Full site manuals

This hyperlinked document is a compilation of all of the Community Sites training manuals. Use the CS resource if you want a printed version of anything as printouts from here may be difficult to read.

(Note from RDCA-Admin: the above link is broken so if a printout is needed it will have to be done from here - cause of the breakage is being investigated)

The material is organised in increasing order of speciality, from article A through to article K, the later material being only of relevance to site editors and administrators.

The text of each article corresponds exactly to one of the CS manuals - well nearly as we have respected site limitations and stayed within the standard formatting techniques.

Links (underlined) are provided in the index and throughout the document. For manuals C and H, where there are no links, just click on the nearest principal link and then scroll up or down to what you want.

Now please click here to roll-up the Index.

INDEX

A.  QUICK START TUTORIAL

  1. Accessing the site
  2. Creating a page
  3. Publishing a page
  4. Creating a new category

B.  ADDING MULTIMEDIA

  1. Uploading clips from your own computer
  2. Linking to a clip hosted on another site
  3. Paste code from another site

C.  EXTRA FEATURES FOR IMAGES

  1. Links from an image to a website address
  2. Links from an image to a bigger version of the image
  3. Hide an image on the page (but display it as the main menu icon)
  4. Add an 'image map' to the image
  5. Position an image on the page in relation to the text

D.  SUB-HEADINGS, LINKS AND LISTS

  1. Sub-headings
  2. Links within the site
  3. Bullet and numbered lists

E.  ADDING A  MAP TO A  PAGE

  1. Adding a map
  2. Map settings
  3. Removing a map

F.  CREATING AND APPLYING FLAGS

  1. Create a new category and check its reference
  2. Create a flag
  3. Apply the flag to the new category
  4. Publish pages into the new category
  5. Creating sub-categories of flagged categories (optional)

G.  CREATING PAGES ABOUT  EVENTS

  1. Getting a list of newly submitted events
  2. Publishing an event
  3. Removing an event

H.  EDITING THE HOME PAGE

  1. Project strapline
  2. Lefthand menu
  3. Welcome title and text
  4. 'See what's new' listing
  5. Quick links

I.  CREATING AND EDITING CATEGORIES

  1. Create a new category
  2. Edit an existing category
  3. Delete a category

J.  CREATING AND PLACING ADVERTS

  1. Create an advert
  2. Place the advert where you want it to appear

K.  MANAGING USERS OF THE WEBSITE

  1. Editing a user
  2. Deleting a user
  3. Creating a user

Down  Up  Index   A.   QUICK START TUTORIAL

These instructions provide a quick introduction to:

  1. Accessing the site
  2. Creating a page
  3. Publishing a page
  4. Creating a new category

Down  Up  Index   A1.   ACCESSING THE SITE

The site can be accessed and edited from any computer connected to the internet.

  1. In the address bar at the top of your browser, type in the address of the website.
  2. You should then see the home page of the website.  If the site has not yet been launched, you may need to enter a special username and password to reach the home page (this is not the same as the personal username and password you use when editing the site).

Down  Up  Index   A2:   CREATING A PAGE

To create a new page, you need to log in.

  1. On the home page, go to the log-in panel.  Enter your username and password, and then click on the Log in button.
  2. In place of the log in panel, you should now see a message saying: Hi! What would you like to do?
  3. Click on the button marked My pages  
  4. You should see a screen with the heading My pages.
  5. Click on the button marked Add a page at the right of the screen.

Add a title

You should now see a screen headed Add Title.

  1. Type the title.
  2. Type the sub-title.
  3. By default, your name is entered as the author.  Edit this if necessary.
  4. Click on the button marked Next.

Add words

You should now see a screen headed Add Words.

  1. Click inside the text entry box.
  2. Type or copy-and-paste the text into the text box.
  3. Notice that you can format the text using the buttons for bold or italic.   
  4. If you want to add a link, first highlight the text you want to link from, then click on the Create link button (it has a picture of the world and a chain on it).
  5. When you’ve finished, click on the button marked Next.

Add photos

You should now see a screen headed Add Photos.

  1. Click the Browse button. A box will appear with the heading Choose file.   
  2. The box is displaying the files on your own computer. Locate the image you want to add to the page.  
  3. Highlight the image and click on the Open button. The box headed Choose file will disappear.
  4. Click on the button marked Upload this image. There will be a pause while the photo uploads from your computer to the website.  Then a small-scale version of the photo should appear under the heading Photos on this page.  
  5. Click on the photo. You should see a box for entering a caption and a credit.  
  6. Type in the caption.
  7. Type in the credit.
  8. Click on the button marked Done.  
  9. The heading Add a new photo should reappear on the left.  
  10. Repeat steps 1-8 if you want to add another photo.  
  11. Click on the button marked Next.

Preview the page

You should now see a screen headed Preview your page. Your new page should appear below this.

