Volume 1 FIRSTCLASS COMMUNICATION TOOLS Rapid Web Designer Basic Builder RWD Basic Builder
FIRSTCLASS COMMUNICATION TOOLS Rapid Web Designer Basic Builder York Catholic District School Board 320 Bloomington Road West Aurora Phone 905.713.1211 Phone 416.221.5050 FirstClass is a product of Open Text Inc. Rapid Web Designer is a product of FirstClass Depot Inc. This manual has been created using the features of FirstClass Help, RWD Help, and existing training documentation.
Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 RWD - Overview 1 RWD Web Pages 1 RWD Conferences 2 CHAPTER 2 Creating Your Home Page 4 Header 5 Scrolling Message 6 Navigation Sidebar 7 Information Sidebar 8 A Note on File Paths 9 Page Body 10 CHAPTER 3 Next Steps 11 Getting Help 12
Chapter 1 Rapid Web Designer Building Web Pages to Support Curriculum Delivery Rapid Web Designer (RWD) is an easy to use FirstClass form that lets you create sophisticated web pages that look like you hired a web programmer. R (Dowdell Inc.) apid Web Designer is a program that allows you to use a unique set of templates based on the features of FirstClass to create a curriculum driven web page. While knowledge of html is not needed, a basic understanding of how to use FirstClass objects (e.g.: calendars, conferences, and documents) is recommended. RWD web pages are comprised of a series of elements that can be used in several different combinations to create a multitude of unique pages. RWD surrounds normal FirstClass web pages with a feature-rich 'wrapper' that contains a Header Section, a Header and Footer Links Bar, a Navigation Sidebar, and an Information Sidebar. Each of these sections has features that can be turned on or off to achieve a wide range of effects on your web page. With RWD, you simply fill out the content for your page and allow RWD to manage the way it looks on the web. The RWD Web Page The web page that is displayed on a web browser is the result of two main programs working together: the RWDE Administrator Form and the RWD Page Builder Form. The RWDE Administrator Form is completed by your school s web site administrators (e.g.: Principal and designates), while the RWD Page Builder Form is completed by individuals wishing to create their own web page within the School s web site, such as you. The RWDE Administrator Form is a central form that will determine the overall look and feel of the School s web site. To some extent, it will force certain elements to appear on all web pages within the School s web site (e.g.: School Policies, School Calendar, Link to YCDSB page). The RWD Page Builder Form will allow you to customize the body content (text), links and graphical layout of the page. The following diagrams illustrate the balance between and the features of these two forms. 1
Banner Image Logo Page Title Scrolling Message Header Links Bar Header Section Navigation Sidebar Page Body - Content controlled by the central RWDE Administrator Form will appear on all pages within the School s web site. - Content controlled by the local RWD Builder Form will appear on this page only. 2
Your RWD Conferences Once your Principal has approved the RWDE Administrator form set up for the overall look of the School web site, two conferences will be created for you to begin to create your RWD web page: RWDE Basic/Builders and your web conference (e.g.: STAU Smith). Contact your Site Administrator for the web address of your page before you begin, if they have not done so already. This will allow you to view your changes as you make them. Remember: Each conference (in the entire Board) needs a unique name; therefore, all conferences begin with the 3-5 letter code associated with your school, followed by the teacher's name). Getting Started 1. Begin by double-clicking on your RWDE Basic/Builders conference. 2. A resource window will open asking you to update your FirstClass web page resources; select Update. Note: You must do steps 1 and 2 each time you begin to work on your web page and are using a new computer. 3. Now you can open your web conference. It should look something like this: (If not, please create these 3 folders for your use) These folders have been provided for you: To store all images used in your pages. To store all documents used in your pages. To store any literal HTML pages. You are now ready to begin on your 1 st RWD page your Home Page! 3
Chapter 2 Creating Your RWD Home Page In order for your web page to appear properly on the Internet, one of your RWD pages must be called the Home Page. (Later, if you are going to add literal HTML pages, make sure that none are named: index or default as this will conflict with your RWD Home Page.) To create an RWD page: 1. In your web conference (e,g,: STAU Smith), from the Menu bar select: File>New>New Document Special>Rapid Web Designer. 4
