Users' Knowledge Base

DRAFT

SPECIFICATIONS

• Browser: Internet Explorer v7.0
• Operating Software: MicroSoft XP Home

To upgrade to I.E 7 follow the link: Microsoft Download Center >> Internet Explorer 7

 Subscribing to the UKB RSS Feed via the HomePage

1) Click on the Entries RSS link in the UKB Side Bar at the right of the Homepage.

 

An Updated Content (UC) page will open in a new window.

Note: The UKB RSS Feed is not actually updated content. It is, in fact, a list of all posts, sorted by date as the default, so that subscribers will receive everything written into their Feed Reader. Updated posts will not automatically move to the top of the list unless their author forces the issue by resetting the posts timestamp.

2) Click on the Subscribe to this feed link in the Information Pane at the top of the UC page (a Subscribe to this Feed window will pop-up).

3a) Accept the defaults and click on Subscribe without any further to do.

 

OR 3b) Put the link into a custom sub-folder by clicking on the New Folder button, entering a title into the Folder Name input box and picking Create (this is recommended for those who are already subscribed to other RSS services).

That’s all there is to it!

Click on the View my feeds link to go straight to Internet Explorer with the Favorites Center open in Feeds mode.

 

Subscribe to the UKB RSS Feed via Internet Explorer. 

1) Surf to the UKB homepage (the Feeds icon in the IE toolbar will turn orange to indicate that the site is RSS enabled).

2) Click on the down arrow beside the Feeds icon to open a drop-down menu and select RSS 2.0 from the list that is presented (in this case RSS 2.0 or Atom 0.3).

3) The Updated Content page will open as per instruction two in the example above. From that point on the procedure is exactly the same as before except for the confirmation message at the end (it doesn’t have a link to the Feed Reader since I.E is already open).

Subscribing to other AmiBroker provided RSS feeds.

The ‘official’ Knowledge Base, the DevLog and the AmiBroker Mailing List are all RSS enabled and they can be subscribed to by using the Internet Explorer method.

Link to the official Knowledge Base: AmiBroker Knowledge Base

Link to the DevLog: AmiBroker Development Log

Link to the AmiBroker Mailing List: AmiBrokerYahooGroup

A separate feed for UKB comments can be subscribed to by clicking on the Comments RSS link at the UKB HomePage.

Note: The feeds in Internet Explorer are not integrated and each link to an AmiBroker feed stands-alone. The YahooGroup feed is not threaded. It comprises each message posted to the group in chronological order.

 BROWSER CAUTION

This tutorial was written using Internet Explorer 7 and the same outcomes won’t necessarily be achieved with other I.E. versions or alternative browsers e.g. the author received the following ‘advice’ when Entries RSS was clicked using a machine with I.E v6 installed. 

Note: Information on the I.E version in use can be obtained by clicking on the Help >> About menu on the I.E. menu-bar.

TO BE COMPLETED

COPIED FROM ‘HOW DO I READ RSS?’.

 

For those subscribed, the Users? Knowledge Base Feed will be listed in the Internet Explorer Favorites Center, under Feeds.

The number of posts saved, the frequency of updates, and other options, can be set from the Feed Properties window. To open the Properties window, right click on the Users? Knowledge Base link in the Feed list and select Properties from the context menu that opens, or, click on the View feed properties link in the browser window RSS page.

If the posts are in a summarised form the text will end with the word (more….) as a link. The full version can be viewed by clicking on the link, or, by clicking on the right arrow at the top of the post.

The full version of the post will open with the comments below. Scroll down to read the comments, if any.

Comments can be viewed separately, in a scrollable list, by subscribing to the Users? Knowledge Base Comments RSS.

To unsubscribe from a feed service, simply right click on the link in the Favorites Center and delete the link.

