The Content Management System used by the AAQ has been designed to allow lots of things to be done by users of the system, without necessarily requiring them to be "web gurus".  This article lists some of the special features you can use when writing an article.

Adding "Read More..." Tags

"Read more..." points allow you as the author of an article to provide a "teaser" to get people interested in reading the full article.  See the image below, which shows the effect of clicking the "Read more" link below the text area.

Inserting Page Breaks

For long articles, it can be useful to insert page breaks.  This allows you to split the article into more manageable chucks, each with their own page heading.  You also get page navigation at the bottom which can help readers move through the article.  To insert the page break, click the "Page break" link below the text area.  You will be prompted for the title of the new page, as shown below:

Note that the button to actually create the break is below the "Table of Contents Alias" field, so you need to scroll the small window down.  Once you have done all this, you will see the page break, as shown below:

Adding a "Go to Top" Link

Sometimes you will have a very long article.  When the reader is finished, they will want to go back to the top of the page, which involves them scrolling up the page you have written.  However you can save them time by using this little trick.  When writing your article, insert the "code" shown in the image below:

When this is displayed, you will see a link as shown in the image below.  When the user clicks this link, they are sent ot the top of the page.

Linking to Documents

Frequently when writing an article, you will want to refer to a document that has been loaded into the AAQ's document management system.  For example, you might be referring to an application form or something similar. The CMS provides an easy way to do this.

To create a link, type in the text you want to use, and select it using your mouse.  Then click on the "Insert/Edit LInk" bgutton (highlighted in the image above).  When you do this, a new window will pop up as shown below.

The list in the middle of the screen allows you to select different targets for the link.  Open the "DOCman" item and navigate through the folders until you find the document you want to open when the user clicks the link.  Select the target document and click the (green) "Insert" button.  Your text will now be underlined and the user will be able to open the document by clicking the link!

Adding  Images

We've saved the best (and somewhat more complex) bit to last!  One of the most common tasks you will want to do is insert an image into the article.  All images have to be uploaded to the AAQ server, but the process you are about to see will help you do that easily.

Say you are wanting to insert an image in an article, as shown below.  Place the curser where you want the image, and click the icon on the toolbar (which has been highlighted below).

When you do this, a large window will open (shown below).  This has 4 main sections:

1. At the top are the details of the image you are about to insert (more on this later).
2. A list of folders on the AAQ server are show in the bottom left-hand side of the window.  You need to pick a folder from this list.
3. A list of existing images is shown (in the middle) next to the list of folders.  This is the list of images available in the selected folder.  You can pick an existing image from this list.
4. Details of the image you have selected appear in the panel in the bottom right-hand corner.
   

The process for selecting an existing image is then as follows:

1. Select the folder.
2. Select the image.
3. Type in the "Alternate Text" - this will default ot the file name, but you should specify some more meaningful description.
4. Click the (green) "Insert" button.

And that's it - you will find your image inserted in the article.

Inserting a New Image

Okay, so that's fine if you have an image that is already loaded.  But what about adding new images?  Back on the main insert image window, there is a small button above the details panel (circled below).

When you click this button, another window opens (see below), which alloows you to upload a new image.

Use the "Browse" button to select the file you want to load from your computer.  You can also decide whether or not you want to overwrite any existing file with the same name.  You file will be listed in the "Queue" section of the window.  To start the load process, click "Upload".  When teh file is loaded, the name name will be shaded in green, and you can click the "Cancel" button to exit [Ed: Yes, I know, it really would have been better if the "Cancel" button was called the "Exit" or "Close" button, but such is life!!!]

Once you file is loaded, you can select and name it just like any other image.  And that's all you need to know.

Other Sorts of Links

Earlier in this article, we looked at how you add a link to a document in the document library.  You can also add other sorts of links.

The simplest form of link is to an external web site.  To do thism, you need to specify the URL of the target page, as shown below.

You can also link to articles on the AAQ web site, by using the link browser (see below).