Microsites

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated April 29, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Microsites

    The Rich Content Editor in ServiceNow’s Employee Center Pro enables content managers and administrators to create HTML-based microsite content and portal pages using a visual drag-and-drop interface. It is designed for users with little or no HTML or CSS knowledge, allowing the creation of rich content sections without IT involvement. The editor supports adding components like containers, images, videos, and links, and provides a preview for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. Content integrates seamlessly with existing portal themes unless custom styles are applied.

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    Building Microsites

    Microsites are built through a simple process:

    • Create a Rich Content record to start the content.
    • Design the page layout using predefined modules (with headers, text, images) or custom layouts with columns.
    • Add components such as text boxes, images, videos, and buttons.
    • Adjust the canvas size to create responsive content for desktop, tablet, and mobile platforms (best to design desktop first).
    • Optionally, select or request language translations to support multilingual content delivery.
    • Publish the content to users via publish plans or more advanced campaign configurations.

    Rich Content Editor Interface and Features

    • The editor includes a canvas area for content assembly, a component library to drag-and-drop elements, and a menu bar for canvas modifications.
    • Each component has a settings tab for customization, with direct manipulation available through a toolbar when a component is selected.
    • Source code editing is available if enabled by an administrator.
    • Accessibility is enhanced with keyboard shortcuts for common actions such as saving, formatting, and navigating the toolbar and style manager.

    Search and Content Management

    Employee Center’s global search uses AI Search to find published microsite content based on keywords. Role-based access controls ensure:

    • Admins can view unpublished content in search results.
    • Content managers and approvers see content outside their audience but cannot access it unless authorized.

    Additional Considerations

    • The editor respects portal themes through a system property controlling preview appearance.
    • Related capabilities include editing source code, content versioning, and multilingual support within the Content Library.

    This solution empowers ServiceNow customers to efficiently create and manage rich, responsive microsite content for employee portals, improving self-service experiences without requiring technical skills.

    Rich Content Editor enables content managers and admins to create HTML-based content for the Employee Center Pro topic and portal pages using a visual drag-and-drop interface.

    You can create a layout, add components (such as containers, images, videos, and links), and adjust the settings of the components with little or no HTML or CSS (cascading style sheets) knowledge. The Rich Content Editor allows non-technical users to build sections of pages without the help of IT or technical users.

    The Rich Content Editor provides a library of components and a canvas area, where you use drag-and-drop method to create your content. The components can be edited individually and you can preview what you're creating on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device before you make your content available to your audience.

    Creating content does not interfere with your portal theme or color. Published content that does not use custom style changes uses the theme of the underlying portal page.
    Note:
    The Rich Content Editor uses the sn_cd.preview.portal_url_suffix sys property to determine the portal theme to use for the content you create. Using the preview portal when creating rich content reflects the portal theme to provide an example of how the content will appear. For more information, see Properties installed with Content Publishing.

    Overview of building microsites

    The Rich Content Editor makes it possible to build HTML content with little or no HTML or CSS (cascading style sheets) knowledge, using the following process:
    1. Create the Rich Content type record: Create rich content
    2. Create the page layout.
    3. Add components such as images, videos, text boxes, and buttons.
    4. Change the canvas size to create content for tablet and mobile.
      Note:
      For best results when creating content for all three platforms, first create your content for desktop, then tablet and mobile.
    5. (Optional) Select a different language to view your session in or request a language translation for the content you're creating. For more information, see Multilingual support in the Content Library.
    6. Make the content available to users via a publish plan: Create a publish plan for your content

      Alternatively, you can build out a more robust publishing configuration using campaigns: Creating campaigns

    Rich Content Editor interface

    The Rich Content Editor interface is comprised of a canvas where you assemble the content, content components that you drag into the canvas, and menu bar icons to modify the canvas.
    Note:
    If the Edit Source code icon does not appear, ask an admin to enable the Edit code property. See Properties installed with Content Publishing

    Rich Content Editor components

    When you select a component, a toolbar appears at its top-left corner, allowing you to manipulate the component directly. Each component offers a variety of customization options that are accessed from the Settings tab.

    Rich Content Editor - Settings

    Keyboard shortcuts for accessibility

    You can assemble microsites and news articles in the Rich Content Editor using a keyboard for improved accessibility.

    The Rich Content Editor supports many operating system and text formatting shortcuts, including Save, Bold, and Undo. In Content Publishing versions 33.0.9 and later, users can navigate the top toolbar and style manager using the right, left, up, and down arrow keys. You can use these additional keyboard shortcuts to support your content creation:

    Table 1. Keyboard shortcuts
    Action Mac keyboard shortcut Windows keyboard shortcut
    Paste and match style of selected text box Shift+Option+Command+V Shift+Alt+Windows+V
    Tip:

    With the Rich Content Editor, you can easily use your keyboard to select individual canvas components. You can add text and columns, create text sections within those columns, and update headings within each section to adjust the styling and fonts to your liking; it helps you customize your content in a simple and convenient way.

    See Next Experience keyboard shortcuts for additional information.

    Searching for Rich content

    When employees enter a keyword in the global search bar, Employee Center uses AI Search to return published pages containing that keyword in the content name or body.

    Searching for by keyword "employee" returns pages created with the rich content editor containing the term

    AI Search returns additional results based on user roles:
    • Users with either the system admin or content admin role can see unpublished content.
    • For users with the content manager, content admin, or content approver roles, search results include content for which they are not the audience. However, they cannot view the content unless they are part of the configured audience.