How To Edit Web Pages

As part of pudendal.info's commitment to a democratic website, we offer a cheap, easy-to-learn way for anyone to edit the pages on this website. If you are reasonably computer literate and can use a word processor, you can edit web pages. This is empowerment of a nature that is just as important to democracy as many other things, because knowledge is power, and published web pages are public knowledge.

This page describes how to do this with a free tool, the web page editor built into the Mozilla browser. This method allows simple page editing. If your needs become more complex, then you may need to purchase a copy of DreamWeaver, which is what the informational pages on this site are edited with. I use version 4.0. DreamWeaver costs $100 for the student version and about $340 for the full version. It is much more productive than Mozilla for all but simple edits, where they are about the same.

Step 1 - Get the Tool You Need

Download and install Mozilla 1.4. I use it as my main browser and prefer it to IE for several reasons:

1. Using the hot keys Control + and Control -, I can instantly adjust the size of the font.

2. I prefer not to support the trend towards a Windows monopoly. I'd rather support open source projects.

3. Mozilla has a built in email tool that is not nearly as suceptable to viruses as IE's Outlook. I also like its bookmarks window.

Startup Mozilla. Go to pudendal.info. Add it to your Mozilla bookmarks, or if you use Mozilla only for editing, make pudendal.info your home page. Click on Edit, Preferernces, Navigator. Then click on Use Current Page.

Step 2 - Setup the Site to Edit

Go to a test page in Mozilla: TestPage01 or TestPage02.

Click on File and then on Edit Page, or Control + E. A new window will open. This is the Composer.

Click on Edit and then on Publishing Site Settings. A dialog window will appear.

Click on New Site. Enter this information:

Site Name: Pudendal Info

Publishing Address: (we will email this to you)

HTTP address: (we will email this to you)

User Name: (we will email this to you)

Password: (we will email this to you)

Go ahead and check Save Password unless you are using a public computer or prefer to enter the password each time. Then click OK. You only have to do this step once.

Step 3 - Edit the Page

Notice the large white box on the page. This is the only area you should edit. Anything else will be overwritten when we do template updates. What you are editing is actually a web page based on a template. The template has the heading, the menu, and everything surrounding the large white box.

Edit the page just as you would do in a word processor, with these differences:

1. To apply a style, use the drop down box. Use:

- Heading 1 for the page title
- Heading 2 for section headings
- Preformat for email quotes

2. Only use the above styles. The rest will cause problems. Do not use any style for the main body. We have a default style that is in effect. You can use italics and bold freely. Examine our existing web pages and try to follow that format consistently.

3. To remove a style, apply the Paragraph style, which is almost the same as no style.

4. To start a new paragraph, enter a space and then hit Enter.

5. To start a new line, don't enter a space and hit Enter.

6. Indent and outdent by clicking on those icons.

7. Align left and center by clicking on those icons. We don't use align right or justified.

8. For how to handle links, images, and such, try Insert or see the Help documentation. We have not tested these, but they should work.

For your first time, practice making a few odd little changes to the test page. For example, try adding this:

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy, but that could change." - Dan Quayle 5/22/89.

Step 4 - Publish Your Page

This is too easy!!! If you have entered your site setup information correctly, all you have to do now is click File and then Publish. It won't be long before you are using the hot key shortcut of Control + Shift + S.

(If this doesn't work the first time, try closing the composer page and start over. There seems to be a small bug here.)

You're done!

Close the Composer window and take a well deserved break....

Comments

To check your work after publishing, go to the browser and do a refresh on the page. Your new version should appear. (View, Reload, or Control + R)

If publishing fails, see Help, Creating Web Pages, Publishing Your Pages, Solving Common Publishing Problems. To save time, check your site setup information first. Most problems are here.

Save your work occasionally by publishing. If you have a long edit and don't want to publish an in process page, do your work in a text based editor like Notepad or a full word processor like Word first. Then copy and paste to Composer. Then clean it up.

Note that "clean it up" can take a long time. To do all your editing in Composer and not have to worry about website users misjudging the page, put "This page is undergoing editing right now by (your name)" at the top, in big letters. Then remove it when you're done.

Do not edit any pages except those you have been given responsiblity for, or the test pages.

Edits to pages without the menu cause small changes to the bottom tan bar. Don't worry. This is a minor visual distraction. We can fix it with a template update.

For more on how to edit a page with Composer, see Help, Creating Web Pages.

There now, that was easy, wasn't it?

Jack