holgerdanske.com

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1. To create a web page on the holgerdanske.com web site, I opened a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) and went to the holgerdanske.com web site ( http://www.holgerdanske.com/ ):

   

2. In the left pane, I entered my username and my password, and clicked the "Log in" button.

   

   Note that the left pane changed. The "User login" block disappeared, the Navigation block moved up, and the title of the Navigation block changed to my user name "holger". The "Content" menu expanded, and showed one item "Create content".

   The software running on the holgerdanske.com web site (Drupal) uses the term "content" for the various kinds of things that you can create on the web site interactively using your web browser. The power of Drupal is that the site administrator can set up taxonomies for categorizing content, you can tag your content using one or more terms from the available taxonomies, and Drupal automatically generates indexes and menus so that people can find what they're looking for across the whole web site.

3. Next, I clicked on the "Create content" menu item.

   

   The "Create content" page had two choices available when I wrote this tutorial -- web pages and stories. Both types of content are built from the same elements, such as text, formatting commands, links, pictures, etc., but there are key differences in how the two types of content are presented to, and used by, web site visitors and registered users:

   • Web pages are typically used for information that needs a constant presence, such as home pages, help tutorials, etc.. The content may be corrected and revised over time, but the need for the information is constant.
     
   • Stories are typically used for information that is transitory in nature, such as announcements, news reports, press releases, etc.. Registered users may post comments to stories. Additionally, the teaser for the story (composed of the title and the first paragraph or so of the body) is automatically posted to the holgerdanske.com main home page, so that new stories have the greatest visibility. As more stories are added, the teasers scroll down and eventually drop off the bottom.

4. Next, I clicked on one of the "Page" links (either should work):

   

   This brought me to the "Submit Page" page. The first decision is to come up with a title for your web page. Understand that nothing is cast in stone; you can always come back later and change things. (I will be creating a page editing tutorial.)

   There was one taxonomy available when I created the page called "Subject Index", which included eight terms. I selected the "Home Pages" term. This taxonomy is configured to allow zero, one, or multiple choices. The key is picking the right terms, or else Drupal's indexing won't be of much use when someone wants to find this web page. Of course, this is predicated upon having well-designed taxonomies with good terms choose from... I plan to set up an holgerdanske.com Taxonomy forum for discussing this meta-problem.

5. Scrolling down:

   

   This is the main edit box for composing the body of the web page. Drupal provides some hints underneath. The simplest approach is to just start typing. Drupal will find the paragraph endings and automatically flow the text for line width. If you know HTML, you can use a subset of the HTML tags. Drupal recognizes web (URL's) and e-mail addresses automatically, so you don't have to do anything special with them.

6. Scrolling to the bottom:

   

   There is a "Log message" box where you can put notes of why you're changing the page. holgerdanske.com is configured to keep permanent copies of the page whenever it is submitted (e.g. revisions), and this box is where you put clues that may help someone in the future (likely yourself) figure out why you changed the page.

7. When I was ready to take a look at the page, I clicked the "Preview" button:

   

   Typically, the teaser is shown first, then the entire page, and then the various editing fields. This page was short enough that the whole thing fit within the teaser, so page was displayed only once.

8. When I was happy with the page, I scrolled to the bottom again and clicked "Submit":

   

   Note the message "Your Page has been created".

   Also note that the browser Address bar now shows "http://www.holgerdanske.com/node/16". Drupal gives every content object a serial number, starting at one and increasing by one as each new item is created. So, this page was the sixteenth item created at the time.

   Also note that the Navigation block has changed -- the Content menu has collapsed and the Subject Index menu has expanded. This is how people (and search engines) can find the page.

9. Clicking on the "Home Pages" menu item:

   

   Drupal shows the teasers of all content indexed with the term "Home Pages", newest at the top.