User guide for AWL website
By Daisy Thomas
Index
• Posting stories: basics
• What is the site?
• Posting stories: more
• What’s on it? complex stages
• The front page panels • Posting stories: pictures
• And the rest? • Posting stories: getting
• Menus in left-hand them on the front page
column • Writing a blog
• Other menus • Posting a download to
• Logging in the site
• Log in difficulties • Making a short URL
• Posting events • Instant mini-leaflets
• Categories • Help develop the
website!
What is the site?
• Our website mostly
consists of a database of
postings (getting on for
12,000 of them, as of
November 2008) plus a
set of instructions (on the • There is also an older
computer hosting the site) part of the website not
as to how to display that included in the database
database. but accessible via links
from the main part of the
website and via the
search facility.
Why visit the site?
• To read our latest comments and reports on campaigns
and events - much more up to date than the paper. To
add your comments. To get or add details of events
we're organising or taking part in. And a big back-up to
help you in finding:
• AWL comments and statements on all sorts of
background issues;
• Material for study courses;
• Resources (from study courses, through notes on how to
produce workplace bulletins, to standing order forms,
and much more);
• Facilities for buying literature, subscribing to the paper,
or making donations. The contents of all the back issues
of the paper to 2002, most of the back issues of the
magazine, and most of our pamphlets, are there.
The front page panels
We can't show all 12,000 postings on the front page.
The front page has items selected for current interest,
organised into different panels:
• Frontline (current news,
campaigns, etc.)
• Battle of ideas (more
theoretical stuff, and current
polemics)
• Campaigns (a small selection
of major current campaigning
items)
The front page panels
• From the blogs (snippets from AWL members' and
sympathisers' blogs)
The front page panels
• Events (the next few
featured ones: you get a full
calendar by clicking
"Events" in the left-hand
menu)
• Downloads (postings from
which you can download
files to be read on, or
printed from, your own
computer rather than the
website).
And the rest?
There are 4 ways of finding material not on the
front page. Here is number one
The search box in the left-
hand menu column. This
searches the older part of
the website as well as the
newer.
And the rest?
There are four ways of finding material
not on the front page: number two
The sitemap link in the
masthead. This shows you
all the categories into which
postings are organised, and
enables you to look for, for
example, articles about
Argentina or articles about
Zimbabwe.
And the rest?
There are four ways of finding material
not on the front page: number 3
The menus in the left-
hand menu column.
And the rest?
There are four ways of finding material
not on the front page: number 4
Internal links within the site,
which take you from one
posting to another relevant
one.
The menus in the left-hand column
• The first is a fairly Events - a calendar
permanent selection of display of upcoming
staples. It includes: activities.
About us - contact details,
how to join the public e-
list, basic statements of
what AWL is all about.
• Resources - joining the
AWL, why and how;
study courses; reference
documents and forms for
AWL members;
guidelines on organising
AWL activity; AWL
conferences, etc.
Other menus
• Below that first menu are other which enables you to donate
menus and blocks, which by the AWL just by clicking.
should be self-explanatory. • The choice of items for the
• They include a link to the "Featured Topics" menu is
changed from time to time.
current issue of the paper, and
a button • The "Debate" menu has links to
the postings most recently
commented on.
• At the bottom, if you're logged
in, a menu will appear with links
for you to add new stories and
events or do other things.
Logging in
• Log in using the "username"
and "password" boxes in the
left hand menu column. You
can read the website,
mostly, without logging in.
But if you log in, you can
post comments. If you log in
and get your username
registered with "AWL
member" status, you can
contribute stories and events
to the website as well as
reading it.
Log in difficulties
• Your username is whatever
you choose as your
username when you first
create an account on the
website. It is not your email
address. The office can't tell
you what your username is.
• If you have a username, but
you've forgotten it, click on
the "create new account" link
to choose a new username.
• If you don't have a username,
click on the "create new
account" link in the left hand
menu column.
If you have a username but
have forgotten the password, Log in
click on the "request new
password" link. difficulties
If you have a username but
have forgotten the password,
you click on the "request new
password" link, but you receive
no new password, probably that
means that the e-address you
registered for that username is
one you no longer use. Email
the office telling us what your
username is, and we can
change the registered e-address
for that username.
Log in difficulties
• If you have a username and password, but you're not
registered with "AWL member" status, click on the "... to
AWL member online" link under "Change user status".
Posting events
• Check the website calendar (click on "Events" in the left-hand menu
column) regularly. It's your best way of knowing what's coming up,
confirming details of events, and avoiding clashes when you yourself
organise events.
Posting events
• When you organise
events, or find out about
them, put them up on the
website. It helps to tell
other people about your
event, and to reduce
clashes. Click on "create
content" under your
username, then select
"event".
Posting events
• Fill in the details of your event, If the meeting place is not yet fixed, put
“TBA" in the Location slot. Click on "preview".
Posting events
• Check the posting. Then
click on "submit". You can
double-check how the
result looks by clicking
"Calendar" on the screen
you'll see next.
Categories
• The way the site organises its
12,000-odd postings is
determined by the "categories"
with which each posting is
tagged. Tagging your posting
fully and accurately with
"categories" makes it easier for
people to find it. You do the
tagging by clicking on category
titles on the screen when you
make your posting. You can
apply as many category tags
as you like. Select more than Make your category tags as
one tag from a particular
"window" by holding down the specific as possible, e.g.
