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Getting Started with Wetpaint
| Getting Started |
Key: (A): Advanced, (M): Moderators Only
Are you new to Wetpaint? These quick tutorials will help you master the Simple tools effectively, and in no time at all! Here are the 17 subjects currently mentioned:
- Creating a page
- Editing a Page
- Moving and Renaming Pages
- (M) Deleting and Restoring Pages
- Creating and replying to threads
- What 'Watching' a thread or page is
- Adding Attachments to pages
- Uploading Pictures and videos
- (A) Tables, Layout Zones and Suggest Links
- (A) Wonderful Widgets
- Content Modules
- (M) Creating and Using Templates
- Key Words
- Photo Albums
- Video Albums
- Reporting
- (A) Uploading Javascript Widgets
- Profile Customisation
Creating A Page
Creating a page is very simple. First of all, you click on the page you want it to appear under. For a main page (like Scribblenauts Guide Video Center) that is not under any header, you go onto the home page. Once you\'ve found where you want your page to be categorised, you click on \'Add a New Page\' below the navigation.
Once you've clicked on that, you should get a window like this:
First, you'll want to type the page name in the box at the top.
Underneath are the Keyword tags, which is what people will use to search for your page. Visit Keyword tags to find out more. Below that, are the templates. There is default Wetpaint templates, and custom templates that people have made (find out
more in creating and using templates).
After all the boxes are filled in, click add page and you're rearing to go! If you don't like where you put it, you can always click 'Move Page...' at the top.
Editing a Page
Editing a page will most likely be your most used tool. This is because it\'s the heart of Wetpaint, and is very simple but very powerful. This may be a long tutorial, there\'s lot\'s to learn if you want to become a pro.
To get started, there should be an 'EasyEdit' button above the page title. It looks like this:
Click it, and a toolbar should come up. This will be what you use throughout your entire time with Wetpaint. It looks like this:
Doesn't look like much, does it? It's a very powerful toolbar, and by the time you've finished this tutorial, you should know what amazing things you can do with it.
So here's the basics. You probably figured out what the tabs at the top left of the toolbar do, that's font, text size, text colour,
and the two arrows are Undo and Redo.
To the right of that, you have the Bold, Italic and Underline tools for your text. (The eraser is 'Clear Formatting'. You don't need that at all).
To the right of THAT, is Text Align (Left, Right and Centre), Outdent (Useless) and Indent (Makes a big gap at the side for paragraphs), The number list and Bullet point list (Click them, and every time you press enter a new Bullet/Number will pop up), and You have link (You can link to another page in the site or paste a URL into the box to link there).
At the very end of this toolbar, you have Photos, Videos, and Tables. You learn about them later.
Below that, you have Widget, Content Modules, Layout Zones and Spellcheck. You will also learn about those a bit later. Spellcheck is obviously checking your spellings and highlights any mistakes (Some words it doesn't accept, like Scribblenauts).
Save as template should only be clicked if you intend on reusing the same page over again.
Obviously, if you don't understand some parts of this tutorial, you can just experiment with the tools and see what they do.
Moving and Renaming Pages
Moving and Renaming pages is useful if things are out of place, your site is untidy, you have a spelling error in your page name or something entirely different.
Obviously you won't have that many tools, there's more there because I'm an Administrator
Moving Pages is quite simple. Next to the EasyEdit button, you have a little tab that says 'More Tools'. Click on that, and a
little drop-down menu should appear. .On that menu, there should be 'Move Page'. Click it, and this window should appear:
Renaming pages is just as simple. Again, go to 'More Tools' and select 'Rename Page'. This window should appear:
You may have noticed the Warning. This means a link to the page may be broken. You can view the list, and fix them at a
later time. First of all, you want to put the Name in the 'New Name' box. You can leave the 'Why are you renaming this page?'
if you want. It's just asking why you wanted to rename it. Click rename page and you're done!
