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Help with Basic Contribute Content

Getting to Know Contribute

Once you activate your key, you will be directed straight to the page(s) you have control over. When you exit Contribute and come back, all you have to do is click the link that appears in this dialog box.

Instead of Unnamed Connection 1 it will list your connection to your content area.

Now that you know how to get to your page(s), let’s learn what you can do to them. The first thing to do is to get familiar with the program itself. The next image labels the most important features within the window.

1. Edit Page – this copies a draft to your computer to edit without messing with the live version until you publish.
2. Internet Navigation Bar – navigates through the pages just like an Internet browser.
3. Address – address of current page you are working on.
4. Content Area – area you have control over to add content.
5. Navigation Bar – area you will not have control over but can be adjusted by the Website Committee.
6. Banner – area you will not have control over but can be adjusted by the Website Committee.

As you can see your pages are split up within the template to include a banner, navigation bar, and content area. By only allowing the Website Managers to control the banner and navigation bar, we incorporate continuity among all of the web pages on the North Arkansas College web site.

The next image labels the most important features within the window after clicking Edit Page.

1. Publish – this publishes your changes straight to the live version.
2. Send for Review – this sends your changes to the Website Committee to proof-read for you before going live.
3. Save for Later – this saves your draft to your computer to continue working on later before you publish.
4. Cancel – this ignores all of your changes and reverts back to the current live version.
5. Editing Toolbar – includes font, font size, bold, italic, text alignment, numbers, bullets, etc.
6. Content – notice that the content area is outlined in a greenish box. This box will grow with your content without effecting the outer pieces of the template.

Now it is your turn to get familiar with Contribute. You will each be given a Practice Page to explore on.

• Click on your Practice Page # off to the left.
• Look around the window and locate all of the labeled items.
• Click Edit Page.
• Once again, look around the window and locate all of the labeled items.
• Click Cancel.

Now for the real stuff!

Editing Your Page

Now that you know your way around, let’s edit something! Notice that on the navigation bar the pages are indented in different ways. This is to illustrate that some of the pages you will be editing in your department may be subpages.

Basic Text

• Select the proper page from the navigation bar that you have been assigned.
• Click Edit Page.
• Let’s start with some simple text.
• Type the following passage (just something cute), or some of the material you may have brought with you, into the content area. I have centered the text in my example. (Remember, if you have text in electronic form, you can use copy and paste.)

Bill Grogan’s goat

Was feelin’ fine

Ate three red shirts

Right off the line

 

Bill took a stick

Gave him a whack

And tied him to

The railroad track

 

The whistle blew

The train drew nigh

Bill Grogan’s goat

Was doomed to die

 

He gave three groans

Of awful pain

Coughed up the shirts

And flagged the train

• Click Publish.

Now you can see your “finished” product as it appears live on the website.

Hyperlinks

Some of you may or may not know what a hyperlink is. A hyperlink is when text or an image on the Internet can be clicked on to “jump”, in a sense, to another page or material. One example may be that while reading an article, some of the less known words/topics are underlined and a different color. When you click on them, they take you to a definition or more detail about that word/topic.

We can include this simple link in any of our content text to direct users to other pages. An example could be the description of the Business and Technical Division’s programs with links to the pages containing their degree plans from the registrar’s office.

To get a better idea of how this works, let’s create a hyperlink. The easiest way is to type the text first. We will take our cute text and link the words Bill Grogan’s goat to the welcome page of the training pages. Notice when you entered the Contribute training pages you first came to the welcome page; the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) was http://150.208.77.3/training/index.htm.

• Select the text Bill Grogan’s goat.
• Click Insert link at the top of the window.
• Select Browse to Web Page…

• You will see a dialog box containing an area to type the above web address.

• Type in http://150.208.77.3/training/index.htm
• Click OK.
• Now you will notice that your selected text is a different color and underlined.
• Select Publish and then click on the link.
• Did it go to the opening page?

You can do this with any page, any text or image. If you need any help with this concept please contact a Website Manager.