Filed by brian_z at 3:38 am under RSS Feeds
Comments Off on Using AmiBroker’s RSS Feeds with Internet Explorer

TO BE COMPLETED AT A LATER DATE

Filed by brian_z at 1:38 am under RSS Feeds
Comments Off on Example Feed Reader Program

It is a cliche that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, but that is a conservative estimate. Certainly for the AmiBroker community, the ease with which images can be included in Users’ Knowledge Base (UKB) posts turns the ‘elephants graveyard’ of archival code, at the AFL library, into a garden of Eden. To take advantage of that opportunity, however, requires that authors have a basic knowledge of graphics software.

Note: The author assumes that UKB authors don’t want to learn anymore about the subject than they absolutely have to so the content of this section has been kept to a bare minimum. The bias of this article is to include the detail in the links where it becomes an optional extra.

Graphics software is software that directly manipulates images. Basic level graphics programs allow users to crop, markup and change the format of images as a minimum. Obviously advanced programs are capable of a lot more but for the UKB site professional level publishing is not a requirement.

One of the main difference between programs is the method of screen capture that is used. Basic level graphics programs generally rely on the screen capture ‘ tools’ that are inbuilt to operating systems, while advanced programs expand the screen capture capabilities.

For additional information on screen capture refer to: Wikipedia >> Screen Capture or About >> Screenshots, Tips, Software Reviews and Links to Software

The main features, of interest to authors, that are available in more advanced programs but not available at the basic level are:

• 1) Copying a region of the screen.
• 2) Copying a freeform section of the screen.
• 3) Copying selected menu bars or objects.
• 4) Including the cursor in screen-shots.
• 5) Adding custom borders to captured images.
• 6) User selected outputs (clipboard, editor, file, Word document, email etc).
• 7) Image resizing (especially advanced resizing that maintains image quality).

Graphics is a career in itself but for the novice UKB author there are only three essential questions to be answered:

What software should I use?

It is a question of personal choice. The author has used MicroSoft Paint, in combination with Windows Live Writer, and produced reasonable images. By comparison to commercial software that duo can do everything required for UKB posting with the exception of adding custom borders.

A tutorial on using MicroSoft Paint has been included in this section as a starting point and to introduce graphic novices to the scope of issues they will encounter on their first attempts to ‘post with pictures’.

Refer to the Resources Links on this page for additional leads to software, software reviews and background information.

Which image format is the best?

Unfortunately, even the experts don’t seem to be able to agree entirely and discussion on the topic soon heads into the ‘tech-talk stratosphere’ . The author takes the easy way out by deferring to the experts via the links in the reference section below.

As a rule of thumb GIF, PNG and JPEG are internet compliant and the pick of the current crop. JPEG files are smaller but they are subject to degradation with repeated saves. PNG is the recommended format for a master image that is likely to be subjected to this type of treatment.

Size is an issue, albeit a minor one with regard to the UKB (keep in mind that upload time for authors and download time for readers will increase with file size).

A full-screen image (1280 X 1024 pixels) of the authors desktop, saved locally, had the following file sizes:

.BMP – 3.8 MB

.TIF – 1.5 MB

.PNG – 0.9 MB

.GIF – 0.3 MB

.JPG – 0.1 MB

The  .PNG version was reduced from 0.9 MB to 0.7 MB when it was ‘shrunk’ to 896 x 716 pixels. 

Why are some of the images in my posts grainy?

There are two common reasons why images inserted into UKB posts lose quality.

Depending on the format used, images tend to degrade as they are continually saved. As a rule of thumb minimize the number of times images are manhandled and use a file format that is suitable for that task.

The second and most important reason is that screen captured images are bitmaps and if they are resized they can  lose quality very quickly. The extent of image degradation depends on the skill of the editor and the software used. With basic software it is a certainty that significant loses will occur when images are ‘shrunk’.

This presents a challenge to authors as the UKB site has a sidebar at the top of the page which reduces the available screen width for the opening section of the post. As well as that, some RSS Feed Readers, like Internet Explorer, have a permanent sidebar, so full size images used in posts will be cut off by the sidebar no matter where they appear in the post. The only way to avoid this is too reduce the size of images and that brings a ‘catch 22’ situation into play for authors. Also keep in mind that images will display in a different way on different machines and that a full-screen image on one computer might have to be scrolled to be viewed on another machine so generally speaking ‘smaller is better’.

