Rooney Farm and PawPaw's Place Edit Help Page

Updated May 3, 2019

Overview

Rooney Farm and PawPaw's Place originally were HTML-based sites, with PHP used to handle the Contact Us functionality.. There are dynamic parts of the site that need periodic updates. Previously, these updates had to be done with web page updates. The sites are managed in WebPlus software, by Serif Software.

To eliminate the need for technical web-development skills and allow any-time updates, the home pages have been updated to allow anyone with the username/password to edit the dynamic parts of the pages at any time.

Benefits:

1.    Faster time-to-change when conditions warrant
2.    Simpler method to update the Welcome message without having to actually edit web pages.
3.    Update can be made by someone who may not be familiar with webpage editing, protocols and languages.

Page Structure

The Home pages are of type SHTML to allow the page to insert an include file into the body of the page. These are editable ".inc" files that are updated via the editing page. The editing can be done with any browser and does not require web-development skills.

Every page has a layout based on the template in WebPlus. When any page header or footer is updated, all pages will be updated with the new information to maintain a consistency for every page.

The dynamic portions of the page are in a box that get's filled when the ".inc" file is loaded at the time the page is called. Changes to the ".inc" file will immediately be shown when the home page is loaded.

Edit Pages

The Edit pages are password protected. When the first page is accessed, a dialog box will appear asking for username and password.

The Edit pages are access through the Edit link on the Home Page of the website.

SHTML page properties

The SHTML page allows the use of an INCLUDE directive to load a text file as part of the page load. This text file can be edited at any time and when the SHTML page is reloaded, the updated text file will be loaded.

The editor is a simple What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor to allow formatting the message with colors, font types, font weights, etc. The editor has Format options that provide a large number of format options.

WYSIWYG Editor

The editor opens the text file and displays it in a window for editing:

 
In addition, click the Edit Hours link to change the message on the Directions and Hours page. Good for unexpected seasonal conditions that require a change in hours for different days.

Formatting the Text

There are format buttons on the tool bar. They include format options for selected text.

1.    Font color -- click to choose a color for characters

2.    Character background color - This is used to provide a contrast -- such as red letters on a yellow background, etc.

3.      Insert/Edit Link -- use this to add hyperlinks to the text in the message. Highlight the text you'd like to be in the link and press this button:


If you highlight text, it will appear in the Text to Display box.
If there was a link already defined, it will appear in the URL box.
The Title box is a ToolTip that pops up when the mouse hovers over the link. Use it to give further guidance on the link.
The Open link in... box give a choice of replacing the page with the link with the new page, or opening the new page in a new window.
Click Save when the link is complete

4. Code view and Edit option -- This is a function that will be used by only those who are very familiar with HTML code.

This option is best used by someone with detailed knowledge of the HTML language. Misplacing tags or brackets could really cause the message to become badly formatted.

5.    Format Menu Item - this provides a huge number of format options. Highlight the text you'd like to format and click Format:


You can click the Bold, Italic, Undeline options, or use the shortcuts shown (Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I,Ctrl+U).
For Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript, click those options on this dropdown menu.
The Code option is the same as the described above -- just another way to access it.
The Formats and Blocks options are of limited use, for now.
The Fonts option gives a list of font faces you can choose.
The Font sizes gives a list of font sizes.
The Align function allows you to align Left, Center, Right, or to Justify the text (flush on both the right and left sides.)
The Clear formatting lets you remove all of the formatting and start over.
 

When all changes are done, press the Update button to save your changes. The text will be saved and the edit page will be reopened.