EzyEdit - by AussieWeb
INSTRUCTIONS

 

EzyEdit is a great way to have control over your web pages. We install it and then you can add, edit or delete sections of your page which are configured for the EzyEdit facility.

Update your site yourself instantly! EzyEdit can provide you with flexible web pages with no software to buy and is easy to use.

LOGIN / LOGOUT

Go to the login page http://www.australianconsultancy.com/protected/login.asp
Enter your username and password.

You can also return to this page at any time to LOGOUT by clicking on the LOGIN / LOGOUT button on the EzyEdit navigation bar on the left.

Note: You will stay logged in for 24 hours unless you logout by clicking this button. This way you don't have to keep logging in over and over when you are making your updates. It is a good idea though to logout after each session if your computer is used by other people - otherwise they will be able to access the edit feature.


EDIT MODE

Rule Number 1: Once you hit "Save" it goes live to the world!

Edit & SaveThe EDIT & SAVE buttons will appear on every page which has been installed with the EzyEdit facility. Once in edit mode a border will appear around the area which is editable.


Choose the page you wish to edit using the navigation buttons and click on EDIT. The EzyEdit toolbar will appear. This toolbar will move with you as you scroll up and down the page. If it is ever in your way - just scroll a notch or two and it will move.

You will notice that the EzyEdit Toolbar is very similar to that of Microsoft Word. Below is a diagram of the buttons featured on the toolbar.

You can now go ahead and edit the text within this region just as you would using Microsoft Word (ie, bold text, change the font size and colour, align left, centre or right etc).

TIPS
  • If you are copying text from another application (ie. Microsoft Word), paste it into a text editing program first such as NotePad (click on your computer's START menu, choose PROGRAMS then ACCESSORIES then NOTEPAD) then recopy the text and paste it into your web page. This will remove any 'extra bits' of the coding you don't see such as font sizes, colours and styles that you had in the original document, otherwise you will have to reset everything back to the default on the EzyEdit toolbar before reapplying your bold, font size, colour etc.

  • To make a "carriage return" at the end of a line or sentence, or after an image, press ENTER to make a paragraph spacing (2 lines) or SHIFT & ENTER to go down to the very next line - eg:
Pressing ENTER: Pressing SHIFT + ENTER:

text here text here text here

text here text here text here

text here text here text here
text here text here text here

INSERTING IMAGES

Place the cursor where you want to insert the image. Choose INSERT IMAGE on the EzyEdit toolbar. The Image Library will appear.

You will find any photo's and many of the graphics used on your site within these folders. Search through the folders to find the image you wish to insert. Click on the image name to preview it in the window on the right.

Alternative Text: In here you can type a brief phrase or description of the photo that will appear as the user moves their mouse over the image. For example, on a photo of a person you might want to type their name.

Horiz Space: This is the margin to the left and right of the image. This is handy if you have text beside the image and you want a small space or 'margin' between the two. A horizontal space of around 10 is usually sufficient.

Vert Space: This is the margin around the top and bottom of the image. A vertical space of 5 to 10 is usually sufficient.

Inserting an image from your computer:

Place the cursor where you want to insert the image. Choose INSERT IMAGE on the EzyEdit toolbar. The Image Library will appear. Click on the folder you want your image to be uploaded into (for example, you might choose the "photos" folder if you are uploading a photo of your office). Click on the BROWSE button. Your computer's Windows Explorer screen will appear. From here you can locate the file you wish to upload. Double click the image file to select it. The file's path and name will appear in the Local File field (near the bottom of the Image Library screen). Click UPLOAD to load the image into the folder. Then select the image by clicking on its name (you can view it in the preview window on the right) and set any other parameters you want on the image (eg, align centre, Horiz Space). Click INSERT.

IMPORTANT: When naming your images do not use any spaces between the words and keep the name brief. If you want to differentiate between words use hypens, underscores or capitals.

