Quick Start Guide
Carry out the steps outlined below to practice basic activities on the Constitution Day site. You'll learn how to view pages, contribute comments, post attachments, and search for, edit, or add pages. You'll also practice adding labels to a page and inserting links either to other pages on the site or to external resources.
Visit "landing pages"
1. We have designed special pages called "landing pages" to serve as gateways into the major areas of the Constitution Day site. Use the navigation bar visible across the top of most site pages to view and move among these landing pages.
We have landing pages for:
- Educators
- Students
- Government and Military
- Community Leaders
Click the Help link in the navigation bar to return to our menu of Help resources.
Use your browser's Back button to return from a page that does not display the navigation bar.
View linked pages ("articles") and access outside resources
1. Click on Help in our navigation menu to move to the Help resources page. Then, right-click on the "Jump to our Educators landing page" link and select Open in New Window to view that article.
2. Close the new window when you are done viewing the Educators landing page.
An alternative way of opening an article in a new window is to hold your keyboard's "Shift" key down while left-clicking on the link to the page.
Comment upon articles
1. From our Help resources page, right-click on the "Go to Google" link and select Open in New Window to access that outside resource.
Use "Search" and Edit articles
1. Enter "Practice Page" into the Search box at the upper right of your screen and click Go.
2. Click on "Practice Page" from the list of results that will be returned to you.
3. Once you are at the practice page itself, click on Edit in the navigation menu and then Edit this page in the sub-menu that will appear.
4. You'll be presented with an editing interface through which you can modify the practice page.
5. Pick the mode you want to edit in: "rich-text" or "wiki".
The editor will likely be in "rich-text" mode by default. In rich-text mode you edit as if you were working with a word processor. In wiki mode you work with the raw text and mark up. Wiki mark up is used to add special formatting features and other functionality. It usually isn't necessary to work in this mode, but is useful to know if you'll be doing a lot of editing.
6. Edit text as you see fit.
7. Be sure to click Save so that your edits will be preserved.
If you make and inadvertently save errors you can use your page's "Info" tab to access the page's version history and revert to a previous version. That history is automatically kept by Confluence for you. See Info in the sub-menu under the View command in the navigation bar.
After editing a page you may want to add a brief change comment. A change comment is a short description that details the changes made to a page during an edit. Change comments are a useful way of keeping track of the history of a page. All change comments for a page are visible via the page's "Info" tab.
The change comments input-field is located below the edit screen.
Add pages ("articles")
1. While you are viewing our practice page, click the Edit command in the navigation bar, then New, and then Page. You'll be presented with a new, blank page and you'll be in editing mode once again.
2. Your new page will require a title. Title it with your name and "my new practice page"---or something similar.
3. Your new page will require a parent. Whil you are still in editing mode, click the small edit button by the "Location" label. Then, click on the magnifying class icon to open a list of available parents. Select the parent page for which the new page will become a child.
4. Enter your content. Then, click Save when you've completed entering your sample content.
5. To find this page in the future, use the Wiki's search function as you did to find the practice page for editing. Alternatively, find it listed among the children of the its parent page.
Add links to an article
Much of the value of a Wiki site such as the Constitution Day site is generated by its closely interwoven links that create meaningful relationships among articles. Add a link to an article by searching for target articles, or first creating the targets, and then inserting the link in the parent article.
Here's how to insert your link:
1. Open the parent article in editing mode. For practices purposes, you can open this Practice Page article.
2. Position your cursor at the point in the article where you'd like the new link to appear. In the rich-text view, click on the link icon at the top of your editing window (the globe with the chain link).
3. You'll be presented with a window through which you can search the entire site in a variety of ways as you look for a related article.
4. Select the "history," "recently modified," "external link," or "attachments" tabs to view corresponding materials. Alternatively, use the "Search" field to search the entire Wiki or a sub-section of the Wiki.
5a. Review your results list and click on the item you would like to link to. Its path will automatically appear in the "Link" field of the "Link Properties" window. Add an alias (alternative name) for the link if you like.
5b. As an alternative to using the search tool you can simply enter the URL for your link directly into the appropriate "Link Properties" field. Use this approach for creating links to external resources such as other web sites.
6. Click "OK" to insert your link.
7. Click "Save" to save your work.
Access or Post attachments
1. Navigate to any page you like.
2. Click on Edit in the navigation bar and then Attchments in the sub-menu that will appear. the page's "Attachments" tab to view all the attachments associated with it.
3. Click on the "Attach File(s)" button to begin the process of posting an attachment.
4. Click the "Browse" button to browse your local files and select your source file.
5. The full path name for the selected file will appear under the "Attach File" column.
6. Write a brief description, if you like, in the text field to the right of the path name under "Comments."
7. Click the "Attach File(s)" button again, now, to post the attachment.
8. Once the attachment has been posted, it will appear as an entry on the Attachments page.
Add labels ("metadata") to a page
1. Labels are added to a page through the editing interface. Click on the "Edit" tab for this page to add labels to this page.
2. Scroll to the bottom of your page to find the "Labels" control.
3. Click on the "edit" box by the Labels control to open a text field into which you can freely enter labels--key words.
4. Enter labels and click "Done" when you are finished.
5. The newly added labels will be listed under the Labels control.
Are you especially interested in a page?
Click on the envelope icon to receive an e-mail notification whenever a the page you are interested in changes significantly.
Do you need to change your e-mail address, password, or other personal details?
Click the "My Page" link in the left side navigation bar to jump to your personal page where you can post a picture, update your e-mail address, change your password, and more.
Feeling brave?
Edit this page itself to add details, corrections, hints, etc.
- This article uses level 3 headings for the subheadings. Access them from the "format" drop-down menu in the rich-text editor or enter an "h3." tag if you prefer to work directly in wiki editing mode.
Ready to do more?
Access Confluence's online user documentation here
See our recommended customizations that will help you work efficiently in Confluence by making creative use of your user profile, watches, favorites, news, and RSS feeds: [hot customizations]
Other useful links:
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