How to use the Food Frome site

Logging in

Enter your username and password in the User login box on the left, then press the Log in button.

Getting an account

In order to use the Food Frome website you need an account. Without an account you can only view the site, you cannot comment or contribute.

To get an account click on the Create new account in the User login box on the left. Then enter your desired username (this will be added to the information you contribute) and your email address (this is needed so we can email you your password). A password will automatically be sent to you, you will be able to change this to something more memorable later. Sometime later when we have reviewed your account application you will receive another email saying your account has been activated.

Who can do what

There are four types of user:

• Users who have not logged in. These users can only view the site.
• Ordinary users who have logged in. These users can add comments but cannot add new articles.
• Contributors can add new articles and images.
• Administrators can do anything.

When your account is activated you will be an ordinary user. Send an email to the site administrator if you would like to be a contributor.

Adding to the site

There are several types of information that can be added to the Food Frome website. The most important of these are Stories and Images.

Entering text

You can select the format for entering text using the Input Format link under the text entry box. Unless you are very familiar with HTML (the programming language used for web pages) you should stick to the default format Filtered HTML. This is a simplified form of HTML and it is similar to using an old fashioned Word Processor. You can enter special characters to control the formatting of your text. The rules for this text are:

• Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
• Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
• Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
• Images can be added (see below).

Using Tags

I find it easier to edit my text using a text editor (for example Notepad) and then to copy and paste it into a text box on the Food Frome web site.

Blogging

Each Food Frome contributor has their own blog. At the moment the blogs are not easily accessible to others but if you would like to use the blogging feature we can add a link to your blog in the navigation block.

To add a blog entry click on the My blog link on the left under your username. Your blog will appear and then click on the Post new blog entry. link. Enter the title and body of your entry the press the Submit button at the bottom of the page. You can also use the Preview button to see what your blog entry will look like.

By default your blog entry will only be displayed on your blog page, it will not show up on the front page. If you would like it to appear on the front page click on Publishing Options, then click the checkbox Promoted to front page before submitting the entry.

Adding a story

Short articles are known as "stories". These can be added by clicking on Create Content and then clicking on Story. Fill in the story title and the body. Select a Topic for your article. The available topics are:

• Cooking
• Events
• Food for Free
• Gallery
• Growing
• Miscellaneous

We can easily add more topics if we need them, just let me know.

By default your story will be displayed on the appropriate topic page and on the front page. If you do not want it to appear on the front page click on Publishing Options, then clear the checkbox Promoted to front page before submitting the entry.

Images

Images can be included in stories or a set of images can be put in an image gallery.

The maximum image size that the site can accept is 800 kilobytes so it is best to resize your image before uploading. For comparison a typical modern digital camera image is at least 2 megabytes (over twice as big as the limit). I usually resize images to a maximum of about 800 x 600 pixels. If the 800 Kb limit is a problem I can increase it but then each image could use up more of our limited web space.

Adding a set of images

If you want to add a set of images the best way is to create an Image Gallery for them. Click on Image galleries in the left column, then click Add gallery and fill in the gallery name and description and press Submit.

Add images to the gallery by clicking on Create content and then Image. Enter a title for the image and click the browse button and select the image file on your computer (it is best to reduce your images to 800 x 600 maximum resolution before uploading). Under Categories set Topic to be Gallery and select the name of the new image gallery in the Image Galleries list. You can add a long description of the image in the Body text box. Then click the Submit button.

Inserting an image in a story

If you only have one or two images you can add them to a story. To add an image when entering your story (or any other text) or editing it later click on this button which should be under the text entry box. This will pop-up a new window which will show all the images you have uploaded (you can use Browse Images to change this to show all images). If the image you want to insert is already uploaded then click on it and a new form will appear. This allows you to select how the image is displayed in the story. It can have a title and description and the size can be selected (I usually use thumbnail size). The Alignment field controls how the text flows round the image, it is usually best to use left alignment. The Link field controls what happens when someone clicks on the image. I find it best to set the Link field to Open in popup window. Leave the Insert mode field set to Filter Tag. Finally click Insert, this will insert some text like this [img_assist|nid=30|title=Plums|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75] into your text where the image will appear. You can use copy and paste to move this text around if it is in the wrong place.

Control of how text and images are aligned is quite crude so it is easiest to have one small image per paragraph of text.

You can also upload a new image. After clicking on press the Upload button. This will display the same window used to upload an image to an image gallery. Fill this in and open the Publishing options and uncheck the Published checkbox (otherwise the image will be published as a separate item as well as appearing in the story). Then press Submit and follow the procedure described above.

Modifying existing content

If you have the necessary permissions when viewing the Food Frome site you will see an Edit tab near the top of the screen. This allows you to modify the page content. You can also use the Content link on the left to see and modify all the content on the site. This includes changing the published status or deleting items so you can use this to delete or remove from publication out of date items.