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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources Contents How to Login to Expression Engine ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 The Expression Engine Interface – Edit Mode ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Expression Engine Edit Mode – The Submit Button................................................................................................................................... 5 Expression Engine – Create Events Mode .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Add A Hyperlink In Event Content Area ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Creating a Hyperlink ............................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Expression Engine – Adding an Image ..................................................................................................................................................... 12 Expression Engine – Selecting Categories ................................................................................................................................................ 18 Expression Engine – The Metadata Tab ................................................................................................................................................... 19

MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources

HOW TO LOGIN TO EXPRESSION ENGINE You will login to the Expression Engine editor using your ANR username and password. This is the same username and password used to access both SharePoint and OWA (Outlook Web Application). NOTE – The recommended web browsers to use for editing in Expression Engine are Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE). 1. 2. 3. 4.

Open a web browser and go to – https://expeng.anr.msu.edu/admin.php Username = your ANR username Password = your ANR password Click Login

Once logged in to the Expression Engine editor: 1. Click on ANR Technology Services in upper right of the page 2. Choose MSU Extension from the dropdown menu

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources

THE EXPRESSION ENGINE INTERFACE – EDIT MODE The following will explain the Expression Engine interface in Edit Mode.

1.

Publish and Edit buttons – the example below is in edit mode 

Publish button is for Creating new entries

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Edit button is for Editing already created entries

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This area shows the mode you are in, Edit or Publish (it is showing Edit in example below)

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This area shows what user is logged in (in the example, the user, msue_editor, is logged in)

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Click Logout when you want to log out of the editor

5.

These 5 dropdown menus allow you to refine your search for entries to edit 

NOTE – at first, you will not need to refine your search, but as Resource and Program entries are created by you (and others), this refinement of search will become useful.

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Filter by Channel – you can choose from All, Programs or Resources. Choosing All will allow you to view and or search for both Programs and Resources you wish to edit. In the example, All was chosen.

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Filter by Status – you can choose from Open or Closed, for the most part you do not need to change this.

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Date Range – you can choose from Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 180 days, Last 365 days and Custom. Again, for the most part you will not need to change this.

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Results – here you can choose how many entries you want to show, it is default to 50, but you can click the dropdown and choose from 10, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 150. The default is fine, but if you want more or less results to show, you may choose it here.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 6. In the Keyword textbox, you can type a keyword to help in your search for items to edit. 7. In this dropdown, you can choose from Search Titles Only, Search Titles and Entries and Search Titles, Entries and Comments. Most of the time you can leave this alone and go with Search Titles Only.

8. This area shows the entries already created , and is based on what was chosen in number 5 above (in the example below, Events was selected, so you can see all the Events that have been created and that may be edited).

9. This area shows the status of the entries. The status will be either Draft, Submitted for approval, Open or Closed. 

Draft – The entry is in the draft stage and will not be viewable on the web site.

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Submitted for approval – The entry has been submitted for editor approval.

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Open – The entry has been submitted for approval, and was approved and is open for viewing on the web site (it is “live”).

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Closed - The entry is closed, but can be re-opened. In the closed state, the entry is not visible on the web site.

10. The Submit button is not used much in this view of edit mode; however, you can change how an entry is submitted using this button. This will be shown in more detail on the next page.

11. The five tabs at the bottom of the Expression Engine editor contain useful help instructions. You should explore them on your own when you have time.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources

EXPRESSION ENGINE EDIT MODE – THE SUBMIT BUTTON As mentioned in the previous section, the Submit Button may be used to change the status of an editable entry. Follow these steps to change the status of an entry:

1. First, choose an entry by clicking the checkbox to the far left of the entry. 2. Next click the Submit button (make sure the dropdown to the right of submit says Edit Selected).

3. Title and URL Title - you can change the title and URL title (if needed). Only do this if necessary. 4. In the Entry Status dropdown menu, you can choose; Closed, draft or submitted. 5. After you make your choice, click the Update button and your entries status will be updated.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources

EXPRESSION ENGINE – CREATE EVENTS MODE To enter Create Events mode:

1. In the upper right of the Expression Engine page, locate the Create Events button and click on it.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 1. This area shows that you are in Programs. 2. Notice this note – it will be explained in number 5 3. Add a Title here. 4. The URL Title will be automatically populated, based on the Title entered in number 3. 

In example below, the URL Title populated is very long.

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You can change the URL Title by clicking in the textbox and typing in something shorter.

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Possible shorter titles here might be event_third_of_december_2013

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Make sure you use the _ (underscore) between words.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 5. Entry Date – enter the date on which the event is occurring. 6. End Date – click in the textbox and a calendar will open for you to choose the date the event ends.

7. Time – type in the time for the event. 8. Location – type in the location for the event. 9. Contact Info – type in person(s) to contact for more information. 10. Summary – type in a summary explaining the event.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 11. Click on Save and close - you need to do this before you can upload images or use live preview.

12. After you have clicked, Save and close, a View Entry window will open. Click on Edit This Entry to continue.

13. In the Content area, you add the text information you want to post. This will be explained in the next section. 14. In the Categories area, you choose the area of the MSUE site that you want your post to be placed. This will be explained in another section.

15. When you are done, you can: 

Save and preview – this option will let you see a preview of what the post will look like on the MSUE page.

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Save and close – this option will save and close the post, it will not be open for people to view “live” on the web site.

