Academic Profiles

FAQ for Academic Profiles Portlet

A) How do I use the Portal?
B) How do I make my profile appear on web?
C) How do I add things to profile using the Academic Profiles Portlet?
D) How do I edit my other details and/or publications?

A) How do I use the Portal?

QA1: Where do I find the portal and Academic Profiles Portlet?
A: Go to the University Portal page on www.manchester.ac.uk/portal, login with your usual username and password, you’ll get into your Portal page. Click [Teaching and research] tab to see your Academic Profiles Portlet.

QA2: Can I add more contents into my Portal?
A: Yes. Select a tab for your portlet to be added into by clicking the tab name on top. Click [Add content] icon on top-right corner of the current tab. This is the first one in four icons.

In [Add Content] pop-up window, select a category from the list on the left, the available portlets should appear in the portlet list on the right. Select it, and click [Add to my page] button. The portlet should appear in the tab.

QA3: How do I create a new tab?
A: Click [Add tab] icon on top-right corner of the current tab. This is the last one of the four icons. A new tab named “New Tab” will be added in. Put your mouse on the tab you’ll see options for renaming, moving or deleting the tab. You can rename it to a meaningful one.

QA4: How do I remove a portlet from a tab?
A: There are some buttons on top-right corner of each portlet: [?] for help, [�] to maximize the portlet, [-] to minimise the portlet, and [X] to remove the portlet from the tab.

Click button [X] you’ll be prompted with a warning message about your action of removing the portlet, and the portlet will be removed from the tab if you click [OK] there.

QA5: How can I change the position of a portlet in a tab?
A: Put your mouse on the title bar of a portlet, and drag-drop the portlet to the desired position.

QA6: Will data in my profile portlet get lost if I remove it from a tab?
A: No. You can remove it and add it back again (say, to another tab), the data will still be there.

B) How do I make my profile appear on web?

QB1: My profile is not appearing on the University’s research directory site or my school site, how can I make it visible?
A: The first thing you should check is that if your data is set to show to the “World” instead of “University of Manchester only”.

To check this, go to the University’s online directory page at
http://directory.manchester.ac.uk/, find your entry, click the “Change your details” button to get to your details page. Change the setting in “Show entry” to “World” and save your change.

Please contact Service Desk if you experience problems changing your data there.

Please note that the changes you make in online directory will take up to 48 hours to show on your profile.

QB2: My entry is already set to show to the “World”, but my profile is still missing, how can I make it visible?
A: As an academic you must have your “Research Interests” data set up in the profiles portlet, and the access level of it must be set to “Public” in order for your profile to appear.

To add this in, go to “RIP Health Check” tab in the profiles portlet, click the “Add” button there, and to set the access level to “Public”.

QB3: My entry is already set to show to the “World”, and I set up my “Research Interests”, but my profile is still missing, how can I make it visible?
A: Please make sure the access level of your “Research Interests” is set to “Public”, not “Private”.

To do this, while you are in the “Research Interests” block, click [Toggle Access] button to change it from “Private” to “Public”; or set access level to “Public” when you are in editing mode.

QB4: My entry is already set to show to the “World”, I set up my “Research Interests” and the access level is to “Public”, but my profile is still missing, how can I make it visible?
A: Please report your problem to the Service Desk.

QB5: My profile is visible, but some parts are missing, what can I do to make them visible?
A: The access level of each block in the profiles portlet can be set to be “Public” or “Private”, only the public blocks will be included in your profile. Please check the access level of the blocks involved and set them to public.

To do this, select the block and click [Toggle Access] button to change it from “Private” to “Public”; or set access level to “Public” when you are in editing mode.

If they are already set to public and still missing, please report your problem to the Service Desk.

QB6: Some of my publications are missing, how can I make them visible?
A: Please logon to eScholar on http://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/ and ensure the permission settings for the missing publications are set to “Open”, not “Closed”. Only the “open” publications will be listed.

Please note that your changes will take up to 48 hours to appear on your profile.

Please report your problem to the Service Desk if the missing publication is an “open” one.

QB7: My phone number and/or location are missing, how can I make them visible?
A: Please check if your phone number and location are set to show to the “World” instead of “University of Manchester only”.

To check this, go to the University’s Staff Online Directory page at
http://directory.manchester.ac.uk/, find your entry, click the “Change your details” button to get to your details page. The settings for showing your phone number and room number can be changed here.

Please contact Service Desk if you experience problems changing your
data there.
Please note that the changes you make in the Staff Online Directory will take up to 48 hours to show on your profile.

C) How do I add things to profile using the Academic Profiles Portlet?