In the UKB article Capturing Images Using Microsoft Paint some ‘rough and ready’ ways of producing quality scaled down images are demonstrated, however they all require compromising the integrity of the full-screen shot. Sometimes, due to the detail involved, it is necessary to use a large image anyway. In those cases it is better to use the image further down the page to avoid conflict with the opening sidebar.

The only ‘professional’ way to downsize images is to use a ‘good’ editing program with advanced resizing algorithms but that is a specialist topic (a few relevant links have been included in the reference section for those readers who possess an unquenchable curiosity).

Another less common contributor to image degradation can be the failure to lock the image ratio before resizing. Always lock the width to height ratio to the original before changing the size.

Compressing images can also affect their quality. Avoid compression wherever possible and use a format that has loss-less compression (PNG or GIF).

RESOURCE LINKS

Reference:

1) Link to a tutorial on Vista’s Snipping Tool: About >> Snipping Tool

2) Link to an introductory article comparing Bitmap to Vector graphics: About >> Two Types Of Graphics Software

3) Link to an article on Bitmap resizing and image quality:  About >> Bitmap Image Editing and Software

4) Link to an article comparing image formats and discussing loss of quality when saving images: GIF, JPEG or PNG For Web Images?

5) Link to a commercial site with a demo of bicubic resampling: Photoshop Support >> Bicubic Sharper

6) Link to an article on re-sampling techniques (interpolation): Image interpolation

Software:

1) Link to a commercial screen capture program: Techsmith Corporation >> SnagIt

2) Link to a free image editing program by French developer Antonio Da Cruz : Photofiltre

3) Link to a free image editing program by Bosnian developer Irfan Skiljan: IrfanView

4) Free virtual pixel ruler: Pixel Ruler

5) Link to a suite of freeware/low cost image management programs: FastStone >> PhotoResizer, Capture, ImageViewer

Filed by brian_z at 1:22 am under Contributors
Comments Off on Introduction To Graphics

DRAFT

OBJECTIVE

 The objective of this tutorial is to demonstrate how to use Microsoft Paint to capture screen images suitable for insertion into Users’ Knowledge Base (UKB) posts.

INTRODUCTION

Paint is a simple drawing and image editing tool that is generic to all versions of Microsoft Windows. It can be used to capture, and edit, screen images for use in UKB posts. The program can be opened from the operating system Start > All Programs > Accessories path. The program is limited in features but ‘professional’ level publishing skills are not essential for publishing to the UKB. Content is considered more important than the format! It is recommended for occasional authors, especially if a post only contains a few images, or for those who prefer not to have to buy screen capture software.

For additional information on Paint refer to: Paint (Software) from Wikipedia

Paint supports BMP, GIF, TIFF and PNG file-types. For a comparison of the suitability of each type, for web  publishing, refer to: GIFF, JPEG or PNG

SPECIFICATIONS

This tutorial was written using Microsoft XPHome, Word 2002 and Paint V5.1.

CAPTURING IMAGES

Preparation

When Paint is opened the canvas (the white square in the Editing Window) will be the size of the last image that was used before the program was closed. The canvas needs to be smaller than the image pasted into the Editing Window or the image, when saved, will include the excess white space. As a time saver the default canvas size can be reset before each session.

Note: a small canvas will auto-size to a larger image but not vice-versa.

To set the canvas size:

1) Open Paint and hover the mouse pointer over the bottom right corner of the canvas until a moving pointer appears.

Figure 1

2) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the moving pointer to resize the canvas to a very small area.

Figure 2

3) Close paint and click on No when asked to Save changes to untitled?

Figure 3

4) Open Paint again and the canvas will now be small (this will also be the default size for new canvasses for the session).

