Links to Other Key Pages
Links on this page:
RWD Root Website Container
An RWD Root Site Container is a FirstClass conference that has been customized for the purpose of web publishing - and particularly as the root container for a given website. The default view for this container is a two pane view with both sides listing the content. The left pane is where you will see any containers in your site if you have them; folders, conferences, calendars and Podcasts are all containers. In the right pane of your site container you will find your web pages and any documents you create or files that you upload to your site. The only exception to this is the RWDe Site Administrator Form (.sitepref) that is a document but resides in the left pane of the window.
Your site container must have one page that is specifically named 'Home Page' (without quotes). This special name is given to the page you want to have open automatically when a browser hits your website container.
If you do NOT have a page called Home Page, your site will not work properly and all the web visitor will see is a collection of what appear to be files and it will not look like a website at all!!
Along the top of your Site Container is the toolbar. The toolbar contains a number of buttons that have various functions associated with them. In the image above are the standard RWD toolbar items that come with the product and below is a brief summary of each. Note: You may have more or fewer buttons if you have a customized implementation of RWD, or are using an earlier version of the product.
The RWD Root Site container Toolbar (click on the icons to see an explanation of each)
 1) New Teacher Site Picker
Function: The New Teacher Site Picker is an object that creates and deploys teacher websites (or any other user in your system) using pre-made templates that can be customized to your particular needs. For an explanation of the process required to deploy sites, see the help document called Deploying a Teacher Site
 2) New Admin Site Object Picker
Function: The New Admin Site Object Picker is an object that functions exactly like the New Site Object Picker excpet that it is only available on the Root Site Container's toolbar. The idea is to have a place for Administrators to store objects that can be added to websites that are not available to the general users. The methodology for using this object is the same as the New Site Object Picker which is detailed below.
3) New Site Object Picker
Function: The New Site Object Picker is an object that lets you add things to your site that are not pages in and of themselves. Things like calendars, empty folders, message blogs, podcasts etc. can be added to your site with just the click of a button. Your only responsibility is to name the things you add to your site (you will be prompted to do so before the picker opens), and to make links to them from your Home Page or other pages - read more about how to do this in several of the RWD Builder form help files. We recommend that you always use the New Site Object Picker to add folders to you website that will contain other web pages as the folder created using this method has the RWD toolbars but folders created using the FirstClass menu do not.
If your RWD implementation has been done fully, you will probably find other things you can pick from in the New Site Object Picker; It is possible that your site administrator(s) have added objects specifically for your organization. Completely functional 'sub' websites with working, interlinked pages and sample content that is ready for you to modify can be added to your site with just a click. In the initial installation of RWD, a sub site such as this has been added to the picker and it is called New Course Website.
To Add a new Site Object to your website:
a) click on the New Site Object Button 
b) Enter a name for the object you want to add to your site in the pop up window 
Avoid using spaces in your name - we suggest using the _ character instead of spaces: ie. sports_calendar
c) choose the object you want from the picker by clicking on it and clicking the OK button (or just by double-clicking on the item) as the image below indicates.
d) After you have picked your item, the window will close and a reminder window will pop up telling you to create a link to your new object. You will have to do this so that web users can access the object you've just created (see f below).
e) Once you click the OK button to close the reminder, you should see your new site object in the left pane of your website container as in the image below
f) Make a link to the object (see more about linking throughout the RWD Help Files, particularly in the Navigation Sidebar and Header Links Bar Help Files)
 4) New Web Page Picker
 Function: The New Web Page Picker contains pre-made templated pages that you can add to your site. Complex layouts such as tables can be pre-made by someone with expertise and can be then available to all users in the system through this picker. The steps to use this feature are very similar to the steps outlined above when adding a new object to your site (see above) except that you don't name the page in advance of
adding to your site, rather you give it a name after it is added to your site. Open this picker by clicking on the toolbar button and then selecting from the available options in the picker - options will differ from site to site.