  1. To the right of the heading Preview your page, there are three rectangular graphics.  These icons represent different layouts you can choose for the page.  
  2. The left-hand icon should be highlighted in red.  This is the layout that you are currently previewing.  In this layout, the text and images are side-by-side.  
  3. Click on the middle of the three icons.  The layout of your page should change. The pictures are now underneath the text, and are displayed in a bigger size.  
  4. Click on the right-hand icon.  The layout of your page should change again. The pictures are still underneath the text, but they are displayed as thumbnails.  This is the layout for a ‘picture gallery.  
  5. Click on the left-hand icon to return to the layout for text and images side-by-side.  
  6. Notice that you can go back and alter the words, photos or title of the draft page by clicking on the tabs above the heading Preview your page.     
  7. Click on the button marked Finally, save your work.

Save the page

You should now see a screen headed Save your contribution.

  1. There are three buttons, marked Save draft for later, Save and submit and Save and continue.
  2. You would use Save draft for later if you wanted to log back in a few days later and finish working on the page.
  3. You would use Save and continue if you wanted to save the page and carry on working on it immediately
  4. Click on the button marked Save and submit. This submits the page for publication, and takes you back to the screen headed My Pages.

Log out

You should now be back at the screen headed My Pages.

  1. Your new page is now listed under the heading Submitted for publication.   
  2. Click on the tab marked Log out.  This is near the middle of the screen, just above the heading My Pages.  
  3. A small box will appear asking you to confirm you want to log out.  Click on OK. You should return to the home page of the site.

Down  Up  Index   A3:   PUBLISHING A PAGE

Log in as an editor

To publish a new page, you need to be an editor of the website.  The administrator of the site can make any contributor into an editor simply by ticking a box on a list of users.

Assuming that you have now been made an editor, we’ll now see how to publish the new page that you have just created.

  1. On the home page, go to the log-in panel.  Log in with your user name and password.  
  2. In place of the log in panel, you should now see a message saying: Hi! What would you like to do?  
  3. Click on the button marked Edit the site. You should now see a screen with the heading My pages.
  4. Editors need to see at a glance what pages have been recently submitted.  The new page you have just created should be listed below the heading Submitted for publication. 
  5. Click on the link marked (Edit) next to the new page.  This takes you to the Add title screen (that is, the first of the screens which you worked through to create the page).

Publish the new page

Look at the tabs above the heading Add title.  As well as the familiar tabs you could use to edit the page (e.g. Add words), there is a new tab marked Publish. This only appears when you are an editor.

  1. Click on the tab marked Publish.  You should go to a screen headed Publish the contribution.
  2. The first field allows you to add keywords to the page which would be invisible to visitors of the site. You can usually ignore this field, as search engines like Google now restrict their searching to the visible text.  The only occasion on which you might use a keyword is if the main topic of the page is for some reason not mentioned on the page itself (e.g. a page about bicycles which for some reason doesn’t include the word ‘bicycle’.)  If you do want to add keywords, separate them by commas.   
  3. Below the keywords box, there is a list of the current categories in the site.  Click on one of the categories. It should become highlighted in blue.  
  4. Scroll down the page and click on the Publish button.  
  5. You should return to the screen headed My Pages.  There are now no pages listed under the heading Submitted for publication, because you have just published the only page that was pending.   
  6. Go back to the home page of the site by clicking on the tab marked Back to site. Your new page has been published and should appear under the heading See what’s new on the home page.

Down  Up  Index   A4:  CREATING A NEW CATEGORY

You have just published your new page in one of the existing categories on the site.  You’re now going to create a new category and move your new page into that.

  1. Start at the home page of the site.
  2. You should still be logged in, so on the left-hand menu you should be able to see a heading saying: ‘Hi!  What do you want to do?’  
  3. Underneath this heading, click on the button marked Edit the site.  This takes you to the screen headed My Pages.

Create a new category

Editors can create, edit and delete categories at any time.

  1. Click on the tab marked Categories.  This is just above the heading My Pages.   
  2. Click on the button called New category.  
  3. You’ll come to the first of a series of tabs where you can create the new category.  All you will do in this tutorial is to give the category a title, and then publish it.   
  4. Type in a title for the new category on the first tab.  
  5. Go to the tab marked Publish.  
  6. Now choose where you want to put the new category. For example, if you want the new category to appear inside the ‘About us’ section of the site, select ‘About us’ from the list of categories.  You can make the new category appear in more than one parent category by holding down the Control key (on a PC) and selecting more than one category from the list.  
  7. You can see there are other fields; for example, a field for hiding the category from the site navigation.  Ignore these for now.  
  8. At the very bottom of the page, click on the button marked Publish.  
  9. You should go back to the list of categories.  Your new category will appear in the list.
  10. Click on the Back to site tab.

Check your new category

Let’s quickly check that your new category has been created properly.

