Contribute Manual · · Using Templates with Contribute Navigating to web pages Creating a new page from a Template o Editable Regions o Optional Regions Editing existing web pages Editing page elements not in editable areas Using Cascading Style Sheets in Contribute Adding Word and Excel documents to a website Working with tables in Contribute Making hyperlinks with Contribute Adding an image to a page Adding keywords and a description for a page Saving Drafts Canceling a draft or new page Publishing Your Page · · · · · · · · · · · Using Templates with Contribute How templates work A developer makes a template in Dreamweaver by creating a page and adding content that he/she wants to be present on all pages that use the template. A simple template might only contain a table with the logo and a background color for the page. A more complex template may have a full navigation system in place, additional content across the top of the page, and a footer containing copyright information along the bottom. The power of templates, though, lies in the various methods of editing or modifying certain sections of the page. The template creator picks certain areas of the template that should remain editable or optional, and users who make pages from this template will only be able to edit (and add) the content in those specific areas. For Contribute administrators who want more information about how to create a template in Dreamweaver MX, please see the Additional information section at Macromedia's website. For a more detailed user manual, download Macromedia's Using Contribute Manual (PDF), and visit Contribute Support Center. Navigating to web pages The easiest way to find a web page you want to edit is to browse to the page in Contribute, just as you would browse to a page in any web browser. You can use the address bar in the Contribute window just as you would an Internet Explorer or Netscape browser window address bar. Viewing drafts and new pages Drafts you are currently editing, and new pages you've created but haven't published yet, appear in the Pages panel. You can also access these pages using the File menu. To view a draft or new page, do one of the following: · · Click the draft or new page title in the Pages panel in the sidebar. Select File > Drafts, then select a page from the popup menu. Adding a page to your bookmarks You can add any web page ­ not just pages in websites you've connected to ­ to your bookmarks list. To add a page to your list of bookmarks: 1. Browse to the page you want to add to your bookmarks list. 2. Select Bookmarks > Add Bookmark from the menu. The Add Bookmark dialog box appears. 3. If you want to change the name of the bookmark, enter a new name in the Name text box. This is the name that appears in your bookmarks list. 4. If you want to add the page to a folder, click an existing folder name or click New Folder to add a folder. 5. Click OK. Creating a new page from a template 1. In Contribute, choose File > New Page. 2. In the New Page window, there will be a list of templates available to you for creating a new page. Create a new page by clicking on a template from the templates folder. Note: If the needed template does not show up in the templates folder, click the Refresh Templates button. 3. After you have selected the name of the template you would like to use, you will see what the blank template looks like in the preview pane to the right. 4. Specify a title for the page in the page title field. Page Tile should be in the format: Page Title: Department Name: Indiana University click OK to make the page. Editable Regions An editable region is a space on the templatebased page in which you can put in content. This is the most common template feature that you will be using. In Contribute, a basic editable area looks like the image below. The light blue/green outline defines the editable region. In this example, both the Department Name area and Content area are outlined in blue/green and therefore are editable. In Contribute, you will only be able to add content within these areas. Optional Regions You can enable optional regions by clicking on Template Properties link. Select optional region, check Show, and then click ok. Your page will now display the optional right navigation. To hide optional region click on template properties, select optional region, and uncheck Show Region. To edit the right navigation please refer to the Editing page elements not in editable areas section. Editing existing web pages You can edit any pages on your website, as long as you have permission and as long as someone else is not currently editing the page. When you browse to a page, the message area under the toolbar indicates whether you can edit that page. Opening a page for editing To open a page for editing, simply browse to the page or use the Contribute workspace to quickly access special pages. To edit a page: 1. Browse to a page you want to edit 2. Do one of the following: · · Click the Edit Page button in the toolbar. Select File > Edit Page. Editing page elements not in editable areas Contribute enables you to access pages and files associated with your website that you can't browse to. Use the Choose button in the toolbar (after the address bar) to access pages and files that are saved in a website folder, but aren't linked from any page on your website. The most common instance of this will occur when you need to update the footer, left navigation or right navigation. To edit the left navigation: 1. In the Contribute browser or editor, select View > Choose File on Website or click the Choose button in the browser toolbar. The Choose File on Website dialog box appears. 2. To edit the left navigation, doubleclick on the _leftnav.shtml file in the root directory. Include files are identified with an underscore. When you select the file, a preview will appear so that you can be sure you're selecting the correct file. 3. Click OK Using Cascading Style Sheets in Contribute Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a language used in conjunction with HTML to define how a page looks. CSS consists of a set of rules defined by the web developer or designer that tell the browser how to display the page elements. With CSS, you can specify the page layout, font size, type and color, borders and other design parameters. Not only does CSS provide more options for design than HTML, but it also allows developers to manage the look of the entire web site from a central file. Simply change a rule of style and it's automatically applied across the site! Overview of CSS style types There are 3 main types of styles. They are: 1. Custom classes: These are styles that can be applied to specific page elements, such as paragraphs and tables. These can be made available to Contribute users. 