Saturday, 5 November 2011

"Web Works 2"

Welcome again! You will see that we now have 2 comments, both anonymous, on the first posting. How do you see that? If you scroll down to the end of the first post below, you'll find the author of the post and the comment section. Do you see where it says
"2 comments"? Good. Now move your mouse so that your cursor is over that spot and voila, you see your cursor change into an indicator of a hand with the index finger pointing and the text has turned blue and become underlined. That's because it's a link to the comments page. All you have to do is click and you can read the comments.

A couple of site users reported having difficulty posting comments this week. Our web designer is helping us figure out what the issue is and we hope to be able to offer you a solution soon. In the meantime, keep reading and see what others are saying about our redesigned website.

Today I also wanted to mention some of the features of our home page: the first page that opens when you visit the site.

We hope you're enjoying the photo gallery slideshow on the home page. Did you discover that if you move your cursor over the photos as they come up, a caption drops down to let you know something about the photo? Try it - it's fun! Just a note about privacy: we're not going to use names with photos of people on our website, with the exception of the ministers. We're trying our very best not to post photos of anyone who said "No" on the photo release form. If we make a mistake and you are in a photo that's posted, please let Mary Kivell, Dorothy Franklin or the office know and we will immediately remove the photo. It's sometimes hard to check perfectly on group shots where peoples' faces are small.

Another feature of the home page is the sidebar of tab links to various pages of the site. This is your navigation tool for getting to the content of the site. As you move your cursor over the sidebar list, an arrow appears beside the tab you are on and that highlights the heading you are in a position to click. Click, and you go to the indicated page. You'll see the links repeated on each page of the site, so navigating to another page is always only one click away.

If you want to check a meeting date or time you can click the event calendar symbol beside the home page news headline points, OR, use the sidebar tab. The calendar symbol quick link is only available on the home page.

Important reports are posted as links in the home page news section, for example, the masonry report on the exterior brick work repairs needed and the JNAC report. Again, you'll see the blue colour indicating a link, so all you have to do is click on the link and you can view the report. The linked files also allow you to print or save a copy if you wish to do so.

I think that covers the important home page features, so I hope you'll use the features and continue to let us know how you find the website to use. I am covering some basic website usage information in these first posts to bring any novice website users up to speed - so those of you already web savvy, please bear with us.

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Welcome to "Web Works"

Welcome to our new Silver Spire blog. The purpose of the first set of posts is to introduce you to various features of our new website, to answer your questions about the website, and to receive your feedback and comments about the redesigned site.

First of all, what is a blog? The word is a formation from the words "web" and "log", thus 'blog'. As with any form of log, it is a series of entries or "postings", (abbreviated as "posts") over time. This log gets "published" to the world wide web.

The neat thing about blogs is that any reader can comment on the posts. I'm hoping that one of you will post a comment soon so that all the readers can click on the comment to see how that feature works.

Just remember that these posts and the comments do go to the world wide web, which means that anyone can read them. So, a word of caution, be careful how much personal information you provide. This notice is given because of privacy concerns.

Your name can be used to identify your comment, or you can choose to enter your post anonymously. It is common practice on some blogs and social media sites to use pseudonyms. These web names functions rather like CB 'handles', they become a name you are know by on the web. For example, you might choose to call yourself "SilverSpire Member 101".

Well, that's it for this morning. Happy commenting!