  1. Click on the link to the ‘site map’ in the footer bar at the bottom of the screen.   
  2. You should be able to see your new category listed. (If you can’t see it immediately, you may need to expand the view of the lower levels of the sitemap by clicking on the + buttons.)

Move your new page into your new category

Finally, we’ll move your new page into your new category.  To do this, you simply re-publish the page.

  1. You are still logged in, so you should be able to see a heading saying: ‘Hi What do you want to do?’  Click on the button marked Add/edit pages. This takes you to the screen headed My Pages.  
  2. You now need to find your new page.  At the right-hand side of the screen you should see the heading Select pages.  Below this there are a set of drop-down lists giving you different ways to search for particular pages.  
  3. Select the drop-down list labelled By category.  Select the category in which your page is currently published. A list of the pages in this category should appear at the left of the screen.  
  4. Your page should be in the list of pages. Click on the (Edit) link next to it.  This takes you to the Add title screen for the page.  
  5. Click on the tab marked Publish.  
  6. In the list of categories, find your new category. Click on the name of the new category.  It should become highlighted in blue.  
  7. Click on the button marked Re-publish. This should take you back to the My pages screen.

Check that your new page is now in your new category

And finally check that your new page is now in your new category.

  1. Click on the link to the ‘site map’ at the bottom of the screen. 
  2. Click on the link to your new category.  
  3. You should be able to see your new page listed inside your new category.

AND NOW?

That’s the end

You have learnt how to create and edit pages and categories. Those are the most common tasks that website editors need to carry out.

Down  Up  Index   B:  ADDING MULTIMEDIA

These instructions provide guidance on adding multimedia clips to the website. It covers:

  1. Uploading clips from your own computer  
  2. Linking to a clip hosted on another site  
  3. Pasting code from another site (e.g. YouTube)

Down  Up  Index   B1.   UPLOADING CLIPS FROM YOUR OWN COMPUTER

Create a new page in the usual way, by clicking on the Add a page button. Assuming that multimedia has been enabled for your user level (e.g. it is sometimes only enabled for editors or administrators), you should see an Add multimedia tab.

To upload a new audio or video clip from your computer:

  1. Click the Browse button. A box will appear with the heading Choose file.   
  2. The box is displaying the files on your own computer. Locate the multimedia clip you want to add to the page.  
  3. Highlight the clip and click on the Open button. The box headed Choose file will disappear.  
  4. Click on the button marked Upload this clip. There will be a pause while the clip uploads from your computer to the website.  Then the clip should appear under the heading Clips on this page.

Adding related text and images to the clip

Click on the edit link next to the clip. You can now enter the following text related to the clip, plus an image (the image is relevant to audio clips only).

  1. Title (e.g. Memories of the 1987 Great Storm)  
  2. Short description of the content (e.g. Interview with John Smith)  
  3. Transcript  (NB if you want to add a short introduction about the interview, you should do that via the Add words tab; this field should only be used for the transcript)  
  4. Image (NB This image will appear immediately above the play bar for the audio, so is usually a photo of the speaker, or some other image that is closely related to the clip. Other images that might illustrate the audio clip can be added via the Add photos tab as usual.)

Down  Up  Index   B2.   LINKING TO A CLIP HOSTED ON ANOTHER SITE

You can import a clip that is hosted on another site (with permission) in the same way that you can import an image that is hosted on another site.  Enter the full address of the clip (including http://). Note that the address of the clip should end with the filename of the clip (for example, it should end with .mp3).  This is not the same as the address of the web page on which the clip appears.

After entering the address, click on the Link this clip button.  You can then add details about the clip as described in ‘Adding related text and images to the clip’ above.

Down  Up  Index   B3.   PASTE CODE FROM ANOTHER SITE

Some websites, such as YouTube, allow users to embed video clips hosted on YouTube on other websites.  To make this happen, YouTube provides a bit of code which needs to be pasted into the other website.

After pasting the code, click on the Add this code button.  You can then add details about the clip as described in ‘Adding related text and images to the clip’ above.

Down  Up  Index   C:  EXTRA FEATURES FOR IMAGES

These guidelines tell you how to use the advanced features that are available for positioning images and creating links from images.

The options described below do not appear to ordinary contributors to the site. They only appear to editors and administrators (or to administrators only, depending on how the site has been set up).

You will see these advanced features when you are editing an image on the Add image tab, and click on the thumbnail of the image to edit it. The options appears beneath the boxes for adding a caption and credit to an image.

Link from an image to a website address

  1. Click in the box labelled Link to this address  
  2. Enter the full website address (including http://)  
  3. Click on Done.  
  4. The link is not active when you preview  the page, but will work when you publish the page.

