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 Getting Started with myweb.bnin.net Instant Publisher
(for Windows screenshot version click here)
What is Instant Publisher?
myweb.bnin.net Instant Publisher makes it easy to create dynamic web sites, blogs and wikis and update them with fresh content — text, images, video and audio clips, links, files, RSS, and contributors. With an elegant interface, drag and drop ease of use, and direct input to the server, the Instant Publisher client makes dynamic web publishing easy, yet gives advanced users the powerful features they want.
Installing Instant Publisher
Go to the download page for your platform - Macintosh | Windows - and follow the directions to download and install.
Launching Instant Publisher
When you launch Instant Publisher for the very first time, you will be asked to select a server. Unless you are running a local Workgroup Server, click the Use Public Server button.
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Setup your account: Your pages are hosted on a networked server. You'll need to create an account to log in to the network. If you have questions regarding creating accounts, see the Your Account page.
Your Email Address = Your Account ID: Instant Publisher uses your full email address as your unique account identifier. You will use this to login to Instant Publisher. Include your Full Name (and Company or School if you wish), then enter a password, repeat password and click on the Create My Account button. You will automatically be logged in.
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Logging In
Each subsequent time you run Instant Publisher, you will only be presented with the Log In dialog. Type in your email address that you used to create your account, and the correct password, of course.
Automatic Log In
As a convenience, if you want Instant Publisher to log you in automatically each time you launch the application so you don't have to enter your password, check the Keep Me Logged In checkbox. To reverse this, simply choose Log Out from the Instant Publisher menu, which will reset the preference.
Instant Publisher Tutorial
Instant Publisher is incredibly easy to use. This guide will step you though the main features.
When you login for the first time, a new page will be created for you using the default template titled Home Page at your new website.
If you want to change the name of your site, Page Title or add a Description to your page, choose Rename Page from the Page menu.
Enter your desired Page Title (what will be displayed on the page), Description, a Site URL (website name), and a Page Name (the name that will appear in the navigation of your site). You can also choose if you would like the page to require a password. Click Update.
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Pages Panel: The Instant Publisher interface shows a list of your Web Pages with an icon view of your selected template, the Page Title and Site Name and Page Name (sitename/pagename). With your page selected, click on the View Page button or double-click on a page thumbnail to view it through your default Internet browser (although you haven't added any content yet, so keep reading).
Content Panel: From the Pages Panel, you can show or hide the Content Panel on the right using the Details button.
The Instant Publisher interface includes the Pages Panel on the left and the Content Panel on the right where you can add and edit your Notes, Photos, Files, Team, and Links that make up your page.
Post Note:
 To add a new note, with your new page selected, click on the Post Note button at the bottom of the Pages Panel. In the Post Note window, you will see that the current date and time is automatically provided. Enter a Subject and note text and click the Post button. Your note is now immediately live on your page. If you have a Team working on this page, you can select the Send Notification to Team checkbox. (Teams will be discussed more below.) See your new note on the web page, double click page in Pages Panel, or if you already have that loaded a browser window, just refresh it.
Cool Tip: If you want to include a link to another webpage or site inside a note, instead of entering the full URL in your note, select some text that you want a URL assigned to and click the Insert Link... button to assign a link.
Instant Publisher supports rich text, so you can paste or create formatted text into the Post Note window. To edit the HTML directly in your note, click on the Edit HTML button.
Reporter:
A neat complement to notes unique to Instant Publisher is the ability to blog like a reporter in real time! Select from the Content menu and start typing. When you click the Post button or hit the Return key, Instant Publisher will post the last entry into the current Report note. So you can create a running commentary of an event. Try it!
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Cool Tip: The Reporter allows you to create a list of regularly used Shortcuts so you don't have to continually re-type them. Click on the arrow in the Reporter window to show/hide the defaults. Then edit or add to the list with your own custom shortcuts. |
Adding and Editing Page Content
The Content Panel uses five tabs or buttons to display the different content sections and formatting for your selected page:
Notes: write notes and reports, blog, and publish them instantly on your page
Photos: drag & drop your photos here (only .jpg currently supported)
Files: drag & drop other files here such as text, spreadsheets and audio files
Team: invite friends and colleagues to contribute to your page
Links: store a list of your favorite links
Notes Section:
You edit or delete your notes from the Notes Section. With a note selected, click the Edit button to change the content, or click the Delete button (or use the delete key on your keyboard) to delete the entire note. Other notes will be reformatted to replace the deleted note. You can also append to an existing Reporter note using the Add to Report button. To edit a note, double-click on it or select it and click on the Edit button. This will bring up the Edit Note dialog.
Photos and Files Sections:
It's a snap to add Photos and Files to your page by dragging them into the Files Section, or select Add Files to Page from the File menu. All files that are .jpg format will also show up in the Photos Section. Every time you drop in a new photo, Instant Publisher will add it to the end of the list or array. So to customize the order of your photos, simply add them in individually in the order you wish.
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You can customize your template to only display your photos by turning on/off other content sections.
