AutoPublish provides the capacity to add a new menu item to the navigation menu. This is extremely useful to display content that generally does not fit anywhere else on you site such as the local news letter or annual report.

Information can be uploaded in a variety of formats including Word, PDF and images.

Detailed step-by-step instructions can be found in the following downloadable document:

Download File (.pdf, 93Kb, Last updated: 01-11-2010)

AutoPublish now provides the facility to track each Coordinator's working hours. This information will be useful when you are trying to get in touch will colleagues in other Centres, and if you print it out periodically will create a useful record over time for Centre files. It will also assist CSU staff and others within the Department of Education when trying to contact you by telephone or when trying to plan visits to centres.

This feature of course doesn't mean that you will always be at work on the specified days ... it simply records your normal work pattern. There is no expectation that you will update this information to reflect sick days, vacation etc.

This new feature is incorporated into the Opening Hours template under OAC_Admin. There is the option to have some or all of the hours entered also display on the Centre's home page (underneath the existing OAC opening hours) or to keep them private ie. access only by other Coordinators and CSU staff.

Detailed step-by-step instructions can be found in the following downloadable document:

Coordinator Work Hours (.pdf, 66Kb, Last updated: 01-08-2006)

This is a great feature for minutes of meetings, annual reports, membership application forms, flyers, reports .... anything you would like group members or the general public to have easy access to.

Log in to the group's TCN record by clicking on the [edit] link at the bottom of the group's TCN web page or by going to Community Groups on the OAC Administrator menu.

Click on [add new entry] under Downloadable Files, enter a user-friendly title for the document you are about to add and then browse to the file you want and click on upload.

There is no limit to the number of files made available for download, and no restriction as to file type, but no one file can exceed 2Mb.

Remember to remove files once they are out of date.

If you want to create an online survey for patrons or members of the community, download the following step-by-step instructions.

How to Create Online Surveys & Feedback Forms (.pdf, 166Kb, Last updated: 31-07-2006)

If a group can't remember their username or password, there are a few ways to retrieve this information for them.

Click on [Group List] on your Admin menu, and look for the group's name on the list. This list will show you groups that are live in TCN as well as groups that are still editing their record using the wizard and have not yet finished enough of the fields to set the record 'live'.

On you OAC Administrator login, click on Community Groups, and find the group on the list. You can change the user name and/or password if necessary, and if there is an [@] symbol after their listing you can click on this to send an email reminder directly to the group.

Generate a CSV file which includes the user name and password fields (but remember, this information will be incorrect if a group subsequently changes their user name and/or password).

The item Group CSV Generator allows you to generate a comma-delimited text file (CSV) containing community group records hosted by OACs in your municipality. You can choose all records or filter by a number of criteria including Reminder Month, how the record was created, and/or the type of group.

CSV files are easily imported into Excel and can be used to quickly generate mailing labels or mailmerge letters, or can be emailed for use in other databases etc.

Creating Announcements for your community website is easy:

Select News Article from the OAC Administrator menu.

Use the default template displayed.

Give the Article a Title (this is for your reference only and will not be displayed to the public).

Put a space in the Article section otherwise you will be prompted to enter some text.

In the Announcement Section make the first line a heading followed by a blank line then the content of you announcement.

Enter a number for the sort order (remember that a higher number will display the article at the top of the list)

Click submit.

You can add a .PDF (or other type) file to any news article in AutoPublihs.

Firstly there must be an article present to add a PDF to, so create the article first. This can be the full text of the PDF, or just a summary of it.

Once you have uploaded the PDF file you will then be given the option to set a caption for the file. A caption might be something like "Click here to download February's newsletter".

Don't try to add a caption then the PDF - if you do things this way, the caption will be reset when the new PDF is uploaded.

How to make Announcements display in the centre column of your Community web site:

Select Site Preferences from the OAC Administrator menu.

Select Announcements (note that while other choices for the centre column allow two types of articles, Announcements can only be selected on it's own).

Click Submit.

Announcements will now be displayed in the centre column of your Community web site.

Links can be sorted into categories; each centre can define their own list of categories.

