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Reduce Consumption : Produce Locally

Tutorials

Here are some instructions to help you get started with using some of the features of this site, such as creating your own blog, or posting news articles.

CREATING CONTENT
How to create content on this website - general
How to create a Relocalization News item
How to create a Public Access Bulletin
How to create a Post Carbon Dispatch news item
How to create a blog entry
How to create a new forum topic
How to post a comment

WORKING WITH CONTENT
How to find content items
How to edit content items
How to insert an image into content
How to restore content to a previous version


How to create content, in general

This is a walk-through of the "create content" form. It applies no matter what type of content you're creating - page, news,

image, forum post, blog post, whatever.

Authoring Information
Here you can set whose username shows in the content item's "created by" line.

Options

  • Published - only if this is checked will the content item be visible to non-

    admins.

  • In moderation queue - we don't really use this
  • Promoted to front page - only applies to things that can be seen in the front page

    boxes, such as relocalization news, Julian's blog, and Post Carbon Dispatch items.

  • Sticky at top of lists - don't use this either
  • Create new revision - if this is checked, your changes will be saved as a new

    revision. That's good, because it means you can undo your changes after saving, if necessary. See the section on "

    href="/help/tutorials#contentrollback">How to roll back content to a previous version".

    • User comments

  • Here you can set whether or not users can comment on this item. For pages, it's set by default to

    "Disabled", so they can't comment on the main site pages. For blogs and news, it's set by default to "Read/write", meaning users

    can indeed post comments and view each other's comments. If you want to stop further comments on this item but leave its current

    comments visible, set this to "Read only".

    • Title, Body & stuff

  • Title - the title of the page.
  • Path alias - optional. If you like, you can use this box to create an easy-to-

    find URL for this content item. IE, if you enter "drupalhelp", users will be able to find this item by going to

    http://www.relocalize.net/drupalhelp. If you don't set a path alias, the item will be located somewhere like

    http://www.relocalize.net/node/4923/view. Which is fine too.

  • Body - Required. You have to have SOME content. At the bottom of the Body box is

    a link turns the rich text editor on or off (it says "enable rich text" or "disable rich text"). If you want to paste from

    Microsoft Word, rich text must be enabled. Bear in mind, though, that the rich text editor can't do fancy stuff like forms or

    PHP - so if you use the rich text editor to edit content containing those, they'll get all broken.

    • Images

  • Below the rich text link is an icon that will launch the image-inserter popup. For details on

    using this, see How to insert an image into content.

    • Menu Navigation
    Only fill this out if you want to add the content you're creating to the dropdown menus. If you click on the little box that

    says Menu Navigation, it'll expand to show you the Menu Navigation options:

  • Menu item title - the title that will appear in the menu. When you click on it,

    it'll automatically fill in with the title of the content item. You can make it have a different title in the menu, if you

    want.

  • Parent item - this is where you choose which menu item this one will be a child

    of. For example, if you want to make it a sub-item of "Action > International", select "International" from the Parent Item

    dropdown menu.

  • Weight - optional. You can choose how far up or down this forum will appear in

    its section of the menu. A very low weight (such as -9) would make your new menu item appear near the top of the menu of

    International items; a very high weight (such as 7) will make it appear near the bottom.

    • Attachments

  • Use this if you'd like to attach files from your local computer to this content item. Sadly, you

    have to attach them one at a time - if you want to attach multiple files, you have to hit "Browse", navigate to the file you

    want, hit "Attach", wait for the page to reload, scroll back down to the Attachments section, hit Browse, etc...

    • So now you're at the very bottom of the form. Hit the "Preview" button, to see what you're gonna get.
    If the Preview looks OK, scroll down to the very bottom and hit the "Submit" button; if not, use the form below the preview to

    make some changes, and either Preview again, or Submit.
    Once you hit the "Submit" button, you'll be shown the content item you just created. It's now in the database. To find it

    later, see "How to find content items".


    How to create a Relocalization News item

    You must be logged in.