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If you want to access an uploaded file (for example if you're working from a different computer or no longer have the original), just select it and click the Get File button. Instant Publisher will copy the file to your computer and open the folder for you to access it for editing or archiving. Under the hood, Instant Publisher has a powerful revision control system which means that you can upload newer versions of the same file (with the same file name) and it will replace it in your page, yet still allow you to access the previous versions in Instant Publisher when you have the Show Revisions checkbox selected.
Team Section:
Don't want to edit this page all by yourself? Just add others to your Team and they will immediately have access to your pages to contribute their Notes, Photos, Files, and Links. They can even add to a live Reporter note for multiple real-time blogging! Click on the Invite People button, or choose Invite Team Members... from the Team menu, and enter the names and addresses of the Team you want assigned to your current page. They will be notified by email with instructions to download Instant Publisher if they are a new user, and join your Team. If you want to remove a Team member, select them from the list and click the Remove Person button, or choose Remove Team Member... from the Team menu. If you are a Team member of a page that you would like to leave, select the Page and choose Leave Page Team... from the Team menu. Anyone on the Team has the ability to add or remove other members.
When you have Team members contributing to a page, sometimes it's helpful to know when they post new content. You can turn on a request to be notified by selecting Notify Me in the Notes, Photos, Files, and Links Sections.
Links Section:
It's common to want to add a list of links to other web sites. In the Links Section, enter a title as you want it to appear on your page, and the full link (including "http://") and click the Add button. Or simply drag-drop a link from your browser onto the page icon and the link will be added to your Links Section. Make sure that the Show Links on Web Page is checked on for them to appear on your page. To edit a link, select it and change the title or link and click the Update button. To remove a link, select a link and click on the Delete button or use the delete key on your keyboard.
Customizing Your Page
Layout Panel: Themes
The power of Instant Publisher is the ability to completely change the look of your page without having to edit it. This is done though pre-designed "templates" that define how your content will appear. To access the templates, choose Page Design from the Page menu. The Layout section will be selected.
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To change the theme of your page, scroll through the template designs and find one that you like. You can also view the templates by category by clicking on the Themes popup menu and selecting a category, such as "Small Business". When you have found a design to try, just click the Update button and refresh your page to see how your content looks in the different template.
New templates are continually being added, and power-users can even create their own. You can constantly change the look and feel of your website by just selecting a different template. That's the power of Instant Publisher. Try them all out! |
Layout Panel: Custom Graphics
| Some templates allow you to replace certain graphic elements with your own. |
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| To add your own images, just drag a .jpg or .gif file into the Image 1 or Image 2 boxes and click on the Update button to upload the graphics. |
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| Then refresh your page to see it show. |
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To clear all of your custom graphics and restore to the default ones that come with the templates, click on the Reset Images button. (Note, this will delete ALL of your replacement graphics, including your Profile image.)
Profile Panel
Each template can display a personal Profile section on your webpage. From the Profile section of the Page Design window, check or uncheck the Show Profile on Web Page. To display a linked email address from your account, select Display Email Address. If you are concerned about showing a live link to your email address (that may be picked up by web search engines), you can optionally choose to display your address as "Name at domain dot com". So if your email address was jane_user@website.com, it would show as "jane_user at website dot com".
Notes Panel
When notes are created for your webpage, they include the standard blog default elements: Date, Title, Body, Posted-by (the name from your account), comments, trackbacks and permalinks. However, if you are creating a webpage that is not a blog, you can turn off some of these elements to obtain the effect that you wish. So to just publish paragraphs of text using the Post Notes, just uncheck all the items except 'Body' from the Notes panel.
Archives Panel
Automatically archiving your notes or photos is an easy way to keep your pages from becoming too long. From the Archive Panel, enter in the duration or number of notes or photos that you want your page to include before archiving.
An Archive section will show up on your webpage under the month the archived items were created.
Customizing your pages with Web Settings
You can further customize your pages by choosing which sections you would like to appear. At the bottom of the Notes, Photos, Files, Team and Links sections, uncheck the content items you would prefer not to show. (Note, if you have content in these sections, it will be saved for when you want to show those sections again.)
Cool Tip: Turn off the Notes section to create a photo album page.
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To personalize the Title and Subtitle click on the Web Settings button in each section (as well as in the Profile section of the Page Design dialog), enter your Title and Subtitle and click on the Update button.
Cool Tip: Further customize your page by adding your own text or HTML in the Extra Text part in the Web Settings to have it appear below that section. |
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RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feeds
In the Web Settings... dialogs, you can choose to have any section of your page as an RSS feed by clicking on the Publish RSS Feed checkbox. An RSS button will show up on your page at the end of that section. Click on it to access the URL to the RSS feed URL for that section to add to an RSS reader.
More on RSS.
Adding More Pages to Your Site
To create additional pages, choose New Page... from the Page menu. The page will inherit the same template and settings from the last selected page. Then start customizing it with content. All of your pages will be automatically linked together for easy access. More on dynamically created site menus.
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