Student User Guide

Feb. 6, 2009

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Welcome! We hope that my.hsj.org serves as an important tool to help you improve and expand the reach of journalism at your school.

About this service ASNE, a non-profit professional organization whose members are the top editors of news organizations, operates the site. We are based in Reston, Va. My.hsj.org allows you to post a version of your school’s ink-on-paper edition online or have only an online edition. In the following pages, you’ll learn how to customize what your newspaper looks like by:

o Cutting and pasting material into specific fields that are then displayed in different ways

o Uploading specific image files o Uploading audio or video files

The system relies on a template tied to a database. This allows you to utilize a user-friendly system and allows us to efficiently host many newspapers at once. Past issues are automatically archived and can be searched. The site also has an automatic profanity filter. The system is powerful enough to handle thousands of issues and stories. It will sustain heavy usage from your audience: the school, alumni and community. It will allow you to post as much copy and as many photos as you wish.

Need Help? Have Questions? Contact us! ASNE supports this service and wants you to succeed in using it. Don’t hesitate to contact us. Phone: 866-475-6654 (toll-free) E-mail: support@asne.org Generally, our help desk is staffed from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time. E-mail is generally checked until about 9 p.m. Eastern time. Please let us know your name, your high school’s name, your city and state when you contact us; it makes the process faster.

The world is watching We are trying to improve scholastic journalism. To that end, we stress the following:

o Do not post other people’s work as your own. o Do not copy and repost other people/organization’s work (even if labeled) without specific written

permission. (An example of this would be “Courtesy cnn.com” when you don’t have written permission from CNN.)

TIP: The newspaper adviser has been provided with a specific password that can upload material “live” on to the site. The student login does not post material live.

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Both of these actions are copyright violations and leave you, your publication and your school vulnerable to a lawsuit. Because my.hsj.org is regularly indexed by search engines, you can bet that someone will see your dirty work. Don’t become embroiled in this. Practice sound journalistic judgment. If someone contacts us with evidence that you have copied or plagiarized their work, we will check it out, contact the adviser and remove the content in question if we think it is a legitimate complaint. One legal source of images is the ASNE/MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service. Go to http://www.hsj.org/asnemctcampus to learn about it.

Logging on

Go to http://my.hsj.org. You may bookmark this page to come back to it. Click on Member Login at the top right. You may also bookmark this page if you wish. This is where ALL users log in.

You are taken to the login screen. Type your user name and password and click Login. If you type your login incorrectly several times in a row, the system will lock you out and you will need to contact support@asne.org.

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Forgot your user name/password? If you forget either, click on Password Reminder to receive this information from us. You will need to know your e-mail address of record – the one you gave to us when you signed up. It will be e-mailed to that address.

The Dashboard Once you’re logged in, you’ll be presented with this screen, known as your dashboard:

It has two main sections:

o Story Management o Calendar and Appearance

TIP: If you ever need to return to the dashboard, pull down on the My Account menu and choose it.

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Story Management Posting content Posting content to the site is done, briefly, by opening your Web browser and page layout or content-editing program at the same time and then copying and pasting text from one to the other.

Creating a new edition

Currently, go to the My Account pulldown menu under My Account and choose Student School Admin. (This may change later, but we’ll make it clear.)

You are presented with a form with several fields.

o Edition Name (Required): You can use a variety

of approaches, such as: Valentine’s Day; Volume XXI; Number 8 or December 2010. Once you choose a style, stick with it to maintain consistency. This name will be displayed on all pages of the newspaper where that edition displays..

o Edition Date (Required): Next, enter the edition date. You can use the little calendar if you like, which will put the date in the format the system requires. This date will be displayed on all pages of the newspaper where that edition displays.

o PDF File (Optional): This asks you to upload a PDF. If you already have a print edition and know

how to create a PDF, you can post it here (keep in mind that it should be the whole document that you post – not just the front page.)

o We do not support creation of PDFs and cannot help you in this area. Click on Update. The system will tell you that the edition has been queued for your adviser to review.

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Creating a story

Click on Add New Article from the Dashboard. You will be presented with a form with several fields on it. Here is what the fields mean:

o Article Edition (Required):

This is the edition that this article will be associated with.

o Standalone video? (Optional): This reformats the output of this article to be video-centric with a little screen instead of article content. The on-screen instructions outline how to work it.

o Categories (Required): Like story tags, these categorize the story. You change and add these elsewhere in the system. You must pick one, but you can choose more than one.

o Author (Optional): The writer of the article.

o Headline (Required): The headline of the article

o Article Summary (Optional): This is what users see on the front page; it's the blurb summarizing the story. If you put in nothing here, it will grab whatever is on the top of the story. Sometimes that leads to strange results. Better to put what you want here.

o Article (Optional): This is where you put the article. The basic text box

option will show you a naked text box (not unlike the Article Summary box).

