Creating and editing pages with EZ Homepage is simple. However, if you need assistance, you've come to the right place.

This help page should have opened in a new browser window - just close the window to go back or you can switch back and forth. Only the administrator can create a community. Once it is created then you can join it.

HELP TOPICS:

What are EZ Homepage Homepages?
Creating a Page
Editing a Page
Deleting a Page
User File Uploads
Lost Logins
Error Messages
Community Administration
History and Credits
Known Problems

EZ Homepage homepages are web pages created by inputting variables into an online form. The images below shows some of the more common options:

Examples

Type 1 Standard Page	Type 2 Contrast Page
Type 3 Page	Type 3 Page With Side Layout Options

Creating a page

Home pages are created by completing a simple form. Here's a rundown of the form fields and what they do:

Select Your Community
This is where your page will be listed. Each community has it's own look and feel, administrator and options tailored to the specific community.

If your community is full, or if only the community requires the administrator to approve all new members, then the administrator must create your page. Once the administrator creates a page for you, you will receive the necessary authentication information to edit your page.

Your Name
Self explanatory. This is used as a link to your Email address on your home page. This is a required field.

Login Id
This should be a single word that will be used to log into your account to either edit or delete your home page. It shouldn't be easy to guess. This is a required field.

Email Address
Self explanatory. This is a required field.

File Name
The file name of your page consisting of letters and numbers only. It should be a single word . Don't include the file extension. Your URL will become http://www.coolcanine.com/ezhomepage/handcode/yourname.htm. This is a required field.

Do you want to refresh the index page? (editing mode only)
If you select yes then the updated page link will be moved from it's current position on the community index page to the top. The status line under this question will tell you if the option is active or inactive.

Designer Load Option (will take effect on the next edit session)
If you select Full Graphics then all graphics on the edit form will be displayed increasing the page's load time considerably. If you select Fastload (Highly Recommended) then only essential graphics will be displayed and the others will be hyperlinks that you can click on to see.

Page Keywords or Phrases (optional)
This will determine how well your listing is indexed by the search engines. You must separate your keywords or phrases with commas.

Page Description (optional)
When a search engine displays the url of your page this description will usually appear below the link.

Community Newsletter (option may be available for the community)
Tick the box if you would like to receive the Community Newsletter.

Link Options

Link Back To The Community
If the community has a logo you can specify whether to use it as a link at the top of your page or use a text hyperlink back to the community page.

Link In Community Page
Specify the text you would like to appear on the community page as a link to your page.

Link Thumbnail
Specify no thumbnail or select the thumbnail you want displayed on the community page as a link to your page. Optionally, you can specify the tooltip that will appear when someone places their mouse over your thumbnail on the community page.

Page Style Options

Text Font Face
The font face of the text on your page. Possible choices are:

• verdana, helvetica, arial
  
• Times New Roman
  
• Westminster
  
• Arial Black
  
• Comic Sans MS
  
• Century Gothic

Enter the name of the font you wish to use, followed by some alternatives for computers that don't have your first choice installed. Separate each with a comma.

Background
Select a background image for your page, or alternatively you can choose a background color.

Color selections
Background Color
Choose the color you would like for the page background.

Background Table Color
Currently not used.

Text Color
Choose the color you would like for the text.

Link Color
Choose the color you would like for the links.

Visited Link Color
Choose the color you would like for the visited links.

Active Link Color
Choose the color you would like for the active links.

First Horizontal Line
Choose the appearance of the horizontal line that sits between the splash image and the body text, or select 'No line 1'.

Second Horizontal Line
Choose the appearance of the horizontal line that sits between your links and email address, or select 'No line 2'.

Bullet
Bullets are small images that are used to define paragraphs of body text. Select a bullet image to use.

Email Image Selection Options
Select the No email image for your name to be displayed as an email link. Select an image to display with your email address link (your name will be the tooltip). This only works when Display Email Link in the Interaction Block is selected.

Interaction Block

Display Contact Form (option must be turned on)
Choose whether or not you want a Contact Me button with a form mailer for your page.

Display Email Link (option must be turned on)
Choose whether or not you want an email link displayed on your page.

Eternal Links Block

Links (option must be turned on)
You can link to three URLs from your web page. Enter the URL of each link followed by the name of the link.

Multimedia Block

Optional Extra Graphics (option must be turned on)
The extra graphics are not picked but are entered manually. There can be a maximum of four thumbnails each linking to a full image. Thumbnails can also be used with no links.

The thumbnails are positioned four across centered and below the page graphic.

Page Graphic and Audio

Page Graphic
Choose a graphic to appear beneath your sub heading or select 'No page graphic'.

