Getting started is always the hardest part for any project. This is where you start off knowing nothing, then hopefully develop enough know-how to get the basics done. Eventually you will learn more than you ever imagined and wonder why everyone doesn't run their website this way. It's simple, but nothing is simple when you don't understand it. So, take your time. Step through one lesson, apply it to your website and it will eventually feel like riding a bike.
In this lesson, you will learn how to log into your website and modify the front page. The front page can either be a single page or it can be an automated flow of information. This depends on what you chose in your design interview. It can also be changed to fit your content needs later on. The "publish to front page" option, for example, is not relevant if you pick a single page as your front page. This feature is only used for websites that have an article flow on their front page, that updates the front of the website as you add new pages or articles (stories). Most websites will choose to have a single front page, and that is always called "frontpage."
At the front of your website, you may have a link to log in. Some websites aren't designed to allow public accounts, so there is no link available. All you have to do to find the log in is type in your web address and add a slash, then type user.
website.com/user
Once you see your log in screen, simply type in the username and password we provide you.
Click on Log in, and if you typed your username and password correctly you will see new links show up. These are options only allowed editors on your website. Visitors without administrative credentials (the public) will not see these links and features.
On your front page, you will see an edit link. Typically, the front page is called frontpage. If you have content flow to the front page automatically, you will see links to other pages and each page will have a similar edit link on it. These links are only available to accounts that are intended to edit pages.
The editor allows you to type in text, add pictures and create a few elements like tables. Remember that HTML is limited if you wish to have universally functional web pages. So, sticking to simple text and images is the best way to avoid creating pages that look different or break in less used browsers.
The system makes creating a menu link very simple. Type in the Title (which is the word or text that shows up in the menu link), description and then choose the parent link item. Depending on your design, placing links under existing links could look wonky. It depends on your design and preferences. Typically, you can create menu hierarchy rather easily by just placing the link under an existing parent link. Primary links are special links that are placed somewhere special on your page. Primary links are a predefined block. Differnet blocks can be placed in different locations on your site. Most websites have a left, right, top and bottom block space. This example site has a block on the right, which is the Navigation block and a block on top, which is the Primary Links block. The Primary Links block is where we are placing the link in this example.
Menu links can be independent of pages or linked to them. You can see that there is a link to Menus once you've logged in. This allows you to skip the content or pages themselves and add links. It's best to limit using this feature for links outside the website. If you change the content in a page, it's best if you can edit the link to that page right on the page. It does it automatically, so if the link URL changes, the menu is instantly updated.
The CMS is a database driven system. So, names given to pages are arbitrary. It could be domain.com/?url=something, but that would be unattractive. So, we use an alias. Alias URLs need to avoid spaces and special characters. To help you out, we use an automatic alias tool. The only time we encourage you to turn this off is when you're creating a front page. The front page is always called frontpage. So, domain.com/frontpage is your front page, as well as domain.com. This allows you to easily change your front page to any page you've created by simply renaming it to "frontpage." If you leave the automatic alias turned on, it will name it for you. So, you'll want to uncheck that before you submit any changes to the frontpage.
There are a few options when creating a new version of a page. For example, you can create a revision. This is useful if you want to use the old version later on. The option to Promote to front page is only relevent if you are using an automated flow front page. If your front page is simply a page called frontpage, then this option doesn't do anything. Sticky at top of lists is useful if you're using categories. If Published is chosen, the page is updated to the website instantly.
Click on submit and the page goes live on the website.
