Chapter 3.3 - Administering Web Pages

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Although there are other ways of managing web site content within this system, the Codewriters "Simply Better Editing Tool", is the easiest and most powerful way for both non-technical and technically advanced administrators to create and manage content in both the Public and Members Only areas of the web site. It has been frequently stated by many users after first experiencing the tool, "It can't get much easier than that." But that doesn't keep us from trying. There are four distinct, yet complementary ways of editing or creating new web pages and web page content with the tool.

The first and most intuitive way to manage content using the tool is to create or edit content by typing directly into the white box, then format the text using the built-in editing tools. (see figure 9) The Question Mark icon button on the far right of the toolbar pops up a help window detailing the functions of the tool bar buttons. Of particular note is the second icon from the right. This icon, with the chain link, creates a web site hyperlink to another site by highlighting text to be linked with the mouse. A box pops up when the icon is clicked requesting the website address to link to. When you click "Insert Link", the text you highlighted will be hyperlinked to the web address you chose.

Figure 10

Also of particular interest is the third icon from the right. This icon allows you to upload "web compliant" images (.gif or .jpg files) to your own image library on the server, and add them to your web page. When the icon is clicked, a box pops up.

Figure 11

To upload a new image, click New Image, then click the Browse button, which pops up the standard Windows file selection box displaying your local system. Select a gif or .jpg file from your local system, click Open, then click the Upload button. The file name you selected will appear in the right side of the pop-up box. Select the image you uploaded, or another from your collection of previously uploaded images, and hit the Insert button. Your image will then appear in the editor window, where you can move it or even resize it.  

The second, and in the opinion of many, most fun way to create pages, is to copy web pages from another web site and paste them right in the editor. Of course you should be careful not to copy material you do not have permission to copy. To do this you can, while still on the page with the editing tool open, click the "FILE" menu button in the top left corner of your web browser, then click "NEW" then "WINDOW". A new browser window will open (often overlaying your current window) containing the same page you just were on (sometimes this can look like nothing happened). Type in the web address of the page you want to copy from, select what you want to copy with your mouse, and copy (CTRL + C). Then minimize the browser window. You will then be looking at the editor window. Click your cursor where you want to paste the content, then hit the paste icon, or just hit CTRL + V. The page from the other site appears in all its glory in your editor window. It is possible, however, that the images were not all transferred and appear as boxes with small x's in them. This happens if the other web site used "relative links". No matter, it's easy to get the images. It's just another few steps, but powerful ones to know anyway.
Surprisingly, perhaps, you can upload any image from any web site you see with one right click and a left click. RIGHT click on the image you want to use from another web site (good for getting sponsor images), choose "save picture as" then save to a place on your hard drive. You can then use the third icon from the right in your editor to upload the image from your machine to the web server, as described previously in this section.  

The third way to manage content is to drag and drop, or copy and paste content directly from Microsoft Word into the editor window. This technique is quick and easy, and is appropriate for large documents you have previously created and wish to put up on your site easily. Although this is a good method, there are occasionally some problems that can occur with this method when complicated word documents are converted. For example, when MS Word converts to web format, it converts Enter key commands into new paragraphs, causing double line spaces where forced single line spaces were previously entered. To create forced single line feeds in the tool, the trick is to hold down the shift key and hit enter.
 
The Fourth way to use the editor is to RIGHT click anywhere in the white area and choose to Edit Source. This method is for advanced users only who will know what to do next. Advanced users may also bypass the editor entirely and click the button below the editor for direct source code editing. This option allows unrestricted editing capabilities to advanced users wishing to cut and paste html code into the system.