Here are a few brief notes that might help clarify a few points for those of you creating articles for the website

• Where do articles get stored?

• Should I keep updating a single large article for my organisation?

• Removing an article after a few weeks.

• Ordering of articles

• Centering text

• Using "Read more..."

Where do articles get stored?

Articles are stored in one place only, which is defined when the article is first created (although it is possible for an administrator to move articles between organisations). The "All Articles, Ever" page is simply a page that displays all articles in the website database, rather than doing what most other pages do and filtering the articles for a particular organisation.

Should I keep updating a single large article for my organisation?

In short, No! One big continuously edited article has disadvantages

• There is no historic record of information
• Mistakes during editing might lose you the part of the article that you never wanted to change

It's best to create new articles for new information. This way multiple, small articles can be created for your organisation. When an article is out of date simply unpublish it (see below).

Removing an article after a few weeks.

You don't have to bother to make a mental note to remove your article after it's been up for a while. Simply set a "Finish Publishing" date. After that date the article won't be displayed but it will be on the system where it can be moved to an archive area for later use.

Ordering of articles

The web database can order articles in any number of ways. Most articles are ordered manually (use the Ordering box in the Publishing area) - although some are set to be ordered with the most recent at the top (News is one of those pages). 

If you can't change the ordering of articles and you think you should, it's probably a configuration error on my part. Drop me an email and I'll investigate. 

Centering text

I had an interesting problem trying to centre some text for Barbara on her WI page. The problem is that most text is formatted by the site and formatting entered in the editor is often over-ridden. Paragraph formatting is an example of this: centering a paragraph will not work!

To centralise a title: use one of the lesser headings (heading 3 or heading 4) and then centralise that.

Using Read more...

The editor has two areas: the first should be used for an introduction with the main text in the second box. It is suggested that you don't put too much in the first box. That way there's room for the articles below to display their taster text to entice visitors to Read more...

And finally

Don't "fight the editor" by using spaces to line up lists of members, dates, etc. Use a table!

But that will be the subject of another article...

Ben