Navigator Editor Help

NOTE: if you can highlight text and click B to make it bold, your editor is slightly different.
Please view the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) instructions.

Introduction: How Navigator works | Using the Navigator Editor
Adding Pages | Building Pages | Page Block Types | Menus
Publishing Pages | Hiding Pages | Ideas for building pages

Introduction: How Navigator CMS works

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This Navigator CMS Editor control panel stores information and images in a database. Your website pages "call" the information from the database and display it on the web page.

Navigator Pro websites are built using:

1. Sections (Tabs) Sections appear as a horizontal menu just above the content area and below the window with Help buttons. A section of the website is a major division of the website with pages of information under it. Each section has its own list of pages.
   
   Add sections by clicking the Add Section button just below the row of section links. A new section will be added at the right side of the row. Edit a section by clicking the section link. Click the left or right arrows to change the order in which sections appear
   
   
2. Pages in Sections. The list of pages under each section on your public website appears to web visitors as links in the dropdowns in the horizontal menu, if your design uses dropdowns, and in the page menu if you use one. In the Navigator CMS Editor, pages appear in a menu of links on the left side of the screen.
   
   Add pages by clicking Add Page.

To edit a page, first click the section in which the page appears, then click the page link in the left menu.

Navigator pages are built with building blocks called Page Blocks. When you create a page, a default link appears in the left menu, and a form appears in the content area. The form lets you edit important parts of your page. It contains information about the link that appears in the menu, the page heading, and whether the page is visible to the public (Published) or hidden for editing (Unpublished). This first Page Block is the Parent Block. When you begin to build your page by adding Page Blocks, those Page Blocks are "children" of the Parent Page Block. If you delete a page, the Parent block is deleted along with all its child blocks.

Depending on what kind of Page Block you choose, you can upload photos, set them to align left or right, make text wraps around them, or center the image so text sits below it. You can give the image a caption. You can enter header and subheader copy, and enter either or both of the text types. You can create links to web pages, email links, and bulleted and numbered lists. There's also an html page block for entering html code if it's necessary for some special display or feature. See the HTML section of this help file for more information. If you don't enter any information in a field, the public web page doesn't display anything, and doesn't leave space for it.

This means you can use Page Blocks for special formatting, for instance if you wanted a subheading before a photo. An Image or Text-Image block does not include a subheading. In this case, you would add a Page Block and choose the block type of Text. Add a heading and subheading, leaving the Text 1 and Text 2 fields blank. Save your changes. Now add another Page Block, this time of type Image or Text-Image. Upload an image and place it to your satisfaction, enter text if desired, and Save Changes.

Whenever you edit a page block, be sure to click the Save Changes button to save your changes. You must save changes in the block you are working on. Each Page Block has its own Save Changes button.

Using the Navigator CMS Editor

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There are three possible states of a page or a section: Published, Published but hidden (no link text) and Unpublished (the U indicates an unpublished page or section, P is published). The first page of the first section is the page visitors see as the "home" page. The first section is the leftmost section in the horizontal menu; the first page is the topmost page in the menu at left.You can rearrange items in the Section menu by clicking the left or right arrows. You may rearrange Page menus with the up and down arrows. In the Editor, the page menus appear on the left as links with up and down arrows associated with them. In the public site, each page link becomes a link in the dropdown menu. You may rearrange Page Blocks in the page by using the up and down arrows in the list of Page Blocks at the top of the page, or by clicking the Move Up or Move Down arrows in the Page Blocks themselves.

At the top of the form you will see "Edit Page Info" followed by a button labeled Add Page and a button labeled Preview Page.

Edit Page Info by typing or pasting information into the form fields. Be sure to use the Clean Word Code link if you are pasting from Microsoft Word, to "clean out" the XML code that Microsoft Word contains. Click the Add Page button to create a new page. It will be created with a link to it in the menu. Click the Preview button to preview the content on the page before making it public. The preview opens in a separate window; close it to return to the editor. The preview page gives you a view of the actual web page, even if you have not published it. This lets you know if your picture is the right size or in the right place, lets you see if your text needs editing, or indicates whether you might need a heading or subheading to make your information clearer. Unpublish a page by clicking the P button. Click the P to unpublish. The P will change to a U. Click the U to publish; the U will change to a P.

