A Site Tour

The picture you are looking at now is the most complicated thing we have seen so far: it is a picture of the screen of an author (Gregg Howe... why, it's me!) working on an article.  To simplify things a bit, I will just describe the features and functions visible here on this screen shot.  To really know how simple it is, you just have to get a member folder and create an article yourself.  You can also cheat and read the article on authoring.

View and Action Tabs

At the top of the page you can see a number of tabs (View, Edit, etc).  These perform a  number of tasks you will need to do to get your article published.  The tabs sticking out the top are single functions that you simply click.  The ones below (actions, display, etc ) bring down menus that let you select from several options.

State

One of tabs says "State: private".  This indicates that the document (still being edited) can only be seen by the owner (you) or the site management (should they happen to look at it).  The other states of a document are:

-Public Draft - Anyone can see it if they know where it is, but it isn't indexed by the site
-Pending - Same as Public Draft but it is now been submitted for review
-Published - Everyone can see it AND it can be found by the site indexing tools

 Title

This will be the title of the article.

Description

This short description will appear in all the listings of the article when people search for it.

Body

This is the main text of the article.  A number of clever formatting tricks can be done really easily using the tool bar on the editor.

Links and Pictures

The "Article" format includes the ability to upload pictures from your computer and put them in a pre-defined format (so you don't have to have a designer's eye) OR you can use the editor to put pictures exactly where you want them with the editor.  Links to other parts of this site or other sites (as references, for example) can also be include as nicely, automatically formatted list at the bottom of your article.

1. Just browse around and read about Astro*Carto*Graphy
2. Join, but only use your new found powers to make comments in discussions or about the articles and blogs you read. OR
3. Join, and become rich and famous by helping others understand what you know.  Well, maybe just famous.  Actually, maybe just make some new friends!