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Using Macromedia Contribute to create and edit pandora website pages

• Logging on
• Websites for which you can create and edit content
• Archiving existing pages before editing
• Editing pages
• Saving, reviewing and publishing edited pages
• Draft Console
• Creating new pages
• Naming new files
• Adding a new file to a sub-directory
• Creating links
• Creating anchor points
• Editing breadcrumb trails
• Checking spelling

Logging on

After Contribute has been installed on your PC there should be a shortcut icon on your desktop. Click on this to open Contribute.

If the shortcut is not there you will find Contribute at Start – Programs – Macromedia – Macromedia Contribute 3

You will be prompted for your Username and Password. These are the same as for your LAN login

Websites for which you can create and edit content

When you log on to Contribute you should see the websites which you have access to listed in the main Contribute window where it says “Begin editing my websites”.

Listed here should be PandasDelivery. This provides access to all the static pages on the pandora.nla.gov.au domain (i.e. not the main index.html page or TEPs or subject listings which are dynamically generated from PANDAS) .

If PandasDelivery is not listed here, contact the DAS Contribute Coordinator.

Archiving existing pages before editing them

Some pages on the PANDORA web site that are important publications will need archiving before you change them. This will be the case for example with the Selection Guidelines. If the document's contents are created outside Contribute (e.g. in Word) this should be filed on TRIM. For those documents already on the PANDORA site that require archiving, these can be put in the /archived/ directory on the PANDORA site and a link created to point to them. For and example of this see the PANDORA NLA Selection Guidelines.

The procedure for archiving existing PANDORA pages is as follows:

1. Confirm with the PANDORA web pages owner (Director Digital Archiving) whether the page should be archived
2. Advise the PANDORA Contribute Coordinator (Supervisor, DAS) of the page that needs archiving before editing the page
3. The PANDORA Contribute Coordinator will place a copy of the file in the /archived/ folder
4. When the file has been copied to the /archived/ folder you can then begin to edit the file

 

Editing PANDORA static web pages

Because the PANDORA website is already functional, you are probably more likely to do more editing of pages than creating new ones. Editing is also a simpler process than creating new pages.

To edit a page you firstly need to find it. The best way to find the page is to navigate (browse) to it.

1. Click on the PandasDelivery link. This will take you to the About PANDORA page. (Nb. It does not take you to the main PANDORA page, index.html, because that is not a static page and cannot be edited through Contribute.)
2. Now, just browse through to the page you want, as if you were browsing the live site.
3. When you are on the page you want to edit, click Edit Page (you will find this at the top left hand corner of window displaying the page).
4. After clicking Edit Page the page is redisplayed in Edit mode. Now it is just a matter of editing the content.

Points to note:

• Contribute is a purely WYSIWYG editor. You cannot edit the source code or see the HTML tags.
• Basic formatting is based on page templates for the particular website.
• When you are in Edit mode the page will look pretty close to the way it appears on the live site, but some formatting and ‘includes’, like the side menu, will not appear.
• Contribute is intended just for editing content. This includes basic formatting such as headings, adding links, anchor points, tables, lists, emphasis (bold etc) and alignment. All these options appear above the Edit screen and look much like the typical word-processing layout. Those that look familiar are used in the same way as you have used them before.
• You CANNOT add images! This is a major shortcoming, but the reason is that Web Services wish to maintain control over the quality of images. If a new image needs to be added, contact the DAS Contribute Coordinator.
• If you prefer, rather than browse to the page you want you can put the file name in the address box at the top of the window displaying the web page. The pages are editing on the development version of the site, so the address will appear like this: http://pandora-devel/manuals.html

Saving, Reviewing and Publishing an Edited Page

On the menu bar above the Edit window you will see options to Send for Review, Save for Later and Cancel.

Save for Later

Use this option if you have not finished editing the page yet. You will be able to go back and further edit the page through your Draft Console (see below).

Send for Review

Once you have finished editing the page you need to send it for review prior to having the page published.

1. Click on the Send for Review button and a pop-up window will appear listing all the people to whom you are able to send the draft.
2. Select the Contribute user you want to send the draft to
3. Click the Send button.

Points to note:

• All draft pages should go to the DAS Contribute Coordinator (not to Webmarkup – the Coordinator will forward the draft to Webmarkup).
• Before sending the draft to the DAS Contribute Coordinator you may want to send it to someone else in DAS to proof or approve. Just select that person.
• If you want to review the changes yourself and find that you cannot do this adequately in the Edit screen, you can send the draft for review to yourself. Just select your name from the list. You can then access the draft through the Draft Console (see below) and review the edited page as it will appear on the live site. You can then chose to either edit the page further, cancel the edit altogether, or send it on for review (e.g. to the Coordinator).