Link from an image to a bigger version of the image

  1. Select an option from the box labelled Add a link to this version of the image  
  2. The options are:  Original -  the image that was originally uploaded to the site, which might be any size and is often very big  Fullsize - the biggest scaled version of the image, that appears in a photo gallery, for example Scaled - a smaller scaled version of the image, that usually appears alongside text
  3. Click on Done.  
  4. The link is not active when you preview  the page, but will work when you publish the page.

Hide an image on the page (but display it as the menu icon)

This option allows you to include an image that will not be displayed on the page itself, but will appear as the menu icon for that page. This is useful when the automatic cropping feature for producing menu icons based on the first image displayed on the page produces an unwanted result.

  1. Using image editing software, create a thumbnail image for the menu icon that is cropped exactly as you want it. The dimensions of the icons are 100 px by 100 px.  
  2. Upload this thumbnail image in the usual way.  
  3. Make sure the thumbnail image is the first image on the page. Use the Move buttons if it is not the first image.  
  4. Check the box labelled Hide this image on the page?  
  5. Click on Done.  
  6. The image will not appear on the page, but will appear as the menu icon when the page is published.

Add an ‘image map’ to the image

Image maps are snippets of HTML code that allow you to specify that when a user clicks on a particular part of an image, the user goes to a particular web page.  They are often used for maps or diagrams.  ‘Image map software’ is freely available for download on the web.

  1. Use image map software to generate the HTML code that links areas of an selected image to particular website address. When you do this, use '$name' for the name attribute of the image map.
  2. Upload the image to the website.
  3. Click on the image to edit it.  
  4. Paste the HTML code generated by the image map software into the box labelled Image map code. 
  5. Click on Done.
  6. The image map links will work when the page is published.

Position an image on the page in relation to the text

This option allows you to position an image on the page in relation to a particular sentence or paragraph of text.  This is done by giving the image a ‘token’ name which is then inserted into the text as a marker for where the image should appear.  To distinguish these ‘token’ names from ordinary text, they should always begin with unusual characters; for example:  ‘$myimage’ or ‘***myimage***’.

  1. Upload the image in the usual way.
  2. Click on the image to edit it.
  3. Type a token name of your choice into the box labelled Replace this token.
  4. Select the size of image you wish to appear from the drop-down list.  
  5. Choose how you want the image to be aligned relative to the paragraph of text that follows it by choosing an option from the drop-down list.  
  6. Click on Done.  
  7. Go to the Add words tab and type the token name (including the dollar sign) at the point in the text where you would like the image to appear.  
  8. Go to the Preview tab to check that the image is displaying as you wish.

Down  Up  Index   D:  SUB-HEADINGS, LINKS AND LISTS

These instructions provide guidance on using the text editing box to:

  1. Create sub-headings  
  2. Add links to pages within the site  
  3. Create bullet and numbered lists

Down  Up  Index   D1.   SUB-HEADINGS

For extended passages of text, add sub-headings. To do this:

  1. Type a sub-heading above a paragraph of text. A phrase from the text often works well as the sub-heading.  
  2. Make sure there is a paragraph space before and after the sub-heading (to achieve this, press Return).
  3. Select the sub-heading.
  4. Click on the downward-pointing arrow next to the word Normal at the top of the text entry box on the Add words tab. Select Sub-heading.

The sub-heading will change appearance, but will not be styled correctly in the Add words box.  To see it as it will appear in the final page, go to the Preview tab.

Down  Up  Index   D2.   LINKS WITHIN THE SITE

Where the text mentions topics that are covered elsewhere on the website, create a hyperlink to the relevant page or category. To do this:

  1. Open another copy of the website in a new browser window
  2. Browse to the page or category you want to link to 
  3. Copy the part of the address that comes after the ‘slash’ that ends the main site root.  For example, for this  page http://www.SITE.org.uk/page_id__5588.aspx copy only the following part of the address  page_id__5588.aspx
  4. Go back to Add words screen and select the word or phrase you want to link from.  
  5. Click on the Create link button (a picture of the world with a chain over it)  
  6. Paste the address into the URL field 
  7. Click on OK

Down  Up  Index   D3.   BULLET AND NUMBERED LISTS

To create a bullet or numbered list:

  1. Type out each item of the list, separating each item from the next item by a paragraph return.  
  2. Highlight the entire list.  
  3. Select the relevant button for bullet or numbered list.

Trouble-shooting

If you are getting into trouble with a list, it’s often easiest to start by getting rid of any existing formatting.  Do this by using the backspace key to delete all the spacing between items in the list. For example:

ApplesPearsOranges

Then add the paragraph returns:

Apples

Pears

Oranges

Then highlight the list and select the relevant button for a numbered or bullet list:

  • Apples
  • Pears
  • Oranges

Down  Up  Index   E:  ADDING A MAP TO PAGE

These guidelines tell you how to add a map to a page.  The guidelines cover:

  1. Adding a map   
  2. Map settings  
  3. Removing a map

Down  Up  Index   E1.   ADDING A MAP

Create or edit a page in the usual way.  If maps have been enabled on the site, and have been made available to your level of user (for example, to editors, if you are an editor) you will see an Add map tab.

