WEBSITE MANAGEMENT
Important things to know before you start
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If you regularly manage a website we recommend you operate with two screens by installing a graphics card. It's cheap and considerably speeds the operation because there is often need to copy and paste from one screen to the other.
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It’s best, in order of preference, to use Microsoft Edge, Chrome or Firefox as your web browser. If you are operating 2 admin windows simultaneously, open the second window in a different browser so that one window does not corrupt the other.
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Javascript is required but should come automatically loaded with your browser.
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Editing of pages is only possible if you are logged-in and in the ‘edit mode’ for a page.
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A page only exists once created and Saved for the first time. Edits are not completed until the page is Saved.
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In your page name, do not incorporate colons and try to avoid icons, which may corrupt the page URL, e.g. %#@.
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Do not create more than one page with the same name because each page forms a unique page URL.
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Unless keying copy directly, cut-and-paste text copy taken from say a Powerpoint file or email, etc into a Notepad file to avoid corrupting code. Otherwise, make your text ‘clean’ on the original page - make fonts the same size, take out bolding, bullets or numbering, and reinstate these features once copy is uploaded.
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Fully refresh the website cache occasionally with Ctrl F5 (for PCs). If an edit does not appear to change the page, go to ‘Pages List’ and ‘Empty Cache’.
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Your login is timed to expire after 20 minutes if there has been no 'refresh' activity. That's to protect your content in the event that your browser is left unattended.
Managing images (photos and graphics) and files (e.g. PDFs)
Images and files are displayed on your website pages through uploading to the File Manager, which is part of the website system. An exception to this is where an Index Image or Page Image is uploaded for a post (e.g. blog, event post, news item, etc) through a form upload, directly from your computer or server.
The webserver has folders (created by site administrators) each containing images or files.
Once uploaded to the File Manager, if images and files are moved from a folder or a file name is changed, the file will not display properly on the website page. If a new file replaces an old file, use a different name for the file so that a refreshed file appears.
It pays to plan your desktop folders, for images and files, carefully and replicate it in the File Manager. Remember you may, over time, have thousands of files and will need a system to cope and still allow multiple administrators to find files. A suggested system is to make main folders match the areas of the website, e.g. ‘Blog Images’, then open a second folder inside ‘Blog Images’ and give it a date, e.g. ‘2021’.
The largest size an image is likely to be used on your website is no bigger than 1400 pixels wide, so you might wish to start by reducing all images down to that size, or smaller. Whatever, ensure all graphics are either jpg, gif, png and/or avi and no bigger than 500kb. Note that jpgs are best for photos, gifs and pngs are better for logos and flat colour graphics.
PDFs, Powerpoint files and Word files can also be uploaded, but a real web page is always a better option where possible.
General points
Be patient and don’t rush. A web browser works at its own speed and clicking before a page settles can waste more time.
Most steps in your website admin have pop-ups to help.
Don’t try to be an untrained ‘graphic designer’. Use standard page layouts with copy lines running from the left margin, and avoid changing the style fonts, etc, e.g. don’t bold headings.
Where Flightdec instructions refer to third party websites such as YouTube and Facebook, the instructions can vary and change over time, so please refer to their instructions and Help sections.