Note: This manual and its accompanying materials are not official documentation for any application herein listed. The manual has been developed solely as a convenience for Pactum Web Services clients. Pactum shall not be held responsible for any problems whatsoever arising from use or misuse of this manual. This material is copyright 2006 by Tim Gallant of Pactum Web Services. Permission to quote is hereby granted, as long as you reference this source.
Note: This manual is in the process of development. More information will be available as time goes by, but this should be enough to get you started.
If we have installed a Content Management System (CMS) for you, chances are, the application used is Website Baker. This is our go-to application for a general-purpose CMS. (Of course, some clients have highly specialized needs for which another app may be more suitable.)
We have chosen Website Baker for several reasons. First and most important is that it is user-friendly. We have tested numerous applications first-hand and have not found a CMS that is equally intuitive. The back end (where you create and edit your pages, as well as engage in numerous other site-control actions) is organized in a straightforward way. Furthermore, Website Baker is an easy CMS to modify to match to an existing web design. And finally, as an open source application, it is an affordable option for churches, non-profit organizations, and small businesses. (Note: We make a sizeable donation to the developers whenever we install Website Baker for a client.)
Note: We usually install two text editors, and set the FCK editor to be the default. This is a very fine editor, and has undergone a lot of development, both by the original writers and the Website Baker community. Should you prefer to use the other editor, HTMLarea, it is our experience that it works better with Internet Explorer than with Mozilla browsers such as Firefox. In any case, we believe you will find FCK to be a much better editor.
When we created your CMS and turned the site over to you, you were given two sets of user names and passwords - a "super-admin" set and a lower-level set. We recommend that you make it your habit of signing in under the lower-level user account, except to create new user accounts.
This is because the super-admin account has authority to alter many things on your site that you do not want accidentally changed. Because these options are not visible to you when you sign in via the lower-level account, you won't accidentally change something to your regret.
1. If your login section is visible from the front end of your site, simply enter your user name and password in the appropriate fields. Otherwise, sign in with the admin link you were provided when we handed the site over to you.
2. You are now signed in, but if you signed in from a public part of the site, you are still at the site's front end. (If you signed in from a direct admin link, you are now viewing the administration area, or "back end.") This is okay if all you want to do is view pages hidden from the public, but if you have editing to do you will need to go to the "back end."
3. Your sign-in box will now show that you are logged in, and "Preferences" and "Administrations" links will be visible. Click "Preferences" if you need to reset your password, change your email address, or alter your display name. Click "Administration" if you need to access the back end of the site (e.g. to create or edit pages etc).
In the Administration (back end) of Website Baker 2xx (e.g. version 2.6.2), there are six major sections: Pages, Media, Preferences, Settings, Add-Ons, and Access. (Note: If you are not signed in as an administrator, you may not see all of these sections.) Here's a quick overview of what these sections are for.
In addition to these major sections, you will see Help, Log-out, and View links. The Help link will take you directly to the Website Baker support pages; by clicking View, you will be taken to your site's front end to see how things look (both links open in a new page).
Log-out, of course, is self-explanatory. You should always log out if you are on a public computer; you may also wish to log out if you want to access the admin area with a different account (e.g. go from using an administrator account to a basic user account, or vice-versa).
1. Sign in and go to the Administration area (back end).
2. Go to the "Pages" section.
3. Go to the "Add Page" subsection.
4. Type a page name in the top field.
5. Under "Type," select a page type from the dropdown list. "WYSIWYG" is short for "What You See is What You Get." If you select this option, you will have a regular new page which will use a sort of online word processor. This will likely be your most-used option (which is why it is at the top of the list). If you want to create a links page, you can select "Bookmark" (if the Bookmark module is installed). If you want a page that you will update with new entries periodically (as in a blog), select "News." Please see Website Baker's official documentation for a more complete description of the other options.
6. The third field is "Parent." This is for determining the structure of your site (and consequently, of your navigation menu). In a "flat" site structure (where no page is a "subsection" of another), you would leave this alone to its default ("None"). But if your site has various categories, this is a very useful tool. For example, let's say you have numerous articles posted on your site. You may have an "Articles Index" or main page as the "Parent," and then all your articles will be "child pages." In such a case, if you are creating a new article page, you would select your "Articles Index" page from the dropdown menu so that it will be a "parent" page to your new article page. (Note: the dropdown menu here is a listing of existing pages on your site controlled by the CMS. If you want to use a parent page, you need to create it first.)
