Contents
Text editor
Style guidelines
Cautions
Save
Bold, italic
Paragraph alignment
Lists
Indent/outdent
Hyperlink, anchor
Image
Format drop down box
Special characters
Horizontal line
Cut, copy, paste
Paste as plain text
Search, replace
Insert teaser break
Insert page break
Spellchecker
Table
Disable/enable rich-text
Cancel editing
Text editor
The Text editor provides basic word processing functions for the body of web pages. It is used for creating Book pages, Image descriptions and Forum topics.
You can resize the text box by dragging up or down the small line triangle in the bottom right corner of the text box.
Style guidelines
Consistency of style is important for promoting the quality of the site, for ease of use and for readability.
Most styling features are predetermined in the Theme of the web site, for example, fonts, font sizes, font colours, background colours, hyperlink formats, indents, margins, line spacings, justified text, etc.
The Text editor helps you pick up these styles to the best advantage. For example, the Format drop down box can be used to apply the site standard heading and paragraph styles. Likewise standard formats can be applied for indents, dot points and numbering.
Cautions
Your work will be lost if your current editing window is redirected to another web page. This is easy to do accidentally, so get in the habit of saving your work frequently (click Submit at the bottom of the page) and using another tab or window for browsing whilst you are working.
Some functions are not provided by the Text editor because, as already mentioned, they are predetermined by the site theme. Underline is not provided because it conflicts with hyperlinks. Other functions, such as tabs, are not provided because the results are quite unpredictable being very dependent on browser and viewing circumstances.
Do not use multiple spaces to emulate tabs. Because font widths vary from character to character the results will be very unsatisfactory. Insert a Table instead.
Do not switch directly between two styles, eg, dot points and numbered lists. The results are likely be poor and the code could be very tricky to untangle. If you change your mind, Undo, then select the preferred style.
Do not apply two different styles to the same text or over-lapping texts. The results are likely be poor and the code could be very tricky to untangle. If you want to change style turn off the old one before turning on a new one.
Strict html code does not allow empty tags so when headings, paragraphs, table cells, etc, are formed there is a non-breaking space automatically inserted ( - see Special characters below). Depending on where the cursor is when you start typing, the non-breaking space may cause the first line to be indented slightly. It is not necessary to delete the space although you may if you want the best appearance.
Save
The way to save is to Submit the page using the button at the bottom of the page.
Bold, italic
Bold should be used for emphasis.
Italic should be used for a named item such as a building or a ship or, as in this example, the name of an editing button.
Paragraph alignment
The standard style is for paragraphs to align to the left. Align right and centre should be used sparingly, for example, the Contents links as applied on this page.
Switching between different alignments can cause html coding problems so think about it first and do it right first time.
Lists
Use Unordered and Ordered lists to achieve dot points and numbering respectively.
Do not switch directly between the two. To change the list style: select the whole list, disable the active list and then click the alternative list button to achieve what you want.
Indent/outdent
Indent, often in conjunction with Italic, should be used for a Blockquote, eg, a quoted letter or document. Do not apply it twice. Restore the standard paragraph alignment with Outdent.
Hyperlink, anchor
To insert a Hyperlink, type in the full html code of the link such as http://www.shepsplace.net/, select the whole entry, use Ctrl C to copy the text and click the Insert/edit link button. A pop-up window will appear. Place your cursor in the URL box and use Ctrl V to paste the link.
It is a good idea to enter a Title for the link. (This will appear to the end user as a Tool-tip when the cursor hovers over the link.)
Often it is appropriate to open the page in a new browser tab or window. If this is the case set Target to Open link in a new window.
Then click Insert.
For links to pages within http://shepsplace.net/ also enter the full web address. The editor will replace the full address with a relative address which will provide a faster redirection for the end-user.
For bookmarks, ie, links to text within the current page, first insert an Anchor at the target point within your text. Give the anchor a unique name, eg, date_time (only lower case letters and underscore (_) for a space). When you insert the hyperlink the URL should be the anchor name preceded by a hash, eg, #date_time. The linked Contents on this page have been constructed in this way.
Image
Put your cursor at the beginning of the line below which you want the image to appear. Click Add an existing image or upload a new one. A small window will appear.
To insert an existing image: click the Browse images drop down box and select an appropriate folder to show thumbnails you require. As your cursor hovers over each thumbnail its name will appear. Browse through all the images using the numbered navigation links at the bottom of the window. Click on the thumbnail you want. The contents of the window will change. Enter a Title if you want one. This will appear below the image and will show as a tooltip when the mouse is over the thumbnail. Don't enter a Description. Set the Alignment to right (usually best). Leave the Size, Link and Insert mode settings. Click Insert.
To upload a new image: click Upload. This will put a new full
size image on the site under one of the galleries and provide a
thumbnail in your text area which will link to the image. Enter a title
in the format appropriate for the particular gallery. Browse for an
image on your computer which has been properly prepared according to Forums > Website > Preparation of images for upload. Select an image gallery. In the Body section enter a brief description of the image. Leave all other fields except the URL path settings.