Background Music ( must be turned on by administrator)
Select the No Page Audio or one of the selections to have the audio play when your page opens. You can click on a selection to hear it before choosing it.

Page Content

Headline
The headline of your page. This appears at the top of your page, as the title of your page and as your listing on the community index page. This is a required field.

Sub Heading
This appears underneath the heading of your page.

Counter Options ( must be turned on by administrator)
Select the Use White Numbers On Black Counter radio button or the Use Black Number On White Counter radio button.

Counter Options ( must be turned on by administrator)
Select the Do Not Use Counter radio button for no counter. You may also set and reset the amount of hits displayed by entering a number in the Set or Reset Hits Entry Field.

First Line Placement
Select this to place the line before the body or before the table if you selected to have the table placed above the body.

Body
Input the body text of your page. Press <return> to start a new line, press it twice to start a new paragraph.

Table
A table can be used to display financial information, dates, etc. Type the information you want to appear in the first cell. To start a new cell type two colons (::) followed by the contents of the new cell. To start a new row start a new line by pressing <return>. For example:

this is row 1 cell 1::this is row 1 cell 2::this is row 1 cell 3
this is row 2 cell 1::this is row 2 cell 2::this is row 2 cell 3 etc...

You can also specify a caption which will be centered above the table.

You have the option of placing the table above the body text on your page or leave it to the default setting which is below the body text.

You can specify a caption which will appear above the links section.

Second Line Placement
Select this to place a line after the Links but before the Display Contact Form.

Page Layout Options

Contrast options can be used for a special look and feel. Small thumbnails are on the page but the larger versions are here:

You can select Type 1 for A Standard Page

You can select Type 2 for A Contrast Page

You can select Type 3 for A Contrast Outline Page which you can tailor by turning on and off the contrast for each of the 5 panels.

Page Type 2 And Page Type 3 Center Option
If you have selected a type 2 or 3 page this option is to center the contrast panel (type 2) or all panels (type 3) on the center of the generated page.

If you want a type 2 or 3 page you must select a contrast background image from the selection on the page.

Headline and Sub Heading Centered
Select whether or not you want the heading and sub heading centered on the page. If you select 'No' they will be left justified.

Image Centered
Select whether or not you want the image centered. If you select 'No' the image will be left justified.

Optional Hit Counter Placement
Left side of the page, right side of the page or the default center of the page.

Optional Interaction Block Placement
Left side of the page, right side of the page or the default center of the page.

Optional Link Placement
Left side of the page, right side of the page or the default center of the page.

If You Do Not Use The Default Hit Counter,Optional Contact Form and Optional Link Placement then the following option is available. The Page Graphic Position can be elevated so that it will be above the right and left options rather than in between them.

Do It

You should select Preview Page before generating your page. Once you are satisfied with the page select Create Page. To generate your page hit Do It. The title of your page will be added to our list of pages. You will be shown a confirmation screen giving the URL of your page.

Editing a page

Select the community your page is in.

To edit your page you need to log in by entering your login name and file name.

Editing your page is similar to creating it . You will be presented with the same form, however, when editing your page your original values are returned. You can change the values but you can't change your page file name or login ID. The additional option to place your updated page at the top of the community index page will appear under your page name.

For a description of each form field see Creating a page.

Deleting a page

Select The Community your page is in.

To delete your page enter your login details and click on Login.

User File Uploads (option must be turned on)

If the administrator has decided to allow user uploads, users with existing pages can upload images. All images are shared by the community.

You may only upload JPG and GIF images. The size of all uploaded images should be no more than 100 kilobytes in total and no individual file should be larger than 20 kilobytes. There are two reasons for this, first, your page will load faster and so more people will wait to see it load, and second, we have a limited amount of disk space available and we want to accomodate everyone we can.

You can upload 1 image to "Pictures" and then select it as your page graphic. You can also upload 4 images to "Extra Media" and then select them as your "Full Graphic Files" and then link to them from your page, using either "Extra Thumbnails" or "Tooltip text", creating an off-page photo gallery.

Before you upload check the size of your file and if it is more than 20 KB then do the following: 1. if possible, resize or crop the image, making it smaller; and 2. go to Spinwave and crunch the image down to 20 KB or less.

It is very important to rename your images before you upload them. The name should be "yourpagename(without the .htm)1.jpg", "yourpagename2.jpg", and so on. If you don't do this the administrator will not know who they belong to and may delete them.

To upload, select the Community your page is in, enter your login details, select the destination for the upload file from the dropdown list and click on 'Login'. The next screen to come up will be the upload file selection screen. Just enter or select the file to upload and click on Upload. Finally, edit your existing page to display the image.