Sizing screen-shots:

Once an image is captured it will lose clarity if it is resized. Since the images are going to be inserted into a standard web-page, minus the width of the sidebar, (the width at the top of a UKB page is approximately equivalent to a letter size document in a word processor) it is better to keep them to less than around 6 inches, or 600 pixels (authors will need to experiment with this as pixelation varies from machine to machine). This rules out any chance of using clear full-size screen-shots in a standard post. One way to get around this is to alter the story line to avoid having to use full screen-shots. Another is to minimize and/or resize the window when taking large screen shots.

Note: this alters the proportion of the contents of the window so using this method is always a compromise between clarity and a faithful reproduction of what the user will see on their screen when they follow the instructions.

At other times, there is just no way around it and the show must go on, ‘grainy’ image or not. However, since the details contained in an image are often critical to UKB posts, full screen shots can be attached without resizing, provided they are not included in the first page (images that are larger than the available space will run off the page and overwrite the UKB sidebar if they are inserted at the top of the post). This makes for very large images, which will not view correctly in all web modes, but readers can easily find ways to view the full image and see the detail.

Note: As a UKB ‘page’ is scrolled downwards, the sidebar moves off the screen and the width available for publishing increases, so larger images can be inserted into a post after the first page.  This is not the case for all web views e.g. when reading RSS feeds in I.E. v7 the sidebar is a permanent fixture, and it does not scroll off the page, which makes for a different page width in the reader compared to the ‘online’ view (in this case, images are trimmed, from the right, to fit into the available space.

A handy trick for sizing the images before capture is to open them in a second window, over the top of a Word document in Print Layout, and use the ruler in Word to align the image to the width of the document ( as a rule of thumb the image needs to be able to fit into a Word page without resizing).

To estimate image size:

• 1) Open a Word document in Print Layout.
• 2) Open Paint (it will open on top of the Word document).
• 3) Minimize Paint and use the mouse to drag the borders of the Paint window to the required size (as far as possible try to keep the width to height ratio constant).
• 4) Position the mouse pointer in the Title bar and click and hold the left button to drag the Paint window and align it over the center of the Word doc to ‘measure’ the size of the image.

 Figure 4

Note: This image is ‘grainy’ because it has been resized from 1280 x 944 pixels to 618 x 480 pixels to fit onto the ‘page’.

5) When the image has been correctly sized, press and hold down Alt then press the PrintScreen key on the keyboard (a copy of the current, or topmost, window will be placed on the Clipboard).

Note: a screen-shot can be taken by pressing PrintScreen alone.

The captured image can be pasted into Paint by selecting Edit > Paste from the menu bar and then saved to the local disc for later use.

Figure 5

 Note: The captured image can also be pasted from the Clipboard straight into Word, or an editor (depending on the program used) if image editing is not required, or a backup is not going to be kept.

As work progresses, the underlying Word view, and the window to be captured, can be toggled back to the ‘top’ by clicking on the Word icon in the desktop Taskbar, followed by the program icon.

Figure 6

 

EDITING IMAGES

Paint can be used for basic image editing.

Using the select tool

Any section of a screen-shot can be cut from the image, using the Select tool. As an example, the Paint window, in Figure 4  above, will be isolated from the screen-shot and saved for insertion into a post.

To copy and save a window contained in an image:

Note: This is a nominal exercise to demonstrate some core procedures. In practice, a window can be copied  by using Alt > PrtScn.

• 1) Use the scroll arrows to position the required part of the image in the middle of the Editing Window.
• 2) Pick the Select tool from the Toolbox.

Figure 7

 2) Position the select tool cursor cross over the top left hand corner of the required area and drag the cursor to surround it with the ‘cut-out’ marker.

Figure 8

Note: It is difficult to position the ‘cut-out’ markers precisely over the image, and copy it, without some over-cut on the edges. A good trick is to drag the window over top of a blank Word document before taking the screen-shot, as the background to the ‘cut-out’ will be white. If the background is white, there is no need to be precise with the ‘cut-out’ shape as the white over-cut will blend into the post background.

 3) Right click inside the marked area and select Copy from the context menu that  opens.

Figure 9

4) Select File > New from the menu-bar to open a new canvas.