Deleting and Restoring Pages (Moderators only)
If you are a moderator (which is unlikely if you don\'t know how to use Wetpaint), then this is a special little tool just for you (and admins). To delete a page, go to \'More Tools\' and \'Delete Page\'. Click delete page on the window, and you\'re done! To restore a page, you need to find a link to it (in the updates list or somewhere else), and it will take you there. It should look like this:
Above that there should be a small button where 'More Tools' usually is, called 'Restore Page'. Click it, and click restore on the window that pops up. Done! The page and any data on it before deletion is back!
Creating and Replying to Threads
To create a thread is easy. To save time, you can watch this video I made at a previous date:
Ah, the fun bit. Pictures and Videos are often used in a Wetpaint community. To upload a picture, go to the pictures button on
the EasyEdit toolbar. This should pop up.
You can browse the picture gallery and choose a photo, or go to Upload New Photos and find your own. Click 'Add Photo', fill
in the boxes and click done. Done!
Uploading Videos is praticially the same, you click on Video, Choose one from the gallery, Search for one, or get the video embed code. On YouTube, the embed button is displayed underneath a video. Click it, and this should appear:
Select your desired settinggs, and highlight the code (like on the picture). Press CTRL+C (Or go to edit>copy), and paste it in
the Embed code box on Wetpaint. Click Add Video, and you're finished!
(A) Tables, Layouts & Suggest Links
Aha, onto some slightly more advanced tools now. Well the first one we're going to look at is tables. Tables can be extremely frustrating on Wetpaint, as you may find out. But they can also make your site look wonderful. Have you seen the new main page layout? Yes, I couldn't have made that without tables. Enough of that.
To make a table, you want to click on the 'Table' button. This window should appear:
Right, so first what you want to do is determine how many rows your Table will have. Rows go Sideways (→). Put your number in there.the EasyEdit toolbar. This should pop up.
You can browse the picture gallery and choose a photo, or go to Upload New Photos and find your own. Click 'Add Photo', fill
in the boxes and click done. Done!
Uploading Videos is praticially the same, you click on Video, Choose one from the gallery, Search for one, or get the video embed code. On YouTube, the embed button is displayed underneath a video. Click it, and this should appear:
Select your desired settinggs, and highlight the code (like on the picture). Press CTRL+C (Or go to edit>copy), and paste it in
the Embed code box on Wetpaint. Click Add Video, and you're finished!
(A) Tables, Layouts & Suggest Links
Aha, onto some slightly more advanced tools now. Well the first one we're going to look at is tables. Tables can be extremely frustrating on Wetpaint, as you may find out. But they can also make your site look wonderful. Have you seen the new main page layout? Yes, I couldn't have made that without tables. Enough of that.
To make a table, you want to click on the 'Table' button. This window should appear:
Then you want to determine the columns. Columns go down (↓↓↓) Put your number in.
Then you want the table width. You can fill in the Box if you want, or select fit to page. If you want to resize it, but don't know
the measurements and don't want it to fit to page, you can add the table and resize it like you would a picture or video-with the drag and resize tools if you select it.
Ignore Cell Margins. As for Wrap text, that determines if your text will go under your table (Left Icon), To the right of your table (middle icon), or to the left of your table (right icon). As for table style, you can just leave it and experiment with those another time. To change a Table colour, you highlight the cells and click 'Edit Table Cell'. There you can change the colour and do
some other things.
(A) Wonderful Widgets
Widgets can be very useful indeed. You can put ANY website into a frame, or you can use different embed codes for videos, chat rooms, and more. If you're not into the process of collecting various widgets and embed codes, I'd suggest sticking to the ones available in the menu.
Firstly, you want to click 'Widget'. There you have a range of Widgets to choose from. You can select any of those and follow the instructions on the window. If you want a widget that isn't there, go to the very bottom of the widget library and there will be a button labelled 'Other Widget'. Select that. You will have a big empty box. Here you want to go to other sites, and hunt embed codes. I can't help you from here. PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately Wetpaint is only compatible with Flash, Shockwave and
Iframe widgets. Any Java widgets will be invalid. Even more unfortunate, the popular site widgetbox happend to operate on
Java, so any of the wonderful widgets on there won't work. Sorry guys.
