Creating or Editing Content

The First Sentence

The first sentence of a piece of content is used to summarise the content on the summary page of items within a particular category (topic, download type etc.) so it is important to make this first sentence a succinct summary of the content that will let readers know if they wish to view it. Do not preface it with it with ‘Introduction’ or similar; that’s a waste of a word wherever an excerpt appears. Avoid using shortcodes and creating links within this first sentence as they will not show up in summaries or tooltips, which can yield very odd results lacking vital information.

Style Guidance

Working with Links

From the toolbar, you can create a link to:

• another piece of content in the Knowledge Base
• an external web page
• another place within the page you are editing (an anchor).

To link to an anchor, navigate to the destination you want to use and press the anchor (bookmark) button; give the anchor a single word identifier. Then when you create a link, you will have the option of linking to that anchor. Note: when you create a multi-page article, anchors following page breaks will not be visible and you will need to link to the relevant content using the full URL including the anchor.

If you need to edit a link, click on it within the editor and you will find options to edit the link or remove it.

You must verify that all links you create or edit (anywhere in the Knowledge Base) work as you expect. Admins will check for broken links on an irregular basis, but it is your responsibility when creating or editing content to include functioning links.

Working with Images

• Inserting an image (using the Insert/Edit Image button on the toolbar), or simply copying and pasting the image inserts an image from elsewhere on the Internet into the content you’re editing. It will not be available to other pages within the Knowledge Base (unless they also embed it from the original source). However, it might be useful if (for example) you want to display a page from the target website within content such Services & Utilities and Member’s Websites, where it is unlikely to be relevant elsewhere. Note that changes to the original image will not be reflected in the Knowledge Base.
• One special class of image (ƒh user interface icons) is discussed under Knowledge Base Shortcodes and Other Customisation.
• To make changes to the way an image is displayed, click on it and you will get a menu of alignment options, a remove option and an edit (pencil) option.
• If you want to use an image that you think might get re-used, use the Add Media button above the toolbar. You can use an image that has already been placed in the Media Library, or you can upload a new image. If you subsequently make changes to the way it is displayed on a page, you can choose to do that on a single page or everywhere that it’s used (if you decide to do it everywhere, it is your responsibility to check that your changes look OK everywhere it is used.) See Managing Media for more information on how to do this.

Working with Videos

• If you include a video, it will also be included in the video showcase.  Add the YouTube video URL in the Video URL field for a KB article. The video showcase will show the first few words of content, so make that clear and punchy, and keep the title short. Check how things look on the Videos page and adjust if necessary.
• There is a shortcode available for legacy content, but we expect that new content will not need it.
• DO NOT add the video url directly into the content. Doing so will result in a team of trained ninjas tracking you down and administering a severe slap on the wrist. Also some grumpy KB admins, and honestly… you’d prefer the ninjas.

Working with PDFs

To link to a PDF (you can’t upload one to the Media Library), insert an image of the first page (or other representative image) and set the image to link to a custom URL (the URL of the PDF).  The PDF will open in a lightbox.

Downloadable Files

• If you need to add a link to a downloadable file, use the download shortcode.

Working with Tables and Columns

The Table tool is self-explanatory, but please remember to size table columns in % (using the Table icon > Cell > Table Cell properties with a column selected) to make them responsive.

The Columns tool is powerful, once you’ve understood a few basics:

• It works by inserting shortcodes (an instruction to WordPress in [ ])
• You can create equal width columns, or Advanced Layouts of mixed widths.
• There are Utilities available to make sure text following a column element is correctly spaced.

If you intend to use the Columns tool, you should watch this brief demo to get the best out of it. (Skip the first 40 seconds because the Columns tool is already installed and activated).

Inserting Code

You have two options for including code within content.

The simplest way is to use the <> Code button on the toolbar to mark a piece of text as code.

If you want to add a more complex piece of code with syntax highlighting etc. (such as you’ll find in a Code Snippet) then use the {…} Code Insert button. There is no custom syntax highlighting for ƒh data expressions, etc. so <> is the recommended option except for Lua Code Snippets.

Knowledge Base Shortcodes and Other Customisation

There are a few ƒh-specific shortcodes defined for use in the Knowledge Base, and where such a shortcode exists you must use it (to ensure that the Knowledge Base still works even when external resources move):

• Type [fH] or use the fH button on the toolbar to insert ƒh
• Type [fh_menu] Some > Menu> String[/fh_menu] to highlight an instruction to navigate to the menu position Some > Menu > String, or use the fH Menu button on the toolbar to insert a placeholder shortcode for a menu string.
• Type [help]page reference|page description[/help] to display a link to a page within the ƒh version 6 help file online; [help7]page reference|page description[/help7] to display a link to a page within the ƒh version 7 help file online; and [writingplugin]page reference|page description[/writingplugin] to display a link to a page within the ƒhversion 7 plugins help file online .
  • To get the page reference and page description, you need, navigate to the page in the relevant online Help file. The page description is the title of the page. To get the page reference click Get Link towards the top left (underneath Contents, Index and Search). The page reference you need is the word between ‘#’ and ‘.html’ in the url for the page.
  • Tip: The Help file link Welcome to Family Historian will take you to the V6 help file so you can navigate to the page you need and find the id in the url, and the page title; likewise Welcome to Family Historian will take you to the V7 help file.
• Type [topic]topic number|topic title[/topic] to link to a FHUG forum discussion, or cut and paste the shortcode from the relevant topic in the forums (click on the * next to the topic title), to display e.g.  Please read BEFORE posting
• Type [plugin]plugin-page-ref|plugin name[/plugin] to link to the plugin store.  Plugin-page-ref is the unique identifier for the plugin, visible at the end the url (following the last /) when you go to the plugin page in the Plugin Store, and plugin name is the name of the plugin.  So [plugin]record-census-data-uk-2|Record Census Data (UK)[/plugin] will yield Record Census Data (UK).
• Type [download]url|download title[/download] to insert a link to a downloadable file from the media library. The resultant downloaded file will have spaces in the file name instead of hyphens or dashes.  To get the file url, upload the file to the Media Library and click Copy the link (on the right) instead of Insert into…

Often, when you’re describing actions within the ƒh User Interface, it’s clearer to show an icon than it is to simply name it. ‘Click Customise’ is not as clear as ‘Click Customise’. If you click on the ƒh Icons button above the editor, you’ll find the common user interface icons for you to copy and paste as images into content.  Once you have pasted an icon, you need to adjust its alignment and size. Click on it and click the pencil, then in the css class type cs_v and click update. It does not alter on the edit screen but will be the right size and alignment when the page is viewed.

Accordions

You can use the Accordion button to create a piece of content that is hidden until the user chooses to view it, and then remains visible until they choose to close it. It creates a Header (which can be styled as h3, h4 or h5 ) and a placeholder to add the content.