INCORRECT CORRECT
Brisbane Office.jpg brisbane-office.jpg
brisbane_office.jpg
BrisbaneOffice.jpg

 

TIPS
  • Try to keep your images below 30kb (under 20kb is ideal). Anything larger than this will take too long to load. People viewing your site will not hang around waiting for images to load on the page. You can find out the file size of an image by viewing its details in Windows Explorer (if you cannot see the "size" column go to VIEW on the Explorer toolbar, and click on DETAILS. The size column should appear.

  • Get your image to the correct dimension size BEFORE inserting it. Do not resize the image once it is on the web page. Doing so will not reduce the physical size of the image - a 500x500 pixel wide image that is 40kb will still be 40kb when you have sized it down to 100x100 pixels. If you resize it properly first in an image editing program it may only end up being 10kb when it is 100x100 pixels instead of 40kb and take only 2 seconds to load instead of 10 seconds. A big difference to people viewing your site - especially when you have several images on the page.

  • 150 to 200 pixels wide is a good size for images. The picture of the waterlillies a little further down this page is 150 pixels wide.

  • Save photo's as .jpg format. Save cartoon style images and text images as .gif format.

TABLES

Inserting Tables

Place the cursor where you want to insert the table. Choose the INSERT TABLE button on the EzyEdit toolbar. You will be asked "How Many Columns" and "How Many Rows" - type in the number and click OK (or press ENTER).

You will notice that the table will have a fine border around it. This is merely a guide while in edit mode and will be invisible once you return to normal mode.

You can resize the table by positioning your cursor over the table border until the cursor changes to the 4 way arrow and click once. The corners of the table will appear. Now position the cursor over one of these corners until it changes to a 2 way arrow . You can now click and drag the border of the table to the desired size.

Note: The border will no longer be visible once you exit out of edit mode and then return. But it will still be there - just keep moving the cursor around where you think the border will be until the arrows appear.

Managing Your Page Layout with Tables

Tables are the best way to manage a page with multiple text and images. If you have an image with text beside it, put it in a table with the image in one column and the text in another. It will keep everything a lot neater and more manageable.

Tdjfa gha sgj g gjsg gj sjf dgh oigh ghesrhg ajhg isah gahfgi hailghf giagh oafgoahg oh:

  • More text
  • Some text
  • Text here
  • More text
  • More text
  • Some text
  • More text

It is surprising what you can do with tables and a little imagination. All of our sites have been created through the creative use of tables. Have a look at some of our sites for ideas. You can find links to some of our sites at www.aussieweb.com.au/casestudies.asp

LINKS

Creating a Link to Another Page Within Your Site.

Highlight the text or image you wish to make a link. (eg - type and highlight "click here to go to the About Us page"). Click on the LINK button on the EzyEdit toolbar. The Links window will appear. The "Link Type" should be set by default to "Website Address". If not, choose it now. In the "Link" field you will see "http://". Delete this. Now type the name of your page including the file extension (eg. about.asp, or contact.htm).

You can work out the name of the page by going to that page and noting the address that now appears in the address bar of your browser. For example: http://www.aussieweb.com.au/about.asp
- In this address
www.aussieweb.com.au is the address of the website, the page name is whatever appears after the "/" - ie: about.asp

Uncheck the box that says "Yes, link opens in new window?" You don't want another browser window opening if you're just going to another page within your site. Click APPLY.

Note: If you return to this link later on you will notice that the program has automatically inserted the full link address (ie. http://www.aussieweb.com.au/about.asp). This is why we were able to delete the "http://" bit earlier - it does it automatically for you so there's no need to remember the whole thing.

Creating a Link to Another Website.

Highlight the text or image you wish to make a link. (eg - type and highlight "click here to visit www.aussieweb.com.au"). Click on the LINK button on the EzyEdit toolbar. The Links window will appear. The "Link Type" should be set by default to "Website Address". If not, choose it now. In the "Link" field you will see "http://". Type the address of the web site AFTER this eg. www.aussieweb.com.au (so that the final address will be the full "http://www.aussieweb.com.au"). Leave the "Yes, link opens in new window" box checked - this way the web page will open in a new browser window. Once the viewer has looked at that site and closes it, your site will still be there behind it. Click APPLY.

