Contentissimo - Content Management System

Help

Getting Started

First of all you need to decide if you are updating an existing page or creating a new version of that page.

To create a new version login into Contentissimo and choose New Page on the left. Select the page that you want to base your new page on and click on Copy. Make sure you remember to give it a new name but keep the .php on the end, e.g. index.php might become indexV2.php. Then click on Content Areas, find your new file and click to open it.

To update an existing page just click on Content Areas, find your file and click to open it.

You might like to consider using one of the existing templates. However this will erase everything!

Adding Text

To add new text just click where you would like it to go and start typing. You can choose the individual font and size or select from a list of formats. Styles are pre-defined formats that are set up using the CSS Manager. CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets and allows you to have the same colours on every page. However they do have to be set up in advance.

Adding Images

It is a good idea to fetch your pictures and make sure they are the right size before using them. So click on Images on the left hand side. Click on the Browse button to find your image from you PC. When you have found it you should select it and then click Open. This takes you back to the Images screen where you should click Upload. When the files have arrived you can use the buttons at the bottom of the screen to resize the images. To use the images you should click on Content Areas on the left. Click on your file to open it. Then click on the Insert/Edit Image button. (Note that it is easily confused with the Image Button icon which you probably do not want.) Click on Browse Server and find your file and click on it. Back in the Image Properties dialog you can see the Image properties. You can specify the alignment here. However if you want to drag it around the page you should NOT align it here. If you later decide to align it you can right click the image and choose Image Properties or select the image and click on the image Properties button again.

Adding Files

This is used to for .PDF files, for example

1 .On the Link dialog click on the Browse Server button.

2. Navigate to where you think the file is by double-clicking on the folder names.

3. If it is not there but on your PC, then click Browse and find the file. Click on Upload to transfer it to the server.

4 .Click on the filename on the server and it will return you to the Link dialog box. Notice how the Protocol is other and it has filled in the path to the file correctly.

5. Click OK to dismiss the dialog.

6. Click Submit to save the changed content area.

7. Test it in a browser.

8. Don’t forget to provide a link to the reader download page for those who have not got Acrobat installed.

Creating links

You use the Insert/Edit Link to create links. You can create links by highlighting text or graphics (but not buttons). There are 3 sorts of link: URL, Anchor and email.

URL is used to point to another site or another page on your site. It is easiest to find the page in another browser and then cut and paste the URL into the URL field. Finally check that the Protocol is correct, e.g. https:// or http://. Should you want the page to appear in a new window then click on the Target tab in the Link – Webpage Dialog and choose New Window.

Anchor allows you to point to an anchor on the same page. Note that you MUST define the anchor before you use this feature (see an explanation of Anchor above). This is typically used for a page of frequently asked questions. So you click on your question and the link takes you to where the question is given with its answer.

Email let you choose the address, subject and message body. When the user clicks on the link their favourite mail client pops the compose mail screen with the address subject and message body populated. Then the user can choose how to complete the email and send it.

Publishing what you have done

If you have been updating the existing page then once you have done the final submit you are done.

If you have been updating a new version then you will need to replace the existing one with yours. I suggest you take a copy of the existing one first using New Page on the left. Give it a name that reflects it is now old, e.g. indexold or indexFeb2007. Then open your new page and select everything using the button or CTRL-a. Click CTRL-c to copy. Then click on Content Areas on the left and open the existing file. Click on the Clear button (it looks like a new page). Then hit CTRL-c or right most click in the page and choose Paste. Click on Submit. You will probably want to view what you have done with “To view the content area click here”.

Creating a brand new page

Copy an existing page as described already. Give it a new name e.g. History.php. Go to Content Areas, find it and open it. Clear the exiting content with the New Page icon or by choosing a new Template. Add the text and images that you wish and save it by clicking the submit button. Don’t forget that you will need a link on one of the exiting pages to get to your new page. A link back again on your new page would also be useful. Remember the best way to enter a URL for the link is to view the page and then cut and paste the link back into where you are editing your new page.

Advanced Topics

Lists and Tables

Lists can be copied from other editors e.g. Microsoft Word. So a number list will come across nicely into Contentissimo. However you do not have the ability to set your own tabs in Contentissimo so you may need to do some fiddling around to get it to look good.

