Helpful Information

CPanel

Create email addresses associated with your domain

When controlling your own domain name, with most hosting setups, you also have access to create usernames associated with the domain name.  For example, if you have a domain name mydomain.com.au you can create usernames such as info@mydomain.com.au or accounts@mydomain.com.au.
By creating these associated email address, you create a more professional look and feel to the website.
To create and maintain these addresses is easy (for an authorised user).  There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest (and the method which I use and will explain below) is to create them via the CPanel access which is usually part of your hosting setup.
There are two types of email accounts:

  • Actual email account which you need to access via a mail reader like Outlook by 'popping' the email
  • or, forwarding all mail sent to an address to a users primary email account

Creating email forwarding addresses via CPanel

  1. Log into your CPanel via www.yourdomain.com.au/cpanel
  2. Type in your username and password (this should have been given to you by the person who created your web hosting account)
  3. Select 'Forwarders'
  4. Select 'Add Forwarder'
  5. In the box labeled 'Address to Forward', type in the email address that you want to create ie. info
  6. In the box labeled 'Forward to email address' type in the persons primary email address that you want the mail to be forwarded to ie. bob@iinet.net.au
  7. Then select 'Add Forwarder'

Now, when a person sends an email to info@yourdomain.com.au it will automatically be forwarded onto bob@iinet.net.au.

Editing Web Content

Uploading files and linking it in your web content
  1. Login to your website by going to [domain_name]/user
  2. login using the username and password you were given
  3. navigate to the page you wish to change ie. Welcome
  4. select the 'edit' tab
  5. In the 'Body' section of the page, go to the line where you want to add the information (it is just like a word document) and click to make the cursor active there
  6. Type in the text that you would like people to see click on to download the document ie. "Enrolement Form"
  7. Highlight the text you typed in the step above
  8. Click on the picture in the toolbar of the world with the paper click looking item (middle row of the formatting toolbar above the text section)
  9. Select the 'Upload' tab
  10. Navigate through your hard disk and select the file that you would like to add the link to (the file that will download when the user clicks on it)
  11. Click on 'ok'
  12. Click on 'Send it to the Server'
  13. Click 'ok' on the popup box to say that it has downloaded
  14. Click on the 'target' tab
  15. In the dropdown, select "new Window (_blank)" - this is so that if the document is going to open in a browser window, it opens in a new tab/window
  16. Select 'ok'
  17. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select 'save''
  18. Select logout from the left hand side sidebar under your name

I then generally just try downloading the file to see if it has worked.

Adding an Event to your Calendar

You can only do this if you have the correct privilages for your user account.  Check with the web administrator if this is a problem

  1. Login to the website via http://www.[yourdomain]/user
  2. Select the 'Add Event' from the Content Manager Menu (this is generally in the left hand menu side panel, but it does vary depending on the theme layout of your site
  3. Type in the 'Title' of the event ie. General AGM
  4. In the date fields, enter the from/start date of the event and the starting time (leave the starting time blank if it is an all day event)
  5. Enter in the to/end date and the end time.  NOTE: If the event is just for 1 day, the to/end date will be the same as the from/start date
  6. If the event repeats itself, then following the following steps, otherwise, proceed to the next step.  This process is very similar to how you add events to an Microsoft Outlook Calendar or Google Calendar.
    1. Select the 'Frequency' of the event ie. if it occurs every week on the selected day then select 'Every' and then for the period select 'Weeks'.  If it occurs every 2nd month on the select day then select 'Frequency' as 'Every 2' and 'Period' is 'Months'
    2. Select the date that you want the event to repeat to finish.
  7. If you have the Newsletter feature enabled on your site, select the Newsletter you wish to be able to add the item to when composing a Newsletter of that type.
  8. If setup, select the Event Type you would like the Event to be categorised with.  You can select more than one event type by clicking on other choices by holding down the 'Shift' key on a PC and the 'Command' key if on a Mac.
  9. In the 'Body' section of the form, you can type in all the details you wish to inform the reader of.  This is just like a normal Word type document, so you can use the toolbars at the top to format the document how you wish.  When doing this, please read my recommendations on "Formating your page for site consistencies".
  10. Select 'Save'
  11. You should now be shown your event.
  12. Go to the Calendar Month view and check to see if the event appears as expected.
Formating your page for site consistency

When you are added/editing text to your site, it is very important to make sure that you ensure every page has the same formatting.  This makes the pages on the site gel together and look more professional.
Your site has been specially setup with some pre-defined formating styles.  In order for you to use these formating styles, it is important that you do not change the font, font colour and size manually yourself unless it is necessary to make a particular section of text stand out.  If you wish to make some text bold, please do so by selecting the text and then pressing the B in the toolbar. 
If you wish to create headings in your text.  Please make sure that you select the heading level number from the 'Format' dropdown box.
NOTE: Please, use 'Heading 1' with caution.  This heading style is used automatically for the 'Title' of the page.  If you require Headings for sections of text, start with using 'Heading 2'.
When these styles are used correctly, if you decide to change the colouring of your website, so instead of displaying your headings in Blue you decide to use Orange instead, if done correctly, your web designer can easily do this and it makes the changes throughout the whole site.  If you do not use the 'Format' dropdown box, then it is very costly in time to change the heading colours.

