Help and Users Guide

Castings "Homepage" Help

Creating and editing pages with "Homepage" is simple. However, if you need assistance, you've come to the right place! This help page should have opened in a new browser window - just close the window to go back, click on the BACK BUTTON or you can switch back and forth.

Help Topics:

What are Homepage Web pages?
Creating a page
Editing a page
Deleting a page
User Image Upload
Lost Logins
Error messages
Contact Us!

N.B. YOU MUST FIRST SET YOU WEB PAGE UP using the default graphics and media BEFORE YOU CAN UPLOAD your own GRAPHICS OR OTHER MEDIA FILES. Use the default graphics provided by the "Homepage" generator to create your web page. After you have finished setting up your web page, you can upload your own graphics and other media for image, thumbnail, background image, music etc., by simply choosing image upload from the "Homepage" options directory. See 'User Image Upload' for more information.

What are HomePage web pages?

"Homepage" web pages are html pages created by inserting variables (information) into an online form.
The image below shows some of the most common options:

Click on the image to view enlargement

Creating a page

Web pages are created by completing a simple form. Here's a rundown of the form fields and what they do:

YOUR NAME
Self explanatory - your name. This is used as a link to your Email address on your web page. This is a required field as it also provides necessary "Homepage" account information.

LOGIN ID
This should be a single word that you will used to log into your account to either edit or delete your web page - it shouldn't be easy to guess! This is a required field.

EMAIL ADDRESS
You must provide a valid email address, as this will be used to insert an email link on your web page so that people can contact you.

PAGE NAME
The name of your page can consist of letters &/or numbers. Names can contain more than one word - spaces between words will be replaced with underscores. Don't include the file extension. Your URL (web page address) will become similar to http://www.castings.tk/dossiers/yourname.htm. This is a required field.

GRAPHIC LOAD OPTIONS
When you first start creating a web page with "Homepage", all graphics will be represented by their text link. This default loading option is FASTPAGE. This ensures that "Homepage" loads as quick as possible. If you want to see all the graphics and available media, simply select the FULL GRAPHICS option. FULL GRAPHICS will appear when you next edit your web page To see any graphic or media in FASTPAGE mode, simply click on the text links and the graphic will open in a new window.

PAGE KEYWORDS or PHRASES
"Homepage" will insert a <meta keyword> tag in between the <head> </head> tags of your web page. This is especially useful for search engine indexing and ranking. People using search engines will be able to find your web page easier. Use comma's between each keyword or phrase. After you have created your web page, submit it to the major search engine sites for quicker indexing.

PAGE DESCRIPTION
Same as PAGE KEYWORDS and PHRASES, except that the page description will be inserted into the <meta description> tag. Search engines and the like will use the description of your web page to help identify and categorize your web page.

"Homepage" NEWS
Tick this box if you would like to receive periodical newsletters about "Homepage" tips, tricks, new features and more.

LINK IN THE COMMUNITY DIRECTORY
When you have created your web page, the "Homepage" generator will place either a linked image (thumbnail) or text link or both (if specified), on the main community page. This will allow visitors easy access to your web page. OPTION TEXT FOR THUMBNAIL will be displayed when the mouse pointer moves over or hovers on your thumbnail image. Type in what you would like displayed when the mouse pointer is positioned over your thumbnail image.

TEXT FONT FACE
Select the style and appearance of your web page text from the drop down menu.

PAGE and CONTRAST BACKGROUND
There are many options to how you set your web page background color or image. "Homepage" gives you the ability to apply various styles using three layout options. Type/Style 1 will set either one color or image as your web page background. Type/Style 2 and 3 allows you to select a primary and contrast background of either two colors or two images or a combination of both. The result of combining a primary and contrast color/image can produce some superb effects. The images below are examples of page backgrounds:


Type/Style 1	Type/Style 2	Type/Style 3

BACKGROUND COLOR
Select the background color of your page. Selecting 'No background'(Best) will set the background color of the page to 'browser default' (usually white or gray). If you selected a background image &/or color from the Page and Contrast selection, then your selection will be displayed.

TABLE BACKGROUND
Choose the background color for your table

TEXT COLOR
Choose the color of your text.

LINK COLOR
Choose the color of your URL (Hyperlink) links.

VISITED LINK COLOR
Choose the color you would like your visited text links to appear.

ACTIVE LINK COLOR
Choose the color you would like your active text links to appear.

HORIZONTAL LINES
Select the style of your horizontal lines that will appear on your web page. You can choose to have one or both horizontal lines or none. Horizontal lines can not only make your web page more appealing but, are useful in 'breaking' up your page especially if you have a lot of text. See Horizontal Line Positioning.

BULLETS
Bullets are useful in highlighting paragraphs of text you want to stand out.

EMAIL IMAGE
Select an image for your email link.

SEARCH OPTIONS
"Homepage" adds another powerful new feature to your web page. Your visitors have the ability to search the entire community from your web page. Simply type in what you would like on your search button. Some examples might include 'Search', Search our Community', 'Power Search'.

CONTACT FORM OPTIONS:
Contact Form option and use Page Graphic will generate a custom email form that uses your web page colors and images. If you choose not to include this feature, simply leave this option blank. Visitors will still be able to send you an email using your email link.

RELATED LINKS
"Homepage" allows you to place up to three links in your web page to other sites. You could include links to your favourite sites, educational, reference, in fact any site at all. Be sure to include the full url i.e. http://www.favouritesite.com/

OPTIONAL EXTRA GRAPHICS (Thumbnails)
This option can only be included AFTER you have setup your web page (See User Image Upload). Use the upload files option in the drop down menu ("Homepage" Options) and choose the appropriate directory to transfer your images and media.

