Compare with Current Upgrades - 2023

Three Ways to Use Compare with Current

The Compare with Current view can be used a number of different ways. It is most commonly used when an approver is reviewing their maintainer’s workflow submissions. However, it can also be used to compare differences between the current live version of a page and older versions of it, as well as comparing the live page with your current draft if you wanted to see changes you have made that you have not yet submitted.

First, this documentation will cover those three methods for comparison, and then it will cover the information that Compare with Current displays.

Example of Compare with Current displaying green addition markup, red with strikethrough markup, and purple change markup

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Workflow: Viewing Compare with Current Changes

Compare with Current displays changes from the previous version (or “PV”) of a page, and the workflow revisions submitted by a maintainer. This proposed version of the page currently in workflow is known as the “CWC” version, for the “Compare with Current” version. This is required before approving a workflow which then transforms the CWC version into the Live Version (“LV”). To view the CWC version, go to the page you want to view.

Step 1

Click the More dropdown and select “Compare with Current.” You should see the page begin to reload, but it will never load.

Step 2

Now, click the Output dropdown, and select the “Compare” option. The page will now properly reload the CWC version.

If you are experiencing issues with the final CWC version loading, consult the final section of this page, “CWC Page Loading Issue.”

Step 1: More Dropdown ---> Compare with Current

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Step 2: Output Dropdown ---> Compare

Versioning: Viewing Compare with Current Changes

Step 1

To compare changes between the current live version of a page and a previous version of the page, click the More dropdown and select “Versions.”

Step 2

You will see a popup display. Select the version you would like to compare by clicking the small checkbox for that particular version. Click the “Compare with Current” eyeball icon.

Step 3

You should see the page begin to reload, but it will never load. Now, click the Output dropdown, and select the “Compare” option. The page will now properly reload the CWC version.

If you are experiencing issues with the final CWC version loading, consult the final section of this page, “CWC Page Loading Issue.”

Step 1: More Dropdown ---> Versions

Step 2: Select Version ---> Compare with Current Eyeball Icon

Step 3: Output Dropdown ---> Compare

Drafts: Viewing Compare with Current Changes

Step 1

To compare changes between the current live version of a page and your current draft version of the page, first, make changes on a page. Once you are done with your changes, click the Preview Draft button to save and view your draft.

Step 2

Once your draft has finished reloading, confirm that you are viewing your draft by noticing the small “Draft Label” on the top left. If that is correct, then click the More button and select “Compare with Current” from the dropdown.

Step 3

You should see the page begin to reload, but it will never load. Now, click the Output dropdown, and select the “Compare” option. The page will now properly reload the CWC version.

If you are experiencing issues with the final CWC version loading, consult the final section of this page, “CWC Page Loading Issue.”

Step 4

You should now see the page reload and it should be displaying the “Current Label” in the top left. The Output should be set to “Compare,” and you should see a notification on the top right under the Output stating that you have a draft.

Finally, you should also be able to see your changes highlighted with the Compare with Current markup.

Step 1: Make Changes

Step 2: Draft, More ---> Compare with Current

Step 3: Output ---> Compare with Current

Step 4: Compare with Current Example

Compare with Current Functionality Overview

Compare with Current will highlight, or “markup,” text and images that have been added, deleted, or otherwise changed from the current live version of the page. Here is a brief overview of what CWC shows. Each option is covered in more detail below.

Viewing the CWC will display:

Example of Compare with Current displaying orange and red with heading suffixes markups

Component Notes

Component notes now display, making it easier to understand the sections of a page.

Items Within Components

Items within a component are now separated by thin black lines, making it easier to understand which items are part of which component and how many items are within a component.

Red Markup with Strikethrough

Red Markup Without an “H” Tag Suffix – Text which appears red, and does NOT have a small tag at the end reading “H#” like “H2” or “H5,” etc. means that the red data, which was in the previous version, has been removed from the submitted workflow version. This version is known as the “Proposed Current Version,” or PCV.

Red Markup with an “H” Tag Suffix

Red Markup With an “H” Tag Suffix - Text which appears red, and DOES have a small tag at the end reading “H#” like “H2” or “H5,” etc. indicates a misused heading tag. Generally, this happens because a user wanted to emphasize certain text by “making it bigger,” and so they used the formatting option to manually override the heading of that text. For legal reasons regarding accessibility, headings must progress in a “logical order,” meaning that H4s fall under H3s, and that H3s fall under H2s, etc. You should never use an H1 on a page because the name of a page, and ONLY the name of a page (again, for legal reasons) should be an H1. This helps people with vision problems use screen readers so they can use our website as well.

Standard text within a text field, known as “paragraph text,” should not contain a heading of any kind.

The screenshot displays the entire area of text with small h#s boxed in red to the side.

Orange Markup

Orange borders around text means that “bad code” has gotten into the text field. It generally comes from copying and pasting text from somewhere else. Select all of the text (the keyboard shortcut Control + A on a Windows PC or Command + A on a Mac will select all of the data in a field) and then click the top-most “Format” dropdown and select “Clear formatting.” This will remove any inappropriate “ghost code.”

The entire bottom of this screenshot has orange bordered markup. Along with the red h# markup, this allows you to know that bad ghost code has been pasted into the text field on this page.

Purple Markup

Purple text indicates that something has changed between the previous version of the page and the CWC version. Usually, this indicates that the link on an image or text has been changes to a different link.

When hovering your cursor over a link, the link’s URL destination appears on the bottom left of most browsers.

Green Markup

Green markup indicates new data. Usually new text or a new image.

CWC Page Loading Issue

This most commonly happens for people using WI-FI, but if you ever encounter and issue where Cascade does not seem to be loading the CWC version, try the following:

Step 1: More Dropdown ---> Compare with Current

Whenever you go to view the CWC, follow all of the normal steps above for whichever method you are using until you get to the step with “Click the More dropdown and select ‘Compare with Current.’ You should see the page begin to reload, but it will never load,” guidance.

Step 2: PAUSE

Before continuing to the next step, wait until Cascade’s loading icon disappears. Do not confuse Cascade’s loading icon with the page loading icon. The page loading icon will never go away until you do the next step. Normally, the page loading icon does not even appear until after the Cascade loading icon has already finished. However, sometimes that handoff does not work correctly, and you can see both loading icons simultaneously.

Notice in the Step 2 screenshot here that both the Cascade loading icon in the top right and the page loading icon in the center of the page are displayed simultaneously.

Step 3: Output Dropdown ---> Compare

Once you wait until the Cascade loading icon is complete, then continue with the next step as normal, clicking the Output dropdown and selecting “Compare.”

Notice in the Step 3 screenshot here that the Cascade loading icon in the top right is no longer displaying, but the page loading icon in the center of the page is still showing (because it never goes away until after you complete step 3 and the page finishes loading content).

Step 1: More Dropdown ---> Compare with Current

Step 2: PAUSE

Step 3: More Dropdown ---> Compare with Current