Figure 10

5) Click on No when asked to Save changes to untitled? ( a new Editing Window will open).

Figure 11

6) Right click inside the blank canvas and pick Paste from the context menu (the copy of the cut-out area will be pasted onto the blank canvas). 

Figure 12

7) Go to Save As from the File menu to save the copied image (the Save As browser window will open).

Figure 13

8) Select the folder to Save in and the Save as type, enter a title into File name and click on Save.

Figure 15

After the image has been saved it can be inserted into a post e.g. the image below is the window that was ‘cut-out’ and saved as a copy in the example above. Notice that when an image, with white over-cut edges, is inserted into a post the white cant be seen.

Figure 16

Note: Once again, if the image is not going to be backed up the copy of the cut-out can be pasted into an editor and Paint, or the current window, can be closed without saving.

The Select tool can also be used to ‘clip’ any part of a window e.g. toolbars, menus etc. This is a more difficult exercise, than copying a complete window, since in most cases the objects in question will be surrounded by a variety of shapes and colors so the captured images need to be trimmed with precision.

To copy a specific section of a window:

1) Capture a full-size screen-shot and paste it into Paint (if the required area of the screen is less than 6 inches sizing is not an issue).

Figure 17

2) Use the Select tool to position the cut-out marker as close as possible to the edge of the required section.

Note: If the background color of the cut-out is white it will not view well online, where the background is also white, without a border. There are two ways to work around this. Either err on the side of over-cutting to ensure that the borders, if any, are captured, or under-cut the image and add borders to it in Word. If the background color of the cut-out is not white, err on the side of undercutting as borders are not essential for colored images.

Figure 18

3) Copy and paste the cut-out onto a new canvas and save it to disc or, alternatively, paste it into an editor.

Figure 19

Clipping screen-shots, using Paint, doesn’t produce images with the precision of specialist screen capture software but the quality is still reasonable.

Figure 20

Some minor editing glitches, like the over-cut borders in Figure 20, can be worked around using a combination of Word and Paint.

Cropping images in Word

Images, cut from Paint, can be trimmed in Word.

To crop the edges of an image:

• 1) After pasting the cut-out into Paint, paste a second copy into Word.
• 2) Right click on the image, in Word, and use the context menu to pick Format Picture (the Format Picture window will open).
• 3) Click on the Picture tab and use the scroll arrows, or type into the input boxes, to set the Crop measurements. Then click on OK.

Note: the default when scrolling is 0.01 inches. Finer cropping can be achieved by typing into the input boxes and using two decimal places (the settings shown in Figure 21 were used, in this example, to clean-up Figure 20).

Figure 21

The nominated amount will be cropped off each side of the image.

Figure 22

Note: Trial and error is sometimes needed to achieve the desired result. If necessary use Edit > Undo from the menu-bar to restore the image and repeat the exercise using different settings.

4) When a satisfactory outcome has been achieved, capture a screen-shot of the Word doc that contains the edited image and paste it into Paint for editing.

Note: The original version, held in Paint until a successful edit has been completed,  can be dumped at this stage.

Figure 23

Note: the image can be over-cut because it now has a white background.

Although there is some loss of quality, due to the number of times the image has been copied between mediums, it still does the job.

Figure 24

 

Adding borders to images in Word

Borders can also be added to images that are edited in Word

To add borders to an image:

• 1) After pasting the cut-out into Paint, paste a second copy into Word.
• 2) Click on the image to select it then use Format > Borders and Shading, from the menu bar, to open the Borders window (Borders and Shading is also accessible from a right click context menu).
• 3) Click on the Borders tab.
• 4) Set the line Style, Color and Width, then click on Box to apply the settings to all sides of the image (they can also be applied individually using the icons in the Preview pane, or by clicking on the Preview image side by side).
• 5) Click on OK (the selected borders will be inserted around the image).

Figure 25

6) Use Paint to capture, cut-out and save the image.

