This handbook is implemented in GetSimple, a content management system which, as its name implies, is simple.  I has no database.

This is the CMS that is provided to FNPS chapters.  You likely already know how to use it.  If not, contact the WebTeam at [email protected] — one of Paul Rebmann, Jan Allyn, or Shirley Denton will respond.  All three of us know GetSimple.  

This particular implementation is using a theme that is both modern in concept and responsive (mobile friendly).

Instructions for the general use of GetSimple can be found on template.fnpschapters.org.  This is a demo site.  What it looks like, and how sensible the menu may look, depends on when you look at it.  But, at all times, the content is INSTRUCTIONS on the use of GetSimple.

This Handbook

It can be edited easily.  But there are things to know.

What you see in the editor and what you see on a live page will not be the same!  We have have chosen not to make the editor look (css) match the website look for a very simple reason -- the editor is built into GetSimple, and when we do updates, we lose customizations.  So, get used to the concept that what you see may not be what you get.   Always look at a live page before you decide make manual formatting edits.

Editing basics

Use "normal" most of the time.  Use h2, h3, h4 for headers.  h1 is used by GetSimple -- don't use it unless you need something to be as big as a page title-- and look like one.

See below for what they will look like in the editor.  To see these as they will look live, look at http://fnps.org/handbook/instructions.

Header 1

Header 2

Header 3

Header 4

normal

The handbook uses several special features which have special formats.

1.  Tables.  Create a table using the editor controls -- it is a light blue square with a hint of table columns.  Click on it, and it will insert a table.  It will want to know the number of columns and the number of rows.  As you edit, where you are will be obvious -- but don't try to style it manually.  Trust that the handbook's CSS will make it look OK.  Just get the content in.

Put the table title in the "caption" -- you will be able to create a caption when you create the table.  

2.  Block quotes.  These are weird.  They are designed for real quotes, but they happen to things that can be styled with css  based on your content.  Use them for asides.  They will look very different in the editor and on a live page.

To use them.  Create your content. If you need a header, create one (I made all blockquotes with an h4 header).   Highlight your content.  Then click on the blue quote marks in the top line of edit controls.  

The lines below are a block quote.  They look really weird, especially since they make everything shoe in italics.   On the live site, the italics don't exist -- you will be the site's styling for normal, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h5 -- etc.  On the live site, the blockquote will look like a lightly colored green box with a heavy green line on the left and a thin green line on the right.   If you are looking at this from an edit page, well, you see a block quote below.  Just trust.  It will eventually look OK.

A blockquote. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec ut est risus, placerat venenatis augue. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos.

3.  Examples / Special Container

These work the same as block quotes, but we cannot style them (the styling is built in, we cannot change it).

To use them.  Create your content. If you need a header, create one (I made all blockquotes with an h4 header).   Highlight your content.  Use the styles box and pick "Special Container"

If you want your own styles, you have to go to source and code them manually.  

These look the same in the editor and on a live page.  Light gray box.

They also do not delete unless you go to display source.

4.  Unordered lists (bullet lists)

These are easy.  Type them in.  Select them.  Then hit the bullet list symbol.

5.  Ordered lists. (Numbered Lists)

Also easy.  Type them in.  Select them.  Then hit the bullet list symbol.

5.  Links

Type what you want them to look like in the text.   Highlight the text.  Then click the link symbol.  You can then type if the URL.  

If the link is not going to this handbook, please also click on "advanced" and select "new window".  This keeps people here instead of sending them to somewhere else with no good way back.

Worth knowing -- I did not use anything else to create this handbook.  I did highlight some things temporarily in red, but I will remove those.  AVOID MANUAL STYLING

 

Add a Page

This is pure GetSimple

1. Create a page
2. Add your content
3. Now click on Page Options -- in any order

• Pick a template -- the choices are default, chapters, council and society
• Click on "parent" -- it is either none for a top level item, or (almost always) on of Society, Council, or Chapters
• Click on "add to Menu" -- it will ask for the menu text and will ask for where among the existing pages to put it.
• Click save -- inspect, inspect, inspect.

You can go back and edit again and again.

Note -- for Society, Council, and Chapters, the submenues that show in the right column are created as theme Components.  You can edit them.  They are html.  No wysiwyg crutch.

Attachments

Link to existing files if you can.  We do not need to store multiple copies.

We can link to files on fnps.org, on chapter sites, on our Utube and Flickr sites, on our social media sites.  A recommendation is to minimize links -- with time, they break.

Advice

Don't get fancy.  Keep it very simple.  Responsive websites are not easy to deal with.

Avoid images

Try to link to existing pages, either of the handbook, or FNPS.org.  Links are invitations for something to break in the future.