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First - Go ahead and browse and use the tool.

You can't really hurt anything. If you run into trouble it can be fixed.

This site is an interactive Web communication and publishing tool. You can quickly create Web pages and organize them in folders. Web pages can be described via HTML or via a much simpler method called Structured Text. You can also upload and share files such as Word documents or even images. Everything you do is on the Web and thus available for sharing to others via the Web. To learn more read on.

SUMMARY

Here is a summary of how the site works. Read further for more detail.

• The entire site is organized via folders.
• The folders may contain documents, files, events, new items or other folders. To add an item to a folder select it from the Add Item menu. If you do not see the green control area, you do not have permission to edit a folder or its contents.
• Every site item (such as folder, document or file) has a short name and a title. Short names should be lower case with no spaces and will be used in the URL path to the item. Titles are what is displayed when viewing the item.
• Documents essentially represent a web page. Documents contain text that is either, plain, HTML or a simple way to display nice looking text called Structured Text
• Files allow you to upload to a folder any file from your computer. Some files can be directly displayed - such as images or RTF text files. Others such as Word files are dependent on your Web browser. A user may always download the file to view it.

Topics

Centerpoint Pilot Web site

The initial use of the web site is for Staff and Coordinating Commiittee members to share calendar events and meeting agendas and minutes.

• Use the Calendar tab at the top of the page to see all calendar events. You can add an event (there or in any folder in the system that makes sense), and you can subscribe to the calendar for use with Mac, PC or PDA calendar tools.
• The Coordinating Committee folder is for members to store and organize documents or files. You can create nested folders as you see fit. You can create documents directly by selecting Document from the Add Item menu (see Structured Text for more information about formatting documents) or you can simply upload any file you wish to store in a folder by selecting File. A suggested organization is to have a folder for meetings by year such as Meetings 2003 and within have a folder for holding documents for each meeting such as November 11. The organization is up to you.
• The Staff folder is similarly for Staff members to store and organize documents and files in the same way. All Staff members are automatically Coordinating Committee members and can use the Coordinating Committee folder.

Folders & Documents

The site is entirely organized with folders. Folders can contain documents created directly on the site or uploaded files. Users can create their own folders and documents or uploaded files for storage and access on the site. Folders, documents or files have display titles and short names. The short names are used to describe the URL path to each item in the system.

Publishing

When a folder, document or file is created it is not visible to others on the system until published. Select the item's status menu (right side green menu) and select publish. If your user does not have publish rights, select submit. A user with review and publish rights will review and subsequently publish your document (this includes events and news items as well).

Navigation

Users can click links to navigate folders, documents and files that they have permission to see. Each folder, document or file has a short name. The Web URL path is the site name plus the path of short names to the folder or document being viewed. When creating folders or document use meaningful short names for a useful URL path.

Calendar Events

Events may be created in any folder the user has write permission to. Events are automatically organized into the calendar. Events can be created in any folder that the user has write permission to. For instance, it is suggested to store the event that identifies a meeting within the meeting folder holding documents for that meeting. Events must have a status of published in order to be seen by others. The calendar is a shared calendar that displays all published events. Any user can subscribe to the calendar for use by outside calendar tools using the Calendar tab at the top of the page. External tools include Mac OS X iCal or the Netscape browser calendar, or any calendar tool that uses the iCalendar or vCalendar webcal .ics standard.

News Items

News items are simple documents to display in the news box available on the front page and many others. New items can be created in any folder that the user has write permission to. A news item must have a status of published in order to be seen by others.

Users & Groups

A Staff group (staff) and Coordinating Committee group (cocom) were created to help control access to areas of the site. Each user can be assigned to a group to allow or restrict access to the site. If you do not have a login and wish one, please contact John, Cathy or Jason info on main support page

Other topics

Structured Text

A short example for using structured text in documents

The site is built with a free tool called Plone (see Centerpoint Pilot for more information). Further help and information about using Plone can be found in the link below.

General Help with Plone

Help for plone and links to the general plone.org