Once a page has been added to your site, you will need to change the name of the page (this picker does not prompt you for a name) and close it once before editing it. Closing the page is required for the name change to take effect. You will need to make a link to the page from wherever you want it to be available.
Creating an RWD Page:
To create an RWD Web Page:
a) Open your Website Conference and create a new Rapid Web Designer Page by clicking on the Create New Web Page Toolbar button
A pop-up form will give you the access to the available page types. RWD ships with two; a blank page and a Homework page that contains some tables but your picker may have any number of pre-made pages for you to use.
Double-click on the New RWD Page option. This assumes you don’t want one of the other options that might be in this picker. New RWD Page is a blank page with no pre-formatting.
b) When the New RWD Builder document
form opens, and ONLY if you don’t already have a document called Home Page, change the Name of your new document to "Home Page" so that it will open automatically when a web browser is used to view your site. You will also want to enter some text in the Subject field of the form to replace the default text that appears ("Standard Blank RWD Page should not be left there"). Text entered in the subject field will appear in the title bar of the web browser window (webmasters know this as the Page Title in common web parlance).
 Each new page you create will have a default name "New RWD Page" or “New Homework Page” or something like that which you must change to something else. When renaming a page, you must enter the new name in the Page Name field and then close the page before the new name will be reachable on the web. After you have re-opened the page, most edits do not require closing the form in order to be viewed on the web. Changes to the RWD portion of the RWD page (everything except the page body itself) will be reflected on the web immediately, changes to the Page Body require that you save the changes before the differences can be seen in a browser.
 5) Copy Current Page
Function: This button will only be available when an existing page in your site is selected. Clicking on the button creates and exact copy of the page that was selected when you clicked the button except that the subject will have the word 'copy' in front of the original subject. Rename the copied page and then change the content, Title, etc to make it into what you need.
Note: The big advantage of creating new pages this way over just using the New Web Page picker to create a blank page is that, when you copy an existing page, everything is copied including any formatting you have used, tables you have made, links that you have in the Navigation Sidebar or Information Sidebar, etc.
 6) Backup Current Page
Function: This button will not work unless you have a folder in your website called 'Backups' - the name must be exactly as it appears here (without the quotation marks). If you do not have a folder named Backups, you can create one using the Site Object picker and selecting an empty folder or, you can manually create a folder using the FirstClass menu command:
File > New > New Folder
Once you have the Backups folder, clicking the Backup Current Page toolbar button will create a copy of the currently selected page but will place it in the Backups folder. Backing up pages, particularly pages with complex tables in them, is a good idea before doing major edits to the content in case something gets corrupted. If you do have a problem with a page that you have backed up, simply delete it and drag the backup copy out of the Backups Folder into your main site area.
 7) Shared Resources
Function: This is a picker that is similar to the New Site Object picker except that the object you add to your site is a shared one. You will generally not be able to edit the contents of the object (unless it is a shared blog or Departmental Website or similar type object) but it will become a part of your site. Things like grade level curriculum websites, lesson plans, etc are all examples of things that can be shared by the administration to all web publishers.
 8) Protect Item
Function: Clicking this button will cause whatever object or any number of objects that are selected to become Protected. The protected attribute prevents pages or container from being inadvertantly deleted. Before you can delete a protected item, you have to Unprotect it. You can still edit protected items so it is best to always have your site objects and pages protected.
 79) Unprotect Item
Function: Clicking this button will cause whatever object or any number of objects that are selected to become UNProtected. The protected attribute prevents pages or container from being inadvertantly deleted so you must Unprotect things to before you can rid your site of them.
Unprotecting documents or containers will change the text associated with those items to a red color (and protecting them again will change the text back to black).
 10) RWD Online Help
Function: Clicking this button take you to the RWD Help Website where you will find this documentation on the web, as well as other useful resources such as video demonstrations, help postings, etc.
| 
Help Site Home Page
