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Adding Content to Your Site

When adding content to a Metadot Portal site, you have complete control over the content. Using basic HTML tags is fine; however, scripting, XML, styles, and so on are also supported.

Adding new page content is added using the Add New... drop-down box. When you click on the box down-arrow, the following functions are displayed:

• Category
• Discussion
• Item
• Image Item
• Scroll View
• News Item
• Poll
• Table

Adding a New Category

To add pages to your Metadot Portal site, you add categories.

• If you are on the Home page, adding a page will add a category page, which will be visible on the Category Bar and the Subcategory Listing.

• If you are on a category page, then adding a page will add a subcategory page for that category. Subcategories can be infinitely nested.

1. Select Category from the Add New... drop-down list.
2. On the Adding New Category form, enter the required information then click the Create button.
3. On the confirmation screen, if you want to create another category, click Add another category. If you are done, click Enough for now!.

Adding a New Discussion

Discussion are message boards where users can go to discuss issues and find answers. Discussions can be specified for a particular user type.

1. Select Discussion from the Add New... drop-down list.
2. On the Adding New Discussion form, enter the required information then click the Create button.
3. On the confirmation screen, if you want to create another discussion, click Add another discussion. If you are done, click Enough for now!.

Adding a New Item

An item appears in the Text Area of the screen. There is no limit to what you can put here. You can use all the standard tools accepted by HTML (Scripting, XML, style sheets, and so on). Items can have uploaded attached files of arbitrary type, that other users can download.

1. Select Item from the Add New... drop-down list.
2. On the Adding New Item form, enter the required information then click the Create button.
3. On the confirmation screen, if you want to create another item, click Add another Item link. If you are done, click Enough for now!.

Adding a New Image Item

An "image item" is very similar to an "item", but displays specified images inline rather than treating them as non-inline attachments. Images can be specified either via a URL, or via a file upload, as with the Items above.

1. Select Image Item from the Add New... drop-down list.
2. On the Adding New Image Item form, enter the required information then click the Create button.
3. On the confirmation screen, if you want to create another item, click Add another Item link. If you are done, click Enough for now!.

Adding a New Scroll View

A scroll view is a compilation of one or more discussions. The discussion entries are posted in date order.

1. Select Scroll View from the Add New... drop-down list.

2. On the Adding New Scroll View form, if you want to create a new discussion, click Create a New Discussion at the bottom of the form, which takes you to the Adding New Discussion form.

3. On the Adding New Scroll View form:
   • Enter a name for the new Scroll View
   • Elect the check boxes next to the discussion you want to monitor in this Scroll View.
   • Click the Create button.
4. On the confirmation screen, if you want to create another scroll view, click Add another Scroll View. If you are done, click Enough for now!.

Adding a New News Item

A news item is anything that appears in the News Area of the screen. There is no limit to what you can put here. You can use all the standard tools accepted by HTML (scripting, XML, style sheets, and so on).

1. Select News Item from the Add New... drop-down list.
2. On the Adding New News Item form, enter the required information then click the Create button.
3. On the confirmation screen, if you want to create another news item, click Add another News Item. If you are done, click Enough for now!.

Adding a New Poll

Polls display under the News Item area. HTML tagging is unnecessary, but accepted.

1. Select Poll from the Add New... drop-down list
2. On the Adding New Poll form, enter the Question and Responses (remember to put each response on a separate line in the text box) then click the Create button.
3. On the confirmation screen, if you want to create another poll, click Add another Poll. If you are done, click I'm Done For Now.

Adding a New Table

Tables display in the text area of the screen. They can be anything requiring table formatting.

1. Select Table from the Add New... drop-down list.
2. On the Adding New Table form, enter the Name, Description, any Keywords, and if you want this information to show in the parent category as well (the parent category is the category you linked from to get the page to which you are adding content).
3. Enter a column name for each column of the table, up to 10 columns.
4. Enter the maximum number of rows to be displayed at one time.
5. Select the background colors for both the title row and the data rows.
6. Click the Create button.
7. On the confirmation screen, if you want to create another table, click Add another Table. If you are done, click Enough for now!.

Editing Content

To edit Home page information, you must be logged in as the system administrator. All others can only edit their own My Website pages.

Make sure you have clicked the Edit On button. This displays all the editable areas on the page. Editable areas will have buttons such as these: . Not every type of content will have all these buttons. An explanation of each button is in the following table:

	Takes you to a text editor where you can edit the actual content of the area using HTML.*
	Takes you to a permission form where you can change the permissions. This determines who is allowed to view the information.
	Cuts the information, removing it from the page and putting it in a clipboard available at the bottom of the page. This information can be added on other Category or Subcategory pages as desired. All text is written in HTML.*
	Completely removes the selection; does not go to the clipboard.
	Changes the order of listings using the up and down buttons.

*Areas where HTML is inserted can use all the standard tools used in HTML (scripting, XML, style sheets, and so on).

Editing Content Areas

Different types of content can be edited; however, only those sections with Edit buttons can be edited.

1. Click the Edit button next to the text area you wish you update.
2. Update any information in the available fields.
3. When you are finished editing the content, click the Save button.

Editing Permissions

The Permissions button is found next to News Items on the Homepage and category pages, and on all items on the My Website page. Changing this determines who is allowed to view the selected information.

1. Click the button next to the item on which you would like to change permissions. This takes you to an Editing Permissions form. Several areas on this form may need changes.
2. If you want to change the owner of the page, click Change Owneron the right-hand side of the page. Otherwise, skip to Step 3.
3. 1. On the Changing Owner form, enter enough information to search for the person to which you want to assign ownership and click Search. A list of matching names is returned. (If you want to list all users, put an asterisk (*) in one of the search fields and click Search.)
   2. From the list of names, select the person to which you want to assign membership and click Save.
4. On the Editing Permissions form, under the Minimum Permissions section, select the level of permission for each of the drop-down boxes:
   • View gives permission to view the page.
   • Post gives permission to make a post to any discussion on the page.
   • Edit gives permission to change content on the page.
   • Delete and Cut gives permission to remove items from the page.
   • Change Permissions gives permission to change permissions for this page.
   • Moderate gives permission to moderate a discussion on this page.
5. Under the Groups section, you may select the check boxes to give permissions to Teachers and Staff user types.
6. In the Add a Group box, select any groups from the Group drop-down box to which you want to give permission. For more information on groups, see My Groups.
7. If you wish to give a person permission to the information, enter enough information in the text boxes in the Search and Add Members section, and click Search. (If you want to list all users, put an asterisk (*) in one of the search fields and click Search.)
8. From the list of names returned on the search, select the person to which you want to give permission to view the information; you can select more than one person at a time. Click the Save button.
9. After changing all the required information on the Editing Permissions form, click the Save Changes button.

Cutting, Deleting, and Changing Information Order

Cutting, deleting, and changing information order changes where information is present, or if it is presented at all.

Cutting

1. Click the button next to the item you wish to place in your clipboard at the bottom of the page for use on a different page.
2. Go to the page where you want to place the information and select the item from your clipboard; click the Paste button. This places it on the page in the correct text area.

Deleting

1. Click the button next to the item you wish to delete.
2. On the confirmation screen, if you want to delete the item, click Yes. If you do not want to delete the item, click No.

Changing Information Order

Click either the Up or Down button () next to the item you wish to move. Clicking the Up button moves the item up one space; clicking the Down button moves the item down one space.

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