Logging into your site for Maintenance

In order for you to edit the content on your site, you need to log in.  You do this by going to the sites url and adding /user on the end
For example: http://www.[yourdomainname]/user
Type in your given password.
What content you can edit will depend on what privilages your account has been given.  If you are given full access, then you can pretty much edit all the content on the site.  However, if you have been given access to only add say events, then you will be unable to edit other content on the site.
Content your sites administrator to find out what access you are allowed.
 

Creating a Photo Album

To create a Photo Album on your website it simple.  Follow the steps below which will guide you through adding an album to your Drupal CMS Website.
NOTE: Don't forget that only images less than 2Mb each, will be uploaded.  If your image sizes exceed this, please read the help item under the "General Information" category referring to Image sizes.

  1. Log into your website via www.[yourdomainname]/user
  2. Select from the 'Content Management' menu 'Add Gallery' (the wording my vary slightly between different web installations)
  3. On the 'Create Gallery' page fill-in the required information ie. Title of the Gallery etc.  Some sites require information such as Location, Photos taken by etc.
  4. Select 'Save'
  5. Select the 'Content' tab.
  6. Click on 'Select Images' - from here navigate your way around your disk file contents and select the image you wish to add to the album.
  7. Repeat step 6 until you have uploaded all pictures
    NOTE: If you need to upload a large number of images, it may be quicker to follow the steps below for "Mass Importing Images"
  8. Select 'Save' when you have finished uploading all the images
  9. The website should now show your new album

Mass Importing Images

Your website has the ability to import a large number of images into an album all at once.  However this requires you to have the knowledge of how to FTP files onto your website hosting.  This is outlined in another help page in the "General Information" section.
Once you are familiar with the FTP'ing process. You need to upload the images you wish to import into the album into the /images/import directory.  Once this is done, follow the instructions below:

  1. View the gallery you wish the upload the images to.
  2. Select the 'Import' tab
    NOTE: Make sure that any of the old images in that directory are deleted or else it will upload them again into the current album
  3. Select the 'Yes' box for Importing the images now
  4. Select the 'Proceed' button
Editing/Adding to your web content
  1. Login to your website by going to [domain_name]/user 
  2. login using the username and password you were given
  3. navigate to the page you wish to change ie. Welcome
  4. select the 'edit' tab which is located just above the text of of the page
  5. In the 'Body' section of the page, edit the content as you would a Word Document
  6. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select 'save''

View the page to see if the edited content has been saved correctly

Inserting Images into your Page

Note: Some terms used in the help may differ slightly to what is on your screen.

  1. Go to the page you wish to add the image to
  2. Select the 'Edit' tab (assuming you are logged in)
  3. Place the cursor at the point you would like to add the image
  4. Click on the insertion point
  5. Click on icon which is a picture of mountains in the toolbar
  6. Select the 'Upload' tab
  7. Click on 'Choose File'
  8. Navigate to where the image is on your computer
  9. Select 'Send to Server'
  10. Click back on the 'Image' tab
  11. You can adjust the size of the image here
  12. Select the position of the image
  13. Select 'Save'

General Information

Reducing the filesize of images

When you need to upload files to a website you first of all need to reduce the size of the images to under 2Mb.  Here are two useful FREE tools to help you do this:
PC: http://www.imageoptimizer.net/Pages/Home.aspx
MAC: http://www.ttpsoftware.com/Products/drag-n-scale.html (this is the one that I use)

Increasing your scope of people finding your site

There are a number of free websites in which you can register your business details.  By doing this you increase your exposure thus increasing your chances of people coming across your website before other similar ones.  We suggest you register (and keep up to date) your business or club on the following sites:

  • Google Maps (Local Business). Great Place to start.  Add your business to google maps.
  • HotFrog: This is an Australian Business Directory Listing.  It even gives you a free google map so by providing your address, users coming to this site can easily see your location.  This is handy if you have a business which is location oriented.
  • Startlocal: Is a local Australian Search Engine for local businesses.
  • Yellow Pages: By listing your phone number through the yellow pages, you will be listed in their database.
  • Community Guide
  • Truelocal.com.au
  • Ozsports.info: Great for sporting clubs to register their details
  • Aussie Web - local search