How do I post an article?
So you want to post an article for your home group, a mission update, ministry notes, report on a concert you’ve been to, blog your mission trip or to post a link to that really cool website with every Bible commentary imaginable on it you just stumbled upon? Then you are ready to become a contributor to the site! And that is just one of the beautys of the new CCF website… it is so easy that anyone can do it!
In fact, the more people that do get involved and post articles the more this site becomes more then just another website and instead becomes an important tool for us to communicate, encourage, learn and grow as a Body of Christ!
OK…how do I start? First you must register as a user of the CCF website. For a step by step tutorial please click here.
After you have been registered, you must be approved by the site administrator to change your status to that of a contributor. To do this you need to send an email with a brief explanation of what you wish to contribute to mtcomfort@aol.com or call Charlie at 407-3753
The administrator will email you back if they have any questions and to let you know when your status has been changed. This can take a day or two so please be patient. Once you have been notified that your status has been changed you are all ready to go!
Now sign in at the bottom right hand side of any page on the website. You will go to the dashboard but now you will notice that it has changed and on the menus on the left side you will notice it now contains “posts”. (click on pictures for a larger screenshot if needed and then hit the back button on your browser to return here–or right click picture and click “open in new tab)
Click on “posts” on the left and posts menu will open up. Then click on “add post” to open the form to enter an article.
This form is called WYSIWYG for What You See Is What You Get, means your text is formatted as you type. The rich editor creates HTML code behind the scenes while you concentrate on writing. Font styles, links and images all appear approximately as they will on the internet. To see EXACTLY how it will appear on the CCF webpage, click the white “preview” button at the top right. This opens the preview in a separate tab so you can tweek things to your liking.
Hint: hover your mouse pointer over the buttons for description of button.
For the geekier feel free to click the HTML tab on the right and enter you own HTML code but that is completely optional. Basically, just type in your text use the buttons above like a basic word processing program and you are good to go!
Hint: click on the “show/hide kitchen sink” button on right end of buttons to drop down some more options.
While using the editor, most basic keyboard shortcuts work like in any other text editor. For example: Shift+Enter inserts line break, Ctrl+C = copy, Ctrl+X = cut, Ctrl+Z = undo, Ctrl+Y = redo, Ctrl+A = select all, etc. (on Mac use the Command key instead of Ctrl).
After you enter the text there are two more things that you need to do before you are finished. Click on the “choose from most popular tags” hyperlink underneath the “tags” section in the right hand column. A pop down menu with grouping of tags will appear below.
Click on one or more tags that best describe the content of your article. You may create a new tag but think carefully before you do to assure that the existing ones are not sufficient. (example…in this screen shot, if you are writing a music review for a cd then you would want to add a tag for “Music” or maybe “Music reviews”) Creating too many tags will clutter the Word Cloud search engine and also make it more difficult to find what you want. Tags are useful because it enables a searcher to find all articles with a common subject across all of the different categories.
The last thing you must do is to select the appropriate catagory. Below the “Tags” section in the column on the right is the “Catagories” section that displays the catagories hierarchy with check boxes in front of each one. It is very important to check the appropriate boxes to place the article in the proper place in the main menu as well as place it on the front page. Try to be as specific as possible and do not check too many catagory boxes. This will make it appear all over the front page which looks sloppy as well as bumps articles off the bottom of each section it is in uneccessarily. For most items you should only be checking boxes within one or two catagories (Worship, Serve, Grow or Belong) Please DO NOT create any catagories without checking with administrator at mtcomfort@aol.com. (or Charlie @ 407-3753) This needs to be done properly in order to place it correctly in the menu structure and changes the basic page layout.
In the previous example of a review of a cd you would probably just want to check off only the “Worship” catagory box. The “Worship” catagory does not contain, in this example, a subcatagory for “Music Reviews” since no one has written one yet. So you would probably want to email the administrator and suggest they add a catagory for music reviews. In an example of an article about the high school mission trip you would probably want to check both the “missions” catagagory under “Serve” as well as the “Sr High” catagory under “Belong”. Confused? Don’t worry about it! Just do the best you can and if it needs changed the admin can change it.
Then preview your page once again and if it looks OK check the “Publish” button (or “update” button if you have already published it) and it is done! Click the “Calvary Christian Fellowship Indy - go to page” at the extreme top left corner and it will take you to the front page and you can navigate to your finely crafted article!
It is really easy and the best way to learn is to just play around with it and do it. Do not worry…you can always edit or delete it if it does not come out as you like. Don’t worry about messing it up. It literally takes longer to read this tutorial then it does to post an article. Have fun and thanks for participating!
For further tutorials about adding media or a unique thumbnail to your article for the front page coming soon.
Any difficulties or questions please feel free to email mtcomfort@aol.com with details.
