eWriting User Guide

December, 2005

This guide was written for eWriting Joomla! Component. The current version December, 2005 is eWriting 1.2.1

The guide is design to get you working with eWriting quickly, with the minimum of fuss. It is highly recommended that you explore the features of eWriting after working through this guide.

A Joomla! Component to Admin Stories and Fanfictions

eWriting User Guide

1. TO THE STARTING BLOCKS

2. CREATING A STORY

2.1 Story data

2.2 Story properties

2.3 Story images

2.4 Story chapters

2.5 Saving the story

2.6 Your stories

2.7 Summary

3. MAKING A STORY

3.1 Editing a story

3.2 Chapter creaton and editing

4. READING A STORY

5. REVIEWING A STORY

6. MY FAVOURITE STORIES AND AUTHOR

7. END NOTE

User Guide

1. To the starting blocks

So you want to start writing eh? Well just before we do lets have a quick run down of what eWriting enables us to do.

We’ll assume that your friendly administrator has:
· Setup eWriting and configured using the fantastic Administrator Guide.
· Set up a top level menu item that links directly to eWriting.
· Cunningly called the menu item ‘eWriting’.

What you will be able to do at the end of this guide is:
1. Create a story.
2. Add some chapters.
3. Edit it the story.
4. Finally the proof – critics and their reviews.

Ok that pretty good and makes sense. Now we can also build a guild of authors and reviewers who can manage their:
· favourite authors
· favourite stories

To start, click eWriting in the menu and you could start with something like this:

2. Creating a story

Simply click Add Story. This will show a long form covering all aspects of the story. This has been broken down into four parts

2.1 Story Data

The first part of the screen asks ‘What are the basic details of this new story?’

1. Save or Cancel the new story 2. Different sections: Data, Properties*, Images, Chapters. 3. The grand epic story’s name. 4. A brief story synopsis. 5. The category the story belongs. There must be one category available for eWriting to work. 6. Is the story done?

If the forum component, JoomlaBoard, has been integrated, you can also specify which forum the story should provide a link to.

2.2 Story Properties

The second part sets up a story’s properties (1). This section will only be shown if your website administrator has set them. The administrator guide shows how this is done.

1. Genre & Language - two property types that have been created by the administrator. For example, Genre is a multiple select (hold down Control/Command key) and click the options you want such as ‘Horror’ + ‘Romance’.

2.3 Story Images

The third part deals with images – essentially the cover of your book. Managing images is similar to Joomla! Simply:

1. Add Images to the list (2) will show a list of image source options where you can a) recycle existing Joomla! images, b) set up your own story image gallery, or c) link to an image from another website (URL). See diagram below. 2. Select the appropriate image. 3. Set the image properties of the image selected in (2) 4. Confirm the properties:

2.4 Story Chapters

The last part deals with the story’s chapters. Here we will be adding the first chapter only.

1. Start with the basic summary details of name, number and synopsis. Getting your content in is the next issue. Select either round radio button to: 2. Upload File – a chapter that you have prepared earlier; or 3. Use Editor to start writing immediately 4. The online word processor will become live on selecting the ‘Use Editor’ option. Uploading files by default can only be in text or HTML format. Your administrator can change this.

2.5 Saving the Story

An important last step: don’t forget to save! The save button is back at the top of the screen.

You have just created an eWriting Story. You then will be return to the Your Stories section.

2.6 Your Stories

The Your Stories section allows you to manage your own stories as well as your favourite authors and stories all in one spot.

1. Your Stories - a list of stories authored by yourself. 2. Favourite Stories - a library of stories from other authors. 3. Favourite Authors – a list of your favourite authors. 4. Add another story. 5. Edit the story and Add another chapter 6. A story’s description.

2.7 Summary

We have just covered the basics of the story data, properties*, images and chapters.

Return to the top of the screen, just below the save and cancel buttons are some tabs. Funnily enough these are exactly the same as our 4 parts. These allow us to edit the story and add more chapters –which we will cover in the next section.

* Will be visible if only the administrator has created these in the eWriting control panel.

3. Making a story

Return to the main eWriting page. Having saved a story, you might have something similar to:

1. Click the Your Controls button to return to the “Your Stories” section. This will take you to your list of stories, ready for editing.

3.1 Editing a story

On the next screen you will find your story list and an edit button. This will simply return you to the panels described in ‘Creating a Story’.

Make the your changes and press Save. Note Saving relates to all changes made in all of the tabs. So you don’t have to press save for each tab.

3.2 Chapter creation and editing

We have the story loaded. Now lets add some more chapters & finish it. Simply select and edit your story the same way as above.

1. Select the Chapter tab 2. If you wish to edit a specific chapter, click the edit button and that chapter will load for editing. 3. Create a new chapter by entering the details and the chapter itself. When your story is finished, click the first tab Data (1) and tick the Completed check box. Don’t forget to save!

4. Reading a story

Ok, we now have a story written. Time to read it.
1. Click the eWriting menu
2. The eWriting main page show a list of categories.
3. Open the appropriate category
4. Find the story & open it
The first two steps: click the listed category to see what stories are available.

1. Categories Section 2. A category called “Tales of Brothers Grim” (clicked) 3. The Stories within this category. Click to view the story.

This will provide you with a pop-up window for you to read the story:

1. Add this story to My Favourites. 2. Add this author to My Favourites. 3. Book data – name and author. 4. Book rating system. 5. Chapter summary. 6. Chapter selection. 7. Read & post reviews. Clicking this will take to a new screen (see next section) 8. Next Chapter. Note: There are administrator options to force the story to appear in within the website theme.

5. Reviewing a story

In the previous ‘Reading a story’ section, there was a review link available (label 7 in the previous diagram). Selecting this takes into the review screen where we can add our own review and read any other review. Only your administrator can delete reviews.

1. Navigation 2. Enter your review here 3. Confirm your review 4. The list of reviews.

6. My Favourite Stories and Author

In the previous ‘Reading a story’ section, the story screen had two buttons My Favourite Stories and My Favourite Authors. Click these buttons will add them to your own ‘favourites’ list. You can manage these lists in the Your Controls, described in the first section.

1. My Stories: Your own stories 2. My Favourite Stories: quick access to stories 3. My Favourite Authors: track the body of work by particular authors.

7. End Note

This is free software and provides freedom of use and distribution. You might consider how you can contribute:
- Bug spotting & fixing
- Documentation
- Development
- Donation

Each one of these is a valuable contribution to the development of this component and to the general Open Source Software movement. Contact Aclaina at http://ewriting.com.ar/ to contribute today.