Automated Pages Configuration Help

Overview

Usually building a website and keeping it updated requires knowledge of html coding or use of specialist software. With GPUK.net automated pages you need no technical knowledge at all, and yet you can have a personalised practice website fully built in a few minutes, and you can update it using simple onscreen editing forms - no coding required.

Once you have signed up free to GPUK.net we instantly and automatically make you a website. You can then click on a link to review it. If you want to make any changes e.g. add/remove features, edit text, change backgrounds and logos, and so on, then you don't have to do any coding, you just use our point and click management forms.

The best thing is to just try it. Sign up is free, you can then try it out and see that it really is as easy as we say.

Page Maintenance

The Style setting options set the style, backgrounds, and logo for the whole site.

Use the Easy Style Selections page (follow the link from your Admin page) to simply select a whole new style for your website, or use the Detailed Style Editing to "fine-tune" the appearance.

Customise the text on the pages

You can change the text of any/all of paragraphs on the home page to suit your requirements, and in fact you can add more paragraphs. Be sure to view the finished result to make sure that it works as you intended.

Any text that you enter will automatically be enclosed in justified paragraph tags, so there is no need for you to enter paragraph tags.

You may enter HTML tags if you wish - see below.

As an alternative to using the editor that we provide, you may also prepare your text and upload the file. If the file follows the rules below then it will be used for the text on your homepage:

1. The file must be called hometext.txt (lowercase) and be uploaded to your root directory.
   
   
2. It must be in plain text format, e.g. use notepad.exe
   
   
3. Do not wrap the ends of lines, since an end of line marker will be interpreted as an end of paragraph.
   
   
4. Each line in this file will be enclosed in paragraph tags and will show as one paragraph of justified text on your homepage.
   
   

HTML tags which you may find useful

If you wish you can include most html tags. Below are some examples of html tags you may find useful, though you can also use others. Most tags are used in pairs, an opening tag to indicate the start of some formatting, and a closing tag to indicate the return to standard formatting.

It is actually better to use the style sheet to set style and formatting, but that is more complicated and for minor matters such as highlighting in bold, using the tags below is quite acceptable.

• To make a word or words appear in <B>bold</B> use tags like this.
  
  
• To make a word or words appear in <I>italic</I> use tags like this.
  
  
• Try making text <big>big</big> or
  
  <big><big>bigger</big></big>
  
  or perhaps you prefer <small>small</small> or
  
  <small><small>smaller</small></small>
  
  
• To make words appear in colour use tags like this:
  
  <FONT COLOR="RED">colour</FONT>
  
  
• To include a hyperlink enter a filename and a description like this
  
  <A HREF="filename">Link Description</A>
  
  "filename" could be
  
  
  • just the name e.g. opentimes.html if that file is in the same directory as your page, or
    
    
  • include the directory "docs/filename.html" if it is in your docs subdirectory, or
    
    
  • the full address if it is a link to somewhere else "http://www.myserver.co.uk/subdirectory/filename.html"
    
    
• To include a picture upload the file to your images directory and include a link like this
  
  <IMG SRC="images/filename" alt "description of picture" height = "73" width = "124">
  
  give the full address if the picture file is somewhere else e.g. instead of "images/filename" put "http://www.myserver.co.uk/subdirectory/imagefile.jpg"
  
  

Set the Style of the Menubar/Frame

The border/menubar for the pages can have different styles. Select the style that you prefer.

You may remove the frame by setting the colour below to white or transparent, or you may select one of the styles offered.

One style has rounded corners to the panel where the text is displayed. Another has a rectangular panel with sharp corners but a drop shadow border effect.

Set the Style of the Menu Links

The menu links may be either text links or button links. Button links appear neater and should be your usual choice. Select text links if you need to use descriptions which are too long to fit on a button.

Set the Style for the Link Buttons

You may select your choice for any of the settings listed below. The buttons have a 3D effect, and so the buttons may be the same colour as your menubar, or you may choose a contrasting colour.

• Colour of the (background) of the menu buttons
• Colour of the text on the menu button
• Button width
• Button height
• Text size
• Text font

Add an Search Box to your Menubar

You may display a search box on below your menu entries on the left navigation bar. This helps your visitors to find their way around your site.

