Frequently Asked Questions

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How do I add content to the site?

To add content to the site, you need to be logged in so that you can be identified by email address.

When you are logged in, you will have access to the "Post Content" page.

When the "Submit story" page loads, fill in the form with the details of your story. Every story must have a Title. Start with that, then move right on to the Body. Type your content into the editor and preview the page with the Preview button. If you are happy with your content, click the Submit button. Please note, until you click the Submit button, your page has not been saved. Be sure to save your changes by clicking Submit when you are done adding content.

The "Teaser"

A teaser is a summary of a story. It's what you see when you first get to the site. It should include:

• A one or two sentence long summary of the story
• the original author's name
• if applicable, the original publication where the story first appeared, the original date of publication, and a link to a website where it first appeared

How do I control the size of a page's teaser?

To control the size of a page's "teaser" When a page is shown in an index page (a list of items in a given category) you will see a small piece of that page shown under its headline to give the user an idea of what that page contains. To control where the end of the teaser should be, you can insert a special "tag" in your editor window. This tag looks like this:

<!--break-->

Note that it's a pointy left bracket, followed by an exclaimation point and two hyphens, and then the word break, two more hyphens and a right pointy bracket. Also note that there are no spaces or any other characters in the tag. Everything before that tag would be included in the page's "teaser". The entire article (teaser, and the rest of the body) will be displayed when the user clicks the title of the article.

How do I add a file (pdf, Word .doc, Spreadsheet, etc)

To include a file (Word .doc, Pdf document, etc) on a page: To post a page with a document on it, you need to first create the page. The page will "contain" and link to the document when we're all finished. Once you have your page created, click the Browse... button at the bottom of the editor page in the "Attachments" section. This will bring up a dialog box which you can use to find the file on your local computer. When you click "Open" in the file dialog box, the name of your file will appear in the file attachment box under "Attach new file:". Click the Attach button to upload the file (note that this will take some time, depending on the size of your file, and the speed of your Internet connection). Once this is completed, you will see the file appear in a grey Attachments box. You can link in the file by cutting and pasting the file's URL shown below the file into a link in the page editor. If you would prefer not to see the "Attachments" box on the page, simply de-select the "List" checkbox next to the attached file, and your file will only be available through the link you have created.

How do I edit a page?

To Edit Pages: If you have permissions to edit a given subpage, you will see an "Edit" tab appear at the top of the page. You must "open" a page before you can edit it. If you see no edit tab, you don't have the permissions required to edit the page, you are not logged in or you are looking at a list/index page. Click on the headline of the item you wish to edit. Be sure to Preview your changes before submitting the changes. Submitted changes go "live" right to the site. So be sure to do all your editing and proofreading before you submit the page for storage in the database.

How do I format page content?

The system will automatically break lines and paragraphs in your content, but if you want to add any other html formatting, you must do so manually.

To make a block of text bold, you must surround it with bold tags like this: <b>This is bold now</b>

To link to another site, or to a document you need a link tag like so:
<a href="http://url.you.want.to.link" target="_blank" >Title of your link</a>

To create italics is just like creating bold text, but using a slightly different tag like so: <i>This is in italics now</i>

How do I place a document in more than one category?

Edit the page. When you are selecting a category from the list, first click the first category you want to use with your mouse. Then hold down the "Control" (Ctrl) key on your keyboard and click the next category or categories you wish to place the document in while keeping the Control key held down. Repeat this process for each of the categories you wish to use. This will file the document in more than one category simultaneously. There is still only a single copy of the document, but it exists in multiple categories.