QC1: How do I add a piece of text into my profile?
A: In Academic Profile Portlet, choose tab [Welcome] (this is the default one when you first open the portlet). Click button [Create] next to Text Block. A yellow box will appear. Type in the title of your text block (e.g. Research) and choose a profile tab that you want this piece of text to be added into (e.g. Personal), then click button [Add]. A new tab titled [Research] will appear as a tab in the portlet. Click the tab to open the text block.

Click button [Edit] to get to editing mode. A yellow box will appear, where you can edit the title of the block, or the text in the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor.

Tips for working with text:

Tip 1:
When you need to enter a long piece of text, please use a plain text editor (e.g. Notepad) to type in your text, and then copy-paste it into the editor here. This will avoid any problem caused by the Portal’s time-out restriction (around 30 minutes).

Tip 2:
Texts in MS Word or a web page or other editors with format can contain many hidden formatting characters. Please refer to QC3 below for instructions on copy-pasting text from other source.

QC2: Where my text and/or list block will appear in my profile? Can I preview it?
A: There are up to four standard Profile Tabs in your profile page:

Personal details
Research
Publications
Further information

The [Publications] tab is exclusively used for your publications entered in eScholar. Your text block can be added in to any of the other three profile tabs, and will be displayed as a box in that profile tab with the title you entered.
The contact details block will always stay in [Personal details] tab.

The text and list blocks you created can be added in to any tabs except [Publications]. To choose which tab your block should go, select from the drop down list under “Profile Tab” when you create your text block. For an existing text block, select it and click [Edit] button to go to editing mode. Select a profile tab from the drop down list, and
save your change by clicking the [Update] button.

There is a [Preview] button in the [Welcome] tab, and also in all the blocks when you are in editing mode. A separate preview window will appear by clicking the [Preview] button for you to check what you just entered into your profile.

Note: “Teaching” appears in the profile tab list when you create/update a text block. However it isn’t available in the current release of the Portlet. We’ll let you know when it’s available.

QC3: Can I copy-paste a piece of text from somewhere else, say, MS Word?
A: Yes you can safely copy-paste a piece of text if your original text is typed in with a plain text editor (e.g. Notepad). However, if the original text contains hidden formatting characters, e.g., if it’s from MS Word or a web page, you should get rid of the hidden formatting characters by pasting the text to a plain text editor first. Otherwise you may have formatting problem.

If the original text is from MS Word, you can use the [Paste from Word] icon on the text block editor to do the pasting, in order to avoid copy-pasting hidden formatting characters in your text block.

QC4: Is there a limitation for the length of the text for a text block?
A: Yes. There is a limitation on the length of the text in a single block due to restrictions in the original RIP system – 3980 HTML characters. Any text longer than this will be truncated.

Note that all the formatting characters are included. e.g., if you use a bold text, the total number of the characters will be 21 (for “<strong>bold</strong>”) instead of 4 (for
“bold”).

If you do need to put long text into your profile please split it into several text blocks.
QC5: Can I use HTML code to format my text directly in source code mode?
A: Although you can format your text directly in source code mode of the editor, it is strongly recommended that you only use the functions provided in the editor’s tool bar, unless you are a very advanced HTML user. Hand-coding your HTML code could result in your text being displayed incorrectly.

QC6: Can I use links in my text, and how?
A: Yes, you can turn a piece of text in your text block to a link:

While in the relevant tab, click [Edit] button to get to editing mode. Select the text and click the [Insert/Edit Link] icon in the editor’s tool bar, enter URL in the pop-up window and click [OK].

QC7: Can I add a table into my text block, and how?
A: Yes. To do this:

Click [Edit] button in the relevant text block to get to editing mode. You can use the [Insert a table] icon in the editor to insert a table, or copy-paste your table from MS Word document (Remember to use the [Paste from Word] icon when copy-pasting).

QC8: Can I insert an image into my text?
A: Yes, you can insert image files into your text block.

Preparation work: The image file to be inserted should already be available on a website (say, your personal website), and you should get the file’s URL ready.

Get to the editing mode by clicking [Edit] button in the text block. In the text block’s editor, click [Insert image] icon in the editor’s tool bar to open the image properties window. Enter the image file URL in [Image Info] and click [OK] button, the image will be inserted into the editor.

The image can be resized or moved to a different position.

Click [Update] button to save it to your text block.

Tips for adding images into text block:

Tip 1:
If you don’t have the image file available on a website, you can use the personal web page facility provided by the University to upload it to your personal webpage on the University’s site. To do this:
Go to http://pdrives.manchester.ac.uk and login. Go to “public_html” folder listed below. Click the [Browse] button on the top to find the image file on your hard drive that you want to upload, and click the [Upload file(s)] button to upload it. The file should appear in the file list below.