The Rich Text Editor offers you multiple ways to manipulate text, place links, place images, etc.

o Icon (Optional): The story

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icon that should appear above the headline (provided examples are Online Exclusive and Feature). You can create these and make them available elsewhere in the system.

o Podcast (Optional): If you have an mp3 podcast to be associated with the story, you'll upload it here. The Add/Delete buttons immediately below it apply only to the podcast.

o Sort Order (Required): Number showing the rank of the article within its category. The lower the number, the higher it appears on the page. For example, an article with a 10 rank will appear above an article with a 20 rank. This ranking does not apply to the At-A-Glance page, which is sorted based on the last-updated date.

o Save: Save and go back to the article list. o Save and Proceed to Media Gallery: If you wish to

add any images, audio or video files, click this. o Delete: If an article has already been created and you want to get rid of it on this page, click

here. o Cancel: Cancel what you've just entered and go back to the article list.

Adding photos, videos or audio files to an article

ANY media that are associated with an article is entered through the media gallery: photos, audio, video. They will appear alongside the article when it displays. The lone exception is podcasts, which are entered on the Add Article page. For images, you can add as many as you like. With the exception of the first one entered, they will appear at the bottom of the story. They are automatically downsized if they are larger than 500 pixels wide by 400 pixels deep.

o Click Select and then find the media you want to upload. Select it. Click Upload New File.

o It uploads. o Type the credit for the media o Type the caption for the media. Image formats accepted: jpg, gif, bmp, png Video formats accepted: mpg, mpeg, avi, asf, flv, mov Audio formats accepted: mp3

TIP: Display of the at-a-glance page is not affected by sort order. The at-a-glance page is listed solely by the last-updated time/date, from most recent to least recent.

TIP: The first image posted will be the primary image displayed with the story.

TIP: If you mess up and upload the wrong file type, the system won't tell you that it failed until you upload the WHOLE thing. So watch out for that.

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Administering media after you have uploaded it

When you submit media on the media screen, you will see it displayed in an administration screen like this.

o To delete a media item in Gallery View mode, you would click the

. In Single View mode, you would click Delete.

o To edit the item’s caption information, you would click the in Gallery View mode. In Single View mode, you would click Edit.

o The Up and Down links do not currently work, but we expect to have that fixed in an update soon.

Editing a story

Click View/Edit Existing Articles from the Dashboard

You are presented with a grid. If a story has been approved by the adviser, it cannot be edited by a student. If it hasn’t, it can.

o Click the to edit an article. o Click the to delete and article. o Click the Preview link to display

what the story would look like live. o Date: Date this article was created. o Front page story: Whether or not it appears on the front page. o Word count: Rough number of words in the article. o Approved: Whether or not the article has been approved by the teacher login.

TIP: Video takes a lot of processing to convert. Count on it taking AT LEAST 5 minutes per video to convert your file. Please be patient.

TIP: If the teacher approves an article, it cannot be edited by a student.

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Icon administration You can create icons to go along with your articles. These appear in a pulldown menu on the Add Article/Edit Article Page. From the Dashboard, click on Add Icon. To add an icon, you should first create one. They should be no larger than 150 pixels wide and 150 pixels deep. They can be JPEG, GIF or PNG files You will be presented with two fields: One to name the icon and the other to upload an image. Click select at this point to go to the dialog box for you to upload an image. When you are finished, the system will tell you that your icon has been submitted for review by your adviser.

Calendar and Appearance Change style My.hsj.org allows a lot of flexibility on how your site will appear. THIS WILL INCREASE GOING FORWARD. From the Dashboard, click on Change Newspaper Style.

The skin governs where items appear on the page. There are currently two: one with the navigation on the left and one with the navigation on the right. There are several color schemes that have been pre-arranged by my.hsj.org for you. We call these Styles in the system and we will be adding more over time. Also, there are several Themes, which feature backgrounds, headers and side images that fit a certain topic. We will be adding more of these over time, as well. These are governed by the menus on the Appearance screen.

• The Skin menu shows Default or Default Mirror. • The Style menu shows several named color schemes, from black to pink to

red. The top background color, section type, menu background color and ad content background color are governed by these.

• The Theme menu contains background images, header images and side images that are used to convey a certain theme. We have included paws, tigers, adventure, etc. on these. We will be adding more over time. In the future, we will allow you to add your own themes, as well.