On the Add map tab, you will see a small Google street map, centred on a default location.  To centre the map on a chosen location, type the name of the place into the search box, including the name of the town or city.

If the place isn't marked accurately, click on the map to move the marker. Scroll and zoom the map itself to get the view you want.

Add a caption to the map if you wish.

Once you have marked a place as just described, you can move on to the Preview tab and the map will appear automatically on the page.

Down  Up  Index   E2.   MAP SETTINGS

Note that most of the following settings only appear to editors of the site, not to contributors.

Show the map on the page

Leave this at the default setting of ‘yes’ unless you want to hide the map.  (A map will always appear once you have activated it by editing the map in any way.)  This setting appears to all users of the site.

Show controls

This allows you to choose whether you wish to display the zoom/scroll buttons and the buttons that allow users to switch between the street map view and the aerial view.   You can check the results of this setting on the Preview tab (which reflects the appearance of the map once the page is published). This setting only appears to editors of the site.

Allow dragging

This option controls whether website visitors can drag on the map to change the area that is displayed once the page is published.  (Any changes a website visitor makes are only temporary and won’t be seen by any other website visitor.) This setting only appears to editors of the site.

Show marker

The option allows you to show or hide the marker that indicates the exact location of the place specified in the search box on the map. This setting only appears to editors of the site.

Down  Up  Index   E3.   REMOVING A MAP

To remove a map from a page go to the setting marked ‘Show the map on the page’ and choose ‘No.’

Down  Up  Index   F: CREATING AND APPLYING FLAGS

These guidelines tell you how to create and apply flags to particular pages within the site. A ‘flag’ is a visual indicator (usually a small graphic) that shows that a page is,for example,‘child-friendly’ or a ‘pick of the site’.

If you want to use flags on the site, follow the steps below.  Each step is described in more detail in the sections that follow.  The example assumes you’re creating a flag for ‘child- friendly’ pages.

  1. Create a new category called ‘Child-friendly’. If you wish, it’s possible to hide this category from the main navigation of the site so that users can only get to it via the flag.
  2. Create a flag. This involves uploading a small graphic, giving the flag the same name as the new category, and then applying the flag to the new category.
  3. Publish any pages which you want to be marked with the flag into the new ‘child-friendly’ category, in addition to publishing the pages into any other categories of the site in which you want them to appear.

There are instructions on how to follow these steps below.

Down  Up  Index   F1.   CREATE A NEW CATEGORY AND CHECK ITS REFERENCE

  1. Create a new category and give it the same name you wish to give to your new flag. If you’d like this ‘flag’ category to remain hidden from the normal site navigation, then on the Publish tab publish the category into the Top Level and tick the box marked ‘Hide from the site navigation?’. 
  2. The new category should then be listed in the LH column of the categories tab.  Click on it as if to edit it and make a note of the reference number of the category.  You can find this out from the address bar. 
  3. For example, if the address bar says: http://www.SITE.co.uk/categoryedit_edit__106.aspx,  then the reference number is 106. Having made a note of the reference number, exit back to the categories tab without saving.

Down  Up  Index   F2.   CREATE A FLAG

Having created the flag category, the next step is to create the flag itself.

  1. Go to the Flags tab and click on New.
  2. In the form that appears:
  • Add the rollover text to identify the flag (e.g. Child-friendly)
  • Upload the icon for the flag (usually a very small graphic)
  • Add the reference number of the master category (106, in the example above)
  • Enter an order number if you have more than one flag on the site. This will mean that, when a page is marked with more than one flag, you can determine which order the flags will appear in. For example, if you’ve got two flags already, and you want the mini-icon for this new flag to appear after the two flags, type the number 3.

   3. Click on Save.     

Down  Up  Index   F3.   APPLY THE FLAG TO THE NEW CATEGORY

Go back to the Categories tab and edit the new category you’ve just created.

  1.  On the Publish tab, select your new flag from the drop-down list.  
  2.  Click on Republish.       

Down  Up  Index   F4.   PUBLISH PAGES INTO THE NEW CATEGORY

You can now publish any pages which you want to be marked with the flag into the new category, in addition to publishing the pages into any other categories of the site in which you want them to appear.

For example, if you want a page to be published into a category of the site called ‘Places’, but you also want that page to be marked with the ‘Child-friendly’ flag, then publish the page into both the Places category and the Child-friendly category.      

Down  Up  Index   F5.   CREATING SUB-CATEGORIES OF FLAGGED CATEGORIES (OPTIONAL)

It is possible, though unusual, that you might want to sub-divide a flagged category. For example, you might want to create two sub-categories within the ‘Child-friendly’ category one for ‘Older children’ and one for ‘Younger children’.  You would like pages published into either of these sub-categories to be marked with the ‘Child-friendly’ flag.

