Creating content

Now that you have chosen what type of content you are creating it is time to go through some of the most common choices that comes up.

There are two fields that will be common for almost all types of content: Title and Body.

  • The title is one line and you can not customize the look of it as it is bound to the template of the site. The web master can change how it is displayed by changing the template.
  • The body is where you will place your content. This can consist of the elements that are allowed by your hosting company and the modules that are installed with Drupal.

Most web sites based on Drupal comes with a WYSIWYG editor that lets you work with the body/content as if you were using Word. Personally I prefer to use CKeditor for editing content, but there are a couple of others for Drupal. The picture below shows a toolbar for CKeditor.

Ckeditor toolbar

As you can see this is very similar to toolbars in other text editors and it is very easy to use.

Input format

This is a choice for you to consider if it is accessible. The web master might have created other options than the two standard ones. If you have only text and a few links, use Filtered HTML. If you need to display images, video or other multimedia, use Full HTML. Full HTML might not be available for you because of security. Talk to the web master if you really need it. Otherwise, contribute to the security of the site and use Filtered HTML.

Menu settings / Book outline

Menu and books are both used for organizing content on the site. Books are basically organizing larger amounts of content the way you read a book (as these pages) and you can go forth and back between the "chapters".

Menues are less flexible and you will place your page in one menu. They are great for one page content like my Web Design page on the left.

How these are used depends on the site and how they are configured. Most sites will only allow editors or administrators to add content to menues or books, but companies might decide to let people create and update books for their departments.

Meta tags

Meta tags like keywords, description and copyright is not so much used now as they were earlier, but internally on a web site they can be important in order to find content later.

Publishing options

This menu let you decide whether to publish the content you just created or not. You can also choose to place it on the front page or make it "sticky" on the top of the page. Very handy if you want to make an intro to your site and then have other content below it.

If you choose not to publish what you wrote, and you decide to go back and work on it, please go to content, find your master piece and click on edit. That way you can continue where you left off. I normally save what I am working on every 5 minutes and then go back in and continue.

Comment settings

You can decide if you want people to comment on your content or not, if you are allowed to decide this.

File attachments

This migth be available to you if you have the right to upload images or other files. The web master/owner of the site might have decided to say no unless you are an editor/staff/administrator of the site.