How To Edit Pages

If you have a password you can edit this web site. It's easy - you don't need any software installed on your computer other than the web browser you're using now.

This tutorial is split into six chunks, ten minutes each. You can do them all at once in about an hour, or one at a time as and when you feel like it. Take it easy, and relax - you can always ask for help!

The site has a 'test page' called the Sand Box. This is a 'safe' page you can mess about with, test your formatting ideas and create links. It may be in a mess when you arrive, but that's okay - just delete the text and start again!

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1. Getting started (10 minutes)

The editing system is quick to learn and easy to remember: Once you're logged in you'll see a toolbar at the top of every page with an 'Edit' link. Click that, change the text and click 'Save.'

• Sign in via the link at the bottom left of any page. Your signin name should be entered as a Link Word (upper & lower case words JoinedTogether) eg Angela Kershaw (contact the Site Administrator if you need a password).
• To edit any page click on the Edit link in the grey toolbar at the top of the page (you must be logged in to see the toolbar).
• To change a page alter the text in the box. Click the 'Preview' button and see how the page looks. Once you're happy, click the 'Save' button and you've updated the web page.
• Click the 'Edit' link at the top of this page and have a look at how this page's formatted text.

You can try editing a real page by visiting the Sand Box. Go there now, edit the text, preview & save your changes. You can't do any harm. To get back here use the 'Help Pages' link in the navigation (or underneath the editing box).

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2. Basic formatting (10 minutes)

The site uses a few simple text rules to create headings, bold, italic, links, etc, so:

• you don't have to learn html to create/edit web pages
• you don't need 'HTML' software, just a web browser
• you can edit the site from any computer with web access
• limited formatting helps keeps the emphasis on quality content, not presentation

! Big heading: start line with a single exclamation mark

!! Smaller heading: start line with two exclamation marks

!!! Smallest heading: start line with three exclamation marks

• !, !! or !!! at the beginning of a line creates large, medium & small headings
• Add italics by surrounding words with two single apostrophes on either side.
• Create bold text by using two underscores on either side.
• Use both for bold italics.
• Create a list of bullet points by using an asterisk * at the start of each line (no blank lines between items)
• NB: The formatting rules are summarised at the bottom of every editing screen for easy reference as you work on a page

Try these out in the Sand Box. Come back when you're ready.

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3. Advanced formatting (10 minutes)

• To have plain monospaced font, indent each line with a space. (You may see this by accident if you copy text from Word or similar):

 this text uses
 a monospaced typewriter font.
 handy for quoting computer code

• Leave an extra blank line to separate paragraphs. Examples:

I am a paragraph.

I am a paragraph too. We're just very small paragraphs.

Single line breaks will be ignored. (This is actually broken over six lines, but appears as one long line.)

To break lines for poems
Add two semi-colons to
The end of each line.

• You can get horizontal rules with four or more dashes (hyphens, minus signs) like this:

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Try these rules in the Sand Box. Come back when you're ready.

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4. Linking (10 minutes)

• To create links to other pages just capitalize the words and string them together into a Link Word. Let's say you want to create a page about how Bart Simpson eats worms. All you have to do is capitalize each word and string them together like this:

BartSimpsonEatsWorms

If the page does not exist yet a '+' appears after to the link, inviting you to create the page. If the page does exist, your text will turn into a clickable link. The system will also put spaces before each capital letter, so the link text will read Bart Simpson Eats Worms but still link to a page called 'BartSimpsonEatsWorms'.

• If you cannot recall the title of the page you wish to link to, enter part of its name in the search box on the left of the editing screen and a list of matching pages will open in a new window. Make a note of the name of the page you want, then close the window.
• To link to a page on the web, type the address or copy & paste from your browser eg: http://www.bbc.co.uk

Try making some links in the Sand Box. Come back when you're ready.

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5. Choosing good link words (10 minutes)

• the Link Word becomes the title of the new page, so choose carefully!
• no spaces or punctuation except hyphens '-' and underscores '_'
• put square brackets around page names containing numbers: [IrelandTrip2003]
• be specific enough that your page name won't clash with someone else, or add the year if there's likely to be a similar page next year eg [ChristmasParty2004]
• be general enough that your page name will work as a link in different contexts, not just the sentence you happen to be writing, eg [IrelandTrip2004] not [Good Crack]
• check to see how similar pages have been named. If the page is very general, and applies to more than one year, just the topic under discussion is sufficient [Powerpoint]
• if the page is year group specific, start with eg ClassFour, then the topic, eg [Year Ten Spreadsheets] not just [Spreadsheets] (that 'general' spreadsheets page may well be created later, and can then link to your page)
• pages containing pupil's work should append the content type then the current year, eg [YearEightLordOfTheFliesWork2004], [ClassThreeVictoriansPoems2004]
• the page naming conventions are repeated briefly at the bottom of each editing screen
• Before you begin creating pages, please read the Site Guidelines

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6. Inserting images (10 minutes)

• Below each editing box there's a 'Upload a new file/picture' link. You can use it to send a picture to the web site
• To add an image (files ending in .jpg or .gif) to your page, enter its address (URL) in brackets like this: [http://www.bradfordchristianschool.org.uk/files/acorn.jpg ].

Image URLs not in brackets will just appear as links to the image (good for large images).

Try adding an image in the Sand Box. Come back when you're ready.

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7. Safety Features

Each time a page is changed, an email is sent to the Site Administrator. If there's something wrong with the page, they''ll fix it for you. They may rename your page or rearrange the content to tie in with other pages. This improves site site consistency & helps users find things.

Each page keeps a 'history' of changes, so if you delete something by accident, you can revert back to a previous version. You can even view the differences between two version of a page, so if the Site Administrator has changed something, you can see what they did!

Go on - have a go! -- Mr Kershaw

The complete list of formatting rules are available on the Text Formatting Rules page.

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By the way, if you don't like the size of the text editing window you get, you can change it. See User Preferences.

Related: Help