The screen shot below shows a sample Home page for a Plinkit site.

Although the content in the center of the page will vary depending on which tab or link is selected, most Plinkit pages will have the following basic elements:

1.      Library logo area: Displays a graphic that contains your library name and/or an image associated with your library. You must provide this graphic to your Plinkit Administrator, who will incorporate it into your site. (See Preparing for Your Plinkit Site.)

2.      Navigation tabs: Control what information is displayed in the main area of the page. By default, the home tab is displayed when you first view a Plinkit site. You can view other tabbed pages by clicking the appropriate tab. The content on each of the tabbed pages is described in more detail in later sections of this introduction.

3.      You are here “breadcrumb” trail: Indicates where the page you are viewing is located within the Plinkit site structure. The current page is the right-most item in the trail. You can navigate “up” to any other page or folder listed in the trail by clicking the appropriate link.

4.      Standard top banner links:

–        Site map link: Opens a hierarchical view of the contents of the entire Plinkit site. Click any item listed in this site map to display the item’s content.

–        Accessibility link: Opens a page that describes Plinkit’s accessibility settings, features, policy, and compliance.

–        Contact link: Opens the Contact Us page, which displays contact information for your library and provides links to Web pages that patrons can use to send e-mail directly to designated library staff members. As a Plinkit Editor, you can update the library address and phone number fields (see Editing the Contact Us Page), but your Plinkit Administrator must configure the e-mail forms so that information submitted through them is delivered to the appropriate e-mail address.

5.      Search website field and button: Allow you to search your Plinkit site for pages containing specific keywords. As you type a search term in the search website field, a list of related Plinkit pages is displayed in a LiveSearch pop-up window. If you enter a complete term and then click the search website button, a complete list of your search results is displayed in the main content area.

6.      Staff log in link: Opens a form from which library staff members and Plinkit Editors can log in to access certain Plinkit features that are not available to the general public. (For more information, see User Roles and Publishing States.) On some Plinkit sites, this link may appear at the bottom of the page instead of in its default location near the top right corner.

7.      Left and right columns: Contain “portlets”, small boxed areas that display information and/or provide links to more information. The number and specific types of portlets will vary depending on which page is being viewed. In the default Plinkit configuration, the following two portlets appear on every Plinkit page:

–        Navigation portlet: Lists the various folders, pages, and other items contained in the Plinkit site. Clicking a folder expands the list to show the individual contents within the folder. Clicking a topic, item, or file name opens the object in the main content area. Clicking the title bar of the navigation portlet opens a site map in the main content area.

–        Quotation portlet: Displays a different, randomly selected quotation each time a Plinkit page is reloaded or a new Plinkit page is opened.

8.      Main content area: Displays information based on selections made by the user.

9.      E-mail and print buttons:  Allow users to print the information displayed in the main content area, or send an e-mail containing a link to the information.