Using The New Site

by Nils Devine

December 2001

What's new:

• Article Submission
• Comments
• Text Style

Anybody can submit articles now. You'll find the submission page by clicking the Add Article link to the right. It will take you to the editor. Just fill in the form, Preview, and Submit. We'll take a look at it and make it live, or email you with comments.

Before I get into stuff about using the editor, please remember this bottom line: we'd rather format your article ourselves than not receive it at all, so when in doubt Submit it. It won't be available to the public until we've had a chance to edit it anyway, so no worries there.

You'll probably recognize the icons below from your favorite Word-Processor. In fact, my advice would be to write your article in that Word-Processor, then copy and paste it into this editor when it's done. The only thing to remember is to hit Enter Twice after each paragraph, so that the editor can add that formatting for you. For any other formatting you'll have to use these icons:

A word about the above buttons. You won't actually see the words in the text box become bold or italic, what you'll see is HTML, the language of the web, surrounding the text that you are formatting. It'll look more like this: < i >italic< /i > or < b >bold< /b >.

hint: if you are using Internet Explorer (which we strongly recommend regardless) you can select (highlight with your mouse) the text that you want to format. Clicking the buttons will surround your selection with the formatting.

The Bulleted List Icon: and the icons to the right of it, will open up interactive "wizards" that help insert things like links and images.

Comments

At the bottom of every article is a place for people to comment on it. A handful of the editing options mentioned above are available here. These discussions can provide as much insight as the article itself, so voice your opinion!

Important note about comment formatting: if you want any formatting at all, you've gotta use the buttons. And unlike the articles, that applies to Paragraphs () as well.

Text Style

Below the navigation on the right you may have noted something that says "Text Style:" with some buttons under it. Go ahead and try clicking them and see which font is easiest for you to read. This would be a good time for you to add a comment with any questions you may have, or just say which font you like to use.