Adding Pages

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Add a page by clicking the Add Page button at the top of the editor.

Building Pages

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Build pages by adding or inserting Page Blocks. The Add Page Block button is located at the bottom of the Parent Page Block at the top of the page. Use this to add your first block. After that, you may insert a block below any block, using the Insert Block button. Page Blocks are like building blocks stacked one on another. You may change the order of the blocks in the stack by using the up and down arrows.

Build the page using Page Blocks as building blocks. The first Page Block is the Parent Page Block.Beneath each Page Block you have added, there is a button labeled Insert Page Block. This will insert a page block immediately below. If you have a page with several blocks in it, and you want to insert a block in the middle, navigate to the block just above where you want your block to be, and click Insert Page Block.

New page blocks are added at the bottom of the page or in the place you insert them, and a link to the block is automatically created at the top of the page. This is handy when you have created several page blocks. To edit a page block, click the link to it and you are taken down the page directly to that page block. Choose different block types for different kinds of formatting and content options. You may rearrange the display order of page blocks by clicking the Up or Down arrows.

Page Block Types

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Because the first Page Block includes the menu link and performs other "duties," not all Page Block types are available in the first Page Block, or may display slightly differently.

Menus

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The list of pages automatically shows up on the left as a clickable menu as pages are created. Click the page link to edit that page. You may change the order of links in the menu with the up and down arrows, or delete them with the x button. Caution: when you delete a link, it deletes the page and all its page blocks.

Publishing Pages

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By default, pages and sections are unpublished, and not visible to the public. This allows you to edit them before publishing them. To get them to show to visitors, click the P button at the top of the page or in the left menu. You may publish or unpublish individual blocks. This is useful if you have an annual event. You can publish the block or blocks containing information about that event. When the event is past, unpublish just those blocks, and the rest of the page remains published. Each time you make a change to a page block, you must click the Save Changes button in that block in order to save the changes.

Hiding Pages

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There are two kinds of hidden pages. One is an un-published page, which is not visible to the public. The second is a page with no link text. A page with no link text may be published by clicking the red P button, but no menu item will display on the public website. This allows you to create many pages, such as FAQ pages, privacy policy, etc, without cluttering the visible menu with many links.

Creating pages like this and linking to them is simple:

1. Create the page as usual, with link text so it shows in the menu.
2. Publish it by checking the red P button.
3. Create a Crosslink block, and choose the published page, or view the published page on the public website and copy its address.

An alternative to this, using an HTML link block or a link created with html inside a paragraph:

1. Create the page as usual, with link text so it shows in the menu.
2. Publish it by checking the red P button.
3. Navigate to the page on the public website, and copy the address from the address bar.
4. Return to the editor and create an HTML link block (or create a link in a paragraph using HTML) anywhere in a page, pasting the address you just copied in the url area of the link.
5. In the Editor, Choose the page you just linked to, and delete the link text. The left menu will be updated, and the page link will now say (no link text).
6. Click Save Changes and the page is now published, but with no visible link. It is only accessible by the link you created.

Ideas for building pages

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If you wish to show information about your board members,

1. Create a page called Board Members.
2. Add a Page Block and choose Text Image as the type.
3. Enter the board member's title in the heading.
4. Upload a photo of the first board member (keep all photos the same size, or at least the same width, for a clean look)
5. Enter the board member's name in the caption.
6. Enter text about the board member in the text area.
7. Add a Page Block and choose Email Link as the type.
8. Enter the board member's email address.
9. Continue to build the page with Text Image Item followed by an Email link block.
10. To change the order of board members on the page, you will need to move both the Text Image block and its associated Email Link block up or down.

If you wish to build a contact page,

1. Create a page called Contact Us
2. Add a heading and subheading if desired.
3. Either use the text available in the first page block, or add a page block for contact text.
4. Enter email addresses by creating Email Items or using HTML as referenced in the HTML Tips.

Experiment with combinations of page blocks to achieve the layout you want.