The display name of a web page directly affects the alias and the URL (web address) of the page, and how its name appears in the menu. (The alias is everything in the URL that comes after www.iup.edu.)
Changing a page's display name runs the risk of breaking a link that leads to the page. You may want to edit the Title field instead.
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For example, this page's alias is
/before-changing-a-pages-display-name/.
Its URL ishttp://www.iup.edu/digital/cascade-howto/basics/before-changing-a-pages-display-name/. -
If this page were renamed “How to Edit a Page's Display Name,” its alias would become
/how-to-edit-a-pages-display-name/, and its URL would becomehttp://www.iup.edu/digital/cascade-howto/basics/how-to-edit-a-pages-display-name/.
Someone linking to the page from an outside website would use the URL as their link. Changing the Display Name will break that link. (If the Display Name absolutely must change, please follow this procedure.)
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Internal links to the page will not break, however. They follow the ID number of the page, which does not change. This is why you must always use internal links to iup.edu pages.
Optional Title Field
If the change is minor, using the Title field may be a better solution. Located under the Display Name field, the Title field will replace a page's name when the page is actually being viewed. It will not change the page's Display Name, which will look normal in the menu, and the alias will not change.
For example, a list of faculty members in the menu might look like this:
Faculty and Staff
Jones, Jane
Smith, John
The actual title of Jane Jones' page layout is “Jones, Jane.” But when her page is directly viewed, the headline takes over and the page's title appears as “Dr. Jane Jones, PhD.” The page's alias, however, remains /jones-jane/.
Caution: Making a too-drastic change in the Title field may cause confusion if there is no obvious relation to the page's menu title. Use the Title field to expand a title's description only if needed.
If the Page's Display Name Must Change...
If the purpose of the page has drastically changed and its original display name makes no sense, then changing the page's display name may be the only course of action. If this happens, please let the Digital Team know—send us the details in an ihelp ticket. We can ensure that the previous alias still works, instead of giving visitors a Page Not Found error.
Important: If the content on the page has changed, the summary may need to be edited to keep its description up to date. More about summaries.