2. When the new RWD Page Builder Form opens, change the Page Name of the document to Home Page. You may also wish to fill in the Subject field at this time; the text here will appear in the title bar of a web browser window (the Page Title). Completing the RWD Form Tabs The RWD Page Builder Form has four tabs for you to complete you completed the Page tab in the activity above. Of the remaining 3 tabs, the Information Sidebar is optional. Click once on each of the tabs and you will notice that the Page Body area remains the same. For now, let us focus on completing the RWD tabs. Header The Header field controls the display of the Title, Subtitle, and Scrolling Message. You will notice that you do not have the ability to change the font or colours in this tab. These features have been set by the Site Administrator to give your page a unified look within your School s web site. At this time, give this page a Title. You may wish to give your page a Subtitle complete that now. 5
Note: Changes made to any part of the RWD Page Builder Form, except the Page Body, are immediately saved as soon as you click on a new field. Changes to the Page Body require that you either close the RWD Page Builder Form or click on the Editing icon. Scrolling Message RWD allows you to add some dynamic text to your Header Section in order to draw the visitor s attention in the form of a scrolling message. This message can be turned on and off as needed. From time to time, your Site Administrator may add text to your web site in the scrolling message area (e.g.: in an emergency, snowstorm, server problems). Complete the Scrolling Message tab with a welcome message, for example. 6
Navigation Sidebar The Navigation Sidebar allows the audience to navigate throughout your site to visit - new pages, documents, or even other FirstClass objects such as calendars and conferences. In RWD, there are 3 options for the layout of the Navigation Sidebar: None, Left or Right. Select your preference from the drop-down list in the Master Switch. For the Content of the Sidebar you have several choices, starting with the distinction between a Headline and regular Display Text. In RWD, a Headline will not be an active link, rather text that will group links together until the next headline is created, such as the grouping of Information links from School Council links in the side illustration: In RWD you can use Display Text (e.g.: Contact Us, Members) or Use Image (e.g.: button or logo) as the link that the user will click-on to move to the next object/page in your web site. Note: If you are using an image, you will need to type out the Image Path/File Name to indicate where this image is stored. For the purposes of organization on your web page, consider storing all images in your SiteImages folder. In the Link To field you would enter a fully qualified Internet link (e.g.: http://www.rom.on.ca). This field can also link to existing FirstClass objects or to other RWD pages. 7
By clicking Add New Row, RWD will put the blank row after Assignments (in the illustration above). While Insert New Row will place the blank row above the point of cursor insertion (i.e.: if your cursor is in the Calendar field, the blank row will appear above Calendar.) Lastly, you will need to consider which links you want to Open in New Window. When the link is to an external location (outside of FirstClass), it is recommended that you open this link in a new window, separate from your page. That said; try to avoid having the annoyance of having a new window for each link. In RWD it is possible to imbed a new object, such as a calendar or conference or new RWD page into the frame of your Home Page. Here are some sample Link to commands: Calendar week view -?object=name of calendar&templates=rwd Calendar month view -?object=nameofcalendar&templates=rwd&calendar=1 While, name of calendar?templates=rwd&formid=158 will put a whole month of a calendar in a new window. Note: The Navigation Sidebar will automatically widen itself to accommodate the widest string of text or the widest image that is in it. If you wish to tell RWD when to wrap your text, you will need to use a special command - (the vertical bar character). Simply insert the where you wish the wrap to take place. For example, if your text is: Course Culminating Outline, Tasks and Rubrics and you wish the wrap to happen after Outline you would enter the following in RWD: Course Culminating Outline, Tasks and Rubrics. To get the vertical bar character, press Shift +. Information Sidebar The Information Sidebar, while similar to the Navigation Sidebar, allows you to provide a little background information (e.g.: Breaking News) to entice the viewer to follow the imbedded link. As a result, it is less flexible from a formatting standpoint and is intended to be used sparingly. In a school setting, the Information Sidebar will most likely be used by the Principal to highlight semester events, or by the Department Head on the Department Web page to feature upcoming speakers or trips. Feel free to complete the Information Sidebar tab, but recognize that it will force the Page Body to be reduced in width if it is used in conjunction with a Navigation Sidebar. 8