7. The final field is "Visibility." This controls who is able to see the page. Default is "Public," meaning that anyone who comes to your site can view the page. Other options are "Private," "Registered," and "None." "None" is a good option if you are working on a page, and don't want to show it to the public until it is complete. "Private" and "Registered" will only be readable by people with user accounts. When you select one of these options, you will see choices regarding who gets to read the page, so that you may specify some users and not others. The difference between a registered page and a private page is that the registered page will be listed on the public menu - but only available to be read by the appropriate registered users. The private page only appears on the menu for those who are signed in.
8. Click "Add."
9. Website Baker will now take you to your new page.
10. Write your content.
11. Click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. You're done!
To edit an existing page, follow these steps:
1. Sign in and go to the Administration area ("back end").
2. Go to "Pages."
3. Click on the page title of the page you wish to edit. Website Baker will take you directly to your page.
4. Make your changes.
5. Click on "Save." Your page is now edited.
It may be that you have some recurring text boxes on your site, which show up on every page. Chances are, we created these in such a way that you can edit them from the CMS. Here's how:
1. Sign in and go to the Administration area (back end).
2. Go to "Pages."
3. Look for a page named "blocks" or "includes." There should be a plus (+) sign next to it. Click the + sign. This will now show editable dependent files. They may be called e.g. block1, block2 etc, or they may have more descriptive names.
4. Click on the desired file, and edit as you would a regular page.
5. The block will now show up throughout the site with your changes.
If we started a news or blog page for you, here's how to add new posts:
1. Sign in and go to the Administration area (back end).
2. Go to "Pages."
It is important to pay attention to what sort of text you are entering. In HTMLarea, you will see a dropdown box, which has choices ranging from heading 1-heading 6, normal, and others. (In the FCK editor, which I now set as default, this dropdown is identified as "Format" in the toolbar.) You should be sure to use these correctly.
If I set up your blog, the entry Title (see #5 in this section) will likely be set up to use heading 2 (heading 1 is reserved for site and page titles). That means that in the body of your entry, the next level heading should be heading 3. This means, for example, that if your entry has several major sections, you would use a heading 3 to subtitle each section. (For the sake of search engines and non-visual browsers, don't simply use bold for headings; use the heading tags.)
Be sure that you use "normal" for your regular paragraph text.
3. Find the page named "news," "blog," or "weblog" and click on the page name.
4. On the screen you now see, click on "Add Post."
5. In the "Title" field, type what you want this entry to be called.
6. Under "Group," select the group you want to be able to read the entry, if applicable.
7. From the "Commenting" dropdown, select "Public" if you want all your users to be able to leave comments on the entry. If you do not want comments, select "Disabled." If you only want private comments, select "Private."
8. If you want to publish immediately, click "Active."
9. Under "Short," write a brief first paragraph or so that will grab attention. This will show up on your main blog page.
10. Under "Long," write the remainder of your entry.
11. Click "Save." Your post is now published. The "Short" section will appear on the main news/blog page, and the reader will be invited to click a "read more" link to see the rest of what you have written.
1. Sign in and go to the Administration Panel (back end).
2. Go to Pages.
3. Under "Modify/Delete Page," in the Page Title column, find the page the entry is on (e.g. "blog"). Important!! Do not delete this page! This is your main news/blog page.
4. Click on the page name (e.g. "blog") to open it.
5. Under "Modify/Delete Post," find the entry you wish to modify or delete.
6. If you wish to modify the post, click on the post name (or the pencil and paper icon next to it), and you will be taken to the editor.
7. If you wish to delete the post, click on the garbage can icon on the far right end of the line.
From the FCK editor, you can upload and add photos to your page. It's a bit of a funny process, though, so here's the procedure:
1. Follow the instructions above for creating or modifying a page.
2. In the editor, click on the Insert/Edit Image icon (it's a little yellow postcard-looking icon with mountains and sun, in the second row of the toolbar).
3. From the Image Info tab, click on Browse Server.
4. From Resource Type (upper left), select Image.
5. Next to Upload a New File in This Folder, click on Browse... and find the image on your computer. Select Open, and click on Upload.
6. The image file appears in the document window. Click on it.
7. You are now taken back to the Image Info window. Type in descriptive text in the Alternative Text field.
8. If you wish to make this image a link, click the Link tab and enter the URL you wish to link to.
9. Click OK.
10. Don't forget to save your page. Your image will not be seen by the public until you do so.
You may wish to add photos and graphics (or, for that matter, other files) that can be used in pages later - perhaps by other users.
