2006-Jan-27
by Bluetales.com team

Step 1: Register

You need to create an account on this website before you can post your writings and images. Click here to create an account (it will open in a new browser window so that you can keep these instructions visible). When you register, you can provide information about yourself such as where you are from and a brief description; you can also upload a self-portrait image. Most of this information (all except the email address and password) will be visible to other members of the community.

After you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email; this is to ensure that your email address is correct and valid. It is very important that you carefully follow the instructions in the email; if not, your registration will remain unconfirmed and may be deleted after 48 hours.

Step 2: Create a Folder

You need a folder to organize your writings and images.

To create a folder, you must first be viewing another folder. The front page of the site lists all the top-level folders (only a site administrator can create a top-level folder). The ones in bold are public folders; i.e., anyone can create a document in them. The top-level folder Bluetales is intended to hold member's folders. Click on a folder to view its contents; if the folder permits subfolders, there will be a link at the bottom labeled "new subfolder." If the folder does not allow subfolders, then you might need to navigate down the chain of folders to find one that allows it.

Folders are used to organize the content on the site. So choose where to construct your folder appropriately. For example, if you're uploading a picture of the Carnatic wreck, then "Macros" is probably not an appropriate location. Think of a folder as a category, and use similar categories to group things together.

There are several different types of folders:

• Image Gallery This is the most common; it's a simple folder that can only hold images. Since it only holds images, it displays them in the form of thumbnails.
• Personal Folder This is the standard sort of folder that can hold any type of document. You can choose to make the folder shared, which means that other people can put documents in the folder, too. You can choose to limit the types of documents that can be stored in the folder (for example, a folder limited to image documents is displayed as a block of thumbnail images, rather than as a list of titles). You can choose to limit the number of items that can be stored in the folder.
• Scheduled Folder In many ways, a scheduled folder is similar to a personal folder. However, a scheduled folder has the concept of a current item based on a schedule you dictate. As each new document is added to the folder, it is placed into a queue. Then, according to the schedule you specify when you create the folder, each document becomes the current document in turn. This can be used, for example, to have a "picture of the week" (in this case, each picture would be the current picture for seven days at a time).
• Date-Limited Folder This is a special type of folder, used primarily for competitions. A date-limited folder is public between a certain set of dates; before and after that period, the folder is private, and not open to the public. This lets a member, for example, create a folder that is open for a brief period to allow submissions, and then is closed and static.

Once you click on the "new folder" link, simply follow the instructions on the form. Voila! You've created a folder.

Step 3: Create a Document

Once you've created a folder, go ahead a build your document. A document is a generic term for some sort of content available on the site: it can be an article (text), an event (a combination of a date/time and text), a file (used for uploading things), or an image (a JPEG picture). There are other types of documents available, but Articles and Images are by far the most popular.

No matter what kind of document you're creating, there are some things they all have in common. Each document has to have a unique title (unique to you, that is: other members can create documents with the same title as one of yours). If you enter the same title more than once, the website software will automatically add counters to the end of it ("Untitled 1," "Untitled 2," and so forth).

Each document has a body, or some descriptive text. For an article, this is of course the major source of content. For an image, the "body" is the image's caption that is displayed along with it.

Different types of documents have different types of information; for example, articles have a summary, which is intended to be a brief synopsis of the article. Images capture a lot of technical information about the photograph, which you may either use or ignore. The following list summarizes the types of documents you can create:

• Article An article is just what it sounds like: a textual document of an arbitrary length. You can add a brief summary to an article that can be viewed when it is listed.
• File This document includes a file attachment; when the document is displayed, the viewer can click on the file to download it.
• Image An image document has an image file attachment. However, unlike the "File" document type, the Image is displayed instead of being made available for download. Images can be GIF, JPEG, or PNG graphics files (note: not all file types may be supported by this website). Thumbnail images at various sizes are automatically created from the uploaded image.
• Link A Link is a brief document with an attached URL. It is used to share favorite web addresses with other members of the community.
• Poll A Poll is displayed as a multiple-choice question with up to 10 possible answers. Members' votes are tallied and displayed once the member has voted.

To create a document, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the folder you want to hold your document.
2. Click on the "Add document to folder" link (it might say something specific like "Add Image to Folder").
3. Follow the instructions on the Add/Edit page, then press Submit

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