Tutorial

Click below for a short tutorial I wrote for wedin.org. Note that some of it doesn’t work quite the same here yet since I haven’t streamlined the Post/Edit page yet…

Basics

You can get a lot out of the site just by reading the messages that are posted and commenting on them. Note that once you post a comment you won’t be able to change or delete it. Email me or the person that posted the message if you really want a comment changed or deleted. Please let me know if you see any comments you believe are inappropriate.

Sooner or later, you’re probably going to want to share your own messages on the site. To do this, the first thing you’ll need to do is register. After I give you permission you’ll be ready to login and start posting messages. Read on for specifics about these steps and more.

Registering

Click “Register” on the right hand side of the main site. Choose any username you’d like, keeping in mind that it’s gotta be unique. If the one you really really want is taken for some reason, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. Choose a password you’ll remember — you’ll need it to log in and post to the site.

When you first register you won’t be able to post. To keep the site secure, I need to give you permission first. I’ll get an email saying you’ve registered, and if I recognize your email address I’ll ‘enable’ you. This should happen the same day you register, but email me if it doesn’t.

Logging in

Once you’re registered and I’ve given you permission to post, you’re ready to log in. Click “Login” on the right hand side of the main site. Type in the username and password you chose when you registered. You should be taken to the posting page. If the username/password form goes blank, you’ve entered a bad username or password – double-check and try again. Email me if it still doesn’t work – I can reset your password for you.

After you log in the site will remember you and take you straight to the post/edit page without troubling you with logging in, as long as you’re using the same computer, haven’t logged out, and haven’t erased your cookies. If you don’t share a computer, this is convenient and peachy. If you do share a computer, you should probably try to remember to log out when you’re done posting messages so that your little brother doesn’t post embarassing messages to the site as you.

Posting

The posting form will be at the top of the page when you log in. Enter a title for your message in the “Title” blank. Type out your message in the “Message” area. When you’re done, click “Post to site” and your message will be on the site. That’s really all you need to know for now, but I’ll include a few advanced pointers below.

More

If your post is getting a little long you may want only part of it to appear on the main site. To accomplish this, add the following ‘tag’ between the text you want on the main page and the text you want separate:

<!‐‐more‐‐>

Do not copy the above tag! For some reason that results in a messed-up tag that doesn’t work. Either type the tag in yourself, or use the convenient button on the toolbar above the uploader.

Images

There’s a button above the “Message” area with the label “upload a file/image”. When you click it a pop-up uploader will appear. Choose an image to upload. Once your image is uploaded, click the button to insert the image tag code into your message — if you don’t do this your image won’t appear in your message! Close the uploader when you’re done. The image will appear in your message wherever the code is, so go ahead and move it to where you want the image in your message.

The maximum size the uploader will accept is 1 megabyte. However, it will automatically resize images to be no larger than 500 pixels wide or high. This saves space and makes for smoother browsing.

The photo album displays all of the uploaded images, separated into pages of 9 images each. It displays the image names below the images, leaving off the extension and replacing underscores with spaces. If you name your image something like “Isaac_at_the_beach.jpg” it’ll display “Isaac at the beach”.

Links

If you’ve found an especially groovy website, or maybe if you’ve posted some photos elsewhere on the web, you’ll want to share a link in your post. To include a link, you can type it in yourself, including HTML code like the following:

<a href=”http://burpeefamily.org/”>Groovy website!</a>

Or you can use the “link” button above the posting area. That’ll ask you for your URL (such as http://wedin.org/) and a description (like “Groovy website”). Then it will magically add the code to your post for you. You can move the link wherever you’d like it in your message.

Editing and deleting messages

Your previous messages will be listed below the posting area. You can sort them using the little form. Above each post there will be links to “Edit” and “Delete” – these do exactly what you’d expect.

Click “Edit” and your message will appear back in a posting form, ready for you to make changes. For instance, if you forgot to include an image in your message you can go back and do it using the “Edit” link.

If the message is beyond repair, you may want to eliminate it using the “Delete” link. A pop-up message will ask if you’re sure, but after that the message will be gone for good.

Archives

As time goes on and people post messages, older messages will disappear from the main page. Don’t worry, they’re not gone! They’ve just been archived. You can get to the archives by using the links such as November 2003 under Archives on the main page. The search form can also be used to sift through past messages, provided you have some idea what you’re looking for. For instance, searching for “tutorial” will show this message and any others that have mentioned that word.

Permalinks

Since messages are constantly moving around through the archiving process, you might be wondering whether there’s any way to keep track of a single message. For instance, you might want to email someone a link to a message. Or you might want to include a link to someone else’s message in a message of your own. The jargon-licious term for this is “permalink”. There are two types of permalink you can use at wedin.org.

Link to a single message, within an archive:

You’ll notice that a message’s title is a link to the message’s position in the monthly archive. You can copy this link and use it just like it is.

Link to a single message, by itself:

The comments link below a message is also a permalink. You can use it as it is if you don’t mind that it a) shows the comments and b) jumps past the message to the comments. If that annoys you though, just edit the link a little, removing this part from the end: &c=1#comments. That’ll give you a link that just shows the message.

That’s all I can think of now – I’ll add more as it materializes, using the “Edit” link of course. Email me if this just confused you, or if you think of anything I should include here.