Editing Text Blocks

	Introduction Getting Started
	Section 1.0 General Information
	Section 2.0 Help With Keywords and Descriptions
	Section 3.0 Help With Logos
	Section 4.0 Help With Themes
	Section 5.0 Help With Products
	Section 6.0 Help With Content
	Section 7.0 Help With Site Address
	Section 8.0 Help With Previewing
	Section 9.0 Help With Billing
	Section 10.0 Help With Publishing
	Section 11.0 Help With Maintenance

The Catalog Styler Help Guide

6.1 Content Blocks

Content blocks are the elements that make up the content of your pages. Content blocks often contain simple text, but they can also include HTML code, for elements like images, tables, and just about anything else you can put on a web page.

You can view the content blocks that are currently on a page by clicking the Edit buttons that appear in your Preview site.

Each block is represented by a link. Click these links to edit or delete your content blocks. To add a new content block, click the New Block links.

Editing Content Blocks

When you click a link you will see a form similar to the one pictured below right. Here's how the form works:

The Name field identifies the block. The name you give the block will show up only the Page Content list, and is used to control the sequence of the text blocks on your page. We recommend starting the names with a number, e.g. '01directions.' This will make controlling the sequence easier.

Note that some blocks are locked; you cannot change their names (or sequence), athough you can modify their contents.

The Block Enabled field indicates whether the block is enabled or disabled. A disabled block will not be included when its page is previewed or published. Disabling a block is handy if you want to temporarily suppress its content without having to delete it and reenter it later. Also, you can disable locked blocks.

Adding A Content Block

The text in the Header field will be formatted using your site's default header style. Compared to the regular text font, it will usually be bigger and may have a different color. The header is optional, and comes in handy if you want to create a series of content blocks in a simple header/paragraph style.

The Content field contains your block's content. You can put just about any HTML code in this block, subject to a limit of about 2000 characters.

If you are not familiar with HTML, note that we have provided several utilities to help you add HTML elements and control the appearance of your content.

Our 'mini-wizards' can help you add image, tables, lists, or email links to your header and content fields. Click the desired element to invoke one of the pop-up 'mini-wizards' to walk you through adding the element. The wizards will create the necessary HTML for you to cut and paste into your header or content field.

The Code Snippet buttons below the content field will add commonly used HTML tags, like bold and line break tags, to your content field. Snippets appear at the end of any existing content, so you may want to cut and paste them where needed.

The Display Mode field controls how the content block is displayed:

Paragraph style will surround the content with HTML paragraph tags. This mode is most effective in conjunction with the Header field, when you have a simple header and paragraph to display.

You can add some HTML elements to a content block displayed in paragraph style, but only those tags that are permitted between paragraph tags. The code created by our mini-wizards will work in a pragraph style block.
HTML style is the most flexible; your content block is included into your page without alteration, and is interpreted as HTML code.

If you are new to HTML, note that it doesn't display text like a word processor. That is, it doesn't respect line breaks, tabs or other formatting elements that you might use in, say, a Word document. Rather it depends on tags to control spacing and line breaks. If you want to use those types of formatting controls, choose the third display mode:
Formatted Text style will surround your content with PRE tags. The PRE tags instruct the browser to display the text exactly as you type it. Your page will display line breaks, tabs and multiple spaces, as you enter them into the content field. Note, however, that other HTML tags can't be included within PRE tags, so it is best used for diplaying text that you have already formatted in a text file.

Note that this page includes a Zoom link, which you can use to increase the size of the content block field. The size of the field doesn't affect how much content you can add (which is unlimited), but you might find it more convenient to display a larger field.

Be sure to use the Zoom feature before making any changes to your content block.

The Alignment buttons control how the text block will be displayed on the page. Click to select the desired alignment, or click Default if you want the text block to use the page's alignment.

The Show on all Pages buttons let you force a content block to appear on every page. Content blocks in the navigation area must have this option set.

Adding New Blocks

To add a new block, click the New Block links that appear on your preview pages. You will see a form that works exactly like the one described in the Edit section above.

Note that you can as many blocks as you need to a page. They will appear in sequence according to their names.

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