Working with Files (Gems)

Files are documents that are not images or stories. If you want to include your Syllabi as a Word document, an Adobe Acrobat document or as an RTF file, add it to your site at the Gems page.

There are just a few things you need to do to add a file (aka a "gem") to your site.

1. Create a Gem (within Manila). Know where your file is located, so you'll be able to easily navigate and find it.
2. Display (insert) the gem title into your story.

All this is done in the Editing mode so, if you're not already in the Editors mode, get there!

NOTE TO TECHIES: If you have a webserver account, it would be possible to post your documents on that server and then create Manila Shortcuts (or use HTML) to link to the documents on another server.

Creating a New File

First, you have to create a document, so that the title is available to add into your desired pages. For this example, assume we want to add a course syllabus.

NOTE: There are style guide issues here. Capitalization counts. As you title a gem, think about how the words will appear on the page.

1. In the Editors Only menu at the top of the page, click the Files link. Now you'll see a page that lets you name the shortcut (title of the document as typed in a story), and a button to browse your hard drive to locate the file.

   When you get some documents are added, they will show up in the list of Files. So, let's do this right now.

2. At the bottom of the page (under the Delete button), click on the Upload New File link. Now you'll see a page that asks you for the New File information.
3. First, select the file you want to add. You'll do this by clicking in the Browse button to the right of the "Choose a file:" field, then doing the standard mouse-clicking navigation stuff to find the file, ending by double-clicking on the desired file. For our example, it would be "syllabus" that we saved on our floppy disk, now in our A drive.

   The file name now shows up in the "Choose a file:" field, with all the path information in front of it (A:syllabus.doc).

4. Title the gem with a descriptive name that you will use whenever you want to reference that document, maybe something like j300 syllabus (to distinguish it from the other syllabi we have for our other journalism classes).

   NOTE: Capitalization and spacing are important when titling a file. Don't add a space after the last letter in a title.

5. Click the Post New File button, and you will be brought back to the original Files screen. Now, however, you'll notice your document listed, along with a web address and the date published.

For those techies out there, this is where the document is stored on the Manila server. Now, isn't that much easier than FTPing the file up? :)

NOTE: At the bottom of the page, you'll see "Free space in files folder:" and then a number. This will help you manage your gems. In the above example, we have about 1000K available space in our gems folder. The j300 syllabus takes up 202K, leaving us with about 799K left. The amount of space for files will be increased. But you will always see the amount of free space.

You need to manage your Files, deleting those that you are no longer using or are out of date.

Displaying (Inserting) a File

Now that you've created a file, you've made it available to add into your stories.

1. In the Editors Only menu at the top of the page, click the Stories link. You will see the list of stories you've already created. Find the story you want to display the files's link, and click the story file link to open it.
2. Click the Edit this Page box near the bottom of the screen. Now you are in the story page (for our story example, the title is Journalism 300: Introduction to Journalism).
3. Type the files's title, enclosed by double quotation marks. Remember the descriptive title you gave it when you created it? (In our example, we called it j300 syllabus) That's what you need to type in the story's textbox, where you want the link to appear.
4. Click "Post Changes" and your story appears, complete with the link to the document.

Deleting a File

WARNING: There is NO UNDO for deleted files! Review the contents of your hard drive to be sure you have a back-up copy of gems (documents).

1. In the Editors Only menu at the top of the page, click the Files link.
2. Click the checkbox to the left of the old File on your list. By doing this, you are marking the documents you want to delete.

   WARNING: The action of deleting files is UNDOABLE. Once you've deleted a document, you cannot click an "undo" button and have them return. Review the files you've marked for deletion to be sure they are the ones you want to be deleted.

3. Click the Delete button. The page will automatically refresh and you see a shorter list of Files.

Refresh site with files for new semester

Now delete the Files from last year and upload this semester's documents with the same title in Manila.

While we can rename some elements within Manila sites, Files need to be deleted then reposted.

If a file and a story have the same title, I think the first one created/posted will appear from a link within another story. If you have two files of the same title, I think the first one created/posted will appear. Careful planning of titles for stories, files and pictures will help your success.

Sacramento City College
3835 Freeport Boulevard · Sacramento, California 95822
This page was last updated: Monday, September 25, 2006 at 10:49:10 AM