Online User Manual

Adding Elements - Index

There are several different types of element allowing the addition of blocks of text into a page. They all follow the same basic pattern, and you can switch between them easily.

Text (formatted)
Text (paragraph)
Adding additional embellishments within text items
An advanced user option - the AREA tag
Text (HTML block)

Text (formatted)

With this element type, the text appears exactly as formatted on the screen. While this is a useful facility it is worth remembering that long strings of text may be wider than the area width available to display them. If this is the case the right hand end of the element may appear cut off from view to users with smaller browser windows.

To add a text formatted element:

Choose the Text (formatted) element from the drop down list of items.
Click the Add Item button to display the appropriate Edit item screen.
If you need to change the type of element for this information, choose the new type from the drop down list.
Input the text into the large box provided.
You are here advised to check your spelling by selecting click here to check spelling.
If required, change the colour, size and font of the text using the style drop down boxes.
Select the text alignment required - the default alignment is left.
Click the Store Changes button to save and return to the updated Page Editor screen.

Text (paragraph)

The text appears in a single block without formatting and its width is automatically sized to fit within the area containing it. Remember that it doesn't matter how much you type or if you separate text into paragraphs, the system will lump it together as one single paragraph.

Choose the Text (paragraph) element from the drop down list of items.
Click Add Item to display the appropriate Edit item screen.
If you need to change the type of element for this information, choose the new type from the drop down list.
Input the text into the large box provided.
If required, change the colour, size and font of the text using the style drop down boxes.
You are here advised to check your spelling by selecting click here to check spelling.
Select the text alignment required - the default alignment is left.
Click the Store Changes button to save and return to the updated Page Editor screen.

Adding additional embellishments within text items

By adding 'start' codes before and 'cancel' codes after portions of text, the appearance of the text in between them can be altered. The codes available are self-explanatory and are only displayed when editing the element. Everywhere else the code's effect will be displayed instead. To turn "some text" into a link add the following codes to it: !some text = \some text
<"L I N K>some text<"/L I N K> = some text

The code above has some speech marks in it which you wouldn't use, but were the easiest way we could use to 'force' the code to show on screen. so when you type your link code it won't include the speech marks after the < or / part of the code. if you're confused, ring us and we'll talk you through it, or look at the right of the screen when editing text to see detailed instructions.

When you create links in your text, clicking the Store Changes button for the first time will cause the Edit item screen to refresh. You can then enter the destination for each link to point to.

Two types of link can be created. Either:

External links: A link to a page outside your site.

Choose "External Link" from the drop down box and type the full name of the external web site to be linked-to in the External address box.

Internal link: A link to another page, heading or sub-heading within your site.
Highlight the appropriate page or heading (listed as a "part" within a page) from the drop down list to select.

Finally, click the Store Changes button. to save and return to the Page Editor screen

An advanced user option - the AREA tag

If you add the single tag <{A R E A}> into the content of a plain text element, an extra Insert element button is added at that point inside the element you are creating. For example, this option might be useful if you have some text and you wish to insert a sub-text relating to it. This tag is only available for plain text and list elements.

Insert buttons inside other elements can only be nested a few levels deep. Any attempts to nest too deeply will be ignored by the Site Editor. There is no limit however to the number of <{A R E A}> tags that can be placed within a single element.

Text (HTML block)

This type of element allows text containing HTML code to be uploaded directly into the site editor.

HTML elements are created similarly to plain text elements except that beyond the HTML codes you include there are no further embellishment options.

Adding content to this type of element can be done by copying some original source and pasting it into the content box or by simply entering the text and adding your own HTML tags to it as you do so. As the site editor has its own method for handling images we suggest you take any image (< i m g >) tags out of the text and insert images onto your site pages using the method detailed on the Uploading Images page and the Image Element page.