You must then EDIT your web page by selecting the EDIT option from the drop down menu to incorporate the extra graphics (thumbnails). There can be a maximum of four thumbnails each linking to a full image (Extra Media). Thumbnails can also be used with no links. The thumbnails are positioned center across and below the page graphic. Enter optional mouse over text for each of the extra thumbnails. i.e. 'Click Here', 'Click on Me!' 'Click to View Enlargement'

PAGE GRAPHIC
Choose a graphic to appear beneath your sub heading, or select 'No graphic'. If you want to place a main image on your web page, you must select from the range of default graphics available in the "Homepage" generator. Once you have set up your web page you can then upload your own images and media. See User Image Upload

PAGE BACKGROUND AUDIO

Select from a range of background audio that is available with the "Homepage" generator. Should you wish to include your own background music see User Image Uploads.

HEADLINE
The headline or title of your page. This appears at the very top of your page as its title, and as your listing in the Community Directory. This is a required field.

SUB HEADING
This appears underneath the heading/title of your page.

COUNTER OPTIONS ( must be activated by the administrator):

The same as a page hit counter, it records the number of visitors to your web page
Select the Do Not Use Counter radio button for no counter
Select the Use White Numbers On Black Counter radio button for this option.
Select the Use Black Number On White Counter radio button for this option
You may also set and reset the amount of hits (Visits) displayed by entering a number in the Set or Reset Hits Entry Field. You may also set the Counter Display Text that appears to the left of of the counter. The default is 'Welcome Visitor'.

FIRST HORIZONTAL LINE
Tick the option box to position the horizontal line that sits between the main image and the body text, or leave blank to exclude it.

BODY
Input (Type) the body text of your page. Press <return> to start a new line, press it twice to start a new paragraph.

BULLET
Bullets are small images that are used to define paragraphs of text. Tick the option box to include a bullet image to use or leave blank to exclude this option. By selecting 'bullets', text will be centered.

TABLE
A table can be used to display financial information, dates, etc. Type the information you want to appear in the first cell. To start a new cell type two colons (::) followed by the contents of the new cell. To start a new row start a new line by pressing <return>. For example:

this is row 1 cell 1::this is row 1 cell 2::this is row 1 cell 3
this is row 2 cell 1::this is row 2 cell 2::this is row 2 cell 3 etc...
You also have the option of including a Table Caption. This will appear above the table.

SECOND HORIZONTAL LINE
Tick the option box to position the horizontal line that sits between your Related Links and email text, or leave blank to exclude it.

MULTI MEDIA, INTERACTION and EXTERNAL LINKS OPTIONS.
By ticking any of these three options, you will place all information already setup in the Multimedia, Interaction and External Links Block into your web page. Leave blank to exclude them.

Multi Media: Tick to include this option to display extra thumbnails and media
Interaction: Tick to include "Homepage" Search feature and email contact form.
External Links: Tick to include you links to other web sites.

PAGE LAYOUT OPTIONS
If you have chosen a background and contrast feature (Type/Style 2 or 3) then you have a number of choices as to the appearance and layout of your web page. There is no correct approach to achieving the desired effect of your web page, simply experiment with the various layout options until you a happy with your design. You can also choose the positioning of your heading, subheading, main image, counter, links and multi media features.

[ Close Window ]

To generate your page hit 'CREATE IT'. The title of your page will also be added to our Community Directory. You will be shown a confirmation screen, given the URL of your page and will also receive a confirmation email.

[ Top ]

Editing a page

To edit your page you need to log in by entering your login name and file name. Editing your page is similar to creating it - you are presented with a similar form.
However, when editing your page your original values are returned. You can change the values to edit your page, but you can't however edit your page file name or login ID. For a description of each form field see Creating a page.

Deleting a page

To delete your page enter your login details and click on 'Login'.

[ Top ]

User Image Upload (option must be active)

To Upload an Image or another file enter your login details, select the destination for the upload file from the drop down menu and click on 'Login'. The next screen to come up will be the upload file selection screen - just Enter or Select the file to upload and click on 'Upload!'. If the administrator has decided to allow user uploads then only the administrator and users with existing pages can upload images. You would have to create your web page first using the default images and media files contained in "Homepage". Upload your new images and then Edit your existing page to incorporate your graphics or media files. When you EDIT your web page, you will see the file(s) you have uploaded. Should you encounter any problems logging in to the upload program, simply click on the BACK button in your browser and then the FORWARD button and enter your details again.

Choose from the following directories to transfer your files to:

Thumbnails - To change your linked Thumbnail image on the main community page, upload to this directory.
Pictures - To change the image on your web page, upload to this directory.
Audio Backgrounds - To include your own background music, upload to this directory.
Backgrounds - To change your web page background with your own image, upload to this directory.
Lines - To include your own horizontal lines, upload to this directory.
Bullets - To include your own bullets, upload to this directory.
emails - To include your own email image, upload to this directory
Extra Thumbnails - To include extra thumbnail images (4) that can be linked to larger or different images, upload to this directory.
Extra Media - Upload your larger or other images to this directory. You can link to them from the extra thumbnail images on your web page.

N.B. All Extra Media (images) that are linked from the Extra Thumbnails on your web page, will open in a separate window when viewed.

[ Close Window ]

Lost Logins

Enter the name (title) of your web page (case sensitive - exclude extension or path information) and click on 'Submit' button. An email will be forwarded to you containing your details.

[ Top ]

Error messages

If you receive any error messages using "Homepage" it's probably because you either forgot to enter certain information on a previous form, or entered it incorrectly. Go back and try again!

Contact Us!
Should you need any further assistance then contact us here (Contact). Briefly outline the problem that you are encountering.

[ Top ]