About This Website

The philosophy behind Plone is simple. The site belongs to the members. The members can decide what they want the site to be. This means you!

I, your friendly Website Editor, am not responsible for adding content to the site. That's why I'm called an Editor, not a Webmaster. My job is more like the editor of a magazine or a newsletter. I do not decide what goes on the site. (However, I have the power to decide what does not go on the site.)

You are in control. This site belongs to you, the registered members, and more so if you are a paid-up member of the Ancient Arts Fellowship. So stop whining that there is no content on the site. It is your responsiblity to submit content to the site. Every one of you. Here's how:

Register!

Sumbitting content has been made deliberately easy. The first thing you must do is register by supplying a User Name, a Password and a valid email address. Once you are registered on the site, you can submit content.

To submit an article or document, you need to go to your own folder. Click on the "My Folder" link near your user name at the top of the page. If you don't see "My Folder", you are not logged on.

You can also go to the Articles and Essays folder, or to the Gallery, or to the AAF Members tab, or even some other places. If you see an "add new item" link at the top, you can add content.

Add an item!

Once you are displaying the folder contents, you will see a "add new item" link at the top. You won't see this unless you are registered and logged on. Choose the type of item you want to submit - document, photo, album, etc. If you are submitting a bunch of items at once you can create a folder for them.

Then type or upload your document. You can submit as HTML, or as structured text or simply as plain unformatted text. Best idea is probably just to stick to Plain Text unless you are familiar with HTML or Structured Text.

Alternatively, you can choose to upload a whole document. Be aware however that if you upload a Microsoft Word document, anyone who does not have Microsoft Word (or the MS Word Reader) installed will not be able to see it. Usually PDF documents are pretty safe.

Please do not rip off anyone else's stuff!! This is very important. All content on this site should be original. We do not want to open ourselves up to copyright violation.

A note about the Description field: please try to make it short. Since the Description is what people see in the Topics and searches, make it short and sweet, so as not to clutter up the page too much.

Make it findable!

Click on the Properties tab (at the top of your document). Choose one or more from the list of Keywords. This will determine what section of the website your content appears in. For example, if you select the keyword "Armouring", your article will appear in the "Armouring" section of the site. If an appropriate keyword doesn't exist, email the Editor to get it added to your document.

Note that there are some Keywords for which Topics do not yet exist. This is for a couple of reasons. One is future expandability. If you add the Keyword now, you will not have to modify it later. Second, the Advanced Search allows you to search these keywords. So add any keywords you think are appropriate.

Save and submit!

When you have finished, press the Save button at the bottom of the page. This will set the article into Visible mode. Anonymous browsers to the website will not see it yet. First it has to be screened by the Editor. You need to Submit the article to the editor. Otherwise it will just stay in your folder and only you will be able to see it. This may be useful if you want to work on a document over several sessions.

Submit the article by choosing Submit from the "State" menu at the top right. This will set the document's state to Pending. Then the Editor will see it in his review list.

The Editor has been granted the function by the Council of approving all proposed content. If the Editor accepts the content, it may be "Published". At this point, anonymous browsers will be able to view it.

And that's all there is to submitting content! Have fun, and remember, this website belongs to you, the members, and to the Fellowship as a whole.

WYSIWYG Editing!

If you don't like editing in HTML or Structured Text (and let's face it, who does?) you can change your default editor. This means that when you are submitting a document, you will get a series of buttons along the top that allow you to easily format your work. This editor is called Epoz (don't ask me why). It allows you to use formatting in your text without knowing a thing about HTML. Epoz will translate your work into valid HTML for you.

To enable Epoz, you need to go to My Preferences and click Personal Preferences. The "Content Editor" drop-down list is currently reading "None". You can change it to "Epoz". Click Save and WYSIWYG away!