To preview how a particular combination would look, click on the Preview Skin link. The page will refresh, and a new pop-up page should appear showing your site's new appearance.

TIP: The site will be adding more styles, designs and looks going forward. In the future, we will allow you to add your own themes, as well.

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Calendars Each school media site can have its own calendar, showing items of interest to your audience.

Main calendar admin

From the Dashboard, click Edit Calendar

You are taken to a screen summarizing the current month. The pulldown menu at the right allows you to show only certain types of events. You create these event types later. If you have All selected, any event you have added to the calendar will display. You can change the time period displayed with the links at the top of the page.

Add an Event From the Calendar Admin page, click New Event. You are taken to the new event page. Here is what the various fields do:

• Title (Required): The way the listing will appear in the calendar.

• Location (Optional): Where it will be. • Type (Required): This is the type of event

it will be. You must create at least one of these. See below on how to do that.

• One-time event/Recurring event (Required).

o One-time Event (Default) lets you set a start and end time to the event.

o Recurring will make something happen every x days and will give you a small interface that asks you how often it will be.

o Date (Required): Lets you pick the date fas posted.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I create a PDF? Although the my.hsj.org system allows you to post and display PDFs with your newspaper editions, we do not support the creation of these files. Keep in mind that uploading a PDF defeats a lot of the purpose of the site: your content is NOT eligible for the National Edition, you lose searchability and archiving ability; it requires more work for your users to view your newspaper and PDFs do not have audio or video capability. If you create the files, you must include the entire document in the PDF, not just the front page. Further, we ask that you not use the site as a placeholder where people can view your PDFs. It confuses and angers users. In general, there are two ways to create an efficient PDF.

o Use InDesign or Pagemaker (6.5 and above) to create a PDF. When you first install InDesign or Pagemaker (6.5 or above), you are given the option of loading Distiller, as well. Later, when you have created a document, you are given the option of saving it as a PDF within Pagemaker. In the PDF output options, you'll see Smallest File Size as a quality setting on a pulldown menu. This will create a Web-ready PDF document.

o Use Distiller as a printer. (Good for Word, Quark XPress, Pagemaker pre-6.5 and other programs.) Distiller is part of the Adobe Acrobat package (Acrobat Reader is free, but the Acrobat package – what you use to create PDFs – costs money.) You must install Distiller as a printer on your computer and when you go to print your document, you choose it as you would any other printer. In the PDF output options, you'll see Smallest File Size as a quality setting on a pulldown menu. This will create a Web-ready PDF document.

My photo isn’t the same size as when I uploaded it. Why? The system downsizes photos that are too big for display on the site. It has probably done this to your photo.

Why does the system rename my photos? Short answer: So the computer won’t get confused. Sometimes when photos are uploaded to the common image directory we use, they will meet up with another image named the same thing. When this happens, the system automatically renames the new file to

TIP: On some pages, if you don't have EDIT chosen at the top left, you'll have strange results.

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a machine-friendly name – acf126f.jpg, for example. You will see the new name when you generate a list of stories. Can you explain some of the common acronyms that refer to computer graphics?

o The GIF format (with the extension .gif) is mostly used to publish graphic images on the Web. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. Generally, GIFs handle monochromatic images in an efficient manner (things like logos, banners, etc.).

o A JPEG (with the extension .jpg) is a compressed graphic file format typically used for displaying photos on the Web. JPEG is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the committee that devised the standard.

o PDF (with the extension .pdf) stands for Portable Document Format, which is created on Adobe Systems software. This software let you save virtually any document – from a simple Word file to a graphically rich page – in a compact form. It can then be viewed and printed by a broad range of hardware and software. PDFs can be uploaded when creating an edition on my.highschooljournalism.org; they cannot be uploaded as a standard image.

o PNG (with the extension .png) stands for Portable Network Graphics. It was created to improve upon and replace GIF as an image-file format. It has some advantages in a Web environment like the ability to display transparency.

o TIFF (with the extension .tif) stands for Tagged Image File Format. It is commonly used for storing scanned images in a format that keeps all original scanned image data intact. Because it is a bitmapped image, a full color TIFF of a photo can require significant memory. The TIFF format is commonly used for material that is being printed, since it allows specific color information for each pixel.

TIP: If you get a weird, computer-generated error message, please e-mail it to us (you can just copy it from the screen and paste it into an e-mail) with an explanation of what you were doing when it occurred. Include the computer platform (Windows/Mac) and browser you use (Internet Explorer 7, Netscape 4.7, Mozilla 1.2.1, etc.).

TIP: Please contact us at support@asne.org or 866-475-6654. Be sure to include your name and you school’s name, city and state.