Content Modules
Content modules are widgets that display information from your website. This includes recent members, updates, top contributors-you've probably seen it all by now. To add a content module, go to 'Content Module'. Select your widget. I'm sure you'll be able to take it from here, the customisation options are very user-friendly. It'll look something like this:
Creating and Using Templates
Templates are very useful. I'm not going to need to explain how to edit the templates once made, as you use the same tools we've been using all along. You can save a normal page as a template, or make one from scratch.
To make a template in the template manager, you must be a moderator. Just go to settings, then 'Add a custom template'. Just edit the page and you can publish it or leave it as a draft.
For members, you can only save pages as templates.
Key Words
Key words are what people used to find your site. For instance, if your Key Words included 'Scribblenauts' and 'Wiki', then if somebody typed in 'Scribblenauts Wiki' in Google, they'd get your page in the results.
You've probably noticed where key word tags are required. I just leave them, becuase most people find your website/page by it's title and/or description. When you DO put in Key Words, they, must, be, comma, seperated <<Like that.
Photo Albums
Photo Albums are great for putting photos that are simliar into a group or collection. This way, users can view multiple photos at once. To create an Album, you go to the photos page and select 'Create Album' in the top right corner.
After clicking that, you should see a window that requires you to enter the title and description. Do so.
After this, a window should pop up asking you to select photos for your album. Choose the ones you want, and save! If you don't want others to add pictures to your album (They can), then contact a moderator and they will lock it for you.
Video Albums
Video Albums work basically the same as photo albums. You go to Videos, then at the top right hand corner, click on 'Create Collection'.
As shown above. You should then get a window pop up like this:
Fill in the required fields, and click 'Create'. There! You can now use the vide gallery to add videos to your collection, or upload them yourself!
Reporting
There's always somebody who puts something unneccesary on a site, and there can always be the problem of Cyber Bullying, Sexual content, abuse and threats. So that's why there's a report feature. If you're not a moderator, but you have experienced the problems shown above, then you can report the page, video, picture, user or whatever it may be by using the 'Report' button located at the top right hand corner of a page. You can add a reason for reporting too. Once this is done, a report will automatically be sent to all moderators and admins, and it will tell them the page and your reason for reporting if you included it. They can now delete the inappropriate content.
(A) Uploading Javascript Widgets
To upload a Javascript Widget (Incompatible with wetpaint), you copy your Javascript code. You then open notepad, and paste it. Save the file as yourwidgetname.html DO NOT FORGET THE .HTML AT THE END. Now, go to the page you wanted the widget on. Add an attachment, and select yourwidgetname.html. After this, scroll down to the widget and open it in a new tab. It should be displayed. Now, copy the URL. Visit this Iframe Generator.
After that, paste your URL into the specified box, and fill out all of the other boxes. In marginwidth and marginheight, put 50 in both. Click Generate Iframe, and copy the embed code. This code will have your Javascript widget, and will be compatible with wetpaint.
If you're way to wow with widgets, then you can type up the code yourself instead of using a generator.
Profile Customisation
Customising your profile is probably one of the first things you'd want to do on a Wiki, as it helps others to find out more about you.
First, you'll want to upload a picture. You are prompted to do so after signing up, but if you weren't, or you chose not to, then: Go to your profile, click 'Add photo' underneath the picture of a person with a question mark inside. Choose your photo, and save
Secondly, you'll want to add a slogan. Just click on the box that says 'Slogan' next to your profile picture, type your slogan and click 'Save'.
Third and Finally, you'll want to edit your profile. You click on the EasyEdit button on your profile, and just get started with the template, or if you're good with Wetpaint, start from scratch.
Have I missed something? Probably. If you want anything added, just post a thread or send me a message and I'll cover it for you.
Maxwilly |
Latest page update: made by Maxwilly
, Jun 3 2011, 10:04 AM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by Maxwilly
2 images added 2 images deleted 1 widget deleted view changes - complete history) |
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