SpiritLive: A Church Resources Initiative

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Instructions

Below you will find the help resources for SpiritLive. Please consult these before contacting technical support.

SpiritLive Help Files

An in-depth SpiritLive User Manual is available on the SpirtLive Website at http://www.spiritlive.info. The SpiritLive Website also has an animated tutorial that demonstrates the basic features of SpiritLive. Click here to view the animated tutorial now.

Additional files will be added to this page shortly.

What is the Visual Editor?

The Visual Editor is the place where you, the site editor, can compose all your information such as text, images, lists and tables that will communicate the messages that you want your community to see.

The Visual Editor allows you to arrange this content into an exciting site and e-mail newsletters without needing to be an expert in Internet programming languages. In fact, all you need to be able to do is to use a mouse and be able to type or cut and paste text from another document.

How many pages can I have on my SpiritLive site?

A standard SpiritLive site will be made up of 7 pages. Home, Newsletter, Calendar, Contact Us, Catholic News, From our Diocese, and Contact Us.

You will be able to edit and add information to the Home, Newsletter, Calendar, and Contact Us pages. The Catholic News, From our Diocese, and Gospel Reflections pages will be provided and updated for you.

With Visual Editor you can easily edit information on your Home, Newsletter, Calendar, and Contact Us pages. These pages are automatically displayed for you in a menu on the left-hand side of your SpiritLive site. To edit one of these pages, simply click on the page that you wish to modify.

If you wish to have additional pages, please contact Church Resources.

Where do I go to edit my pages?

When you first open Visual Editor, you will see on the left-hand side of the screen a menu containing your 7 SpiritLive pages.

You most likely had your initial SpiritLive site built for you with information, such as pictures and handouts, that you supplied. You site was built to give you a head start in editing and updating your information.

If you want to edit information on one of your pages, simply click the page name in the left hand menu. The page you select will be loaded intoThis action will cause that particular page to load into your browser window so that you can work with it.

You can edit the content on the Home, Calendar, Newsletter and Contact us pages by clicking on the page you want to edit. The page will load into the Visual Editor so you can add, delete and edit the information and pictures that appear on the page.

What is an information "block?"

Blocks are the elements that you will use to edit your web site pages. They are an array of smart and easy-to-use components to enable you to build informative and attractive pages. To add a new block to a page, you move the cursor over the yellow pencil that is located in the centre of the page that you are working on. This action will cause a menu labelled Block Options to pop up.If the page that you are editing has no existing blocks then there will be one option in this menu only. That is Add New Block.If the yellow pencil is below an existing block it will have the options

Add New Block

Edit This Block

Delete This Block

Move Block Down

If you select the Add New Block option, there are four different types of blocks that you can add and these are described below. You can have multiple blocks on a page.1. Title, Image and Text Blocks are the basic building blocks of any web page. As the name says, in a Title, Image and Text Block you can have an image, such as a photograph, alongside some text. You can also create and edit tables and separator lines. You can cap this block with a title that you may choose to highlight. 2. A Banner Block allows you to have a window on your page in which a text message scrolls. This can be an eye-catching way to get across an important message to your community.3. A Contact Details Block is a convenient way of displaying all the ways in which a customer may contact you. For example, in a Contact Details Block you could list your phone number, your fax number, your street address, your e-mail address and other information. You can choose to have your Contact Details Block appear automatically at the bottom of every page.6. Payment Details is a block that contains symbols for common payment methods such as Visa, MasterCard etc. We make production of a Payment Details block easy for you by making available all the common payment brands so that you can quickly add their graphical icons to your web site, if you need to. After you click on the Add New Block option in the pop-up menu, you will be presented with a page called Select Block that contains representations of the above four options.To choose a Block option, click on the radio button (the dot) that appears under the option. Then if you click on Apply, you will be taken to a page that allows you to build the block.

How do I add an image to a block?

The SpiritLive block editor contains an image library that allows you to upload, delete or rename the images that are to be used in your SpiritLive Site. You can also view thumbnails of your stored images and select their alignment relative to your text. Images can be aligned to the left, right or centered in the text. If you wish not to include an image you can select (none) from the image list. Uploading new images to be stored is easy. Simply click on the "Select Image" menu and you can select from whatever images are stored on the SpiritLive Site. You can add to the images stored on your SpiritLive Site by accessing images from elsewhere on your computer, or from other sources. You will find that this works in exactly the same way as uploading images into a Word document, or you may have used similar functions in your email account.

How do I add text to a block?

Text for your Block can be entered and formatted in a number of ways. You can bold text, change font, change size, change colour, underline, italicise, align text left, center text, align text right, or even, add bullet points or add numbers.

Simply type your text into the text box. Using the text editor you simply highlight the text you want to format and select an option that will apply to that text only. You can also select text that you want to be a link to another site. Simply highlight the text you want to link and click on the little chain icon. This will open a small window where you can type in the address of the site that you want to link to.

How do I change the boarder of my site to a different style?

Your SpiritLive site will come with a coloured boarder (or template) already loaded for you. You can change that style at any time.

Run your mouse over "My Site" and select "Site Style" from the pop up menu. You can select from 18 different attractive SpiritLive Site styles that can be applied.

Once you have decided on the style that best suits your SpiritLive Site theme, select the corresponding radio button at the bottom of the template and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Apply".

If you would like to revert to the original style, select the original style from the "Site Style" menu. If you do not see your original style in the selection window, this means that a custom template was designed for you. Your style is saved in the box marked "Custom Design Template." Simply select "Custom Design Template" and click "Apply" to return to your style.

How do I publish the changes I have made?

You must publish any changes to your SpiritLive Site before they can be viewed live on the Internet. Select "View/Publishing" from the menu bar. Click on "Publish Site" from the drop down menu bar. This saves your changes and publishes your SpiritLive Site to the Internet.