EXAMPLE

Figures 26 – 28 are examples of capturing an AmiBroker chart image by:

1) Sizing the program over Word.

Note: in this example the window was over-sized relative to the Word page because it is the chart that the window contains that is of interest.

• 2) Pasting a screen-shot into Paint.
• 3) Cutting and pasting a segment of the screen-shot into Word.
• 4) Adding borders in Word.
• 5) Pasting a screen-shot of Word, containing the edited image, back into Paint.
• 6) Cutting and saving the image in Paint for insertion into this post.

Figure 26

Figure 27

Figure 28

 

The final image isn’t too bad at all!

 Additional editing features

Text and arrows etc can be added to images to clarify and highlight features.

To add a text box to a figure:

1) Click on the Text icon in the Toolbox.

Figure 29

2) Position the cursor cross in the image, where the text is going to be inserted, and hold down the left mouse button while dragging it to form a box of the required shape and size.

Figure 30

3) Type text into the box.

Figure 31

4) Right click inside the text box and pick Text Toolbar from the context menu that opens.

Figure 32

5) Text in the box can be formatted using the floating toolbar that opens.

Figure 33

Additional editing tools e.g. eraser, pencil, paintbrush etc can be used in a similar way.

Figure 34

For additional information on image editing refer to the Paint help manual.

Capturing menu bar dropdowns

Some examples need the menu bar dropdown to be visible in the window. If Alt + PctSrn is used the dropdown will close as soon as Alt is pushed. One way around this is to position the mouse pointer over the menu (or a command in the menu) and hold the left mouse button down while pushing Alt + PrtScn at the same time (Figure 35 was ‘taken’ use this method).

Figure 35

VISTA VERSION 

A new version of Paint, V6, has been included with the release of Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system. The features in V6 are almost identical to the previous version, except for the addition of image cropping.

To crop images in Vista’s Paint:

1) Use the Select tool to mark the cut-out area.

Figure 31

2) Select Crop from the Image menu box.

The area outside the marked section will be cropped from the picture.

3) Save the image to the local disc for future use or copy paste in straight into an editor.

Note: The crop feature can not trim the edges of images. Images with colored over-cut on the edges will still need to be pasted into Word for trimming.

To copy an image from Paint for pasting to Word, or an editor:

• 1) Open the image in Paint using the File > Open command on the menu bar.
• 2) Pick Select All from the Edit menu and then select Copy from the same menu (the Copy command in the Edit menu list will turn from gray to black when the image is selected).

A copy of the image will be placed on the clipboard for pasting into another program in the normal way.

• _{version 1 – Aug9/2007 – by brian_z – written using Windows Live Writer beta 2 – SnagIt and Paint used for screen captures – all images saved in PNG format}
• _{version 2 – Aug16/2007 – by brian_z – minor corrections – added a section on additional editing features}
• _{version 3 – Aug17/2007 – by brian_z – added comments to Sizing Screenshots}

Filed by brian_z at 1:09 am under Contributors
Comments Off on Capturing Images Using Microsoft Paint (v3)

TO BE COMPLETED AT A FUTURE DATE.

In the short term here’s the patch!

The published date, for a post, is listed in several places. It is used for everything by default – searches, post order, RSS feedstream etc. AmiBroker customized a Page Order property to allow Table Of Contents sorting. It is mainly used where an Author is writing a ‘series’ of posts on a specialist topic e.g. I/O, Automated Trading. The Author is ‘assigned’ ownership of the category so they can present their posts so that visitors read them ‘like a book’.

Page Order can be set from the WordPress Admin Center. Go to Manage and open the relevant post(s). Change the Page Order setting from the default (zero) to any whole integer between – 2,147,483,648 and + 2,147,483,648  to position the post in order, relevant to other posts in the category or sub-category (1,2,3,4,5, etc is as good as anything since it aligns to the default bulleted numbers assigned to the TOC view).

1) Change the sort number in the Page Order properties box.

Note: This is the Page Order setting for Contributors >> UKB Post Formats, which makes it the second post in the Contributors category.

