Instructions

Below are instructions on how to use Drupal. If you have any questions about these, please contact Irene Meisel immediately {email: imeisel@gc.cuny.edu ichat: imeisel@mac.com google chat: irene.meisel}.

 

*Please note* Word puts all kinds of crazy code in its documents, so it's best not to compose in Word, if at all possible. Word's backend code WILL SHOW UP in your posts if you copy/cut + past from Word!

 

Here are your options:

-compose post in textedit (a program which can be found in your applications folder-this program is called NotePad in PCs) and cut + paste it to blog

 

-compose in Word, cut + paste to textedit, cut + paste to blog

 

-compose in Word, cut + paste to blog, click on source button in edit panel (see attached picture) and cut out the erroneous code tags-probably the only code before your text will be paragraph tags which look like this: <p>.

 

-compose directly in blog (remember that you can always go back and edit your own posts by clicking on the link of the post title after you've saved your post).

 

***

 

Once you have logged-in, you're ready to start posting content.

 

At the top of your personal menu, you'll find a link called "create content". Click this and you'll see a list of the types of content you can create.

I will assume that you have selected create content and chosen "blog" as a content type.

You should be looking at a form with the title "Submit blog". From here, it is just a matter of filling in the form and posting it.

 

Title

 The title is straightforward enough.  Try to be descriptive and catchy.

Tags

Entries must be tagged. Please choose from the available options. Make sure to pick your name as one of your tags.

Menu Settings

 *Leave this alone!!!*

Body

The "body" field is where you put the main content of the page. See above for info on cutting and pasting. Alternately you can just type straight in. Use the formatting menu the same as you would if you were working with a word processor.

Adding Images

While your cursor is in the body section of the page, click on the "add image" icon (mountains with a sun). You should see a pop up menu that says "Image Properties." Clik on "upload." Then click "browse", and find your image in your computer. Once you've found it, click on the image and a url should appear in the upload menu. Click "send it to the server." You should get a message that says "your file has been successfully loaded." If it has, you will see a preview of your page with your image.

Dimensions for your picture can be found in the width and height section-you can change the size, by making these numbers smaller or larger.

Adding a number in the border section (1 for a small border, 2 for larger and so on) will but a border around your image. These numbers are the pixel values for the size of your border.

VSPACE sets the vertical space between the image and surrounding text and should also be set in pixels (1, 2, etc).

Align sets your image on the page.

Click OK to upload your image.

Preview/Save

Click Preview to preview your post, or cick Save to save it and have it published to the front page as well as to your own blog.

Editing Your Post

You can always edit your OWN content by clicking on your post, and then clicking on the "edit" tab.

You can find additional instructions here: http://drupal.org/node/6261.

 

If there is extra code showing up in your post, you can edit it by following these instructions:

http://irenemeisel.net/CleanUpCode.mov