Enter a URL in the format gallery/[gallery_name]/[picture_name]. Use
only numbers, lowercase letters, hyphens and underscores. Examples:
gallery/map/1876_east_melbourne_01
gallery/building/elizabeth_street_059-065
Click Submit.
Format drop down box
Use the Format drop down box as your first choice for formatting headings and paragraphs. With your cursor placed within the block of text, select a format from the drop down box. You do not have to select the whole block.
The default is unformatted. The box shows just "--format--". It is necessary to specifically check every block of text to ensure that it is assigned a format, "paragraph" at least.
Heading 1 is used for the page title and is therefore not available from the drop down box. Use Headings 2, 3 and 4 as you see fit. The Address format is left justified, italic, single line spacing.
Special characters
Special characters can be inserted from the editing bar. The pop-up window shows the character as well as the html entities (encodings) for these characters.
HTML entities are recognised by all browsers and distinguish your chosen character from characters which may have another function in html. For example the < and > characters are used to enclose html tags and are therefore represented in normal text by the entities < and > respectively. Entities start with & and end with ; and are often logical enough in their construction to be remembered easily with regular use. Since & (ampersand) is used to precede entities it itself is represented by an entity, &.
You need to be aware of this especially when you enter text in text mode and when you paste text from other documents.
A particular example where you will need to know some entities is when you enter information into the IPTC areas of jpeg picture files.
Key ones you may need to remember are:
| ampersand | & | & |
| less than | < | < |
| greater than |
> | > |
| non-breaking space | | |
| pound | £ | £ |
| copyright | © | © |
| registered trademark |
® |
® |
| trademark | ™ | ™ |
| degree | ° | ° |
Horizontal line
Use Insert horizontal ruler to insert a line which will extend across the body of the page and expand and contract with the window size.
Cut, copy, paste
Cut, Copy and Paste should be used within the editing area. If you want to paste text from an external document use Paste as plain text.
Paste as plain text
If you want to copy text from an external document, select and copy (Ctrl C) the text you want to copy. Place your cursor in the editing window where you want to paste your text. Click Paste as plain text. A small pop-up window will appear. Paste the text into the window (Ctrl V). Click Insert.
The text you have inserted will now have to be formatted. Use the Format drop down box to format blocks and other formatting buttons as you wish.
Search, replace
The Find and the Find/Replace buttons can be used for search and replace.
Insert teaser break
Every bit of content posted to the website has a Teaser and a Body. For a Book page and a Story, the Teaser is made up of the first couple of lines of the Body and is used to summarise the contents of the page in certain situations (eg, the front page and content syndicated to affiliated websites). The teaser is automatically set for a maximum of 400 characters but it is usually best for the author or editor to choose a point for the teaser to end. You should usually start your page with a paragraph summarising the content and when you have finished writing the whole page insert a break at a point of your choosing but no more than 400 characters (say three lines) from the very beginning. Use the Insert teaser break button to insert the break. Do not put in a paragraph break before this point.
Insert page break
You can break up a very long page into one or more pages by using the Insert Page Break button. The best place to put it is usually at the end of a paragraph immediately preceding a new heading.
Spellchecker
Toggle the Spellchecker on and off to initiate a spelling check. Errors are underlined in red. Right click on these words and select from the suggestions. You can't add words to the dictionary. Just click Ignor or Ignore all if words are incorrectly underlined.
Table
This function has been disabled. If you need to insert a table please contact the website administrator.
In Text editor click Insert a new table button. A pop up box appears.
Under the general tab set only:
The number of columns to what you want.
The width to 90%.
Leave all other settings unchanged including everything under the Advanced tab.
Click Insert.
A table appears in the Text editor editing window.
Enter headings in row 1 and make them bold.
Enter the first line of data in row 2.
The column widths will adjust to accommodate the data.
Rows and columns can be inserted or deleted from the editing bar.
Table style
The standard table style in shepsplace.net has no borders but even rows are distinguished by faint shading. To achieve this:
With the cursor in row 1 click on Table row properties. A pop up box appears.
Under the General tab select Class odd.
Leave all other settings unchanged including everything under the Advanced tab.
Then, just above the update button, select Update odd rows in table.
Click Update.
Repeat with the cursor in row 2 except:
Select Class even.
Select Update even rows in table.
Click Update.
Very large tables
Sometimes it is more appropriate to create a new database if the table is big or if the data requires regular updating, manipulation or processing (such as a catalogue of Society documents). In this case the site Administrator will set it up for you. Data entry forms and special page views will need to be set up. If a large amount of data already exists in a table or database it can be imported in bulk leaving only incremental changes to be handled on line.
Disable/enable rich-text
Below the Text editor editing window there is a link labeled Disable rich-text. This enables the Text editor to be toggled off and on. If you click on this the editing bar disappears and the text appears as html code. The label below the window changes to Enable rich-text. For those who know or want to learn something about simple html coding this is very useful for making fine adjustments or for correcting minor coding errors.
An excellent source of web tutorials and references may be found at http://www.w3schools.com/.
When the text editor is disabled the text box is resized by dragging up and down the short lines in the bottom centre of the text box.
Cancel editing
To cancel all of your editing since your last Submit, just go to another web page, eg, use the Go back button at the top left of your browser, or select another page from the menu.