A Little Note on File Paths Just like in any computer RWD needs to know where to find files and follows a file structure; Think of the file structure of a computer as like a filing cabinet, or an inverted tree. For the computer to find your files, it needs to know which drawer and file folder your files are located in. If, for example, your file is in the folder called Pages, then the path would be: Pages/name_of_the_next_page If it is in the Documents folder: Documents/name_of_the_document.doc If it is in a folder within the Documents folder it would look like this: Documents/Name_of_SubFolder/name_of_the_document.doc Same thing works for images they will be in your SiteImages folder: SiteImages/name_of_the_image.jpg logo.jpg SiteImages Folder Your RWD Conference: (which contains your other RWD pages) Home Page page2 page3 To go from page3 to logo.jpg the path would be: SiteImages/logo.jpg To go from the Home Page to page3 the path would be: page3 9
Page Body The Page Body is where most teachers will begin to add content to their web page (e.g.: providing a course or assignment description). This area is very easy to modify, as it uses the same editing features as a FirstClass message or document. RWD designers recommend that you begin by inserting a 1x1 table into the Page Body into which you will enter your text and images. By using the table frames it will be easier for you to see the margins of your text and to control the appearance of edges on the web. You can do this by dragging on the edge tool, which will move the sides of the table over to create a nice frame in your web browser window. Next, type the content of your Home Page body in this area. Or simply copy and paste from an existing FirstClass or word processed document. The table size will grow as you type. It is in the Page Body that you can control the appearance of the text and even the background by adding images or colour or a background image, just like in a FirstClass message or document. Once you have added your content, and adjusted it to suit your appearance needs, be sure to format the table to have no exterior lines by un-checking the Exterior box in Borders: Congratulations! You have just finished your first RWD page! 10
Chapter 3 Next Steps To view your finished page you will need to contact your Site Administrator for the web address, if you haven t done so already. You may find that your page needs to be approved before it can be viewed on the Internet; again, for this you will need to contact your Site Administrator. Adding More Pages Now that you are comfortable with the program, you may wish to add another page. Simply begin again at page 4 of this manual. Remember - you must give this new page a name other than Home Page. Once your page is finished, be sure to update your navigation links. Requesting a Calendar If you don t already have a calendar in your web conference, you will need to ask your Principal or Site Administrator to create one for you. Ask them to name it the same name as your conference but to add wcal to the end and to use an _ instead of spaces in the calendar s name. For e.g.: STAU Smith would be - STAU_Smith_wCal. Also, ask them to set up the following permissions: you as Editor, All Users to search items, open calendar, open items, download files and attachments, and view unrestricted details. You can use a Conference Tracker to complete this request. RWD Advanced Builder Form In time, once you are very comfortable with the FirstClass and RWD environments, ask your Principal about the RWD Advanced Builder Form. Extra features include: a Graphics Gallery, and the ability to modify the General Page appearances which means that you will override the Site Administrators choices of colours, fonts, logos, etc. that have been controlling the overall frame on your pages. For more information, see the manual in this series called Rapid Web Designer- Advanced Builder. Literal HTML Files If you have already created content in HTML you can link to them or imbed them into the frame of your RWD template. For more information, see the manual in this series called Rapid Web Designer- Literal HTML. 11
Becoming a Site Administrator If you are a new Site Administrator, see the manual in this series called Rapid Web Designer - Site Administrators. Getting Help If you are experiencing difficulty with your page, there are several people and sites that can assist you through this process. Begin with your in-school Site Administrator(s). Should you both run into a snag please contact the Computers in Education Consultant for Secondary Schools at the CEC; they will be happy to assist you. Consider visiting the Curriculum Resources conferences in FirstClass and/or the Secondary Curriculum web page at http://sec.ycdsb.ca for announcements of upcoming after school inservices and manuals regarding RWD. 12
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