2) Save the post to lock in the changes

 

Note: There’s no need to worry about editor conflict. Any post property can be reset without conflict, irrespective of what editor was used to publish the post (posts that are written in WLW can have the Page Order reset from the WP Admin Center without problems)

 Posts can also be reordered by ‘manually’ changing the published date but!!!!!!

note: changing publish date will change the folder that the post is stored in – if it moves the post to a new month ??? – server folders are on a (monthly) date basis -(will affect links to it that exist in other posts)

need to address the issue of reporting broken links.

Filed by brian_z at 7:27 am under Using WordPress
Comments Off on Ordering Posts

Filed by brian_z at 5:54 am under Contributors
Comments Off on UKB Post Formats (v2)

DRAFT

OBJECTIVE.

This is the first in a series of introductory articles intended to help new contributors become familiar with using WordPress for publishing to the Users’ Knowledge Base (UKB). It will demonstrate the quickest method to post, with a minimum of fuss, for busy people who ‘are on the go’ and don’t want to have to spend too much time ‘learning’ the software. It is also recommended for occasional Authors. Later articles in the series will provide more detail on basic WordPress procedures for ‘involved’ contributors.

 THE ADMIN CENTER

Login To The Admin Center

To be able to write and publish in WordPress approved Authors need to login to the WordPress Administrative Center via the UKB homepage.

To login to the WordPress Administrative Center:

• 1) Obtain a Username and Password from support [at] amibroker.com
• 2) Click on Login, in the right hand sidebar of the UKB homepage, and enter your Username and Password into the Login Window,
• 3) Then click the Login button.
• 
• A successful Login will open the WordPress Administration Center with the Dashboard as the default view.
• For Authors there are four other panels, besides the Dashboard, available: Write, Manage, Comments and Profile .
•  

Initial Setup

On the first visit to the Administration Center there are some preliminary tasks to perform.

To complete the initial setup:

• 1) Click on Profile (the Profile Subpanel will open).
•  
• 2) Uncheck Use the visual editor when writing.
• 3) Change the password settings or any personal details as required.
• 4) Click on the Update Profile button.

A confirmation message box will appear to acknowledge that the Profile has been updated.

 

Users can now proceed with writing the post.

 WRITING POSTS

QuickPost Formatting

The recommended format for QuickPosts is to write a short summary, to lead the article, and attach a file containing the body of the post. The summary will comprise the post, as it appears in the Weblog, and should provide enough information to allow readers to decide if they want to open the attachment and read the contents. The summary will be inline when the UKB site is searched internally, or, when it is presented to external search engines e.g. Google. For this reason the summary should also include a list of keywords that communicate to readers, and search engines, the subject areas that the post covers.

The attachment should be written in Portable Document Format (PDF), as the first choice, to allow as many readers as possible access to the files. Alternatively a Microsoft word processing program can be used.

For additional information on QuickPost attachments refer to: UKB >> PDF Attachment or UKB >> Word Attachment 

Writing A Post Summary

After updating Your Profile and Personal Options click on Write to open the Write Panel, with the Code Editor as the default.

The Editing Window, which occupies the major portion of the screen space, functions like a simple word processor. The body of the post can be written directly into the Code Editor using plain text.

 To write the ‘body’ of a QuickPost:

1) Start by entering the Title (avoid using the same Title twice as that can cause problems).

Note: The Title can contain any words or phrases. Commas, apostrophes, quotes, hyphens, dashes, and other typical symbols can be used. (WordPress will retain symbols in post titles but remove them from links used within the program).

• 2) Type a summary of the contents of the attachment(s) into the Editing Window.
• 3) Add a list of the Keywords that best categorize the contents of the attachment.

Note: The UKB default format does not accept highlighting however the keywords can be highlighted using capital letters and/or colored fonts.

4) Click on Save and Continue Editing.

 

 ATTACHING FILES

After the body of the post has been completed file(s) can be attached.

To attach files to a post:

• 1) Save the file to be attached, with a meaningful and unique name, on the local computer.
• 2) Scroll down the to Upload Sub-panel at the bottom of the Write panel and click on Browse.