    1. From the side menu, select "create content > relocalization news".
    2. If you would like this item to appear in the Post Carbon Dispatch section on the home page, make

      sure the "Promote to front page" box is checked.

    3. Fill out the form - see the general "How to

      create content" section.


    How to create a Public Access Bulletin

    You must be logged in.

    1. From the side menu, select "create content > news".
    2. Fill out the form - see the general "How to create content" section.


    How to create a Post Carbon Dispatch news item

    You must be logged in as an admin. If you're not an admin, as Mack or Zoe to make you one.

    1. From the side menu, select "create content > feature".
    2. If you would like this item to appear in the Post Carbon Dispatch section on the home page, make sure the "Promote to front page" box is checked.
    3. Fill out the form - see the general "How to create content" section.


    How to create a blog entry

    You must be logged in.

    1. From the side menu, select "create content > blog entry".
    2. Fill out the form - see the general "How to

      create content" section.

    3. The new blog entry will appear on your blog. To view it, select "my blog" from the side menu.


    How to create a new forum topic

    You must be logged in.

    1. From the side menu, select "create content > forum topic".
    2. From the "Forums" dropdown, select which forum you want this topic to appear in.
    3. Fill out the form - see the general "How to

      create content" section.


    How to post a comment

    If you're posting a comment as an anonymous user - ie, without logging in - your comment won't appear right away. It'll be

    subject to moderation by the site administrators.

    1. On any article or blog entry where commenting is permitted, you'll see a "Post New Comment" form at

      the bottom.

    2. Fill out the comment form, and hit the "Preview comment" button to see how it will look.
    3. If you're happy with the way the preview looks, scroll down and hit the "Post Comment" button.


    How to find content items

    Obviously, if you remember the path alias of the new content item, or if you put it into the dropdown menu, you can find it that

    way.
    To search: From the side menu, select "administer > content".
    From here, you can:

  • just scroll down the list of content items and look for it that way. If the content item you're

    looking for was created recently, it's probably at the top of the list. OR...

  • search by title and body. Click on the "search" tab, enter your search terms, and hit

    "Search".


    • How to edit content

    You must be logged in. Unless you're an admin, you can only edit content that you created yourself.

    1. Find the piece of content you want to edit - see "href="/help/tutorials#contentfind">How to find content items".
    2. Click on "edit".
    3. The form for editing content is the same as the form for creating content. See the general "href="/help/tutorials#createcontent">How to create content" section.
    4. NOTE - to avoid accidentally messing up your work, make sure the the "Create new revision" checkbox

      is checked before you hit "Submit", so that your changes can be reversed if necessary.


    How to insert an image into content

    1. Make sure the enriched text editor is enabled, and then click on the funky little logo below the

      enriched text editor box.

    2. A popup will appear with a few different panes.
    3. The top left pane contains three options - "add image", "my images", and "all images".
      • If you've used this popup to work with this same image before, it will be there in "my

        images".

      • If the image has been uploaded to the website by you or anyone else, it will be somewhere in the

        "all images" list.

      • If you want to upload a new image from your computer, click on "add image". That will let you

        browse to the image and upload it. You must enter a title. Optionally, you can give the image a Path alias to make it easy to

        find later, and a Description, which will appear below it as a caption when you insert the image into your content. Scroll down

        to the bottom and hit "Submit". Your image is now uploaded, and will be available in the "my images" area.

      • Click on the image you want to use, scroll down to the bottom of the popup and hit "Insert Image".

        Now the popup will disappear, and you'll see your image inserted into the content.


    How to roll back content to a previous version

    You must be logged in. Unless you're an admin, you can only revert content that you created yourself.

    1. Find the content item (see "How to find content

      items").

    2. At the top of the page, there are four tabs - "view", "edit", "revisions", and "track". Click on

      "revisions".

    3. You'll be shown a list of all the revisions that have been created. Each one is marked with the

      date and the name of the person who made that change. You can click "view" to see each revision. Once you've decided which

      revision you want to restore, click on "roll back".

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