If there is more than one person updating a site, you can interfere with each other’s work and accidentally overwrite the other person’s edits! This is particularly a problem if the editors work in different locations.
A way to prevent this happening is to use the item Check-In and Check-Out feature to lock content items while you are working on them.
If the first editor has checked out the item, other editors who come to the page will not see the ‘Edit content’ link for the item and so cannot make any changes to it themselves. Once the first editor has finished their changes and unlocked the item using Check-In the ‘Edit content’ link will appear again for all editors.
If you have checked out an item remember to check it in once you have finished working on it!
To Check-Out an item:
1. Go to the page containing the item and log in. Go to the Edit view of the page (not ‘Edit content’)
2. Click the Actions icon (cogs) against the content item you need to change e.g.
3. Click on the ‘Check out‘ option
4. The item will be locked and you are the only person who can edit it. Make your changes and when done, repeat steps 2 and 3 (‘Check in’ will appear instead of ‘Check out’ ) to check in the item again.
To find out who has Checked-Out an item:
1. If you find that a content item you need to update does not have the ‘Edit content’ link against it, this indicates that someone else has locked it. To find out who, go to the page containing the item and log in. Go to the Edit view of the page.
2. Click the Actions icon (cogs) against the content item you need to change e.g.
3. You will see the user name of the person who has checked out the item e.g.
4. Contact the user and ask them to tell you when they have finished editing. If you do not recognise the user name, call the Service Desk and ask them to tell you who it is.
5. If you know that the user has left College, or that they are away for a long time and your update is urgent, you can force a check-in of the item by clicking the Check in link.