Cancel

If you do not wish to keep the draft changes you have made, just click the Cancel button.

Publishing

The DAS Coordinator will forward the edited page on to Webmarkup who will publish the page on the live PANDORA site.

Draft Console

The Draft Console is use to manage your editing and reviewing. It lists pages you are currently editing and those sent to you for reviewing. It also lets you see the status of drafts that you have sent on for reviewing and publishing.

To go to the Draft Console click on the link at the bottom of the Pages window (the top small window to the left of the page). If this is not visible, you can get to the Draft Console from the View menu, or click Ctrl+Shift+D

Point to note:

• If you are viewing the Draft Console and you wish to go back to browsing the PANDORA pages to do more editing, go to the View menu – Home Pages – PandasDelivery. NB: There is also a link to Home Pages on the menu bar at the top of the Draft Console window.

Creating New Pages

To create a new PANDORA page you should use one of the PANDORA templates or copy an existing page.

1. Click on New Page on the menu bar at the top the Contribute browse/edit window (or select File – New Page from the main menu bar or Ctrl+N).
2. A New Page window will open. From here you chose the template you want to use. There are two options, but as far as I can tell they are both the same. So just chose Main Template.
3. Before you click OK, you must name the page. This is NOT the file name, this is the the title that will appear on the browser title bar. In order to keep this consistent use this format: Pandora Archive – The Specific Page Title
4. Now click OK

You can now add content to the page. Either type it in or you can copy and past from and existing document (for example, you may have drafted the content in Word).

Naming the new file

When you send the page for review (and remember this can be to yourself), you will be prompted to give the page a file name. Keep the file name meaningful, simple and do not include any spaces or strange characters in it!

When naming the file you can also chose which sub-directory the new file should be put under.

1. Click on Send for Review
2. Choose the reviewer to send it to
3. Click the Send button
4. You will now be prompted to name the file and specify the directory you want to save the file in

Adding the new file to a sub-directory

On the PANDORA site most pages are under the top level, however there are sub-directories for manuals, for example, and if you are creating new pages you may need to create a new subdirectory. For instructions about saving files in a sub-directory see 'Naming the new file' above.

Tips:

• If you are adding a new page to an already existing subdirectory, navigate to a page in the directory where you want the new page to go before you create the new page. From any page within the subdirectory follow the procedures for creating a new page. This will automatically create the new page in that sub-directory.
• You can create a copy of an existing page as the template for a new page. Navigate to the page you want to copy, select New Page and then, instead of selecting a template, select the option “Copy of Current Page”.

Creating Links

1. Highlight the text you want to form the link.
2. Right click the mouse and choose Insert Link
3. In the box labeled HREF, add your link. If you cannot see this box, click on the Advanced button at the bottom of the window.
4. Click OK

Points to note:

• When linking to other pages in PANDORA use relative links. If linking to other NLA web pages or external web pages use the full absolute link.

Creating Anchor Points

1. Put the cursor where you want to insert the anchor point (i.e. the place you want to link to).
2. On the top menu bar go to Insert – Section Anchor (or Ctrl+Alt+A)
3. The Section Anchor box will appear. Type in the name you want to give the section anchor (do not use numbers or other non-alphabetical characters).
4. Now highlight the text that you wish to link from.
5. Right click the mouse and select Insert Link
6. In the Window where it says “Select a page to link to” make sure the page is highlighted. In most cases, if you are creating anchors it will be the current page you are editing.
7. Then, from the Section anchor drop-down box select the anchor you wish to link to (if you can’t see the Section anchor box.

Editing breadcrumb trails

This can be a little tricky. When you hold the mouse over the breadcrumb trail you will see a circle with a slash through it indicating that this is a particular 'region' of the page. If you try and click you will see the cursor does not stay in the region for editing purposes. There are some tricks you can use to get the cursor into the trail to edit it. The simplest is to use the direction arrows to navigate the cursor into the trail.

The other important thing to note in regard to editing breadcrumb trains is the style formatting. The final entry in the trail is the page you are on and this should use the 'selectedTitle' style. The preceding entries, which are separated by a right arrow '>', use the style labeled 'home' rather than 'bodylink'. The reason for this is so that the breadcrumb trail links are not underlined.

Once these peculiarities are understood, editing breadcrumb trails uses the same techniques as for editing/adding and other text with links.

Checking Spelling

There is a spell checking function in Contribute under Format on the top menu. Or use the F7 function key .

 

Last updated: June 05 2018 03:41:57.