Having something to share at LSNTAP.org? You can email us, but as a registered user you're welcome to post it yourself! The easiest formats to post in are "stories" and "blogs." Stories are typically news items (written in a generic voice), and blogs are a good place to offer personal observations and share personal experience.

These instructions (which Eva shamelessly adapted from NTAP's staff wiki) assume that you're logged in. They explain the Submit Story and the Submit Blog Entry pages, describing the steps to post in order, beginning with the first relevant box and proceeding to the last relevant box. (There are several boxes you can usually ignore.)

Start from either the Submit Story or the Submit Blog Entry pages.

Title: Required field. Enter the text which you would like to be the link to your article.

Tech Library: This box determines where your content will be posted within the tech library. Listed here are the heading, categories, and sub-categories of the Tech Library. These sections are differentiated by the dashes to the left hand side of the titles. The heading has no dash, the category has a short dash, and the sub-heading has a long dash.

Select the category or sub-category where you want your content to appear. For example, to have content appear under the heading of "Legal Aid Technology," in the category of "Document Assembly," and sub-category of "Technical FAQs and Development," you should select "Technical FAQ and Development."

News: (Story format only) If you would like to add an article to our Latest News feed, select "Latest News" in this box.

Blog: (Blog only) Your blog entry will automatically be filed as your own blog entry. If you would also like it to be viewable from the front page, please choose "Community Talks" here.

[Do choose at least one Tech Library category and/or the "Latest News" or "Community Talks" designation, or your post won't be findable on the site!]

Body: Required field. Add your content into the body section. The body section is an HTML editor which allows for some basic formatting and editing in the bar at the bottom of the box.

Formatting Issues: If you are copying from another document it is often easier to do all formatting in the html editor. If you have formatting problems while copying and pasting it is most likely due to formatting which has been carried over from another program. To remove unwanted formatting you can either use “paste special” in word or copy into notepad or transfer the text from notepad. Doing this should remove all formatting from the document leaving you with unformatted text.

File Attachments: If you want to upload a file to the website click on the blue text which says "File Attachment" below the body box. From here you can click, browse, and select the file you wish to add and select ok. Select "Attach" and the file will appear just above the Attach box.

On the left hand side of the document will be two columns, "delete" and "list." Checking "delete" will remove the file when you submit the story or blog. If the "list" option is checked attached files will be displayed at the end of the page. If you do not want the information displayed in this way, uncheck the list box next to each item. If the list box is not checked the file will remain on the system, but is inaccessible unless linked to in the body of the story or blog.

Hyperlinking an Attached File to Text in the Body of Your Story: If you would like to link to an attached file within your document:

• Copy the URL supplied under file attachments.
  
• Highlight and copy the URL under the file name.
  
• Highlight the text which you want to link to the document.
• Select the link Icon from the toolbar under the Body box.
  
• A box will appear to insert the link. Paste the URL into the first box which says Link URL.
  
• Click insert and the document will then be linked to the text.

To Post: Select the orange "Submit" box from the bottom of the page to submit the content and create the page. You will then be taken to that page in its final posted version.

Note: If you preview your article, no content will be posted until you submit the content.

Working on a Draft?

If you are working on a draft, click on the "Publishing" option near the bottom of the edit field and click Unpublish. Submit your unfinished story as usual, and remember the node number to re-edit and publish once perfected.

Run into trouble? Email eva AT lsntap DOT org for help.