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Submit for approval – this option will submit your post approval by an editor. After your post is approved, it will become live on the web site.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources

ADD A HYPERLINK IN EVENT CONTENT AREA You can add text, hyperlinks and images in the Content Area.

CREATING A HYPERLINK When creating hyperlinks, use the name of the item being linked to as the text for the hyperlink. Using words like “click here” or simply pasting in a long URL are not standard for web content. For example: DO use this format: • The Dairy Cattle Handling Poster (E3155) is available at… DO NOT use this format: • Click here to download the Dairy Cattle Handling Poster. • The Dairy Cattle Handling Poster (E3155), is available at http://www.bookstore.msue.msu.edu/product/dairycattle-handling-poster-1151.cfm

The procedures outlined below will guide you in adding a hyperlink.

1. Start by highlighting the words you want to become a hyperlink (in the example below the words Apple Computers) was highlighted.

2. Click on the Insert/Edit Link button of the editor toolbar.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources An Insert/Edit Link window will open; do the following in this window:

3. Type (or paste) the link address in the Link URL textbox. In the example, http://support.anr.msu.edu was used. 4. In the Target dropdown, you can choose from: 

Open Link in Same Window – use this if the link is internal (going to some web page inside MSUE or MSU)



Open Link in New Window – use this if the link is external (going to some place outside of MSUE or MSU)

5. Type the title for the link in the Title textbox. In the example, the title ANR Technology Services Support Site. Putting in the title helps screen readers read where the link is going.

6. Click the Insert button to insert the link.

7. In the example below, you can see the link to ANR TS Support Web Site is underlined and active.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources Click the Save and preview button to see a preview of the content you have entered.

8. This is content you entered; Title, Date, Time, Location and Contact & Info 9. This is content entered in the Content Area

EXPRESSION ENGINE – ADDING AN IMAGE You can add images to the Content Area of an event entry. The first time you want to add and image you must first create a folder for storing the uploaded the image

1. First, click in the Content Area where you would like the image to be placed. Then click on the Insert/Edit Image button in the tool bar.

2. In the Insert/Edit Image window, click on the Browse button.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 3. A Moxiecode Image Manger window will open. Click on Create Folder.

4. A Create Folder window will open. In the Folder name textbox, type a name for the folder. Make sure:    

The folder name has the event name in the title The title of the folder has NO SPACES Use a dash or underscore between words of the title instead of spaces A good title starts with the word Images

5. Click the Create button when finished.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 6. Next click on the folder you just created. In the example below, the folder Images_Sample_Event is being used.

7. Once the folder is open, click the Upload button.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 8. In the Upload window, click on the Choose files button. You can upload .gif, .jpg and .png file types with an maximum size of 5 MB.

9. Your computer’s hard drive will be accessed. Find the image file you would like to upload, click on it to highlight and click Open to upload the file. In the example below, the file Kings_R_Dead_Steve_Elvis.PNG was clicked on.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 10. The file, Kings_R_Dead_Steve_Elvis.PNG now appears under File. Click the Upload to server button to upload the file.

11. The image will now be visible in the Image Manager. Click on the image.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 12. The Insert/Edit Image window will reopen. Do the following here:  

  

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Image Description – Type a brief description of the image. For the example below “Image of Steve Jobs and Elvis Presley” was typed. Alignment – You have numerous choices here, but the best choices are: o Baseline – this places the image on the left and flows text underneath the image o Left – this places the image on the left and flows the text to the right of the image o Right – this places the image on the right and flows the text to the left of the image Dimensions – leave this setting as is. Border – you can set this from 1-10. Setting the boarder from 1-10 will put a boarder around the image. Only use this if the image has a white background. In the example, the border was set to 3. Vertical Space – this sets how much space there will be between the image and any text on top or bottom of the image. You can leave this with nothing or set a value. A good value to set is 20. In the example, the vertical space was set to 20. Horizontal Space - this sets how much space there will be between the image and any text on the left or right of the image. You can leave this with nothing or set a value. A good value to set is 20. In the example, the vertical space was set to 20

Click the Update button and your image will be place in the Content Area.

13. You will now see you image in the Content Area. You can edit the way the image looks by clicking on the image and clicking the Insert/Edit Image button.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources 14. You can preview how the image will look on the MSUE page by clicking on the Save and preview button. Below is a preview of the sample event.

EXPRESSION ENGINE – SELECTING CATEGORIES Under the Categories tab, you can select categories that correspond to the content of your entry/post.

1. Click on the Categories tab. 2. Choose categories (by clicking on the checkbox to left of topics) that match content of your entry/post. 

NOTE: limit your category choices, i.e. do not overload the main topics by always checking them when entering sub-topic resources.

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MSUE Expression Engine Training Resources

EXPRESSION ENGINE – THE METADATA TAB The Metadata tab is used to help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Adding Metadata via SEO helps your page end up higher in the search results when someone searches the web for content. NOTE: This part of using Expression Engine is optional, however you might want to take time to fill in some Metadata for each page you create, thus allowing your content to be found by those searching the web for information that you have posted.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Click on the Metadata tab SEO Title - Fill in title information. This can be left blank, if the title of your page is long enough and explains the content. SEO Meta Keywords - Place keywords here, separated by a coma. Use keywords that describe the content of your entry. SEO Meta Description - Place a sentence or two here that describes your page. When you are finished entering a title, keywords and a description, click Save and Close.

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