You might choose "Search Engines", "Email Services" "Government Sites", "Jokes", "Online Newspapers" etc.

You should enter at least one link for each category you define, as the categories are listed live on your site as soon as you submit them, regardless of whether there are any links under the category.

If you want to show two addresses, or if your centre has tweo locations, imply create two paragraphs and use HTML to highlight each, for example:

Bridgewater Online Access Centre
Bridgewater Community Centre
Green Point Road
Bridgewater, Tasmania 7030
Ph: 6263 6444

Mailing Address
P.O. Box 186
Brighton, Tasmania 7030

On OAC home pages, you can specify which one or two categories of articles to display in the centre column; the articles will display using much the same space as "Opening Hours" and "Location" (which are to the immediate right), with a [read more] link to each.

To use this feature, go to the Site Preferences section and select up to two categories of articles.

You can only choose categories not already appearing on an OAC's home page (i.e.. not Open Hours, Location Details or Centre Profile).

• If one category is selected, two articles from that category will display (if available).
  
• If two categories are selected, one article from each will be displayed.

Each article has a [ read more ] link for more information.

To assist Centres in showing regular or one-off changes to opening hours, the facility exists in AutoPublish to create multiple sets of opening hours to ensure that the public is aware of any temporary changes to Centre hours.

This facility is particularly useful when advising the public of reduced Christmas/New Year opening times.

The same method can be used to show the opening hours for a special event or purpose such as a kids club.

Step-by-step instructions on how to set up this facility are in the following downloadable document:

Setting Up Alternate Opening Hours (.pdf, 64Kb, Last updated: 31-07-2006)

You can enhance the look of your content by incorporating some basic HTML into the text, but please do not go overboard!.

Download the following document for some of the more common HTML commands you might want to use:

Basic HTML for AutoPublish (.pdf, 82Kb, Last updated: 31-07-2006)

Two fields (max 255 characters each) are available under Edit Online Access Centre Details in AutoPublish called "META Keywords" and "META Description". These fields are used by search engines when indexing your web site and when listing your site in a search result, respectively. Neither is displayed as part of your website.

A typical set of META keywords is "Tasmanian Communities Online, Online Access Centre, town_name, Tasmania, public internet, internet cafe, local events, local business, training, courses"

A typical META Description is "ABC Online Access Centre is a community managed facility that provides access to and training in computers and the Internet."

Each Centre can submit their own image for the header of their homepage (and can upload alternate images for other pages within the AutoPublish system such as for Community History or Local Businesses etc.). Images are uploaded via the Header Photos menu item on the OAC Administrator menu.

Photos should be of appropriate quality, representative of the community and in keeping with the page on which they appear.

A width to height ratio of 1.95 to 1 (eg width = 195, height = 100 or multiples thereof ... 290 x 200 etc.) will give the greatest possible size in width and height for photos in OAC headers. At present there is only the ability to load one image per header, but you can have different images on different templates.

You can create multiple "sets" of opening hours to ensure that the public is aware of any temporary changes to Centre hours during the Christmas-New Year period. The same method can be used to show the opening hours for a special event or purpose such as a kids club.

Log in to AutoPublish under OAC_Admin at www.tco.asn.au/admin

Click on the Open Hours menu option.

In the field labelled Group, type in "Reduced Hours (Dec 24 - Jan 15)" or whatever the appropriate date range is ... this will be the title for your new set of open hours.

Select the text you just entered and copy it into the Windows clip-board (to speed up adding subsequent entries).

Select the "day" and the "from" and "to" hours for the first day of the week you want to enter (eg. Monday).

Click on "Submit".

Click on "[add new entry?] to add a new day (eg. Tuesday, etc.)... Remember to paste the text "Reduced Hours (Dec 24 - Jan 15)" or whatever is the case in your OAC from the Windows clip-board into the Group field for each new entry you add.

Click on <> when you've finished adding all the days.

Open up your website and make sure the display is correct.

When the reduced hours period is over just delete these entries (you will have to check carefully which are which because in the OAC_Admin display they will be mixed in with your regular opening hours entries).