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Web Support Adobe Contribute (handouts and video tutorials) Visit the Adobe's web site and download a 30 day trial of Contribute View videos from the Flex workshop on how to use Contribute with the LMC website Worksheet from Flex workshop Contribute is an inexpensive and very easy to learn program that allows you to make most of the edits necessary to keep your web site correct and current. To inquire about a copy, set up a training or to get a connection key please contact the LMC web administrator 1. The Basics Contribute allows you to connect to the server which hosts your web site  and edit your site directly on the server.  Once you have saved (published) your changes they are immediately available for the public to view. To edit your site open Contribute. The first time you do this you will need to create a connection you will be sent a connection key (an attached file in an email) and a password by the site administrator.  Double click to open the file and type in the password. Now navigate to the web page you want to edit as you would on a web site When you have the page in front of you click edit page The files for the page will be temporarily downloaded on to your computer The appearance of the page may change slightly as it displays the structure of the page as well as its content. Run the mouse over the page.  You will find some parts of it have a no entry sign.  These parts are affected by a template which has been applied to several pages and you can not edit them. You can edit anything in the "Main Body" part of the page Edit page as described below Once you have finished you can either:  i.     Publish – this will send your new page up to the server and it will be immediately available for viewing ii.     Cancel – To cancel any changes you have made iii.     Save for later  - if you do this no one else will be able to work on the page until you have either published or cancelled the page Contribute has an excellent help menu if you need to know more about anything go to help and chose from the Quick start guide, tutorial or general help 2.   Editing text This is the same as editing in a simple word processor.  Click on the text you want to edit and: Highlight and press delete to remove text Type to add text Highlight text and click on appropriate button to embolden, use italics, justify, add bullets etc Click on the text menu to choose from Headline, subhead or text 3.   Inserting Links i.         Write the text that is to be the link  (Something descriptive and not just 'click here') ii.         Highlight the text that will become a link iii.         Click on the link button iv.         Chose either to link to an (a) existing page, an (b) email address or a (c) web link: (a) Existing page Click on browse and search for your page (b) Email address Type in full email address (c) Web link Type in the url (web address) that you want and then click on browse to check it is correct or Click on browse and search the Internet for your page 4.   Linking to a specific place in a page You can place an invisible marker, called a section anchor, on your page to mark a specific topic or place. You can then create links to the anchor, which take web site visitors to the specified position on the page with the anchor. To create an anchor:   In your draft, place the insertion point at the beginning of the section where you want the page to open when a web site visitor clicks the link to the anchor.    Select Insert > Section Anchor.    The Section Anchor dialog box appears    Enter a name for your anchor.   The name cannot begin with a number and cannot contain any spaces. You cannot have two anchors with the same name on a web page.  Click OK To link to an anchor: Highlight the text for the link Click on the link button at the top of the page, choose Browse to web page In the Insert Link dialog box, click the Advanced button to expand the dialog box, if it is not already expanded. Select a named anchor from the pop-up menu Click OK. 5.   Linking to a document – Word or PDF If you are using a PDF document make sure it is a sensible file size Highlight text and click on the link button. Choose File on my computer Navigate to the file and click on OK The file will automatically be uploaded to the documents folder on the server 6.   Adding images The software has been set so that it is impossible to have an image larger than 164 kb in size.  Most of the images on your site are less than 6kb in size.  This is what you should be aiming for when creating images with an absolute maximum of 30kb for all images on a page.  Image sizes are one of the biggest causes of web sites that are slow to download. To prepare an image for the web you may need image editing software. Remember to add alternative text (Alt tags) to all your images to help visually impaired visitors and visitors with very old computers access your web site. You can insert images that are stored on your computer (or floppy disk etc) or reuse an image that is already on the site. To insert an image: Click on the image button Navigate to your image and click select Add alternative text that will help visitors who can not see the picture Double click on the image to alter settings Browse to change the image (and then reset size) Click on Reset size if you have altered the image in anyway Add horizontal and/or vertical padding to create space around the image Choose alignment to make the text wrap round the image Add a number to create a border of that width round the image Change the alternative text if desired Click on apply to see results before saving The image will automatically be added to the images folder on the server 7.   Tables To edit an existing table: As in Word.  Navigate to the table. Click in table cells to edit content Click in table cell and then go to table on the top menu to add/delete/merge/split table cells. Click in individual cell and then go to table > cell properties to change background color etc Click in the table and then go to table > table properties to change background color etc for whole table Adding a new table Click where you want to insert the table Click on the table button Choose the number of rows and columns Choose which cells are going to contain headers – important for accessibility If you decide to make the table a specific width do this as a percentage of the page rather than a specific number of pixels – accessibility Choose whether to add padding and borders Add content – text or images Edit your table as above 8.   Creating a new page You must be out of the edit page mode and in the browsing mode. Select the "new" button next to the edit page button Make a copy of your home page – this will give you a page with all the navigation in place Give the page a title Delete the content that is there and insert new content Add your content to the page and click on publish Select OK to publish file without linking anything to it. Choose a file name that is short yet descriptive Go back to the browse mode and insert a link on another page to the document that you just created. The page you just created will be listed under drafts and recent places under the link button. 9.   Rollback You can Rollback to up to 3 previous versions of any web page.  To do this select file > rollback. Choose from  a previous version. 10.  Deleting files Go to file > delete page If you can't find the page or file but know it's on the server select the choose button under the Contribute logo to see the contents on the server. Find your file there and open it to delete it as in the first step above. Videos Presentation on how to use Contribute Getting Started with Audio and Video Blogs     ( go back )