Web Office Quick Start - Documents

Introduction

Adding new content to your web site is vital to keeping the information up to date and ensuring that both visitors and church members return frequently. Wherever possible you should encourage as many members to contribute documents which can be published – ChurchInsight allows you to do this in one of two ways:

By submitting an article for consideration using the my documents area of the web site. This method is most useful for occasional contributors.
By delegating responsibility for producing documents to different people in each group using the documents and media permission in the web office.

For more information on delegating permissions see the quick start guide called Web Office Tour. This quick start guide describes how to create a new document and how to fulfil the role of “document reviewer”.

Creating a new document

If you haven’t logged into the web site already, do so now. Click the Login link at the top of the home page and enter the login name and password as supplied.
Once you have successfully logged in click the web office link at the top of the home page.
Select a group folder where you would like the document to be located.
Select the documents tab to display the current list of documents in this group.

Not sure what a group folder is? Documents tab not available? For more help see the quick start guide called Web Office Tour.

Click the start a new document task at the bottom of the work pane.

There are three types of document you can create on your web site:

Article – general purpose document for publishing text and images. In some cases an article may also have provision for feedback e.g. voting on an issue, registering for a conference or volunteering for help.

Advert – a banner notice which appears on the web site home page used for drawing attention to events, articles, groups, recordings and other web sites.

Poll - an opportunity to allow visitors to the web site to express their opinion on a particular topic by selecting from one of a range of available answers.

Creating an article

To create a new article:

Click on the article option at the which type of document would you like to create? screen.
Step 1 – add content to your article - Begin adding text and images to the new article in the contents view.

The contents view is very similar in operation to popular word processing software. Enter text in the space provided; use the following buttons in the styles section of the toolbar to set the appearance of the text:

If necessary add a table to your document using the table section of the toolbar:

To add images and hyperlinks to your document use the image / link section of the toolbar:

Hyperlinks can be used to direct the reader to other groups in your church, documents, events, audio & video recordings, rotas, members, and external web sites.

If you wish, you can also add interactive elements to the article to provide opportunity for feedback; use the form section of the toolbar to add these elements as follows:

Step 2 – set the article properties – select the properties tab to configure these options:

Title – Enter a title to describe the purpose of the article.

Author – In most cases you should enter your name as the author unless you wish to publish the article on behalf of a group of people.

Summary – Enter a brief synopsis to encourage people to read the article. You can also press the use image button to place a picture next to the article whenever it appears in a “recent articles” list.

Publish Date - Enter the date when you would like the article to become available. You can also select a date when you would like the article to be removed; if you do not specify a removal date the article will remain on the web site indefinitely.

Access permissions – Select which groups of people visiting the web site can see the article. You can also use this option to make the article available for syndication across the ChurchInsight network.

Feature this article on the web site front page – When this option is checked the article will appear in the “recent articles” list on the front page of your church web site.

Add any associated links – Use this area to add links to the side of your article. These links can be to other groups in your church, documents, events, audio & video recordings, rotas, members, and external web sites.

Step 3 – publish the article! – Once you are happy with the content of your article set the publishing status at the top of the article editor to published.

Click the save button to commit your changes and return to the documents view. The article will now be available on your web site.

Note: You can use the save button in the top right corner of the article editor at any time to save you changes and return to the documents view. Your document will be located in the intray of the current group to allow you to return to editing it at a later stage.

Creating an advert

To create an advert:

Click on the advert option at the which type of document would you like to create? screen.
Step 1 – add content to your advert - Begin adding text and images to the new advert in the contents view.

Text in an advert is contained in floating “boxes” – one of these boxes is already available when a new advert is displayed in the editor. Double click on the text to edit the contents.

Use the following buttons to set the appearance of the text:

Click the button in the elements section of the toolbar to add further text boxes if required.

Click the button in the elements section of the toolbar add an image to your advert. Once the image has been added to your advert you can resize it by clicking and dragging the “handles” surrounding the image:

Note: to reduce the time taken for the image to download when the advert appears on your web site you should ensure that the image is as close to the final size as possible before uploading the image.

Step 2 – set the advert properties – select the properties tab to set when the advert should be visible and what the advert will link to.

Publishing - Enter a date in the publish date box to set when the advert will appear on your church web site. Select from a range of preset options or specify a date when the advert will be removed.

The Visible to setting allows you to restrict you will see the advert – in some cases you may wish to make the advert visible to visitors as well as login account holders; in some cases you may wish to make the advert visible only to members of the group where the advert is located.

Link - Adverts are designed to promote other content on your web site – articles, events, recordings, group homepages and other web sites. Select the item you would like to link your advert to by clicking on the change button.

Step 3 – publish the advert! – Once you are happy with the content of your advert set the publishing status at the top of the advert editor to published.

Click the save button to commit your changes and return to the documents view. The advert will now be available on your web site.

Note: You can use the save button in the top right corner of the advert editor at any time to save you changes and return to the documents view. Your document will be located in the intray of the current group to allow you to return to editing it at a later stage.

Creating a Poll

To create a poll:

Click on the poll option at the which type of document would you like to create? screen.
Step 1 - set poll details - enter the following information in the poll details area:

Title - enter a title for the poll to enable you to identify it in the web office.

Question - enter the text you wish to appear as the question on which users will vote.

Answers - click the add answer button and enter text in the field provided to create possible answers to the question. Repeat this process to create the desired number of options.

Step 2 - set poll publishing and voting rules - enter the following information:

Visible from - set a date when the poll will be visible on the web site.

Visible to - select who will be able to see the poll on the web site.

Who may vote - select who will be able to submit a vote in the poll. When this option is restricted to registered users only the likelihood that a person could vote more than once is greatly reduced.

Show latest results - select from a range of options to indicate when the results of the poll should be visible.

Voting closes - enter a date after which no more votes may be cast.

Remove poll - enter a date when the poll will be removed from the web site.

Link to forum - if required this poll may be linked to a forum to allow users to discuss the results.

Step 3 – publish the poll! - Once you are happy with the content of the poll set the publishing status to published.

Click the save button to commit your changes and return to the documents view. The poll will now be available on your web site.

The Document Reviewer

The intray of the documents view will, from time to time, show articles which have been “just submitted”. These articles are created by members of the web site using the my documents area. Anyone with the documents and media permission may act as the “document reviewer” for the group and choose to publish the article.

When a new article is awaiting approval a symbol will appear after the group name.

To review and approve the article:

Click on the title of the article in the intray. The article editor will be displayed shortly afterwards.
Step 1 - Click on the contents tab to display the contents of the article. Make any changes to the text if necessary.
Step 2 - set the article properties – Select the properties tab to configure these options:

Title – edit the title given by the author if necessary.

Author – This entry will take the name of the person submitting the article by default; you can change this name if necessary.

Summary – Enter a brief synopsis to encourage people to read the article. You can also press the use image to place a picture next to the article whenever it appears in a “recent articles” list.

Publish Date– Enter the date when you would like the article to become available. You can also select a date when you would like the article to be removed; if you do not specify a removal date the article will remain on the web site indefinitely.