The best way to learn a tool is to use it. This chapter gets you from login screen to published page in 15 minutes.

Before You Begin

You need a Phonemos instance (ask your administrator for the URL) and a modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari). There is nothing to install on your machine.

Step 1: Log In

Navigate to your instance URL. Depending on configuration, you will see one or more login options:

Step 2: Orient Yourself

The interface has three main areas:

• Top bar — site selector, global search, Create button, user menu.

• Navigation bar — the topic navigator showing topics and the page tree within the selected topic.

• Content area — the currently selected page or file list.

• Side bar — an area where multiple tools sit that add functionality to the currently displayed object in the content area.

Step 3: Create a Topic

Click Create in the top bar and select Topic. A wizard walks you through three steps:

1. Name. Give the topic a name — for example, "My First Topic." If your site is configured for multiple languages, you can provide translated names here as well.

2. Location. Choose where the topic appears in the site's menu structure. You can place it at the top level or nest it under an existing menu entry.

3. Permissions. Assign groups to three roles: Admin, Manage, and Read. The wizard deliberately only allows group assignments, not individual users — this ensures that permissions remain manageable even when people leave or are deactivated. (If a user's account is deactivated while they hold individual permissions, recovering those assignments later becomes much harder.)

After completing the wizard, the topic appears in the sidebar.

Step 4: Create and Edit a Page

With your topic selected, click Create again and select Page. Give it a title.

You are now in the rich-text editor. Try the following:

1. Type a heading and use the toolbar to set it as "Heading 2."

2. Write a paragraph below it.

3. Click the "+'" button to insert a table.

4. Add a bulleted list.

Every change is automatically saved as a draft in the background — you will see a "saved" indicator in the top-right corner. Other editors who are editing in parallel can see your changes in real time. In view mode, readers do not see changes until at least a draft version is saved.

Step 5: Save and Publish

What happens next depends on the topic's publishing workflow:

• No Publishing Workflow (the default): Click the Save icon at the bottom right. This creates a new version and publishes it immediately — readers see the update right away.

• Drafts Allowed: You can choose between Save as Draft (keeps changes private) and Save & Publish.

• Explicit Publishing: Only Save as Draft is available. Publishing is a separate step you perform from view mode once the draft is ready.

In all modes, the previous version is preserved in the history.

Step 6: Check the Version History

Make a small edit and save again. Then open the version history from the sidebar on the right. You will see all saved versions with timestamps and editor names. You can compare versions and restore any previous version.

Step 7: Invite a Colleague

If you have admin access, navigate to User Management to add a user (by email, or by connecting an SSO directory). Assign them a role on your topic. They can now log in and edit alongside you — with real-time cursors showing where each person is working.

Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

Text formatting

Page actions

Where to Go Next