Use the utility "Configure Search Facility" on your Admin page. Select the option to remove the search box, or to show it.

Whenever you edit the content of your pages you should run the "Reindex" option on this menu so as to incorporate your changes into the search database. If the search box is currently switched off then running Reindex will also make it display once again.

Select Background Colour/Texture

You can choose your own background for your pages. This can be a plain colour, or a textured pattern. But a plain colour is more logically achieved by selecting the appropriate colour on the Detailed Style Editing admin page, so usually you would use a background file only if you want a pattern or texture effect.

Upload the background tile that you wish to use to your backgrounds directory, then using the Detailed Style Editing admin page enter that filename in the box provided for background image files.

You can download some background images by ftp from ftp://ftp.gpuk.net/backgrounds/ but that way you do not get a preview of the files.

Or you can browse all the files available, and download ones that you like, at this page but be warned that it may take a few minutes to download as it includes many images (background samples).

Be careful when selecting a background. Too dark a background or too bold a pattern can make the text on the pages difficult to read. Too large a file will make your pages slow to load. The plain backgrounds supplied here will load very quickly, the textured patterns a little slower.

Select Logo

When you first sign up with GPUK.net your homepage has an arbitrary logo at top left. If you have your own practice logo, or perhaps a picture or drawing that you want to use, then you can upload it into your logos directory (Use the uploads link on the Customised Website link on the Admin page) and then it will become available for you to select here to make it your homepage logo. Logos must be uploaded in gif format, if your logo is in another format you can use graphics software to convert it to gif format.

Please note the guidelines on the use of the NHS logo. We provide a version of the logo with the specified size of border for use when you are placing a logo against a background that is other than white.

Advertising Logos

GPUK.net does not and will not place any adverts on your pages, but you yourself may do so if you wish e.g. if you have obtained sponsorship from local pharmacies or physiotherapists.

We provide an automated facility for you to display sponsors logos on the bottom section of the left navigation bar.

1. Obtain the images from your sponsor. Recommended size is 120x45 pixels in format gif, jpg. or png. 120x60, or other sizes, are also possible but will not fit so well.
2. Upload the logo files to your images directory.
3. Create the links to the logos using the utility on the admin page.
   • For "Target" enter the link required when a visitor clicks on the logo e.g. www.oursponsorswebsite.com or www.gpuk.net/oursurgery/sponsordetails (where sponsordetails is a page on your site giving details of your sponsor's business).
   • For "filename" enter the filename of the logo image that you have already uploaded to the images directory.
   • For "Alt text" enter a brief phrase to describe where the link leads e.g. "click to visit our sponsor" - this has several uses: When the visitor hovers their mouse over the image the text is displayed, usually against a yellow background; until the image has finished loading this text is displayed in place of the image; if the visitor has image loading turned off then this text will display in place of the image; lastly but perhaps most importantly, visitors with specialist equipment such as screen readers for the blind will know from this text what the link might be even though they cannot see the image.

Rebuild the Automated Pages

When you have made your selections in all the areas above, if you want to rebuild your pages to incorporate these changes then enter your Admin Code Name and Password if requested and press the button to proceed.

If you have uploaded a custom built homepage index.html or a links page then activating the update will have no effect on these. If you wish to revert to the automated pages then you should delete your index.html and /links/index.html files since these take precedence over the automated pages.

In any sections where you make no selection then no changes will be made.

View the Result

Sometimes when you go to have a look at your newly changed pages it seems that there is no change. Most likely this is because you are looking at an old version of the page in a cache, either on your computer or from your ISP.

1. Try closing down your browser and restarting it, most often this will cause you to fetch the latest version of the page.
   
   
2. Set your browser to load a page every time you visit it, e.g.
   
   
   • In Internet Explorer go to Tools|Internet Options|General|Settings|"Every Visit to the Page".
     
     
   • In Netscape go to Edit|Preferences|Advanced|Cache and set "Document in Cache is compared to document on network" to "Every Time".
     
     
3. Sometimes, particularly with Freeserve, your ISP is caching the page and may give you an old copy. There's not much you can do about this except try again later. Sometimes disconnecting and redialling will connect you to a different cache machine which may work better.