The image file should now be available on web. If the image file’s name is sample.jpg,then you should be able to see it in a browser at
http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/firstname.lastname/sample.jpg. This is the URL that you can use to insert this image into your profile.

Tip 2:
Your P drive can also be accessed from within the University Portal, just go to “My Documents” in [Home] tab in the portal.

QC9: Can I add a list into my profile and how?
A Yes. In [Welcome] tab (the default one) of the portlet, click [Create] button below [Lists] in content column. A yellow box of [Create a new list of items] will appear. Enter a title for your list and choose a profile tab for it to be added into, then click [Add] button. A tab for the new list will be added in. Click the list title tab will get you to the list where you can edit it.

For more details see the tutorial [Managing List Items] by clicking [?] button on topright corner of the portlet, and then choosing it from the tutorial list.

Tips for adding list into your profile:

Tip 1:
If a URL is provided for a list item it will appear as a link. If the URL field is left blank the item will just be text.

QC10: I’d like to upload another file (e.g. a PDF file or a Word file) to my profile, how can I do it?
A: You can not upload a file directly to your profile, but you can upload it to your P drive and set a link to point to that file in your profile.

To upload a file to your P drive:

Login to your P Drive at http://pdrives.manchester.ac.uk and go to “public_html” folder. Click [Browse] button to find your file on your computer and click [Upload File(s)] button to upload it. The file will be available on your personal page with an URL like this (say, the file name is myfile.pdf, and your name is John Smith):
http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/john.smith/myfile.pdf.

You can then set a link to point to the file using the above URL. See QC6 for instruction on adding links.

QC11: I’d like to show another address in my contact details block, how can I do it?
A: You can add an extra contact point (e.g. your lab, or your secretary’s office) to your profile.

In [Welcome] tab, click [Create] button below [Contact Points] in content column, a yellow box will appear. Enter a title for this contact point (e.g. Secretary) and click [Add] button, a new tab titled “Secretary” will be added in.

Click the tab to open it, you can edit the details of it or add more details (e.g. mobile number) to this contact point.

Note each contact point can only have one entry for each type, for instance, you can’t enter two addresses or two mobile phone numbers for same contact point.

The extra contact points will appear in [Personal details] section of your profiles. For more details see the tutorial [Managing Contact Points] by clicking [?] button on top-right corner of the portlet, and then choosing it from the tutorial list.

QC12: Can I change / add website addresses in my contact details block?
A: The default website listed in your [Contact details] block in [Personal details] tab is your school site. This can’t be changed or deleted in the Profiles Portlet.

More websites can be added in. To do it:

Click [Personal websites] tab, add the description and URL of your website in, and make sure the access level is set to “Public”. The extra site will be listed under the default one in your contact details.

QC13: My name and/or title in my profile are not correct, how can I change it?
A: Your name and title can’t be changed in the Profiles Portlet. This can only be done by HR and the updated data will be fed to your profile. Please contact HR for this.

QC14: My job title and/or phone number and/or office location in my profile are not correct, how can I change it?
A: The data for your job title, phone number and office location are fed from the University’s Staff Online Directory, and can’t be changed in the Profiles Portlet.

To edit your online directory details please go to the University’s online directory page (https://directory.manchester.ac.uk/), find your entry, click the “Change your details” button on that page, and follow the procedure there.

Tip:
The data in the “Directory Information” tab shows part of your data in the University’s Staff Online Directory.

QC15: I need to use another name in my publications, how can I do it?
A: You should maintain any publication-related information in eScholar.

Note the [Name Options] tab in the portlet shows your primary name which should be the same name in your entry in the University’s online directory. Currently the system can take other name options in and store them, but these names are not in use in other places (e.g. in eScholar).

QC16: I need to let other staff member(s) access/edit my profile data, can I do it and how?
A: This facility (Profiles delegation) is not enabled in the current release of the Portlet.

QC17: I’ve been added in as a delegate for another staff member to edit his/her profile, how do I access his/her profile?
A: This facility is not enabled in the current release of the Portlet.
Currently in your own [Profile delegation] tab, you can see a list showing names whose profiles you can edit if other people have added you as their delegate.

D) How do I edit my other details and/or publications?

QD1: Can I check/edit my Staff Online Directory details in the portlet?
A: You can check your contact details in the University’s Staff Online Directory – Click [Directory Information] tab to see them.

However you can’t edit these details here. To edit your online directory details please go to the University’s online directory page (https://directory.manchester.ac.uk/), find your entry, click the “Change your details” button on that page, and follow the procedure
there.

Please note that the changes you make in the Staff Online Directory will take up to 48 hours to show on your profile.

QD2: Can I check/edit my publication details in the portlet?
A: No. This should be done through eScholar on https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/.