The policy editor

You write a policy in sections, not on pages. A section has a name and a number. It holds any mix of paragraphs, lists, tables and images, and it can contain more sections. The rest of the editor works with sections: the contents list numbers them, controls are mapped to them, and the approval dialog reports which ones changed.

The three panels

The left panel, Navigation, shows the policy's status and the numbered contents list.

The middle panel holds the title, the controls linked to the whole policy, the sections, and a Save bar that stays at the bottom. Above the text are Approve, Generate Report and the ⋯ menu with Edit Settings and Link a control. When the panel is narrow, Generate Report shows only as a pie-chart icon, as in the picture.

The right panel depends on what you selected. With no section selected, it shows the Version History, Periodic review, Assignment and Comments cards. With a section selected, it shows that section's Controls and Actions cards.

Drag a divider to resize the panels. Double-click it to close or reopen a side panel. devguard remembers the layout. In a narrow window, the side panels open as sheets from buttons beside the title.

Sections

Click a section's name to rename it, and click its body to write. When you point at a section, four actions show at its right edge: Add section after, Insert section before, Add section inside, which nests a subsection, and Delete section. The section's menu also offers Move section up and Move section down. Tab jumps to the next section. The number before each name is its place in the contents: 2 for the second top-level section, 2.1 for its first subsection.

Click a section to select it. The right panel then shows its controls and actions. Click an empty part of the page to clear the selection.

When you delete a section, its control mappings are deleted when you save. If the text belongs somewhere else, move the section instead.

Reorder with the contents list

Click an entry in the contents list to jump to its section. To reorder, drag an entry up or down. To nest it under the entry above, drag it to the right. To move a subsection out one level, drag it to the left. The numbering follows. With the keyboard, Space picks an entry up, the arrow keys move it and change its level, Space drops it, and Escape cancels.

The new order is saved when you press Save.

Blocks with "/"

Type / at the start of a line to open the block menu, and keep typing to filter it. Short names also work, so /h2 gives a heading and /img an image.

Select text to format it: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough and inline code. In a table, the menus on a row, a column or a cell add and remove rows and columns. Select several cells to Merge cells. Split cell undoes it.

Images are JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP or BMP files of up to 10 MB each. devguard stores them with the policy, freezes them into each version, and prints them in the PDF.

References with ":"

Type : to reference something your organization already keeps, so you do not type it again. Records use the same menu.

• By name: the collections (acronyms, definitions, labels, locations, schedules and variables), and your policies, records, incidents, trainings and processes.
• By identifier: actions, assets, devices, evidence, risks, treatment actions and vendors.

A reference to a policy can point at one of its sections. When a policy references another policy, the members of the other policy's approver role are notified.

In the editor, a reference shows the item's current name, also after a rename. In the report PDF, it prints as text: a variable prints its value, an acronym its full form, a location its address, and a label its scope and name. A policy reference to a section prints the policy name and the section number. Other items print their name. Collections has the full table. The copy in the employee portal prints the name the item had when you added the reference.

Save and settings

Press Save, or Ctrl+S (⌘S on a Mac). The editor does not save on its own, with one exception. Mapping a control to a section saves the policy first, so the mapping points at text that exists. If you save a change to the title or text of a published policy, it returns to Draft. The published version does not change.

⋯ → Edit Settings changes the title, the slug and the approver role. A new slug is a new address, so the page moves there and saves any unsaved text with it. Change the review schedule in the Periodic review card. Change the category by dragging the policy in the list.

The contents list adds the section to the address (# and the section's id), so you can share a link to a section. A policy opened from a control's page highlights that control's mapping.

Approving, assigning, reviewing, comparing versions and generating the PDF are described in Policies.