The Structure of a Drupal Page

There are many ways to build a page in Drupal. You could create the same page 5 different ways in the backend, and it would result in mostly identical pages for the site's user.

The goal of your page's structure, then, should be to make it easy for you, or whoever may edit your page next, to maintain the content moving ahead.

Structure and Organization Tips

• Plan out the structure of your page before opening Drupal. This may involve drawing out what you want your page to look like on paper, or planning the page's structure in an outline format.
• Think about which Drupal widgets correspond to the content you want to add to your page. See all the widgets Drupal offers at What Can I Add to My Page?
• Look for logical breakpoints in the content. These might include in between different widgets, before you start a new header, or around a large image.
• When building your page in Drupal, create sections based around the breakpoints you identified.
• Label your sections! After creating a new section, click the "Options" bar underneath and enter a title describing the section's content in the "Admin Title" field. The title will be visible when the section is collapsed, allowing you to easily identify which Section you are accessing.

Glossary of Terms

• Content Type: The broadest way to define content in Drupal. A Content Type is a category of content that defines the parameters of each individual piece of content. For example, in our Drupal site, a Basic Page is a content type. A Resource is a separate content type because, even though it is displayed in a similar way to website users, it requires different inputs from the person creating the content.
• Piece of Content (sometimes referred to as a Page or Node): The individual piece of content, usually corresponding to a webpage. When you click Create Content, you are creating a new piece of content. Each piece of content is of a specific Content Type.
• Section: An invisible container that exists within a piece of content. Sections are mostly useful for keeping the content of a page clearly labelled and organized in the page editor. See above for ideas on how to use sections to structure your content.
• Widget: The smallest unit of content you can choose to add to a page. Widgets offer the ability to format content in a particular style. Examples of widgets available on colgate.edu include Block Quotes, Stat Groups, and Tables. See all the widgets Drupal offers at What Can I Add to My Page?
  
  The widget selector is usually contained under Content header in the page editor, as a drop-down menu that displays "Add Text" by default. If a content type uses sections, the widget selector will appear in the first section added to the page. 
• Field: Each widget is made up of a number of fields allowing the user to input content or select a setting for that widget. Fields may be text boxes, drop-down menus, check boxes, or other styles.