Editing and Creating Stories

Now you're ready to start editing! (Editing is adding or changing content.) (When you're done making changes, click the Logoff link in the Editors Only toolbar at the top of your page OR at the bottom of your navigation column.

A "story" is really a page in your Manila website. (Remember: Manila is using the newspaper analogy and lingo.) Stories are often focused on one topic. In your website, you can have dozens of stories depending on how much you have to say. When your story is finished, you can share it by creating a link from another story or including the story in your Navigation Column.

A story consists of two basic elements:

• A Title
• Content (text, with references to pictures, links, etc.)

You can add a new story or edit a previously created story to your Manila website.

[snip]

Remember to add a phrase in the text field for each page as you create it. When you create a story, you have the option to give it a Path name in the Admin box. This is a good idea if you want to create friendly URLs for your visitors. You can always get to a story from the Editors Only Stories link.

[snip] This table gives you the recommended style guide, Title and Path for new stories. Our suggestion for a path is to use lowercase letters and no space between words. Paths are used in the Navigation Column and to hide pages from search engines.

Each story must have a unique name. Actually, all components of your site will need unique names, including the title of pictures, shortcuts and gems. Creating a New Story

Each new Manila site includes a Home Page and About story. As you add new stories, they are listed by date created, not title.

IMPORTANT: Plan your formatting style. Do you want to put everything in sentence case? Or, Might You Want to Have Your Title in Title Case? It makes a difference when you link other stories to this story. You can make a change later, but it involves additional steps and increases the likelihood that you will become frustrated. So, PLAN NOW! (We've got just the place to keep your plan - a Journal page.) Your plan will include the "path" to your stories as well.

To create a new story, you will need to do the following:

• Give the story a title
• Add some content to the story (sometimes you'll want to create several "placeholder" stories, and then collect information before editing these stories)
• Make your story "visible" to visitors by either adding it to your Navigation column or including it as a link within another story you've already posted

1. In the Editing mode (you are logged in as an Editor, right?), click on the Stories link on the Editors Only menu.
2. Click on the Create a New Story link. The screen snapshot shown is from Internet Explorer on a Windows computer. Note that the formatting controls are similar to Word and PowerPoint. If you are using Netsape with Windows, the screen might look different.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO MAC USERS: The formatting tools (bold, italics, etc.) are not visible to you when using Internet Explorer or Netscape. (Watch Scoop's Macintosh User page for news about other browser options.) :(

NOTE: If you are just setting up placeholder stories to add content to later, you must type something in the

1. Type the Story's Title in the Title field. This is what will appear at the top of your webpage. Don't add a space after the last letter in a title. The Title of a story also becomes a shortcut to the story. (More on that later; don't want to weigh you down with everything at once!)
2. This might be text (either typed directly into the text field or copied from a word processing document into the text field). content text field, or you will get an error. For now, leave the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) option selected.
3. Click on the Post New Story button at the bottom of the page. You must click this button to save your changes!

After creating the story and "publishing" it, you'll see the "Edit this story" screen. PITFALL: Don't use the back button on your browser until after clicking the "Post Changes" button. Unfortunately, there are no "save" or "undo" options in Manila. Publishing a Story Just because you've created a story, doesn't mean visitors can see your content. You will need to make it visible before others can see it, by either adding it to your Navigation Column, or linking it from within another posted story. This is both good and bad. Good, because you can work on stories and have them in draft mode, without having others see your "in-progress" work. You can also "rotate" stories in and out, without having to retype them. It could also be bad, because you have to go through the extra step of adding a story to your Navigation Column, or adding the story title in double quotes within another story.

Again, you can make the story visible in one of two ways:

1. Add it to your Navigation Column. (Refer to the Adjusting your Navigation Column section in this manual.)
2. Include the story title in another story that's already posted. (Refer to the Working with Shortcuts section in this manual.)

Set the Story Path New stories are automatically given a numerical name by the server. This default name does not include your title. Yet!

1. Get into the "Edit this story" screen. (If you've just created this story, you will automatically be put into this screen when you click the "Post Changes" box after you finish entering your story text.
2. Set the Path for the story you just created. You'll see the Admin box on the bottom of the screen (see the screenshot at right). Click on the radio button in front of "Set a relative path for this message" and type the path name.

