How to use the Daily Planet

This page updated November 19, 2011.

New users:

• Register as a user on TCDP. As you register, PLEASE upload a square headshot or another image that you would like to include with your profile. Also add a few lines in "About me" to identify yourself to other readers. Be sure to enter your address - your address will NOT appear, but it will locate you on a neighborhood page.

Already a registered user?

If you are already a registered user, sign in and click "update your profile" in the blue box in column 1. Now you can upload a photo. Or you can click on the "biography" tab at the top of your profile page to edit the "about me" or address fields.

Ready, set, go!

You can start by writing an article, posting a blog entry, or adding an event.

How to upload articles, blog posts, events and places (attractions)

Adding an article:

Enter the title for your article. Title in sentence format (capitalize first word).

Your name automatically appears as the author in the author credit box.

Scroll down to "Article Body."

Look in the gray bar beneath "article body." This is the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) bar. The small "W" box is important. Click on it. This will open a new window. Paste the text of the article in this new window and save. Whenever you see this box, use it—in an article, in a photo caption, in any other place where you put text. This strips "bad" html code from the text, so that you do not get strings of  "garbage" text.

Inserting video or image at the top of the article

You can insert a video from YouTube or some other places by inserting the URL in the Video Link box. This will place the video at the top of your article. Type or paste in the caption/cutline

OR you can insert a photo by clicking on "choose file" under "image" and then browsing for the photo on your computer and uploading it. This will insert the photo at the top of the article.

If the photo is horizontal and should go across the whole page at the top, click on the "use large format" box.

Copyright is ©2011 Your Name

If you have a pdf or other file to attach, use the media file section for this. If you have an audio file to attach, use the media file section. If there is an audio file, insert [Audio below.] at end of first paragraph in text.

If you are writing about a specific place, such as the State Capitol, you may enter that in the "Location" box and then wait for a drop-down menu.

ADDRESSES ARE CRUCIAL. The proper street address will locate the article in a neighborhood. You can enter more than one address.

Choose the section your should appear in. You can choose more than one section by holding down the "command" key as you make your selections. If you can't figure out a section, choose "None."

If this is a neighborhood article,  choose "neighborhood"—that ensures that it will appear in the Neighborhood News column on page 1. (All "neighborhood" articles MUST have an address entered.)

You can free tag by entering more tags in Tags box.  Tags are comma-separated.

Always be sure to click "save!"

Troubleshooting:

Basically, that means sending an email: editor [at] tcdailyplanet [dot] net

TROUBLESHOOTING

Tell me what kind of trouble you are running into, and I'll try to figure out the problem and fix it, and tell you how to avoid it in the future. If you find any problem in these instructions, please email me.

Adding Blog Posts, Events and Places:

Blog posts are very similar to articles. The differences you should know about are:

1) Some of the items (photo insert, author credit) are in a different order.

2) When entering a blog post, you always need to enter the blog name in the "POST TO" box (located above the article body) and then click on the correct choice in the drop-down menu. You may also need to choose from the "Media Partner" drop-down menu (located below the article body), if your blog is an official blog partner.

Adding events or places (attractions) is pretty easy. If you can add an article, you can figure out any of these. Of course, for either events or attractions, it is absolutely essential to enter a street address.

ADVANCED TOPICS

Inserting additional photos in text

Position the cursor where you want the photo to appear. Click on the tree (middle of top row of icons) to insert a photo. (You may see only a single row of icons. That's okay - just click on the tree.)

That will open a dialogue box (left). Click on the small icon at the end of the "image/URL" box.

The next dialogue box looks like this:

Click on "upload" in the top row. In the next dialogue box, browse for the picture file on your computer, and then upload it. After the photo is uploaded, click on "Send to tinymce" in the top row.

The next dialogue box looks like this:

Click on the tab for "appearance." This will allow you to format the image.

Choose the alignment that you want for the image - right, left, center.

Choose a width - never more than 490px.

If the image is right or left aligned, type 5 in the horizontal space box.

Click on insert. If the photo is too big or too small, position cursor on corner and drag to make bigger or smaller.