WinnipegFIRST

• Posted: Sep 12th 2007, 20:57 / Written by: Chris Clarke of Spacecadet Design
• Tagged as: help, guide, editor, editing, writing

Welcome to the story-editing manual for WinnipegFIRST. You can follow this guide to ensure you understand all of the areas of the story editor.

If you have 'Editor' privileges, this page details editing an existing story or adding a new one. If you are a Contributor or Author, you have different options and can learn how to use the tools here.

You can start by logging into WinnipegFIRST and you will see the 'Contribute' button on the right side of the main banner. By clicking on this button, you will be taken to the NewsFIRST news manager.

In the left-hand menu, click on the 'Edit News Stories' button.

This is the main story menu where you can see all stories available to you to edit. As an editor you are able to edit and publish any story in WinnipegFIRST.

To edit an existing story, click on the Headline of the story from the list. To create a new story, choose the green 'Add Story' button. You will be taken into the story and can begin the editing process.

Set Article Status

"Author is writing article" When a story is being written, this is the initial status. If you wish the contributor or author to rewrite or further modify the article, this status needs to be selected.

"Editor is reviewing article" This allows an editor to modify or change the article. The contributor/author is not able to modify their article while in this status. Additionally, other editors are not able to modify this article while you are working on this story.

"Article has been approved" This is used when the article is complete, but for whatever reason the article is not to be published. Please note that you can pre- or post-date an article based on a time need.

"Published live to the site" The article is live on WinnipegFirst and can be viewed publicly.

Display Author Credit

Checking this box will display the author's name at the top of the published story.

Group Into Docket

One of the great things about WinnipegFIRST is that you can create a inked series of stories, so readers can follow a story over time. You can choose to make your story part of an existing docket by selecting the group from the pull-down menu. You can choose 'New Docket' from the pull-down and enter in a new docket name.

Category

If your story is of city-wide interest, choose 'City'. If your story focuses on a particular community, choose 'Community' and then check the appropriate regions below. Note that your story can apply to multiple regions. If your story advertises a business event, product or service, please select 'Marketplace'.

Headline

The main draw for the story. Keep it catchy and concise - wordy headlines don't work very well.

Home Feature Image

This is the main image of the story. If you do not add an image here, the story will display without a picture.

You can upload images to the WinnipegFIRST server by preparing your files as JPG, GIF or PNG files on your computer. All feature images are 455pixels wide, so please try to adjust your images to this size. Please ensure that images are no larger than 135KB. Click on the 'Browse' button to locate the image you wish to upload.

Make sure that you add a caption for your image as well as a credit for the photographer.

Date

This is the date that the story will be posted on. It defaults to the time that you begin writing the story, although you are able to adjust the date.

Summary

Add a brief description of your article. This will appear below the story headline throughout the WinnipegFIRST site. The summary should support the headline, not say the same thing.

Body

Finally, the meat of the story! Please add your story content here. Please remember to follow our content guidelines (be honest, concise and respectful).

You can add formatting to your story by using the 'markdown' symbols. These are outlined in the left column.

Please ensure that you add links to your stories. Three to six links is a good rule of thumb. This helps the search engines find your story and it also will give the reader more context (and sometimes a good laugh!). To add a link, simply put square brackets around the story text you want to link. Then put the URL that you want to jump to in round brackets immediately after.

So:
This is a fun link.

would be written out by you like this:
This is a [fun link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TuGU1imT4I).

By selecting the 'Edit/Preview' pull-down, you can switch views to get an idea of how your text will display, although it is not entirely accurate.

Tags

Tags are keywords that can assist in sorting information. When a reader clicks on a tag in your story, they will be taken to a list of all other stories with that same tag. Tags should be relevant to the story that you are writing. You can always add new tags, but you should try to match to some existing tags. We have a list of all tags used on WinnipegFIRST located here.

You can add as many tags as you wish, although try to keep it to about 10 tags. You can remove tags by clicking the 'Remove' button next to the tag.

Video Media

Our preferred way to get video into your story is by uploading the video to YouTube. You can then copy the link into the 'YouTube Video Link' box.

If you want WinnipegFIRST to host your video file, you can email us the video at media@winnipegfirst.ca. You must submit this file to us, either as a Quicktime or FLV file (PLEASE, NO WMV FILES!) and the file can be no larger than 5MB. An editor will then add the proper link to your story.

Make sure that you add a caption for your video as well as a credit for the videographer.

Audio Media

If you want WinnipegFIRST to host your audio file, you can email us the audio at media@winnipegfirst.ca. You must submit this file to us as an mp3 file and the file can be no larger than 5MB. An editor will then add the proper link to your story.

Make sure that you add a caption for your audio as well as a credit.

Image Media

You can upload images to the WinnipegFIRST server by preparing your files as JPG, GIF or PNG files on your computer. Please ensure that images are no larger than 135KB. Click on the 'Browse' button to locate the image you wish to upload. Click 'Add Another' for additional images.

Make sure that you add a caption for your image as well as a credit for the photographer.

Note

You can leave a note that will only be visible to you and to editors. These notes will not show publicly. All note content will display in the 'Revision' column on the upper right of the page.

Add Article and Update Article

Click the 'Add Article' button to add the article. Note that you must put in a headline, summary and body copy in order to add a story. Once the story has been added, the button changes to 'Update Article'