Creating Articles & Notes

Scientific articles and notes are ToL pages that are attached to ToL branch and leaf pages. ToL Authors can use this format to provide detailed, generously illustrated information about specific topics, while keeping the central branch and leaf pages concise and fast loading. This page provides instruction on how to use the ToL data entry forms to create and publish articles and notes.

• Creating a New Article/Note
• Adding Content
• Previewing the Page
• Inserting a Link in a Text Section

Adding a New Accessory Page

Silvio has done a fair bit of research on critterid drooling, and he would like to present a summary of his findings on the ToL. However, adding this information to the Critteridae branch page would make this page too bulky. Silvio therefore decides to establish an accessory page about 'Drool Production in the Critteridae'. In order to do this, he goes to the Accessory Pages panel of the Critteridae Node Data Window. When he clicks the Add button below the Accessory Pages list,...

... a new row is established in the list, where Silvio can type the text he wants to use to identify his accessory page in the Articles or Notes menu of the Critteridae branch page. (Note: all accessory pages start out as notes. A page may be raised to article status after review by an editor, see Authoring Scientific Articles & Notes) In addition, the lower subpanel of the Accessory Pages panel now features a series of fields where Silvio can enter the data for the accessory page.

Adding Content

The Details, Text and References headings in the lower subpanel are each followed by a triangular handle, which allows the expansion and collapse of the fields associated with each of these headings. Silvio types in the Page Title and selects himself as the author, copyright owner, and correspondent for the page. Then he types the text for his accessory page in the Text field, formatted with HTML codes and containing several images which he adds following the same procedure as described for images in text sections in Lesson 9. He also adds the References, with each record separated by a hard return, as described for the References section of branch pages (Lesson 7).

Previewing on the Web

When Silvio uploads his changes to the server, there is now an entry for the Drool Production page in the Notes menu of the right sidebar of the Critteridae branch page.

When a user clicks on the Drool Production menu item, the page loads in the browser.

Inserting a Link in a Text Section

In order to alert ToL visitors to the availability of additional information on attached pages, it is usually a good idea to put an additional link to such pages in one of the text sections on the branch page. Silvio decides to add add a link at the end of the Characteristics section. He selects the Characteristics heading in the Text Sections list and types in the text referring visitors to the Drool Production page for more information about critterid drooling.

He uses paragraph tags, <p> </p>, to separate this entry from the remaining text (see Lesson 5), and he uses anchor tags, <a href="url"> </a>, to implement the link (see Lesson 7). Silvio gets the url for this link by copying it from the address bar of his browser. However, rather than using the full address for the page, http://working.live.tolweb.org/notes/?note_id=2410, he turns it into a local reference by clipping the first part of the address and using only /notes/?note_id=2410. (We'll soon be implementing an easier way of inserting links to accessory pages.)

When Silvio uploads his changes, the link to the Drool Production page has been inserted in the Critteridae Characteristics section.

Silvio has put together quite a bit of materials for the Critteridae branch of the ToL. Check out the pages he has created during this tutorial. Silvio is now ready to submit his Critteridae pages for review by a ToL editor. Let's go to Lesson 15 to see how he does this.