Here are some simple instructions for creating content on this website.

General

I'll go through the items that you see below the box in which you type text. The 'Body' itself has a simple editor module. It is important that you don't paste text that comes from Microsoft Word straight into the box.

Paste from Word

Click on the icon, paste the text into it, and go from there (the facility strips all the superfluous markup that comes with Microsoft products, so that the website receives the text only).

Disable rich-text

You don't need this.

Input format

Again, you don't need this.

Audience

It is important that you are aware of this function.

By default, these pages are NOT visible to visitors to this website. You will have to be logged in and be a member of Squeaky Wheels (member in the sense of belonging to this group on this website - I can add people to it) before you can see these pages. Therefore, this is a safe forum for sharing ideas etc without anybody not belonging to this group being party to your discussions etc.

Audience is where you influence this. When you create items from within the Timaru Core group, the audience is set to <Timaru Core>. It is this function that keeps this visible for the subscribers to this group only. If you tick the box <Public>, the item becomes visible on the publicly accessible part of the site. It is then listed together with the items from Spokes Canterbury. Your group will get its own site later in 2008, until then, you will have to share public pages with Spokes.

Log message

If you want to record what you change on a page, or why, write it down here.

Menu settings

Please do not use this function.

URL path settings

You don't need this, but can use it if you want to rationalise URLs. To do so, untick the box and edit the text.

Comment settings

If you want to allow other subscribers to leave comments with an item, choose <Read/Write>.

Site map priority

You don't need this.

File attachments

Use this facility if you want to attach files. Before you do so, edit the file name of the file that you wish to attach so that there aren't any spaces in it (replace spaces with hyphens, say). Otherwise, you get silly looking URL with "%20" it it.

Authoring information

When you create a new item, it adds your user name as the 'author' to it. If you don't want this to happen, delete the user name out of this field.

Publishing options

You don't need this.

Preview & Submit buttons

When you are finished, you can preview the item. Most importantly, hit the <Submit> button when it's all done. If you click away from the page without hitting <Submit>, you haven't saved the work and it hasn't been published.

Creating Content

Newsletter

Click on the 'Create Newsletter Issue'. Give it a title (e.g. Timaru Squeaky Wheels May 08 newsletter), and choose the 'Squeaky Wheels' newsletter from the dropdown box. All the Timaru contacts are subscribed to this newsletter.

Write the newsletter. Remember to use the <Submit> button when done.

The beauty of creating the newsletter online is that all the subscribers to the Timaru Core group can see what has already been written, and can contribute to it. If you see something that you wish to amend, just go to the <Edit> tab and go for it.

Try out the <Revisions> tab. It is like a track changes function. You can compare different versions of the newsletter by choosing 'diff' for different versions. The facility will show you the differences.

I have disabled the facility that allows you to send the newsletter. Sorry, but since Spokes Christchurch uses the same facility and I don't want to have wrong stuff go out to 1,000 Spokes members, please send me an e-mail when your newsletter is ready and I will send it on your behalf: axel@viastrada.co.nz

Create an item for the Timaru front page

Choose <Create Story> from the menu on the right. Give it a title and a body. Submit. Done.

Publish an item on the public page

Choose <Create Story> as above. Expand the item <Groups>. Tick the <Public> box . Done. This item will now appear together with the public items of Spokes Canterbury.

Create an item on its own page

You would not normally create a new page, but rather create stories as per the above. But it's possible by choosing <Create Page> from the menu on the right. Give it a title and a body. Submit. Done.