1. Sign in and go to the Media section of the admin (back end) area.
2. If you do not yet have an Image folder, go to the Create Folder section of the Media page, and create it inside the media folder.
3. Under Upload Files, select media/Image from the Target Folder dropdown.
4. Use the Browse... button to find the image(s) on your computer, and click on Open. Once you have selected the images you want, click on Upload File(s).
5. Your image(s) should now be uploaded. To doublecheck, go to the top of the Media page (Browse Media), and click on the Image folder. All your images should be there.
Above, you learned how to store images online with the CMS. Now you want to be able to add them to your page.
1. Open the page you wish to add the image to (or create a new page).
2. Click on the Insert/Edit Image icon (see the section above on adding images to your page for further details).
3. From the Image Info tab, click Browse Server.
4. From the Resource Type dropdown (upper left of the interface), click Image.
5. The main document area of the popup interface will now show all the image files in your Image folder. Click on the one you wish to add to your page.
6. You will now be taken back to the Image Properties box. Type descriptive text in the Alternative Text field. If you wish to make this image a link, click on the Link tab and enter the desired URL.
7. Click OK.
8. Don't forget to save your page.
If you wish to move pages in terms of where the links appear in Website Baker's navigation menu, you can do so.
1. Sign in and go to the Administration area.
2. Go to "Pages."
3. Find the page you want to move in the menu.
4. Among the icons to the right you will see up and down arrows. Click the up arrow will take your page one link higher in the menu; repeat steps as often as necessary until you get the want order you want.
Another aspect of moving pages is altering where they are in the site structure. (See point 6 under "Creating a New Page," above.) If you want to alter whether a page is a child page or not, or if you want to move it from one parent page to another, go to "Pages," as above. Click on the page settings icon (the pencil and paper icon) for the desired page. Website Baker will take you to "Modify Page Settings." From the dropdown menu by "Parent," make the selection you want, and click "Save."
In older versions of Website Baker, the page name is exactly what appears in the navigation menu. This may not be what you want - perhaps, for example, you wish to have a shorter name in the menu (or conversely, perhaps you prefer a short page name but a longer menu identifier). To edit the page name and/or title:
1. Sign in and go to the Administration area.
2. Go to "Pages."
3. Find the page name you want and go to the pencil and paper icon (this is the Settings icon for the page). Click on it.
4. Website Baker will take you to "Modify Page Settings." You will now see two types of page name: "Page Title" and "Menu Title."
5. Edit the titles as desired.
6. Click on "Save."
If more than one person (web site owner/maintainer) is going to have permission to log in to the site, you should create separate user accounts for each person.
Begin by deciding on what levels of access you want to give to different people. For example, in addition to your own top-level administrator account, perhaps you would have two other levels of user, one who can have access to registered-user pages, and one who can write content. We'll call them "Basic User" and "Basic Writer."
You will begin by setting up your two user groups.
1. Sign in and go to the Administration area (back end).
2. Go to "Access" and select "Groups."
3. Go to "Show Advanced Options."
4. Under "Add Group," type "basic user" in the Name field (without the quotation marks).
5. Under "System Permissions" > Pages, check "View."
6. Look below under "Module Permissions" and "Template Permissions." Uncheck everything else except the active template which governs the look of your site.
7. Click "Add."
Your Basic User group is now created.
To create your "Basic Writer" group, follow steps 1-6 above, but under "System Permissions" > Pages, also check "Add" (this allows the user to create a new page) and, if you desire the writer to be able to edit existing pages, also check "Modify Content." Now click on the "Add" button at the bottom of the page. Your Basic Writer group is now created.
Now that you have your groups, you can create users and add them to the groups. Go to the main "Access" section again, and select "Users." Under "Add User," type in all the relevant information for the user. The bottom field is "Group." From the dropdown menu, select the group you want this user to be in (in this case, either "Basic User" or "Basic Writer"). Click the "Add" button at the bottom of the page. The user account is now active, and will be restricted to the access levels of the group of which he or she is a member.
If your question is not answered in this manual, be sure to visit Website Baker's own site and look at the official documentation. (In particular, note the documentation wiki.) In addition, there is a "Guest Area" on Website Baker's forum where you have opportunity to ask questions. (Note: Please be sure to use the search functionality on the forum before posting a question.)
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