Login to the Content Management System (CMS)
- get your username/password
- login at the EV-Village site... the lower left corner... Login
- note: this document is available on the EV-Village site in the lower left corner... Primer
Note on Browser Pop-up Settings
- during various editing operations (e.g. inserting an image) your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox) will want to open a pop-up window (e.g. to browse to the image on your local PC)... you may therefore need to (only once per computer) enable pop-ups for the EV-Village site
- the first time you access a pop-up form you might need to click in the browser header to allow the pop-ups (permanently for this site)
- or you can do this proactively via... in your browser... Tools, Internet Options, Privacy, Pop-up Blocker, Settings, allow www.inclineafterschool.org
General Guidelines for Web Pages
- With the exception of specific Events and dated News Articles, avoid "dating" of the material... leave out "year such-and-such", "yesterday", "next week", etc.... this just sets you up for an out-of-date page that you or a colleague will forget to edit.
- Unless it's obviously important, avoid specific use of people's names and titles... assignments change often and therefore we again are setting ourselves up for out-of-date pages.
- Remember the "one place" principle... information should be stored on the site in "one place" only. If we replicate information on multiple pages, chances are that when edits come along we'll forget to change the replicated pages and once again we have pages out-of-date.
- Text
- stick to standard Formats
- Heading 2 for page header
- Heading 3 for subheaders
- Normal for body text
- only use Bold and Italics when absolutely needed (they become too loud if overused)
- Images
- generally limit image height to 160 pixels for landscape images and 220 pixels for portrait images
- if you want the visitor to have access to a larger image, use the CMS system to create a small thumbnail Link to the full-sized image (see "to add images to a page" below)
- Links
- the general objective here is to preserve the visual comfort zone provided by our attractive EV-Village site
- if you are linking to a page outside the EV-Village web, then have it open in a New Window
- if you are linking to a PDF file (in or outside the EV-Village web), then have it open in a New Window
- if you are linking to a page inside the EV-Village web that does not have the look/feel of the standard EV-Village web, then have it open in a New Window
- you specify links to open in a New Window on the Insert/Edit Link form... Target... Open link in new window
Important Note on Cut/Paste
If you are cutting/pasting text from another application (definitely MS Word but also some other applications and most web pages), you'll want to make sure the formatting of the source (font, color, bold, etc) is NOT brought forward to the web page. To avoid adopting the formatting of the source, just do the following:
- if available, always start with a "print friendly" version of web pages
- swipe/copy the text you want from the source
- open Notepad via right mouse on Desktop, New, Text Document
- paste our text into Notepad
- select all Notepad text (cntl-a)... copy
- now move to your new web page in the CMS system... paste (this will paste all the text without any formatting)
- to double check, you can click the Source icon in CMS to verify that that are not a bunch of html tags (e.g. <font size="2">, <span style>, etc.)
- Login to the CMS (see top of this Primer)
- click Edit at the top of the article
- edit or add to the text much as in any word processor
- standard settings to use
- page headers are Format = Heading 2
- subsection headers are Format = Heading 3
- narrative text is Format = Paragraph
- within a line you can use (sparingly) Bold, Italics, and Underline
- use numbered/bulleted lists, indents, and justification as you would in a word processor
- To add images to the page
- in the source document (e.g. Google images, Bonanza article, etc.), click to get a full-size image displayed
- right mouse on the image... Save-Image-As... to somewhere on your local computer (remember location)
- now in the Body of the article you're editing, position your cursor at the beginning of the paragraph where you want the image displayed... click the Insert/Edit Image icon
- to the right of the Image URL field, click the Browse Server icon... at the top of the popup form... check on Upload, click Browse... select the image file from your local computer... Upload... then from the upper table of files, select the desired image file that was uploaded... then Send to FCKEditor... before sending, you may want to create a thumbnail via:
- don't use the Thumbnail command in the image browser as it doesn't maintain proportions properly
- instead select the full-size image, click Resize
- enter only the Height (e.g. 160)... put the cursor in the Width field and it will calculate the proper width to maintain proportions
- click the Resize button
- select the resized thumnail, Send to FCKEditor
- Border = 1... VSpace = 4... HSpace = 4... Align = Right
- (if you want thumbnail to link to full image) swipe the URL field... right mouse Copy
- OK off the form
- to link the thumbnail to the full image... select the thumbnail... Insert/Edit Link icon... put your cursor in the Link URL field... right mouse Paste... click on the Target tab, pull down Target to New Window (this allows the visitor to click on the thumbnail in your article to get a full-size graphic in a new window)
- To edit or replace an existing image... select the image, click on the Insert/edit image icon... and do much the same as was done in the previous major bullet
- Proofread your page carefully
- To save your work (early and often!), scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save button.. or click View at the top of the page if you want to discard your changes
- Proofread the live version carefully
- Find a "printer friendly" version of a news article, e.g.:
- tahoebonanza.com
- Search for "EV-Village"
- select the desired article
- click on the Print icon at the top... Cancel the printing
- Login to the CMS (see top of this Primer)
- from the right menu area, click Create Content... News
- swipe/copy/paste from the article title into Title
- in the Body block
- type in the name of the publication (e.g. North Lake Tahoe Bonanza:) and Bold it
- swipe/copy/paste the all the text from the source article (or Notepad) into the Body block
- example:
North Lake Tahoe Bonanza: For more than 15 years, Project XYZ has put food on the tables of families in need through its weekly food distributions. A new program which may become a model in the region for social services, gets to the heart of the hunger problem...
- To add images to the page, see Editing an Existing Page above
- If the press article was authored by a particular person (rather than staff reports), then go to the bottom of the Body block and enter the author's name and title, and right-justify.
- Proofread your page carefully
- enter the date of the news article by opening Authoring Information (near the bottom of the page) and enter the date (e.g. 2008-07-21) in the Authored On field.
- To save your work (early and often!), scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Submit button ... or click View at the top of the page if you want to discard your changes
- Proofread the live version carefully
- Login to the CMS (see top of this Primer)
- from the right menu area, click Create Content... Page
- enter a Title (e.g. "The Supreme Supremacy")
- select a Product_category (e.g. electric_moped)... this will automatically cause your new product to show up on the appropriate product category page
- enter the Body as you described above in Edit an Existing Page
- Login to the CMS (see top of this Primer)
- from the right menu area, click Create Content... News (an Event is simply a News item at a future date)
- enter a Title and Body for the event
- enter the date of the event by opening Authoring Information (near the bottom of the page) and enter the date (e.g. 2008-08-15) in the Authored On field.
- To save your work (early and often!), scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Submit button... or click View at the top of the page if you want to discard your changes
- Proofread the live version carefully
A Testimonial is merely a special type of News article. Follow Creating a News Article, but simply use the pull-down menu below Title to pick "testimonial".