XSM User guide
1 - Introduction
Most content management systems are well practised at producing dynamic, interactive web sites for the masses - great!
Most content management systems, however tend to make these sites slowly using a lot of resources and cannot stand up to large numbers of users.
Step in XSM! XSM produces quality, concise static web sites that are as easy to manage as editing document on your computer. The technology behind XSM makes the resulting web sites extremely fast for those browsing your site and can easily stand up to many people viewing the site at once.
Read more to find out how to use this new management sytem.
2 - Quick Start
The quick start section tells you:
How to log in
How to change your password
How to change your profile
How to change your preferences
2.1 - How to log in
To log in to Rectang.com XSM use the log-in form on the left hand side.
Type in your username, your password and the name of the site which you are going to edit.
Note: Some sites have been customised to provide their own log-in page and in these cases you only require to type in your username and password.
You may select your language by clicking on the drop down box under "Language" Rectang.com XSM is currently available in English but other translations will be available soon.
Then click on the "Log in" button at the bottom of the "Log in" form.
You will then be logged into the content management system for your site and will start at the Welcome page.
It is important that you change your password when you LOG IN FOR THE FIRST TIME.
2.2 - How to change your password
It is important that you :
change your password when you log in for the first time
change your password regularly
keep your password private and do not disclose it to anyone
do not write your password down anywhere that it might be identified and used
To change your password :
Click on the "Profile" link on the left hand side menu bar.
Click on the "change your password" link in the sentence "Click here to change your password".
Type in your new password into the two empty boxes.
Click on the change password button.
Your password will now have been changed for the next time you log in.
2.3 - How to change your profile
It is important that your profile is kept up to date as this is used to automattically annotate news articles and similar pages.
To edit your profile:
Click on the "Profile" link on the left hand side menu bar.
Click on the "edit your profile" link in the sentence "Click here to edit your profile"
Type into the boxes your full name, email address and the address of your website.
Type in the URL (website location address) of a picture of yourself.
Click on the "Save Profile" button.
2.4 - How to change your preferences
To change your preferences:
Click on the "Preferences" link on the left hand side menu bar.
Click on the "edit your preferences" link in the sentence "Click here to edit your preferences"
Use the drop down box after the sentence "Your chosen theme is" to select the them you wish.
"Blue" is a blue theme
"Green" is a green theme
"Advanced" is specialised for users with recent browsers
"Blank" is a theme for people who do not want formatting
Use the drop down box after the sentence "Your chosen html editor is" to select the html editor you wish to use
"TinyMCE" is the default editor. It is an advanced html WYSIWYG editor.
"Text area" is an advanced feature for people who wish to only edit html source code manually.
Note: With the WYSIWIG editor their is also the option of editing the html source code manually. See later in the user guide.
Use the drop down box after the sentence "Your chosen language is" to select the language you wish to use the site in.
Rectang.com XSM is currently available in English UK, English US and French (only some sections of the site).
Click on the "Save Profile" button to save the changes you have made to your preferences.
3 - How to edit your website
3.1 - How to add a new page
To add a new page to your website follow the instructions below:
- click on the "New" tab at the top right of the web interface
- select the type of page you want to create by clicking on one of the radial buttons
- type the name for your new page in the box indicated
- select whether you want this page to be a subpage of the current page or the level above
- Click on the create page button at the bottom of the screen
You can create different types of pages with different functions:
- html is the standard page type for your website. It will create pages which look like the standard template you have designed (see later sections) and you will be able to edit the content of this page.