To achieve this, create the ‘Older children’ and ‘Younger children’ categories in the usual way.  When you get to the Publish tab, place the categories inside the ‘Child-friendly’ category and choose the ‘Child-friendly’ flag from the drop-down list.

If you publish pages into either of these sub-categories, the pages will now be flagged with the ‘child-friendly’ flag.  If the user clicks on the flag, they will still be routed to the ‘Child-friendly’ category, but will then see the two sub-categories of ‘Older children’ and ‘Younger children’ within that category.

Down  Up  Index   G:  CREATING PAGES ABOUT EVENTS

These guidelines tell you how to create pages about events from information submitted by users through the events form.

Down  Up  Index   G1.   GETTING A LIST OF NEWLY-SUBMITTED EVENTS

When users complete the events form, a notification e-mail is automatically sent out to alert the website editors that an event has been submitted. The information contained in the form is also submitted to the site, creating a pending page which you need to retrieve, subedit and publish.

To do this:

  1. Go to the Pages tab.
  2. On the right-hand side, under the heading ‘Select pages’, choose ‘By status’ and then ‘Submitted via custom forms’. You’ll now see a list of any events that have been submitted to the site but not yet published.

Down  Up  Index   G2.   PUBLISHING AN EVENT

To publish an event, click on the ‘Convert to Page’ link next to the event.  This will convert the event information into a submitted page, and take you to the title tab in order to start editing the page.

Sub-edit the page and publish it in the usual way. Note that:

  1. You may want to add a map showing where the event is taking place.
  2. Users who submit events are required to give an e-mail address so that they can be contacted by the site editors if necessary.  This contact information will be contained in the events information.  If the person who has submitted the event does not want the contact details to be published on the site, you will see a note to that effect,for example: ‘Please do not publish my contact information on the website’.  In this case, remove the  contact details from the page (you could move them to the Notes box on the Save tab for reference).
  3. The event should be published in the Events category. After publishing the event, you may need to change the order of the pages listed in that category so that the events are listed in chronological order.

Down  Up  Index   G3.   REMOVING AN EVENT

If you don’t want to convert a newly-submitted event into a page (for example, because you know it is a ‘test’ event), click on the ‘Remove’ link next to the event.

After the event has been converted into a page, it is possible to delete the page in the usual way (via the Delete button on the Publish tab.)

Down  Up  Index   H:  EDITING THE HOME PAGE

These guidelines tell you how to edit the home page of the website. This facility is only available to administrators of the site.

The elements of the home page are as follows:

  1. Project strapline (text in breadcrumb bar under logo)
  2. Left-hand menu
  3. Welcome title and text
  4. ‘See what’s new’  listing
  5. Quick links (to right of welcome title and text)   There are instructions on how to alter all these elements below.

Project strapline

This is usually agreed as part of the initial design of the site and should not need to be changed.

If you do need to change it, you can do this by updating the text string called ‘sHeaderHomeTitle’ on the Text tab.

Lefthand menu

The main menu (usually on the left-hand side of the site) reflects the top-level categories of the site.

To edit the menu, you need to edit the top-level categories themselves via the Categories tab.  To change the order of the top-level categories, go to the Categories tab and:

  1. Click on the website name at the top of the list of categories.
  2. Go to the Organise tab (which may be the first tab you are taken to by default)
  3. Use the Move up and Move down buttons the change the order of the categories
  4. Go to the Publish tab
  5. Click on Re-publish

Welcome title and text

Log into the website and go to the tab marked Home.  Edit the home page as follows.

  1. Edit the text in the boxes labelled Welcome title and Welcome text body.
  2. Click on Update.

‘See what’s new’ listing

New pages will appear at the top of this list automatically when they are published and will remain here until they are replaced by newer pages.

By default, the number of pages that appears here is 3.  However, you can change this on the Settings tab.  To do this:

  1. Find the setting marked: ‘Number of new items to display on home page’
  2. Change the number
  3. Scroll down and click on the Save button.

Quick links

These are the links that appear just to the right of the welcome text.  They are usually useful links for newcomers to the site under a heading such as ‘First time?’.

Creating the Quick links is a two-stage process. First, you create them as adverts in the normal way (see the ‘adverts’ handout). You then select the relevant advert to display on the home page using the Home tab.

So follow these steps:

  1. Create or edit the advert in the usual way.  Remember that images for adverts do not scale automatically.  This is because the size of adverts can be different according to where they appear on the site.  On the home page, the advert size for ‘quick links’ is usually 100px by 100px.
  2. Go to the Home tab.
  3. Use the Quick link boxes to select the relevant advert.
  4. Click on Update.

