Contents

• Creating a document
• Adding an image
• Advanced Techniques
  • Formatting your documents
  • External Editor

Creating a document

If you'd like to compose and publish your article quickly, follow the these instructions:

1. Either:
   • print these instructions out and click on the my stuff link at the top of this page,

   or

   • right-click on the my stuff link, and choose the "open in new window" option

   so that you can refer back to these instructions as you proceed.

2. You want to create a new article, so click the new button. Or click on add content in the upper right. add content is visible whenever you are viewing your folder or an object in your folder.
3. Choose to create an Article. If you want to add images to your article you can do that later.
4. For the ID, choose something relevant. If you're writing about Mexico City, perhaps use "mexicocity" as the ID. I prefer to use all lower-case IDs without spaces, as this makes things simpler when writing out or emailing the URL of an article.
5. Click add. This will bring you to the metadata form.
6. Here you specify the country, province/state/region, and town that you will be writing about. You should also briefly summarize your article--though it might be easier to do that later.
7. When you have filled in the fields (you can change them later), press the Save Changes button.
8. That saves your changes. To edit the contents of your article, you will need to press the edit link in the upper right actions box.
9. On the edit form, you can upload HTML (MSWord lets you save documents as HTML--alas, it takes some effort to make them look nice. Let me know if you try to do this.), or type in plain text or structured text.
10. Now you can alternate between uploading, editing, and viewing, until you get something that you like.
11. Don't forget a short (one line is o.k.) summary! (click the metadata action)
12. When you're happy with your creation, click publish.
13. If you have any comments there's a box for them.
14. Click on the Publish this item button.

That's all there is to it!

Adding an image

1. Click on the my stuff link
2. Press the new button on that page. Or click on add content in the upper right. add content is visible whenever you are viewing your folder or an object in your folder.
3. Choose Image and specify an ID (preferably without spaces)
4. As with the Article, specify the country, province, and city where the picture was taken.
5. And add a brief description.
6. Press the Change button to save your changes
7. Press the edit action in the box in the upper right of the page.
8. Press Choose and select an image to upload. Your image should probably not be larger than 25Kb. And it should be in GIF, JPG, or PNG format.
9. Press the Change or Change and View button.
10. In order to include the image in your article, you will need to submit it for publication. Press the Publish action.
11. Add a comment if you like, then click the Publish this item button.

Advanced techniques

Formatting your documents

If you would like to have bold, links, underlines, headers, and so on in your documents, you may paste in HTML created in Word or an HTML editor, write your own HTML, use the *edit (wysiwyg)" option, or use Structured Text.

External Editor

There is another nifty feature that you may not care to bother with, and that is the edit (external) option. If you visit Zope External Editor , you can find out how you can click on the edit (external) action and have your favorite editor open up. You will need to download and install the Helper App for your platform. It is possible to run it on a Mac, but you will need to install python and Tk as well. If successful, however, you will be freed from composing in browser textareas! (of course, you can always compose in another editor and then paste text into the textarea.) As a caveat, sometimes it doesn't work perfectly-- always be sure to verify that the last changes you made are in the document on the website before closing your local copy. If you decide to try the external editor, and have problems, be sure to let me know. Don't let my warnings scare you away though--I'm using the edit (external) option right now, and am greatly pained when I must use the textareas! I am greatly pained... I'm editing from behind a horrible firewall and EE is not working well.

Alternate instructions if publishing objects requires review (currently this is not the default)

1. When you're happy with your creation, click submit.
2. If you have any comments there's a box for them.
3. Click the Submit Item button. This will notify the article reviewers that there is an article awaiting review.
4. At this point, you can retract your article if you notice some mistake.
5. Once the reviewer approves your article, it will be viewable by all the visitors to the site. You will still be able to retract your article either to make changes to it or to permanently remove it from the site. If the reviewer rejects your article, the reasons for rejection will be found in the status history for your document. You will be notified via email when the article has been published or rejected. N.B.: At this point all users have the ability to publish their articles without review. If this freedom becomes problematic for the site, we will revert to review-required publication. This privilege can also be adjusted per user. Please be considerate in what you publish.

That's all there is to it! The workflow (article review/publication process) can be changed if you have ideas about what might be a better process.

How to add an image

1. In order to include the image in your article, you will need to submit it for publication. Press the submit action.
2. Add a comment if you like, then press the Submit Item button.
3. You will be notified via email when the image is published or rejected. Be sure to submit for publication any images linked to from you article along with or prior to submitting the article itself!