Let's Get Started!

To edit a page, just login, go to the page you wish to edit and click the "Edit" link next to the title of the page. The Magic Edit  window will open (it might take a while the first time) and once all the toolbar buttons appear, you can begin editing. Notice that there are several fields.

The Title is the page title and it will also appear on any navigation buttons (if it's a top level page) or sub navigation links (if it's a sub page). You can rename any page (other than the home page) to your liking.  We recommend using short names to keep from forcing your text out past the buttons.

The Caption is not currently used but you can put a short description in it about your page contents.

The Status box (at top right) allows you to set a page to be hidden while you are working on it and then make it Online (visible to your visitors) when you are ready. When a page is first created, it is offline until you set it to Online and click "Update".

The Edit Window with tool bar is where you edit the actual contents of your pages.

The Close and Update buttons are used to abandon your changes or save or Update them to your live site. If you close the window (either with the close button the top "X") you will loose any changes you have made.

Please Note also that for security reasons, your browsers session will automatically be timed out after about 15 min.  Therefore it is important to save every few minutes to keep your session open with the server, and to ensure that you changes are updated and not lost due to and expired session.

Editing Pages

Once you click on an edit link, the edit window opens and you'll see a set of familiar tool bar buttons appear. Most of them are self explanatory but as you learn them it might help to hold your mouse pointer over them until their name/function displays in a fly-out help menu. Note, the image below will not do this.

To use most of the editor features, you simply left-click the mouse at one end of the text you wish to effect, hold down the button and drag the curser over the text until you have all of it selected then release the mouse button and click on tool button you wish to apply such as the "B" Bold button.

You can also apply font face's, sizes, italics, color, alignment and links this same way. For more detailed instructions be sure to see our full online documentation for Magic Edit.

Creating & Deleting Pages

You can create a new page (If you have permission to do this), by going to the main (top level) page that you want the new page to be created under and clicking on the "New Page" link next to the page title. You will see a drop down box appear under the caption field, which allows you to select where you want the new page to display in your existing navigation.

Moving Pages: There is currently no way to move a page to a new location if you change your mind. You can however, create a new page in the desired location and copy your contents into it, name it as you want and then delete or rename and us the original page for another purpose.

You can delete pages simply by going to the page you want to delete, and clicking the "Delete" link next to the page title. (Deleting is permanent) It is recommended that you hide a page if you are unsure about deleting it. You can always unhide it when you are logged in or delete it once you are sure you no longer need a page in it's location.

Using Images & Other Files

Before you can use an image in your site, you must upload it to your site with the Asset Manager. Go to any page, and click the asset manager button on the tool bar. The asset manager will open.  In the drop down box select the folder you wish to put the file in (MyImages is recommended), then click the browse button and browse to the image on your computer's hard drive. Select the image and click "open" then in the asset manager click "Upload". The image will be copied up to your web site MyImages folder for easy use in the editor.  You can create one if you don't have one already. 

Note: On some browser, depending on your screen resolution or settings, you may have to scroll the different dialog boxes to see the browse, upload, create folder or other submit options. You can also use the Tab key to tab to the various buttons one after another.

You can upload .JPG and .GIF images this way as well as MS Word .DOC files and Adobe Acrobat .PDF files. Note: The asset manager will not upload very large files. Images take with a digital camera are typically over 1-2MBs in size and are far to large for use on a web site. You should must first crop them and size them to about 40k in file size or less, and about 600 pixels in either dimension. Most digital camera come with image software that is capable of cropping, sizing and saving image for use on web sites.  While you may be able to upload files that are somewhat larger than this, doing so will cause pages that use large images to load very slowly for your modem connected visitors. Very large files will simply not upload at all and the asset manager will appear to hang. This is a file size problem, not function problem.  Keep things lean and mean!

Note: If you have assets that are larger the the 200k size limit, you will neet to purchase our optional more powerful asset manager that can upload larger files.

After you have uploaded your assets, you can use them on your pages. While in the editor, click the curser on the place in the page where you want to insert an image. Then click the assets icon (picture button right next to the asset manger folder) and the assets window will open up.

From the dropdown, select the folder you wish to look for images in, then click on the "view" link next to any image to see a preview of it in the left preview window. Once you find the image you wish to use, enter any Alternate Text (for search engines) and select the alignment you wish to use (leave this alone for now but you set your image to left or right align, and have your text flow around the image) and any image boarder, horizontal and vertical spacing you want (0 border, 10 horizontal and 10 vertical are good settings to start with if you plan on having text wrapping around the image, otherwise leave them all alone). Finally, click the "Insert" button to put your image into your page right where your curser was.

Admin Tools

Depending on your site configuration and it's options, your site will have a special section for administration of modules and applications. After you login, you will see the  Admin Tools icon and link appear right by the login/logout link. Click this link to go to the admin tools menu and administer your various modules from a main admin menu.  Note: You can click on the Home link to come back to your regular pages and continue editing content at any time.