions.
Embed videos.

Need something else? Talk to us and we鈥檒l figure it out.

Editing your Publications

Most faculty publications are automatically shown, using a university data feed that originates from CU Boulder Elements (CUBE). 听If you're missing some pubs, log in听to CUBE at elements.colorado.edu听and make sure you've claimed everything that's yours and add more if needed. 听If you make updates in CUBE, they might not appear on your INSTAAR webpage for a few days.

From CUBE, your publications flow into several places, including FRPA, CU Experts (research profiles for the public), and INSTAAR.听 Note that your publications might look a little different across these three places.听 For example, parts of a publication that you have manually added in CUBE may show up as expected in FRPA but be overridden by CU Experts, which prefers to rely on authoritative sources like Web of Science.听 Your INSTAAR pubs come from a feed called Experts Direct which closely resembles CU Experts but is not identical.

If you do not have CUBE publications or do not want us to show them, contact Shelly or David.听 They can switch from your CUBE-based publications feed to a link to your publications on Google Scholar or another online source.

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