Please read the following article on creating new content and editing existing content before you dive in.

Thanks,
Scott Delly

Creating Content or "How to build an Empire" (Now with smileys)

by Sparks McGhee.

Creating Content is fun and (usually) safe for everyone. To ensure your safety and enjoyment, I have written this article.

Step 1 - Choosing a content type

In todays modern high tech world, there are an infinite number of content types available. The number available to you will depend on your user permission.

• Blog - The blog is a personal space for you to sit back and reflect on your ewb related activites. While others will be able to read your entries, you should not use your blog to create content that needs to be shared with others. Users will be granted points for posting blog articles, however if the article is removed by a moderator, the poins will be lost.
• Forums - The forums are a great place for group discussion and for posting items that dont need much of an introduction. Users get points for participating in the forums in the same way they do for posting blog entries
• Books - A book is a collaborative writing effort: users can collaborate writing the pages of the book, positioning the pages in the right order, and reviewing or modifying pages previously written. So when you have some information to share or when you read a page of the book and you didn't like it, or if you think a certain page could have been written better, you can do something about it.
• Page - A page is the simplest content type, yet it is very versatile. If you have a chunk of text and possibly some file(s) associated with it that you want on the website, a page is the best way to add it. The page allows users to comment on the main article similar to a forum, however we differentiate between page and forum by saying that to understand a page you only have to read the body, the comments are optional, whereas with a forum, reading the comments in order is the only way to know whats going on. All of the following content types are pages wrapped with additional information.
• Event - This is a page wrapped with a date, a time, and recurrance information. The calendar uses this wrapper information to populate itself with events.
• Group - This is a page that can own other content types (events for example) and that users can subscribe to.
• Newsletter Issue - This is a page that can be sent out to the emails of users subscribed to the corresponding newsletter
• Story - Stories are articles in their simplest form: they have a title, a teaser and a body, but can be extended by other modules. The teaser is part of the body too.
• Task - This is a page that defines a task and can be assigned to a user or picked up by a user. Tasks can also be linked heirarchicly so that any task can have sub-tasks.

Now that you have selected your content type, its time to learn how to fill it out

Step 2 - Filling it out

• 
  If you haven't already, I suggest you read the "compose tips" available in the "Create Content" sub-menu.
  

• We are fortuante enough to have TinyMCE, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor on this site. That means that the way your page looks when you're typing it up, is very similar to the way it looks when visitors are viewing it. Thought you'd have to know html to create a page? Think again, html is helpful, but you dont need it, TinyMCE will do most of it for you and get it right 98% of the time.

• Take a look at all those pretty buttons at the top of the editor, you should framiarize yourself with most of them so that you can get the most out of this feature packed editor.
• Some buttons of note (see if you can find them!): Undo, Help, Preview, Paste from Word, Emoticons, and Toggle Fullscreen Mode.
• If you do know html, or you want to learn, click the html button to open the source editor

Step 3 - Setting it Up

When you have finished typing up your shiney new page you'll want to zoom right down to the submit button and click it. Sadly, recent studies have shown that membes of websites whose content creaters do that have an increased risk of developing adult onset fetal alcohol syndrom. Therefore, since I know you care about the members of this site, and dont want it to get shut down by the board of health, youll be sure to understand these options and check them every time you post a page. Again, depending on your user permissions, you may not see all these options.

• Input format - You can usually leave this one alone. (That was easy!)
• Groups - If your content is intended for a certain group, make sure you select the appropriate group. If you started your content creation journey from the menu within a group, the group will be automatically selected for you. Most pages will be linked to a group.
  
• WebFM Attachments - Here you can attach and manage files. Remember to keep your files in an organized manner and out of other peoples way, or they might get deleted. To preform an action on a file or folder you must right-click it, and select your action from the menu.
• Subscriptions - If you subscribe to your post, you will be notified when other users comment on it
• Log Message - Here you can log notes related to the changes you made to the page, this is handy especially if you are editing someone else's page
• Menu settings - You can assign you page to a link in a menu either in the Navigation Links (left) or the Primary Links (top). This option should not be used without express consent from an administrator.
• URL Path Settings - Instead of referring to a page by its numer, its much easier to remember a name, URL Path Settings automatically assigns a name to your page based on the Title you enter. You can override this setting and assign your own url to the page if you like, just make sure it doesnt exist already.
• Comment settings - This is where you can tell you page how to handle user comments. The default option is "Read/Write", this allows visitors to post comments and read other's comments. If you are anti-social and dont want comments, select "Read Only". You should never have to disable comments.
• Publishig options - These options describe how users will view your page.

• Published – This indicates whether or not a page is visible to all users of the site. If the page is published, then anyone can access it either by entering its url directly, or by clicking on links that lead to the page. If a page is not published, it will be accessible only to its author and the site admins and moderators. If you author a page and want to finish it at a later time you can choose not to publish it and it can be submitted and edited later, just make sure you not the url because that’s the only way to get back to it!
• More Coming Soon...