You should change the long complicated numerical name the server has given it to one that is more descriptive (and probably easier to remember) for both you and your reader. You are not creating a folder or directory, just a path to one file. Compare these URLs:

http://web.scc.losrios.edu/scoop/stories/storyReader$33 vs. http://web.scc.losrios.edu/scoop/classes

OR

http://web.scc.losrios.edu/scoop/stories/storyReader$24 vs. http://web.scc.losrios.edu/scoop/policies

If you're like Scoop, you'd prefer the second option, 'cause it would be hard to remember that "storyReader$33" refers to the Classes story and "storyReader$24" refers to the "policies" story. When you are editing your Navigation Column, you will appreciate the use of paths to designate a location for a story.

As you title your paths, remember the nomenclature you've come up with earlier. Spacing and capitalization matter in this case.

Editing a Story

Now you want to edit a story that has already been created. You will change or add content.

1. Remember, in the Editing mode, click on the Stories link on the Editors Only menu.
2. Click on the story you want to edit from the list of existing stories.

   You'll see the actual story, as visitors would see it, but with the addition of the Edit this Page button at the bottom of the page.

3. Click on the Edit this Page button. (Note that you have other "administrative" options like deleting the story, etc. We'll worry about those later.)

4. Now, in the Edit Story view, you'll find the same story similar to the screenshot on the right, where About is the title of the story and "Who are you?...." is the current content in the text field box (the original information). Make your changes in this field box.
5. Click on the Post Changes button at the bottom of the page.

PITFALL: Don't use the back button on your browser until after clicking the "Post Changes" button. Unfortunately, there are no "save" or "undo" options in Manila.

WYSIWYG Editing Options

This formatting toolbar should look familiar, right? You've probably seen it, or another version of it, in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, NotePad, TextEdit, etc. So, you're probably a wiz at this already!

Deleting a Story

So, you are completely done with a story and you're tired of seeing it in your story list. You're pretty sure you're never going to need it again, so you want to delete it. (If there's a possibility that you might use it again, you should probably copy and paste the content into a Word file and store the file on your personal computer.)

There are two ways to delete a story: The easy way or the hard way.

The Easy Way is just a few clicks, but does not give you a chance to change your mind, so use caution:

1. In the Editing mode, click on the Admin link on the Editors Only menu.

   You'll see a list of Stories and Pictures (with your Stories at the top of the page and, when scrolling down, your Pictures at the bottom of the page). Notice that they are organized in reverse date order, with the most recently added pictures/stories listed first. (If you have lots of stories/pictures, you'll see "More: 1 2 ..." at the bottom of your list. If you click on the 2, you'll be brought to a second page of your stories.)

2. Mark the stories you want to delete by clicking the box to the left of the story's title. It will put a checkmark in the box. If you click the checkmark again, it deselects the story.
3. Click the Delete button at the bottom of the stories list, and you're done!

WARNING: This is undoable. Once you click the Delete button, there is no going back. Further, there is no confirmation screen to make sure you want to delete that (or those) stories.

The Hard Way requires a few more steps and limits your story deletions to one at a time. This way does, however, ask you if you are sure you want to delete the story-actually, more than once.

1. In the Editing mode, click on the Stories link on the Editors Only menu.
2. Click the title of the story you want to delete from the list of existing stories.
3. At the very bottom of the page, you'll see the gray Admin box (the same one you worked with when you created the story's path).

   Click the radio button in front of "Delete this story?" and then click the Submit box.

4. You'll get a confirmation screen to make sure you really want to delete this particular story. Think long and hard before clicking the "Yes" box.
5. You get one more chance to "undelete" the story. If you've changed your mind, click the radio button in front of the "Undelete this story?" question and then click the Submit button. If you're positive that you want the story to go away, don't click anything but the "Submit" button.
6. After clicking Submit, you'll see the "undelete" option again. To get out of a potentially endless loop, click on the Stories link in the Editors Only menu. That's it! Like magic, you are back at your list of story and the unwanted story has disappeared from the list!

WARNING: This action is undoable. If you have linked this story to another story (by enclosing the deleted story's name in double quotes in the other story's content area), the link is now gone. In any stories where you added story x's title there is no active link, so the quoted "title" appears.

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3835 Freeport Boulevard · Sacramento, California 95822
This page was last updated: Friday, February 6, 2004 at 2:38:12 PM