Down  Up  Index   I:  CREATING AND EDITING CATEGORIES

These guidelines tell you how to create, edit and delete categories.  Usually, this functionality is available only to editors of the site.

Down  Up  Index   I1.   CREATE A NEW CATEGORY

  1. Log in and go to the Categories tab.
  2. Click on the New category button. This will take you to the first of a set of tabs for creating the new category.
  3. Work through the tabs as described below.

 Add category information

Title:  All categories should have a title.

Short description (optional):  Write a short description to help website visitors decide whether to select this category.

Introduction (optional):   The introduction will appear after visitors have selected the category, above the pages which are listed in this category.

Add graphics

Icon: The icon will appear next to the category title, when website visitors are deciding whether to select this category. Icons are automatically resized.

Banner: The banner will appear above the list of pages in the category. Banners are not automatically resized, so you need to make the banner images the correct size for the design of your site before uploading them.

Preview

Here you can preview how the category menu will appear.

As you’re creating a new category, no pages have yet been published into the category, so the preview will only show the category title, banner and introduction.

If more than one category layout has been created for your website, you can select which layout you want by choosing from a drop-down list.  

Publish

Hide from site navigation:  If you tick this box, the category and all its content will not appear on the menus or the sitemap, so will be hidden from casual users of the site.  This means you can hide new categories until you have published pages into them. However, this is not suitable for long-term use or confidential content, because the categories might still be found and indexed by Google and other search engines.

Choose the categories into which to place this category:  For example, if you want the new category to appear inside the ‘About us’ section of the site, select ‘About us’ from the list of categories.  You can make the new category appear in more than one parent category by holding down the Control key (on a PC) and selecting more than one category from the list.

Choose the adverts to display within the category:  If any adverts have been created for your site (see separate instructions re adverts), you will see them listed here.  If you select an advert, it will appear throughout the category. You can select more than one advert by holding down the Control key (on a PC).

Language code:  If the title, subtitle or introduction of the category are in a language other than English, you can select the correct language code for displaying the foreign characters.  The default language code which appears will be based on the language setting of the computer you are currently using.

Publish or delete:  When you publish a category, it will immediately appear on the site (unless you have hidden it from site navigation).

Down  Up  Index   I2.   EDIT AN EXISTING CATEGORY

  1. Log in and go to the Categories tab.
  2. Click on the existing category you want to edit. This will take you to the first of a set of tabs for editing the category.
  3. Most of the tabs are described above (see ‘Creating a new category’).  Other tabs you may see are as follows:

Organise

Here you can choose the order in which you wish pages and sub-categories to appear in this category. This tab will only appear when there is more than one page or sub-category in the category (otherwise there is nothing to organise!).

The default setting is usually for pages and sub-categories to be ordered alphabetically by title.

The other available options are:

  • Order by sub-title, then title
  • Order by title, then sub-title
  • Order by the date on which the page was added
  • Custom

The 'custom' option allows you to define an exact order in which you wish pages and sub-categories to appear.

Add commentary

Here you can add a short comment about each page in the category.

The comment will appear at the top of the page when it is viewed within this category (but not when the page is viewed within another category, if it is published in more than one category).

This feature allows you to make a selection of pages within the site and comment on them (like a 'pick of the site').

Down  Up  Index   I3.   DELETE A CATEGORY

When you delete a category, you can choose what should happen to any pages that are already published in that category. They can be:

  • Unpublished (this returns them to the ‘submitted for publication’ state)
  • Moved up into the parent category of the category you are deleting
  • Deleted as well

Check for broken links

Before deleting a category and the pages within it, you should check whether this will break any links in the site.  Links that have been created automatically (like putting the category on a menu or the sitemap) will be removed automatically.  However, if any links have been created manually using the ‘link’ feature in the Add Words tab, these need to be removed.

To check whether there are any links to the page or category you are about to delete:

  1. Browse to the page or category in question.
  2. If you are logged in, you will see a small message at the foot of the page saying ‘Search for links to this page’ or ‘Search for links to this category’.  (The message doesn’t appear to normal users of the site).   
  3. Click on this message.
  4. You will see a list of any pages that contain links to the page or category you are about to delete 
  5. Visit these pages and remove the links 
  6. You can then go ahead and delete the category and pages as described below.

Delete a category

To delete a category:

  1. Log in and go to the Categories tab.
  2. Click on the existing category you want to delete. This will take you to the first of a set of tabs for editing the category.
  3. Go to the Publish tab.
  4. Click on the Delete button.

If the category contains any pages, you will see a message asking whether you wish these pages to be

  • Unpublished (this returns them to the ‘submitted for publication’ state)
  • Moved into the parent category of the category you are deleting
  • Deleted as well

If a page is in more than one category, it will not be deleted unless all the categories in which the page appears are deleted.

When you have made and confirmed this choice, the category will be permanently deleted.  There is no way to undo this, so when you are deleting a category, do so carefully to make sure that you select the right category.