You can number lists using Contentissimo itself however sometimes you can get strange results when you try to change the font as well. So it is recommended that you prepare your lists in your favourite editor and then cut and paste them into Contentissimo. Hint: you can retain much of the formatting by unchecking “Ignore Font Face Definitions” in the Word Paste dialog.

Similarly tables from Word will paste in quite nicely provided you have not got anything unusual in them, e.g. images. Once in place there are some changes that you can do. You should select all of the text in the table and then right mouse click and choose Table Properties. You can change the width of the table, the alignment, etc. You cannot drag and drop it the way you can do in Word.

When all else fails switch to a fixed font, e.g. Courier New and replace all the tabs with spaces. Use the space bar to position the text correctly on each line. Then paste this into Contentissimo. Make sure you keep the same font. This will mean that what you see is what you get. Hint: Ctrl+Shift+F8 allows you to use the arrow keys to select a block of text in Microsoft Word.

Note: You can also use the Insert Table button and type into the table. However if you have a lot of text already prepared this is tedious and you would be better using the methods described above.

Spelling checker

There is a spelling checker but it has to be installed before it can work. A simpler solution might be to use one from your browser. For example, the Google toolbar has a built-in spelling checker. However you may find that the best solution is to prepare all your text in your favourite editor e.g. Microsoft Word. At the end you paste it into Contentissimo. This will allow you to have your own words added to the dictionary as well which can be very useful if the same name keeps cropping up.

Images

If you click on Images on the left hand side in Contentissimo you can do some manipulation of your images very easily.

You will probably want to start by browsing on your PC for material that you wish to use. Then click on Upload to bring it into Contentissimo. You should see your picture appear in the list in alphabetical order. Above the name is the size of the picture e.g. 800 x 600. This is the size in pixels. Mostly people use the small images called thumbnails on their pages as these do not take up too much space on the page and do not take too long to load on a slow connection.

If you want to resize an image then you should select it (or them) and click on the single image Resize or the multiple image Resize button.

With multiple images it will only allow you to choose from thumbnail, small, medium or large not the actual pixel size. This is because you might change an image in landscape layout to one in portrait and you would then see a lot of distortion. Please note the name for the new image is the old name with the new size appended. So if you keep resizing you could end up with a very long file name, e.g. Sunset_600x800_300x400_thumbnail.jpg and you could get very confused. So it is good practice always to resize from the original.

With single images you can do more. Click on the Single Image Resize button and a new window opens for you. Then you can just click holding the Shift key down and drag to resize it. There is the danger that you will distort the picture with this method, however. So to avoid that click on the Advanced View link. Notice that the Constrain box is checked by default. This forces the resizer to keep the same ratio of height to width as the original image. Now you can choose a size from the pull-down list or just type in the number of pixels that you wish to have. Shift and drag will still work too. Don’t forget to save the image before leaving the dialog.

Now you are ready to use your images. So click on Content Areas on the left hand side and open your page. Use the Insert/Edit Image icon (not the Image Button) to insert your image. Then you can drag it into a different position or right mouse click and choose Image Properties. Here you can resize it further if necessary or choose an Alignment. Note that if you choose to align it you cannot then drag it around.

If you want to use thumbnails only on your main page then a nice idea is to allow people to click on them to see the larger image. To do this you need to create a brand new page (see instructions above) containing the large image and any suitable text. Then on the main page click on each of the thumbnails and choose Image Properties. On the Link tab specify the filename containing the larger image. You could also do this using the Link icon.

Administration

User Management

You can use this section to add and edit users. Note that you can change a password but not view the existing one. So if someone forgets their password you will just have to give them a new one.

For each user you can specify if they are allowed to do

System Admin
User Management
Content Management

User Management allows them to create new users. Content Management includes changing content. System Admin includes managing permission schemes.

Permissions Schemes

The permissions schemes allow you to control who can edit what. By default every new user is added to the default scheme. Therefore you may decide to remove all the content areas from this scheme if you need very tight security. Instead you might have a scheme for each department that allows them only to edit specific content areas.

To create a new scheme you should click on Add New Permission Scheme. Give it a name and a description. Then open it and you will see a list of users on the left. Select some of them and click on the >> button to move them into the allowed section. Then scroll down until you see the content areas. Again select the ones you want these users to be able to update and click on the << button to move them into the allowed section. The click on Submit Changes to save what you have done.

Note that it is possible have the same person in two different permission schemes. If the permissions conflict then the person is given the permission to edit the content area.

