Each type of content has essentially the same basic elements available:
Authoring Information - This defaults to your login and the current date and time. Article display in lists sorts newest to oldest by the authored on date and time. Therefore, if you want your content to artificially appear higher or lower in a listing of content, adjust this field.
Options - This controls the display of the content
User Comments - This controls whether a piece of content can accept comments. When turned on, a comment text box is available for readers to comment on the content. The comment is appended to the content in a threaded discussion list manner. User comments should be pertanent to the article itself rather than a general discussion list.
Title - This is the content title.
View/Edit Permissions - This allows content authors to indicate if content is editable by other kinds of users. Typically only a book is editable by multiple users. However, using these settings, other users can have the possibility of editing other kinds of content.
Parent (Books only) - When authoring a book, this drop-down will appear. This allows the placement of a book page relative to another page. This provides an easy way to sequence pages. Book pages automatically get forward and back navigation. See About authoring books for more details.
Path Alias - By default all content gets a node id and therefore all content ends up with URLs like www.consultingcommons.org/node/3. However, by using this field, you can create a friendly URL like www.consultingcommons.org/hardwareguide. For this kind of URL simply put in "hardwareguide" (minus the double quotes). Now the content will be available via its original URL and your friendly URL.
Content Categories - For each taxonomy vocabulary available, you will see a multiple-select list box that allows you to "tag" your content associating it with certain categories of information. This allows your content to show up in one or multiple navigation trees.
Body - This is where your content goes. By default the HTMLArea editor is turned on allowing easy tagging of content with appropriate HTML tags. By default all HTML tags are allowed. If you want to see the HTML source of your content press the "<>" icon and the mode will switch to "source" mode. Pressing this again will switch back to WSYWIG mode.
* TIP: When pasting from other websites, it is recommended that you switch to source mode as the editor will bring in the HTML from the other site which may or may not work out for you. By pasting in source mode, you simply get the text which you can then format from there.
Input Format - Generally, you don't need to adjust these settings. Filtered HTML allows a subset of HTML tags through.
Log Message - Provides an explanation of the additions or updates being made to help other authors understand your motivations.
Weight - This will change the position of where this content fits into lists. Negative numbers place higher than positive numbers.
Create a new term in The Commons - If you don't find a taxonomy term in the listing above the body, this allows you to create a term on the fly. Please be mindful of where you put a term.
Attachments - This allows any number of attachments to be added to a piece of content. Attachments can be listed at the bottom of the content as clickable links or they may be hidden and you can link to them directly in your text by using the URL provided next to the attachment name once the attachment is uploaded.
A note about article abstracting: When content is shown in a list or on the front page only a topmost portion of the content will be shown. This is determined by the system. However, if you wish to specify where the break should occur put "<!--break-->" (without the quotes) into your text and the system will display your content up until that point. Putting this at the end of your content will force the entire display of that content.