Hopefully, all the chapters' website admins have had a chance to log in and set the website contact information. In case you haven't yet, please see my previous WCR blog and do this right away.
The Dashboard
Today we're going to look at the dashboard in your administration panel. This is the first screen that you'll see when you first log in to your admin section. The dashboard displays all editable website content such as pages, links, rosters and member lists, newsletters photo galleries and the number of current calendar events. Basically, you can get to anywhere in the admin section from the dashboard page. Any time you need to return to the dashboard, just click the top link in the left side navigation bar, right under the WCR logo.
First we're going to look at adding and editing the pages of your chapter's website. When it comes to editing, there are two main types of pages in the WCR websites: pages such as photo galleries, newsletters and rosters that are edited by filling in a form; and pages of text and graphic content like the home page or by-laws page that are edited in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing window. The WYSIWYG pages are what we're looking at in this blog.
Page Editing Basics
Let's start by editing the home page. All the editable pages that are currently part of your site are listed in the main section of the dashboard. They're all organized into types of pages. The ones under the heading "Webpages" are the WYSIWYG pages. Let's find the Home page in that list and click the "edit page" link to the right of it. Notice there's no "delete page" link next to the home page. That would be a big problem if someone accidentally deleted their home page.
You should now see all the content; words and pictures that are in the main body of the home page opened in the WYSIWYG editing window. You can change any wording that needs to be updated and format it using the tools across the top, much like formatting a Word document. By default, you'll see a basic set of tools for formatting font size and color, creating bulleted lists and inserting images and links. You can click the "Advanced Editor" link at the bottom of the window to display a bigger toolset. The advanced toolbar includes buttons for making tables, adding horizontal bars, find and replace, and editing the HTML page source instead of using WYSIWYG mode.
Adding Images
Many of the tools will open pop up windows as you use them So you may have to set your pop up blocker to allow pop ups from your site. Let's try adding an image. Click somewhere in the editing window to place the cursor where you want the image to go. Then click the square toolbar button that looks like a picture of a mountain. Click the "Browse Server" button in the pop up window. This should load another window that will show you a list of all the images that are currently loaded on the web server. Click one. It will then display that image in a preview window where you can optionally resize the picture, add "alt text" or align the picture to one side or the other. Click the "OK" button to drop the photo into the page where the cursor was. The picture's not quite where you want it? You can grab it and drag it around the WYSIWYG window and place it where ever you want. Once you have it where you want it, you can right click to edit the image properties in case you want to resize or realign it.
Let's click the image toolbar icon again. This time we're going to upload a picture that's on your computer, not on the server already. Go ahead and click the "Browse Server" button, but don't select an image from the list. Instead go to the bottom of the window and click the "Browse" button. This will open a window where you can find photos in the folders on your computer. Find the image you want to upload and select it. It should now show you the folder and image name on your computer in the box to the left of the browse button. It should look something like this "C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\My Documents\My Photos\picture14.jpg". Then click the upload button to send that image to the web server. Once the image is uploaded, it will show in the list of images with the others that were already on the server. Click to select it from the list and drop it in the page like we did with the other image.
Each Page's Sidebar
In addition to editing the text and graphics on a page, the page editor allows you to select some options for each page of your website. Above and to the right of the editing window, you'll see: Include Sidebar: Left Bar No Bar Right Bar This let's you choose if you want the light blue sidebar to the left or right of your page content, or you can choose to not have the sidebar at all and have a wider content area on your page. Just below those settings, there are options for what you want displayed in the sidebar. You'll have choices of links for page groups and features such as rosters and photo galleries.
If the images you dropped into the home page are supposed to be there, click the big, yellow "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the editing window to save these additions to the home page. If you were just testing with these images, click into another page without saving and your changes will be gone.
Please feel free to try all of these features out and see how they work and how they can help you manage your chapter's website. A great way to try these features out is to click the "New Webpage" link to create a new blank page. Try adding and formatting text and even uploading and inserting some photos. It's all fairly easy when you try it and get used to the tools.
I'll post more help and tips soon.
Have fun with your website!
Dan
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