Down  Up  Index   J:  CREATING AND PLACING ADVERTS

These guidelines tell you how to create and place adverts on a CommunitySites website. This is usually a job for the website administrator.

This is a two-step process:

  1. Create the advert on the advert tab.
  2. Place the advert where you want it to appear within the site.

Down  Up  Index   J1.   CREATE THE ADVERT

  1. Go to the Adverts tab.  You’ll probably only have access to this if you are the administrator of the website.
  2. Click on the New button to create a new advert.
  3. Under the heading ‘How do you want to create your advert?’, select one of the two methods described below.

Copy and paste code

This is used if you want to include an advert from Amazon or Google. These websites allow you to generate adverts which you can include on your site.  They do this by giving you some HTML source code to paste into your site.   After you have followed the instructions provided on the Amazon or Google site to create this code:

  1. Type a short description of your advert into the Short description box (this is only for your own reference)
  2. Paste the code into the Source code box.
  3. Click on Save.

Use custom text and image

This is used if you want to create your own advert, perhaps for a local supplier/sponsor or simply to promote a particular section of the website.  To do this:

  1. Type a short description of your advert into the Short description box (this is only for your own reference)
  2. Type a title for the advert
  3. Type a subtitle for the advert
  4. Provide a link address for the advert (this could be a link to a page in the site) [Rev. If the link is to a site page then strip out all path information so ref looks like this: page_id__nnn.aspx]
  5. Provide an image for the advert (this doesn’t resize automatically, so make it the right dimensions in the first place) [Rev. This information is not now totally correct. See Site Images article for what image sizes are possible or just make up a "universal" advert image 131 pixels wide in an image package]

Down  Up  Index   J2.   PLACE THE ADVERT WHERE YOU WANT IT TO APPEAR

You can make an advert appear throughout the site, or throughout a particular category of the site, or only on a particular page.

To make an advert appear throughout the site

  1. Go to the Categories tab
  2. Select the name of the site (at the top of the list of categories)
  3. Go to the Publish tab
  4. Highlight the chosen advert from the list of adverts (hold down the Ctrl key to select more than one advert)
  5. Click on the Update button.

The advert will now appear throughout the site except in categories or pages where you have chosen to display other adverts.

To make an advert appear throughout a particular category

  1. Go to the Categories tab
  2. Go to the Publish tab
  3. Highlight the chosen advert from the list of adverts (hold down the Ctrl key to select more than one advert)
  4. Click on the Update button.

The advert will now appear throughout the category except on pages where you have chosen to display other adverts.

To make an advert appear on a particular page

  1. Edit the page
  2. Go to the Publish tab.
  3. Highlight the chosen advert from the list of adverts
  4. Click on the Re-publish button (or Publish if it is a new page).

Down  Up  Index   K:  MANAGING USERS OF THE WEBSITE

These guidelines tell you how to manage the users on a CommunitySites website. This is a job for the website administrator. The guidelines cover:

  1. Editing a user
  2. Deleting a user
  3. Creating a user

Down  Up  Index   K1.   EDITING A USER

User details are normally created when by new users when they register on the site.  To edit these details:

  1. Log in
  2. Click on the Edit the Site button to go to the control panel
  3. Click on the Users tab.
  4. Select the user you want to edit form the list on the LH side.
  5. Edit the user’s details. You can alter the following fields:
  •  User name (but normally you would leave this unchanged)
  • Password (type in a new password if the user has forgotten the old password)
  • First name/last name (self-explanatory!)
  • E-mail address (self-explanatory)
  • Profile (you can ignore this unless your site is set up with a contributor’s area)
  • Profile language (you can ignore this unless your site is set up with a contributor’s area)
  • Receive messages (you can ignore this unless your site has messaging functionality)
  • Notify by e-mail (you can ignore this unless your site has messaging functionality)
  • Editor (check this box if you want to make the user an editor)
  • Administrator (check this box if you want to make the user an administrator)

6.  Click on update

Down  Up  Index   K2.   DELETING A USER

So long as there are no pages or comments created by the user on the site, you can delete a user by clicking on the Delete button at the bottom of the user profile.  However, if there are any pages or comments in existence, the delete button won’t appear (this is to stop pages suddenly being ‘orphaned’ in the database).

If you still want to delete the user, you first need to find any pages or comments created by the user and delete them. To do this, locate the relevant pages or comments by using the ‘By user’ selection box on the RH side of the Comments tab and Pages tab.

Down  Up  Index   K3.   CREATING A USER

You can create a new user by clicking on the New user button on the RH side of the Users tab.  You only need to do this in exceptional circumstances, as users usually register their own username and password.

Down  Up  Index   END OF THE CS TRAINING MATERIAL

This page was added by Bob Stephen on 07/02/2012.
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