College Administration Web Sites

ITECS provides web space free of charge to College of Engineering administrative units. The procedure for requesting web space is the same as for department web sites and other units. However, because ITECS manages most administrative computers (150+ computers), those faculty and staff have access to Adobe Contribute, which is part of the base software suite on  the "admin desktop."

Contribute 2 is on the desktop of all administrative workstations.  Contribute 3 can be installed upon request from eoshelp AT ncsu.edu. This install can be done remotely, so the next time you log in, you will no longer see Contribute 2 as an icon on the desktop but on the Start menu under  Programs-> Macromedia-> Contribute 3. 

Overview of Contribute

Contribute makes it possible for website maintainers to update, add, and publish content to existing web sites without knowing HTML or using Dreamweaver. The Contribute application is a smart browser built on Internet Explorer.

With Contribute, you browse by web address (URL, not file-system path) to any page that you have permission to edit. Select Edit Page and make your additions and changes. When you are finished, select Publish, and the page is updated and viewable on the web.

The following additional documentation comes from the user manual, Using and Administering Contribute in PDF. The full guide is also linked in to http://manuals.eos.ncsu.edu.

Launch Contribute

On the Start menu of the supported administrative desktop computer, select Programs-> Macromedia-> Contribute 3.  If you have Contribute as an icon on your desktop, it will be version 2.  If you need to be upgraded to v. 3, write to eoshelp AT ncsu.edu and request it.

Connect to your web site

Contribute provides two options for getting connected to your web site:

• Your website administrator can send you a connection key that includes the necessary settings to access your AFS space.
• You can enter the connection information yourself using the Contribute connection wizard.

If your website administrator sends you a connection key:

1. Open the e-mail containing the connection key in your email application (e.g., Mulberry, Webmail, etc.). The connection key is included in the email as an attachment.
2. Double-click the connection key. The Import web site dialog box appears.
3. Enter your name, email address, and the connection key password. If you don't have the password, contact your administrator to obtain it. NOTE: Your name and email address are used only to identify you from other contributors on your web team. This information is not distributed in any way.
4. Click OK. The website's home page appears in the Contribute browser.

If you are entering the connection information manually into the Connection Wizard:

1. "What is the web address (URL) of your website?" Enter the URL of your site.
2. "How do you connect to your web server?" Choose Local/Network
3. "What is the network path to your website?" Enter or Browse to J:\.eos\engrwww\sites\vhost\site\
4. Enter your full name and email address in the fields provided and select Done. The website's home page appears in the Contribute browser.

If you need additional info about completing the Connection Wizard options, click the Help button located at the bottom of the dialog box. Connections can be edited by selecting Edit -> My Connections....

Browse to a web site

Using the Contribute browser, you can visit a web site by entering its web address in the Address field in the toolbar. You can browse to any web site with Contribute, but you can only edit the pages of sites that you have created connections to.

Edit a web page

Before you can edit a web page on your site, you must first connect to the web site. This can be done through the Connection Wizard or by clicking on the Create Connection button inside the browser.

To edit a page:

1. Browse to the page you want to edit, then click the Edit Page button.
2. Click in the page where you want to make changes. To add text to your page, either type directly into the page, or copy and paste text from another document. NOTE: You can only change the areas of the page that have been designated as "editable regions" by the page template. If there is a template, the editable regions will be surrounded by a green box. If there is no template, you can change anything.

Create a new web page

When you create a new web page, make sure you link it from an existing page in your web site so your site visitors can view it.

To insert a link and add a new page:

1. Browse to the page that you want the link to appear in, then click the Edit Page button.
2. In your draft, click where you want to insert the link.
3. Click the Link button in the toolbar, then choose Create New Page.
4. In the Link Text text box, type the text you want to appear on the page.
5. In Create New Page From, select New Blank Page or choose a page you want to base the new page on.
6. Enter a title for the page in the New Page Title text box, then click OK.

To add the contents of a Microsoft Office document to a page:

1. Browse to the page you want to add the content to, then click the Edit Page button.
2. In your draft, click where you want to insert the content, then from the menu choose Insert > Microsoft Office Document.
3. Follow the instructions on your screen. The document's contents appear in the draft. Please note that if you have your Word or Excel document open at the same time you have your web page open in Contribute, you can drag and drop the text, table, etc., from the Microsoft application to Contribute instead.

If you are in Contribute 3, you can drag and drop Office documents directly into Contribute.

Link to a page or document

Adobe Contribute lets you link to either existing or new web pages, files on your computer (such as Office documents), pages on other web sites, and e-mail addresses.

To create a link:

1. Browse to the page that you want the link to appear in, then click the Edit Page button.
2. In your draft, click where you want the link to appear. You can also select and link text (or an image) that's already on the page.
3. Click the Link button in the toolbar, then choose the type of link you want to create.
4. In the Link Text text box, type the text you want to appear on the page.
5. Select or browse to the page you want to link to, then click OK.

To insert an image in a page:

You can easily add images to your web pages. Drag an image, or copy and paste it from another page to the draft you're editing. You can also use the Image button in the Contribute toolbar to select an image to insert into your page.

1. Click in the draft where you want the image to appear.
2. Click the Image button, and in the pop-up menu that appears, choose From My Computer.
3. In the Select Image dialog box, browse to and select the image, then click OK.

Please note that you are also able to add images that already exist on the Internet. Make sure that you have both your browser open (i.e., Netscape, IE) and your Contribute document. Then simply click and drag the image from your Internet browser into Contribute. When you Publish the file, a copy will be made and placed in your web site structure.

Publish a page

Select the Publish button. When the "sunny globe" icon appears, your changes have been made and are viewable in any web browser. If you have a draft you want to publish in the Pages panel in the sidebar, select the draft and then the Publish button.

Putting a page up for review

From the File menu, select Email Review. You will be prompted with a box that says a copy of the file is being stored in a Temporary folder. After you click OK, Contribute will place a draft of your file in this folder, open your default email application, create a new mail document, and insert a link to the temporary file. You simply have to type in the recipient's email address. After the approver receives the message, approves the work, and replies to your email, you then only need to select Publish. When you publish, the temporary file is erased.