Ctrl key when you click. "Testing and tables" for an
article about SATS, not the
general tag "Education".
Posting stories: basics
• First write your story, in Word or whatever. Avoid using
fancy effects in Word. What you're going to post into the
website is just a text file. Even better, use Notepad or
WordPad (or SimpleText for Mac users, etc.) to write the
story. Leave a blank line between paragraphs. After the
first paragraph, insert a tag <!--break-->. (Be careful! You
must get this exactly right). This marks the end of the
"teaser" which will appear when you have a website
page displaying your story or others, with a "read more"
link for the rest. Keep that first paragraph short - no more
than one sentence, or two short sentences.
Posting stories: basics
• Click on "create content" under your username, then select "story". Put
your name in the "author" field (or a pen-name if you're worried about
e.g. victimisation at work). Cut and paste your text into the "Body"
window.
Posting stories
• You have to do a couple
more things before you
can post your story. Apply
the category tags; and
enter a "Short
description". This is what
will appear with your
headline on the front
page if your story is on
the front page. If in doubt,
you can re-use your first but make sure it's really
paragraph as a "short short and gives the casual
description", reader an idea of what the
posting is about.
Posting stories
• Finally, after you have
submitted your story, you
can go back to the
homepage. Click on “All
recent posts” in the left-hand
menu column, and you will
find it. If you want it on the
front page at the top, ask an
administrator.
Posting stories: pictures
• By default each story appears (except on the front page)
with a pic representing one of the "categories" you have
tagged it with. (Like in this picture).
Posting stories: pictures
If you have a better pic, or you want the story to have a pic with
it on the front page, then click on "Edit" and go to the "Node
image" window (under "Publications" and above "Author").
Here you can select a .jpg image from your computer, and
upload it to the website to illustrate your story. Prepare your
image beforehand. It must be 70 pixels x 70 pixels (or as close
to that as you can get, e.g. you can have one that’s 68 x 70
and it’s still okay). Probably whatever you have to start with
won't be that size. Use a photo manipulation
programme (Photoshop; or, if you don't have
that, you can download The Gimp for free to do
the same stuff) to adjust it. The “crop" and
“image size" options will do what you want.
Posting comments
• If you are logged in, you can add comments to any story. Usually,
at any given time, there are a good few stories on which our
political adversaries are posting critical comments. The "Debates"
menu, in the left hand column, lists the stories recently
commented on. Help respond; add extra information, or an
update, to a story. The website is not designed as a place for
AWL internal debates - we have other forums for that - but that
does not at all mean that you have to limit yourself, in comments,
just to repeating "the line".
Writing a blog
• You can start writing a blog on
our website just by clicking on
"Create content" and choosing
"Blog entry". Let us know you
are doing it by emailing
awl@[Link], so
that we can put your blog on
the site's blog list, and so that
we can keep an eye out for
postings on your blog which
should be promoted to the
front page.
Posting downloads
If you want to post, for example, a leaflet to the site so that other people
can download it onto their own computers, then click on "Create content"
and on "story", just as if you were writing a story. Only now you will write
just a few words in the "Body" window saying what the leaflet is (put a <!--
break--> tag at the end of those few words), and you will click on the "File
attachments" option. Select the file from your computer and upload it. If
you're uploading a leaflet, upload it as a pdf. Pdf stands for Portable
Document Format, and means that your document can be read on all
computers and will appear the same on all computers. If you upload stuff in
Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Word format, a lot of people will not be
able to read it, and those who can read it won't see it looking the same as
you see it. If you don't already have facilities on your computer for making
pdf files out of Word or Publisher files, you can download software free -
pdf995 for Windows, or PrintToPdf for Mac.
Making a short URL
URL (or URI) is the short name for a web address, e.g.
[Link]
france-1934
By default stories on our
website get fairly long
URLs (as above). This
has big advantages for
boosting the Google
rankings of our stories,
and some other technical
advantages
Making a short URL
If you want a shorter URL to put on a leaflet, or quote to someone, then click on
"URL path settings" when posting or editing the story. Uncheck the automatic alias
and type your shorter alias into the window, so you might be able to refer to that
posting as [Link] or whatever. Every story
also has a URL which says what number posting it is, e.g.
[Link] for the posting mentioned above,
posting number 11,471. You can find that URL by clicking on the "Edit" tab; the
Navigation toolbar of your browser will then show something like
[Link]
Instant mini-leaflets
Every story has a "Printer-
friendly version" link at the
end of it. Click on that if you
want to print off the story.
You can use this facility to
make instant mini-leaflets to
distribute to friends or at
work.
Help develop the website!
• You can contribute by helping with the development of the
website. This is a contribution you can make even if childcare
or other things frequently keep you at home in the evenings.
• You need not be a geek (though it helps). Basic computer-
and Internet-literacy; access to a computer with a reasonably
fast Internet connection; a willingness to apply yourself to
learning a few technical things, and to learn new things as
necessary; and the usual preconditions for any serious
collective work, diligence and reliability - that's all you need.
• Contact the AWL office to volunteer.