Primer

Suggest you Print this out first [0] (as an at-your-side reference)

Login to the Content Management System (CMS)

get your username/password from Wayne (waynemcc@wamware.com [1])
login at the Village Guide site... the lower right corner... Login
note: this document is available on the VG site at... lower right 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 VG 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.villageguide.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 this just sets you up for an out-of-date page that you or a colleague will forget to edit.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 assignments change often and therefore we again are setting ourselves up for out-of-date pages.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pages, chances are that when edits come along we'll forget to change the replicated pages and once again we have pages out-of-date.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, let the CMS system 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 VG site
- if you are linking to a page outside the VG web, then have it open in a New Window
- if you are linking to a PDF file (in or outside the VG web), then have it open in a New Window
- if you are linking to a page inside the VG web that does not have the look/feel of the standard VG 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 occasionally some 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 Html icon in CMS to verify that that are not a bunch of html tags (e.g. <font size="2">, <span style>, etc.)

Creating a New Page

Login to the CMS (see top of this Primer)
in the upper right block, click Create Content, Page
enter a page Title
in the Body section, enter 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
scroll down below the Body section and click on URL Path Settings... enter a page name (no blanks, use lower case only), e.g. bestinclinerestaurant
To save your work (early and often!), scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Submit button ... or click Preview at the bottom of the page
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 page 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 icon... at the bottom of the popup form... check on the Create Thumbnails, click Browse... select the image file from your local computer... Upload File... then from the upper table of files(you can sort this table by clicking date, then the latest uploaded images are on top), add the image file that was uploaded... or add the image's thumbnail (sufixed with "_0")
- Border = 1... VSpace = 4... HSpace = 4... Align = Right
- swipe the URL field... right mouse Copy
- Insert off the form
- if you want the thumbnail to link to the full image... select the thumbnail... Edit/insert link icon... put your cursor in the Link URL field... right mouse Paste... remove the "_0" sufix... Target = Open link in 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 the live version carefully

Editing an Existing Page

Login to the CMS (see top of this Primer)
navigate to the desired page... e.g. www.VillageGuide.org/bestinclinerestaurant
click Edit at the top of the article... then proceed much as in "Creatinga New Page" above
Proofread your page carefully
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

Link Your New Page into the VG Website

once you're finished designing and proofing your page, send Wayne (waynemcc@wamware.com [2]) an email with the page address (e.g. www.VillageGuide.org/bestinclinerestaurant)
Wayne will then create the link to your page on the VG homepage