2. Redefined HTML tags: These are rules that are defined for specific tags. They are automatically applied to every instance of that tag. For instance, developers can specify that every table on the site will have a 2pixel, red border. Every new table that is made will automatically have that rule applied. 3. CSS Selectors: Selectors are used to specify styles for special combinations of tags. For instance, selectors are used for removing the underlines from links. Like redefined HTML tags, these are applied automatically to every instance of the selector rule. As noted above, custom classes are the only CSS styles available to Contribute users. This is because the other types are already applied globally to the tags. With custom classes Contribute users can select from the list of defined classes and apply them to whatever element they wish. Contribute users cannot create CSS files, but they can use the custom classes that have been linked to the page by the Dreamweaver MX administrator. Once linked to the page in Dreamweaver, the custom classes will be available in the Style dropdown menu. Applying the custom classes To apply a custom class: 1. Highlight the page element to which you would like to apply the style. 2. Click on the Style dropdown menu (shown above) and select the desired style. It will automatically be applied to the selection. Note: The style options are also available in the Format > Style menu. 3. To remove the class, highlight the selection and select None from the Style dropdown menu. Adding Word and Excel documents to a website With Contribute you can easily add Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel documents or content to your website. There are two ways to add Word or Excel content to a web page: · · Add the contents of a Word or Excel document to a new or existing web page (recommended for smaller documents, under 300K when converted to HTML) Insert a link to Word or Excel document on an existing web page (recommended for larger documents, over 300K when converted to HTML) Adding Word or Excel content to a page You can add the contents of a Word or Excel document to a new or existing web page. When you add content to a page, Contribute converts the content to HTML and copies it to your web page. You can edit the content in Contribute changes you make to the original file on your computer will not appear on your website. To add the contents of a Word or Excel document to a new or existing web page: 1. Do one of the following to select the page where you want the content to appear: · Browse to an existing web page, click the Edit Page button, then place the insertion point in the draft where you want to add the content. · Create a new page 2. Do one of the following to select the file: · Drag the file from its current location to your Contribute draft where you want the content to appear. If the Insert Microsoft Word or Excel Document dialog box appears, click Insert the contents of the document into this page, then click OK. · Select Insert > Microsoft Word Document or Insert > Microsoft Excel Document. In the Open dialog box, browse to the file you want to add, then click Open. The content of the Word or Excel document appears in your draft. Inserting a link to a Word or Excel document You can insert a link to a Microsoft Word or Excel document in an existing page. When you publish the page with the link, Contribute copies the Word or Excel document into your website, and then links to that copy (not to the original file on your computer). To create a link to a Word or Excel document: 1. Browse to an existing page where you want the link to appear, then click the Edit Page button in the toolbar. 2. Do one of the following to select the file: · Drag the file from its current location to your Contribute draft where you want the link to appear. If the Insert Microsoft Word or Excel Document dialog box appears, click Create a link to the document, then click OK. · Place the insertion point in your draft where you want the link to appear, or select text or an image of the draft, then click the Link button in the toolbar and select File on My Computer. Enter link text, browse to the file you want to link to, then click OK. A link to the Word or Excel document appears in your draft. Working with tables in Contribute Table Basics Macromedia Contribute makes using tables easy and intuitive, but it's good to have an understanding of table terminology so that you can build tables quickly and use all available tools. Tables consist of rows and columns. The number of rows and columns define the number of cells in the table. Cells are the individual units or boxes in the table. All content is inserted into the cells. You can define a table with any number of rows and columns, and have the flexibility to add, subtract and merge cells together. Contribute has a variety of ways of creating and editing your tables. Tables also have properties that define the look and layout. · · · · Border The line that surrounds the outside of the table. This can be set to any size or none at all, but 13 pixels is standard. Border colors can also be set. Cell Padding This is the amount of space between the actual content of the cell and the cell border. This property can affect the layout of content within a cell. Cell Spacing This is the amount of space between the borders of the cells. Table Header A header is a row that is used to distinguish columns or rows. If you have a table of addresses, the header is the row that specifies the Name, Address, Phone, etc... Headers are usually made bold. Background color Background colors can be set for the whole table or for individual cells. · Creating a Table Creating a table in Contribute is easy. 1. Put the cursor at the point in the document where you want to insert the table. 2. Click the Table button in the toolbar (Ctrl + Alt + T). This following dialog box will appear. 3. ...