Creating a Link to an Email Address.

Highlight the text or image you wish to make a link. (eg - type and highlight "click here to email us"). Click on the LINK button on the EzyEdit toolbar. The Links window will appear. From "Link Type" choose "Email Address". Type the email address AFTER the "mailto:" leaving no space (so that the final address will look something like this: "mailto:info@aussieweb.com.au"). Click APPLY.

Creating a Link to a Pop Up Window.

Phone AussieWeb for instructions on how to do this.

Creating a Link to a Document (Insert File)

Highlight the text or image you wish to make a link. (eg - type and highlight "click here to download our newsletter"). Choose INSERT FILE on the EzyEdit toolbar. The File Library will appear. Any documents already used on the site will be in one of the folders. Click on the folders to view the contents of each. Click on the file name to view the document prior to linking. Click on INSERT to insert the document.

If the document is on your local computer, click the BROWSE button. Your computer's Windows Explorer screen will appear. From here you can locate the file you wish to upload. Double click the file to select it. The file's path and name will appear in the Local File field (near the bottom of the File Library screen). Click UPLOAD to load the file into the folder. Click INSERT beside the file name.

IMPORTANT: When naming your documents do not use any spaces between the words and keep the name brief. If you want to differentiate between words us hypens, underscores or capitals.

INCORRECT CORRECT
Annual Report.pdf annual-report.pdf
annual_report.pdf
AnnualReport.pdf

 

TIPS
  • If you are inserting a document, ideally it should be in pdf format. The marjority of people already have the pdf viewer (Adobe Acrobat Reader) on their computer (it comes prepackaged with a lot of other software), if they don't, they can download it for free from the Adobe website. However, you do need the full version of Adobe Acrobat (not just the Reader) to convert your documents into pdf format. The software can be purchased from any good software retailer for around $500. If you don't have have Acrobat, Microsoft Word is your next best option, as a large percentage of people also have this program.

  • If your document is in pdf format and you want to have a link to the free viewer use this link address: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
    You may also want to insert this image to grap the viewers attention:
    (To save this image to your computer, right click it once and choose "Save Picture As" to save it to your computer. You can now upload it to your site's Image Library and insert it onto your page, and create the link to the adobe site).

Creating a Link to a Point Further Down on a Page Within Your Site (Anchor)

Highlight the text or image you wish to make a link. (eg - type and highlight "click here to view locations"). Click on the LINK button on the EzyEdit toolbar. The Links window will appear. The "Link Type" choose "Anchor" In the "Link" field you will see the hash symbol "#". After the hash type a brief one word description of your link, eg. #locations.

If the point you want to jump to is on a different page within your site to the one you are currently on, simply add the name of the page before the hash, eg. about.asp#locations.

Uncheck the box that says "Yes, link opens in new window?" You don't want another browser window opening if you're just going to another page within your site. Click APPLY.

Note: If you return to this link later on you will notice that the program has automatically inserted the full link address (ie. http://www.aussieweb.com.au/about.asp#locations). It does this automatically for you so there's no need to remember the whole thing.

Now we need to tell it where that "#locations" point is it has to jump to:

Go to the spot that you want to anchor down to. Highlight the first word if it's a paragraph or click on the image and choose ANCHOR on the EzyEdit toolbar. You will be asked for the anchor name. Type in whatever you called it earlier eg, "locations" (without the hash this time).

Now when you click on your link it will anchor down to this point on the page.


OTHER GENERAL TIPS AND TRICKS

TIPS
  • Keep font size relatively small and font colours to a minimum. Large colourful font looks tacky and unprofessional.

  • Arial font is best for reading on computer screens. Times New Roman, which is ideal for print, just doesn't work as well on screen so try to avoid using it.

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