Creating a Guide
From SubjectsPlus
If you're one of those "visual learner" types, check out the exciting video on the tour page (Creating a Guide).
Contents |
Creating the Guide Itself
To create a new subject guide, log in to SubjectsPlus, go to the "Guides" tab, and click on "Create New Guide" on the right hand side.
You will be presented with the following form:
Fill out the required fields, click "Create Guide," and you will see a blank canvas that you may now adorn with attractive little nuggets of information that we call "Pluslets." Note that the usual SubjectsPlus navigation area at the top of the page has disappeared. Do not be frightened: you can get it back by clicking the double arrow at the upper left.
When you click the "New Pluslet" button, you will see the Palette of Pluslets. These may be dragged into either of the outlined target areas below, either the main column or the sidebar.
Working with the Base Pluslet
In the next screenshot, I have dragged a "Subject Specialist" Pluslet into the sidebar. It doesn't look like much now, but this will display my picture and contact information in the live site. I've also dragged a "Base Pluslet" in the main column. Base Pluslets are simple instances of FCKeditor with which you may do anything that is legal in your state. I often use them to create lists of resources, in this case, resources relating to proteins.
Adding a Link to an Item in the SP Database
Now let's add some stuff to our new Base Pluslet. To add a link to a resource that you have already added to the SubjectsPlus database, click on the icon that looks like a marshmallow with a pea in the FCKeditor toolbar. This will open up a search screen from whence you can find and select your resource.
When you click "OK," a token will be added to your Pluslet. This will translate to a link in the live site.
Let's click "Save Changes" (this will save your work on ALL pluslets on the page), and then visit the live site:
Adding Other Content Types
You can also create links to types of content that are not part of your SubjectsPlus database.
In addition to the "marshmallow with pea" button for adding database records, you will also notice other pea-containing buttons. [Note: That's not a pea, Ron, it's a little plus sign.]
The "book with pea" button allows you to link to sets of catalog records. Clicking it will open a dialog box like this:
This box gives you a number of options. You can create a link based on a subject heading, a keyword search, or a call number. In this example I am using the LC subject heading "protein folding." Clicking "create link" makes a link appear at the bottom of the box, where you can check it for accuracy. If the link is doing what you want it to, click "ok" to insert a token.
This will appear in the live site as:
where the newly created link will point to:
Adding Images
Pluslets can also accommodate images. Let's add one to the Protein Pluslet.
To return to editing mode, click the little pencil at the top right of the Pluslet.
Now click the "insert / edit image" button in FCKeditor to open the Image Properties dialog box.
If you have the image that you want to insert on your computer, click the "Upload" tab, then browse to your file and click "Send to Server." You will now see a preview showing your image as it will relate to text in the Pluslet. From here, you may adjust parameters such as alignment and how much space will appear around the image. You will generally want to add some space around the image, because if you don't it will look stoopid.
This will appear live as:
Sometimes you will want to do something in a Pluslet that cannot be done without altering the HTML code behind it. You can view and alter the code by clicking on the "source" button.
We might, for instance, want to change the background color of a Pluslet to more closely match our webpage color scheme.
This would appear live as:
Working with Other Pluslets
Adding an RSS Feed
You can easily add a customized RSS feed to your SubjectsPlus guide using the RSS Pluslet. First, drag the RSS Pluslet into one of the target areas.
The most important part of adding a feed is getting the correct feed URL. Remember, you do not want the URL of a page where the feed might be displayed, but of the feed itself. You can test this by entering the URL into a browser. If you have a real feed URL, it will probably display something like this:
Once you have the correct feed URL, paste that into the Pluslet. You can also choose the number of items you want to display and whether or not you want to show descriptions or the source of the feed. Note that showing descriptions can make for a very big Pluslet.
This will appear live as:
