Tabs and Menus for Editors

As we saw in the section on User Roles and Publishing States, Editors have access to a number of tabs and menus that are not available to Staff and public users. In this section, we will provide a brief overview of the most commonly used of these tabs and menus.

The Tabs

When you log in as an Editor, a green menu bar with several tabs appears in the main content area of your Plinkit window. These tabs allow you to view different information about or perform actions on a particular Plinkit item. The row of tabs is context-sensitive, so the number and name of the tabs will vary depending on your location in your Plinkit site.

For example, if you are viewing a folder, you will see the following set of standard tabs:

If you are viewing a Smart Folder, however, the tabs will be different:

Because Smart Folders are not real folders, but searches, a contents tab is not relevant. Instead, you need a criteria tab to configure each Smart Folder’s predefined search.

The sections below give a brief description of the tabs you will use most often.

The Contents Tab

The contents tab lists the title, size, last modified date, and publishing state of each content item stored in a particular location. In the example above, the contents tab lists the contents of the eShelf & Research folder. As we have seen already, you can click on folders and use the Up one level link to navigate “up” and “down” through your site’s folder structure.

The contents tab also includes features to help you manage your content items. You can use the check boxes in the left column in conjunction with the buttons at the bottom of the tab to copy, cut, rename, paste, delete, or change the publishing state of a single item or multiple items at once. For instance, if you want to move two items from the eShelf & Research folder to the Kids & Teens folder, simply check the box next to each item, click the cut button, navigate to the Kids & Teens folder, and then click the paste button.

The up and down arrows in the order column allow you to reorder your topics. By default, content items are listed in the order they are created. Any changes you make using the arrows in the contents tab will be reflected in the ordering of the navigation portlet items.

The View Tab

The view tab displays the selected content item in its “finished” or formatted appearance. This view represents what the content item looks like when it is viewed by a public user (if the item has been published). The item’s content may look considerably different than it did when you entered it on the edit tab. In the example above, for instance, the information we entered in a Web form has been formatted into a text box and a formatted table with headings.

After you have created or edited a content item and saved your changes, the item is automatically displayed in the view tab so that you can see the effect of your changes.

Some content items, such as folders, can be displayed in more than one way. When the view tab is opened on such an item, a display menu appears that can be used to change the default display setting of the item (see Changing the Default Display Setting for a Folder for an example).

The Edit Tab

The edit tab displays a form that allows you to create content for a new item or edit content for an existing item. The specific fields that appear on the edit tab form vary depending upon the content type you have selected. The example above shows an edit tab for a new event.

In some cases, the fields on the edit tab will also vary depending on an item’s publishing state. For instance, when you first create an event, the Edit Event form contains fields for specifying the starting and ending date and time for an event, as above. After the event has been published, however, these fields no longer appear on the edit tab.

The Properties Tab

The properties tab allows you to associate specific types of “metadata,” such as keywords and copyright information, with a content item. These pieces of metadata can be used as Smart Folder criteria. Some of the metadata, such as contributor and creator names, will be displayed when the item is viewed or listed in search results or other lists within your site. You can also use the properties tab to configure settings that affect when and where the item is displayed.

1.       Exclude from navigation setting: Controls whether the content item appears in the navigation portlet. The box is empty by default when a new item is created, which means that new items are included in the navigation portlet by default. Check this box if you want to prevent an item from appearing in the navigation portlet.

2.       Keywords section: Assigns keywords to a content item. These keywords are used in Smart Folder searches and in searches initiated from the search field in the top banner of the Plinkit window. To select keywords from the list of Existing keywords, hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or Command key (Macintosh) on your keyboard and click each term you want to add. If you want to use keywords that have not yet been added to the Plinkit site, enter them in the New keywords text box.

3.       Contributors text box: Displays the names of content contributors.

4.       Creators text box: Displays the names of the original creators of the content item. Plinkit automatically enters in this text box the login name of the user who initially creates an item.

5.       Effective Date fields: Specify the first date on which the content item should be displayed. This field is initially blank. When an item is changed from “public draft” state to “published,” the effective date automatically changes to the date and time at which the item was published.

6.       Expiration Date fields: Specify when a content item should be removed from display.

7.       Language setting: Indicates the language in which the content is written.

8.       Copyrights text box: Displays copyright information, if desired.

The Menus

The type and number of menus that appear on the green menu bar are also context-sensitive, as are the specific menu items on each drop-down menu. The most commonly used menus are described briefly below.

The Actions Menu

The actions menu allows you to perform common item management tasks, such as cutting, copying, pasting, deleting, or renaming an item. 

The Display Menu

The display menu allows you to change the default display of the item you are viewing. This menu is only visible if you are viewing an item, such as a folder, that can be displayed in different ways. The display options listed in the menu are specific to your location and the type of item being viewed.

The Add Item Menu

The name of the add item menu and the specific menu options that are available vary depending on your location within your site. If you are at the top level of a folder, for instance, the menu is called add to folder, and it includes options for adding every content type except organizations. If you are viewing Community Organizations, the menu has only one item and appears as an add organization link, rather than a drop-down menu.

The State Menu

The state menu displays the current publishing state of the item and allows you to change that state if desired.