Macromedia Contribute

Setting Connections to Your Website

As library staff you've all been given permission to access the main library website. Bill and Esther have decided to send out connection keys by email which will allow Contribute to access that website. To set the connections, simply open the email containing the connection key and open the attachment. Contribute will open then automatically configure the connections given by the information in the connection key. Just enter your user account name and your UWDir password.

If you don't receive a connection key, you can manually connect to the main library site by going to the address bar and entering: connect:129.97.58.95. Contribute will ask for your username and password. Enter your username and your UWDir password and you will be connected to the website.

Editing a Page

To edit a web page simply browse to the page you want to edit, and click on the Edit button on the toolbar located at the top of the browser section of the window.

Formatting Text

Formatting text in Contribute is just like that in a word processor. You can set different styles to the text by using the styles drop down menu. You can choose from a wide variety of styles such as headings, make text in uppercase and so on. You can also bold and italicize text and justify text.

Making Lists

You can insert a numbered list or a bulleted list on to your web page. You can also indent in the list to make a list within a list and then outdent to go back into the main list.

Making Tables

You can insert a table by clicking on the Table button on the toolbar. A window will pop up asking you how many rows and columns the table should have and other table properties such as borders and padding. Enter the required information and a table will be inserted on to the page. To add an extra row to the table, click on the Table Row button. Similarly, click on the Table Column button to add an extra column. You can also justify your table by using the justification toolbar.

Adding Images

To add an image, click on the Image button on the toolbar. You can either add an image from your computer or from the website. After you've selected the page, enter the alt text for the image in the window that pops up.

Editing Images

Contribute comes with a handy image editing toolbar that allows you to resize, rotate, crop, set sharpness and brightness and the justification of the image. Simply click on an image to select it and the font toolbar will change to the image toolbar. If you're editing an old website, the images may not have alt text on them. In this case right click the images and click on image properties, or you can select the images and click on the Image properties icon and enter the alt text in the image properties dialog box.

Creating Links

1. Select the text that you want to become a link.
2. Click on the Link button and choose Browse to the page.
3. Enter the URL of the web page that you want to link to.
4. Click OK.

Creating Anchors

1. Select the location or text where you want the anchor to be.
2. Go to the menubar and click on Insert > Section Anchor...
3. A Flag will appear where the anchor is to indicate that there is an anchor there.
4. Select the text that you want to link to the anchor.
5. Go to the menubar and click on Insert > Link > Drafts and Recent Pages...
6. In the Select a Page to link to section, select the page with the anchor, which is probably the Current Page under status unless the anchor is not on the same page as the link.
7. Click on the Section anchor drop down menu, and select the anchor that you want to link to.
8. Click OK.

Publishing a Page

To publish a web page after you're done editing simply click on the Publish button on the toolbar located at the top of the browser section of the window.

Saving a Draft

If you haven't finished what you're working on, you can save a draft by clicking on the Save for Later button to save the draft and continue to work on it later.

Retrieving Drafts

After you save a draft, there will be a draft page located in the Pages panel on the left side of the window. Click on the draft you want to edit and the draft will be restored. Note that the Pages panel doesn't just contain drafts, it contains all the drafts and windows that you have open. For example, if you are currently browsing a web page and you just remembered you have a draft to work on, the web page that you were just looking at will not be gone when you edit the draft. Contribute remembers the web page that you were browsing and is displayed in the Pages panel as well. Web pages that you browse have a globe icon and drafts have a draft icon in the Pages panel.

Web Page Restore

Contribute has the ability to restore old versions of the web page in case there may be problems with the new page. To restore an older version, go to File > Actions > Roll Back to Previous Version...

Adding Web Pages using the UWlib Template

If you want to start a new page one of the choices you have is to use the library template.

1. Go to the menubar and click on File > New page...
2. Click on UWlib under the Templates directory under the Library website.
3. Enter the page title.
4. Click OK.

Adding Web Pages using the Copy Current Page Method

Adding pages using the UWlib template may not be the fastest method.

1. Browse to a web page that you want to make a copy of, do not click edit.
2. Go to the menubar and click on File > New page...
3. Click on Copy of Current Page under the library website.
4. Enter the page title.
5. Click OK.

Adding or Editing SSI's

If you want to make a new ssi you should make a copy of another ssi or start from a blank page. To find the SSI that you want to edit, click on the Choose button on the same line as the address bar. If that web page that's currently opened in the browser uses ssi's then there should be a directory called ssi. Open the file you want to edit. Note: Opening the ssi's that contains emails, such as the contactinfo ssi, will result in a script error. If you want to edit these ssi's, you can only edit the content that is not part of the email script. You will not be able to see or change the emails.

Special Tools

Contribute includes a tool called Flashpaper to convert documents into flash or pdf files to minimize the file sizes of these documents.

This tool is automatically installed into word processing applications such as Microsoft Office. To convert the document into a pdf file, simply go click on FlashPaper on the menubar then Convert to PDF. It will ask you save the document if you haven't already saved and also ask you where to save the pdf. Enter the required information and the pdf will be created. Although this feature is useful, we discourage the use of this tool.

Another tool which is useful is the spell checker. It is located under Format > Check Spelling...

Changing Template Properties

We can change the template properties in order to change the format of the web page such as changing whether it has a right navigation. To do this, first, change from browsing mode to editing mode by clicking on the Edit button on the menubar. Now click on Format > Template properties... A Template Properties window will pop up with a list of template properties. Changing the properties will change the format of the web page.

Secondary primary navigation

Click here to see an image

• myprimarynav should be false
• primarynav should be false
• select one of the nav_blank property to be true (for example, if you want the servies secondary navigation to be opened, you would set nav_services to be true)
• Note that the nav_surplus items are just empty files. Therefore do not set the nav_surplus items true

No secondary primary navigation

Click here to see an image

• myprimarynav should be false
• primarynav should be true
• all the nav_blank items should be false

Right navigation from the Top Page

This is when you want the right navigation panel to look like the one on the main library home page.

• mysecondarynav should be false
• secondnavright should be true
• threecolumn should be true
• twocolumn should be false

Right navigation that is unique to the directory

This is when you want to have a unique right navigation. All the files in the same directory that uses right navigation will have the same right navigation. This requires an ssi called sec_navbar.html in a folder called ssi in the directory. If you use this and don't put a sec_navbar ssi in its ssi directory, a message "An error processing this directive" will be displayed.

• mysecondarynav should be true
• secondnavright should be true
• threecolumn should be true
• twocolumn should be false

No right navigation

• mysecondarynav should be false
• secondnavright should be false
• threecolumn should be false
• twocolumn should be true

Collage placement from the main page

• collage placement should be true
• mycollage should be false

Collage placement that is unique to the directory

If you use this you must put an image called collage.jpg that is 755px x 145px in an images folder in the same directory as the web page.

• collage placement should be true
• mycollage should be true

Extra Help

There is a tutorial inside Contribute that will teach all the basics of using Contribute. Go to Help on the menubar and select Contribute Tutorial.