DesignPlus WorkflowConvert an Existing Course

The DesignPlus Sidebar is not just for creating new courses. It can also be used to add the same aesthetic flair, consistency, accessibility, and usability to existing courses. Unfortunately, there are no utilities to convert existing course content in bulk. You will need to update each and every page and content item by hand. Provided below are some general suggestions for content conversion that will work in most cases. Depending on the nature of your content, additional steps may be necessary.

Before You Begin

Before you update any content, give some thought to what you want the updated site to look like. Among other things, you'll need to decide on the style for theme elements, and whether there are other DesignPlus components that should appear on all or most pages. See Plan the Design and Structure for more specific guidance.

Add Theme and Repeated Elements

One of your goals will undoubtedly be to give all of the content in your course a consistent look and feel. You can add theme elements to the page manually (see Apply a Theme to a Page, Add A Banner Title, Add Page Headings, Add a Link Grid) or create a template with your theme selections (see Work with Templates) and pull the template into each page or content item. When loading a template into a page with existing content, remember to uncheck the "Overwrite Page With Selected Template" in the Template Content tool.

If there are other DesignPlus elements that should appear at the top or bottom of the page (e.g., module progress indicator) add them while adding the theme elements.

Convert Content to Content Blocks

Converting the content to content blocks will make it easier to rearrange the sections of the page now or at any point in the future. Also, some themes alternate the background color of each block, which is helpful on longer pages.

To convert a page section to a content block, select the content that belongs in the block, including the heading. Then click the Add New Elements ( ) tool and select Content Block. The selected content will be converted to a content block. To add an icon to the block heading, use the Icon Picker in the Style panel to select the desired icon. For more information, review Work with Content Blocks.

Review and Update Page Headings

You may need to adjust the headings on the remainder of the page. Decide on the level for the banner title heading and make sure the top-level section heading is one level below it (e.g., if the banner heading is H2, the top level section heading should be H3). While you are at it, review all of the page headings to confirm they follow the capitalization rules you have set for the course.

If your page headings aren't exactly like the headings in the selected theme, they may contain additional style attributes. To remove the style attributes, place your cursor in the heading. Then in the Edit Current Element ( ) tab, select Text as the active tool, and click the Clear Text Styles ( ) icon.

Add Style to Images, Media, and Tables

If your page contains inline images, embedded media, or tables, use the corresponding Sidebar tools to control size, alignment, text wrap, and other details. In the case of images, you can also add decorative borders. For more information, see Images, Embedded Content, and Tables.

Reformat When It Makes Sense

With so many options at your disposal, you may decide to take advantage of rich and varied formatting and style options in DesignPlus. For example, you may want to reduce the page length, by moving content into accordions or expanders, or you may want to format content in multiple columns.

Note: For some elements (columns, tabs, accordions, etc), you'll need to insert the DesignPlus element into the desired location on the page and then copy and paste the existing content into the desired location or panel within the element.

Consult the documentation on specific DesignPlus elements for guidance on how to add or edit them.

Learn More

Styling Existing ContentLinks to an external site. (video)