- gallery pages allow you to upload images which are automatically thumbnailed so you can browse through them
- embedded pages allow you to add features to your website such as message board
- the book selection allows you to create indexed books such as this user guide
3.2 - How to edit a page
To edit the content of a page:
- Select the page by clicking of the title on the page in the left hand menu bar
- The text and picture content on the page will appear in the central section of the website under the view tab
- Click on the "edit" tab which is beside the view tab at the top of the page
- The contents of the page will appear in a text box which you can type into
- At the top of this text box are standard text editing features (see below)
- Save your changes as you go by clicking on the "quicksave" button at the top or bottom of the page
- Save
and publish your changes to the website by clicking on the "save and
publish" button at the top or bottom of the page. This will return you
to the view screen and publish your changes onto your website
Text editing features appear in the grey box above the white text box in the central section of the website. Text editing features can be used as follows:
- click on "B" to creat bold text
- click on "I" to create itallic text
- click on "U" to underline text
- click on
ABCto create scored through text - click on the four text align icons to creat text which is aligned left, right, centre or justified
- click on different styles in the drop down box to create different styles of text
- click on different formats in the drop down box to use different text formats
- click on
to automatically create a list (such as this one) - click on
to automaticcally cretae a numbered list - click on
to indent text - click on
to reduce the indent of text - click on
to undo changes - click on
to redo changes - select text by clicking and dragging with the left mouse button and then click on
to insert or edit a link - click on
to remove a link - click on
to insert an anchor - click on
to insert an image - click on
to clean up messy code (sounds useful!) - click on
for help - click on
if you want to edit the html itself - click on
to insert a table - click on
to change selected text to subscript - click on
to change selected text to superscript
3.3 - How to change your menu hierarchy
For example:
You have created three html pages called cats, dogs, snakes
All three currently appear in your menu like this
Home
Cats
Dogs
Snakes
Links
You would like to have a menu item
called pets. When you click on pets this would take you to a page which
would give you info on pets and the menu would then expand. For example
Home
Pets
Links
would expand to
Home
Pets
- Cats
- Dogs
- Snakes
Links
To do this you sould
- create a new html page called pets
- click on the contents tab at the top left
- click on the rename icon next to the cats menu item
- rename cats to /pets/cats
- do the same for dogs and snakes
3.4 - How to edit gallery pages
Create a gallery page by clicking on the "new" tab at the top right :
- select the type "gallery" from the list
- give your page a name
- select where in your menu hierarchy you would like this page to appear ie "/" is at the level of the current page, or you can make the gallery a sub page of what you have been editing
- click on "create" to create the gallery page
- click on edit to edit the gallery page
- click on the white rectangle next to the "Add new image" text, this will take you to a page where you can add your new image
- note: before you click on "add new image" you must save any previous changes you have made otherwise they will not be saved
- you can then type the location of the image you wish to upload to your website into the rectangle for text
- if you do not know the location of the image you wish to uploade then you can click on the browse button to find the image on your computer
- once you have found the image you wish to upload and its location is in the text rectangle click on the upload button to uploade your website to your gallery
To change the order of your images in the gallery:
- click on the edit tab at the top of the webpage
- click on the up or down arrows on the left of your images
- ensure you save your changes by clicking quicksave or save and publish
To remove an image:
- click on the edit tab at the top of the webpage
- click on the dustbin icon on the left of the image you wish to remove
- click on "yes" after it asks you whether you wish to remove the image
- ensure you save your changes by clicking on quicksave or save and publish
3.5 - Using Links
Websites use lots of links - between pages, between sections of pages and between different websites. This section explains how to make links in xsm3.5.1 - Adding a link
To make a piece of text into a link:
- In the "edit" mode
- Highlight the section of text you want to turn into a link
- Click on the icon. This brings up a dialog box.
- The minumum you have to do is to type in the url (the address of the page/section you want to link to) into the top box "link url"
- Click on insert at the bottom of the dialog box
- ** make sure you click on "save and publish" to save your changes
3.5.2 - Removing a link
To remove a link:
- Open the page in the "edit" mode
- Click on the link you wish to edit. You do not have to select it entirely, all you need is your cursor to be within the link.
- Click on the icon.
- Make sure you click on "save and publish" to save your chages
3.5.3 - Editing a link
To edit a link:
- Open the page in the "edit" mode
- Click on the link you wish to edit. You do not need to select the entire link, all you need is for your cursor to be located within the link text.
- Click on the icon.
- Edit the required properties for the link.
- Click on insert.
- Make sure you click on "save and publish" to save your changes
4 - how to manage your site
creating new pages
renaming pages
deleting pages
moving pages
page permissions
5 - Site administration
site settings
look and feel
users and groups
customising templates
backup
6 -