 

• 3) Use the Browse window that opens to find the file required on the local computer.
• 4) Click on Upload (the local file will be uploaded to the UKB server and the file name will automatically be entered in the Title input box).

 

5) Position the cursor in the Editing Window, where the file is to be located, and click on Send to editor (a link to the file will be inserted, using the Title as the link text).

 

6) Click on Save and Continue Editing.

PUBLISHING POSTS

Before publishing the post, it needs to be assigned to a category.

To assign a post to a category:

1) Expand the Categories box by clicking on the cross in the top right hand corner (the categories box is in the top of the right hand side bar in the Write Panel).

2) Uncheck Uncategorized and check the required category, by clicking on the checkbox (Uncategorized is the default for all saved posts that are unassigned).

 Once a post has been assigned to a category it can be published by clicking on the Save button at the bottom of the Editing Window.

The post used as the example in this tutorial can be viewed at: UKB >> Quick Posting Example – Word Attachment

Deleting Published Posts

When a post is deleted any files that were in the local library will remain on the server in the common library. It is recommended to delete library files from the server before deleting a post, unless the author has a future use for them.

Uploaded files can be deleted from the Browse Sub-panel , but only by the owner.

To delete uploaded images:

• 1) Go to the Upload > Browse Sub-panel,
• 2) Click on the file icon,
• 3) Click on the Edit link that is appended to the file name in the Insert sub-panel,
• 4) Click on the Delete File button at the bottom of the Browse sub-panel.

 

 Note: When the mouse pointer is hovered over the button it turns red to warn the user of the consequences of clicking on the button and a confirmation message box will open with a warning.

 CONCLUSION

That ends this tutorial on a shortcut method of posting to the UKB.  It does not take users to full competence on WordPress or deal with the exceptions that can be encountered when using the ‘program’.

For a more complete explanation of WordPress publishing procedures refer to: UKB >> Introduction To The Admin Center

check – replace files by delete and upload – only if in same month?

add link to viewing attachments

Filed by brian_z at 10:26 am under Using WordPress
Comments Off on Quick Posting

TO BE COMPLETED AT A LATER DATE

Filed by brian_z at 12:25 pm under Using WordPress
Comments Off on Quick Posting Example – PDF Attachment

I have been asked if it is possible to enter < > = characters in the code editor.
Of course it is possible. See this example:

variable = Close <= 100;

See the other, longer code:

function MarketFacilitationIndex()
{
return ( High – Low )/Volume;
}

mfac = MarketFacilitationIndex();
rm = ROC( mfac, 1 );
rv = ROC( Volume, 1 );

Color = IIf( rm > 0 AND rv > 0, colorGreen,
IIf( rm < 0 AND rv < 0, colorBlue, IIf( rm > 0 AND rv < 0, colorGrey40, IIf( rm < 0 AND rv > 0, colorRed, colorLightGrey ) ) ) );

Plot( mfac, _DEFAULT_NAME(), Color, ParamStyle(“Style”, styleHistogram | styleThick, maskHistogram ) );

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 10:43 am under Using WordPress
Comments Off on Code editor special characters demo

This post has been written as an example of a ‘quick and easy’ way for Authors to contribute to the Users’ Knowlege Base. It also provides guidelines for ‘Word’ content, to ensure that attached ‘Word’ documents are accessible by the greatest possible number of users.

The attached file is a ‘Microsoft Word 2002’ document. It contains a ‘quickfire’ explanation of how to write articles in ‘Word’.

KEYWORDS: insert images, tables and hyperlinks, add captions, copy AFL formulas from AmiBroker and copy spreadsheet ‘tables’ into Word. Convert tables to objects in Word.

ATTACHED FILE: example-attachment-word.doc

For a complete explanation on how to post using ‘WordPress’ refer to:Introduction To The Admin Center

Filed by brian_z at 9:38 am under Using WordPress
Comments Off on Quick Posting Example – Word Attachment