CSS Manager

This section allows you to choose which of the styles from the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) will be available in the Content Area editor. Just tick the box next to the ones you like to make them available to everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

My version of Contentissimo only allows me to edit part of the page that I can view. Why is this?
Your Webmaster wants to maintain the same look and feel for the web site. So the common parts, typically the top and side cannot be updated by you. If you need new buttons in this area you must ask your webmaster to add them.
Can I build a whole site from scratch with Contentissimo?
No, it is not designed to do that. It is intended for maintaining existing web sites.
How do I change the colour of the page not just the background to the text?
You cannot. In order to maintain the same look and feel your webmaster has control of the background colour.
How do I report problems with Contentissimo?
Please send an email to support@contentissimo.co.uk.
Is there a list of known problems that I can consult to avoid reporting a known problem?
Please see www.contentissimo.co.uk/known-problems
Why is it called Contentissimo?
Contentissimo is Italian for very happy or as happy as possible. We hope you will be very happy with this content management product.

Buttons

Icon	What it Does
	View or edit document source code (for advanced users). Click again to return to normal view.
	Save (does not work use Submit button at bottom instead)
	Clear – this deletes everything from the frame
	Preview what the HTML frame will look like for users. To see the whole page use the link at the top that says “To view the content area click here”
	Select a layout template. Please note this will overwrite everything you have done already.
	Remove the highlighted text.
	Copy the highlighted text.
	Paste the text you copied (with or without formatting)
	Copy content from Microsoft Word, then paste it into the HTML editor using the pop-up accessed from this icon.
	Print the HTML frame.
	Check the spelling of the HTML frame.
	Undo or redo the most recent action taken.
	Find a word or phrase within the text of the HTML frame.
	Find and replace a word or phrase within the text.
	Select all of the text in the HTML frame (usually used before copy or cut or to apply a style or format to the whole page).
	Remove the formatting from highlighted text.
	Insert form. Please note that you can use Contentissimo to create a form for your users to complete however some extra programming is needed to send that data somewhere e.g. into an email or into a database.
	Adds a check box to the form. Allows the user to select as many of the options as they want e.g. tick to indicate which newspapers you read.
	Adds a radio button e.g. choose male or female. Only one selection is allowed typically.
	Text field – just one line and you can specify how many characters are allowed.
	Text area – this allows more than one line of text. Make sure that the number of columns (i.e. the number of characters) is wide enough as that controls the width of the box.
	Selection Field. It create a box with some values and the user can choose one or many of the them, e.g. Mr/Mrs/Ms.
	Button. This will put a grey button with some text on the frame. However you will need some extra programming to make it do anything.
	Image button. This allows you to have a button with an image on it e.g. a small arrow. However you will need some extra programming to make it do anything.
	Hidden field. This field will be completely invisible to the user. You would use this to validate a password, say.
	Bold, italic, underscore or strikethrough highlighted text.
	Superscript or subscript the highlighted text.
	Add numbering or bullets to highlighted text lines.
	Increase or decrease the highlighted text's indentation.
	Alignment of highlighted text (left, centred, right, justified).
	Add or remove hyperlink from highlighted text.
	Anchor. You use this to create a point on the page to which your users need to go frequently, e.g. at the top of the page. Then towards the bottom of the page you add some text, e.g. Back to top. You highlight that and use the Hyperlink button (above) to select the Link type of Anchor and then choose the anchor from the list of anchors already created on the page.
	Upload or insert your own or other's images into the HTML frame. (Not to be confused with the Image button – see below).
	Flash Properties allows you to change the properties of some features done in Flash.
	Insert table. Number of columns or rows, and table width, height, borders, & alignment can also be set.
	Insert divider line (horizontal rule).
	Insert emoticons (e.g. smiley faces, email icon, light bulb).
	Insert symbols & special characters (trademarks, currency, etc.) .
	Online keyboard for certain non-roman character languages.
	Insert page break. Only impacts printed version.
	Styles & formatting determine the appearance of HTML text. You may also use the drop down boxes to style specific elements (such as headings), or set overrides for font face, font size, etc.
	Change the colour of the highlighted text.
	Change the background colour behind the highlighted text.
	Maximise the editor. This allows you to have the full width for editing. Click the button again to return to normal width.
	Gives you information about the version of the editor.
	Use the Submit button to save your changes and the Cancel button to discard everything and return to the Content Areas page.