Remote Control
"Link Manager" Help Manual
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Table of Contents:
Introduction:
The purpose of the Remote Control Link Manager is to
make it easy for you to cut and paste images, sound files and links to
other pages into the body of your template pages - whereever you want.
The Link Manager also provides an easy method for uploading text, .pdf and
other pages and images into a special "owner" directory.
The Link Manager makes it easy for you to select a target frame for a
linked page. You can select left, center or right alignment for your
images and in the case of sound files (midi) you can select whether to
play once or continuously.
The "owner" directory is accessible by all of your web
pages. Therefore you can cut and paste a link to a .pdf file into the
middle of a description about a special item. Or an image. On any page
(contents frame not recommended)
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Cut and
Paste?
If you already know what we mean by "Cut and
paste" and how to
do it, just return to the top of the page and select
another topic. Do the same if you're using a Mac. This info is just for
folks like us who use MicroSoft Windows.
After you select a file to add to your web page, put the cursor at the
left hand edge of the text box that contains the file name you want to cut
and paste. Hold either shift key down and press the
"End" key. This will highlight the contents of the text box.
Now, hold the control key down and press the letter c on your keyboard.
This will make a copy of the text box contents.
Next, put your cursor at the place where you want to paste the link into
your page. Hold the control key down and press the letter v on your
keyboard.
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Selecting a
File:
All of the files that you have uploaded via the Link
Manager are listed in the selection box located in the upper left part of
the Link Manager. Just select the file name you want to link to and it
will be displayed in the "Link Code" text box. The link
characteristics associated with the file are also displayed. If these
characteristics are satisfactory, the link is ready for you to cut and
paste.
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Editing a
File Link:
After you select a file to add to your web page, click
the "Edit Link" button that appears to the right of the file
name. This will open a new frame in the Link Manager so you can change the
targetting/alignment/play characteristics for the file you want to
link.
The buttons at the bottom of the new frame will be labelled according to
the type of file link you are editing. This means that if you are editing
a link to a page file, you can change its targetting or directory. If the
link is to an image file, you can change its alignment or directory. And,
if the link is to a sound (midi) file, you can make it play once or
continuously.
Your choice will show up automatically in the "Link Code" text
box and you can cut and paste it into your Remote Control editor.
Follow the steps described in Updating a Link if you
want to make your editing changes permanent.
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Updating a
File Link:
Editing a File Link changes its link characteristics
until you close the Link Manager window. The editing process also changes
one of the grey buttons in the upper frame so that it reads "Update
Link". Click that button if you want your editing changes to remain
after you close the Link Manager window. This changes the link record on
the server.
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Uploading a
File:
Choose "Upload File" from the file selection
list box located in the upper left of the Link Manager page. This will
load the page which controls the file upload system. You can upload a
variety of files that will be available for linking as soon as the upload
transaction is complete and you update the Link Manager.
Select the type of file you want to upload and click the browse
button to locate the file on your computer. Then, click the Upload
button(see here re duplicate image names).
The file upload system will transfer a copy of the file to your owner
directory and set the default values in the Link
Manager page. These values will be temporary until you update the Link
Manager. After you update Link Manager, the file is permanent unless
you delete it.
Special instructions for uploading Real Audio/Video files are here. Special instructions
for uploading "Live Picture" images are here.
After uploading a file(s), and updating Link Manager, you can
use the resulting link to cut and paste into most web pages on your Remote
Control web site. See here for more information.
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Deleting a
Link/File:
Select the link you want to delete from the drop down
list that appears in the upper left of the Link Manager.
Click the "Delete" button.
The text in the field labelled "LINK code:" will display ~~~ in
front of the file name and the "Delete" button will be changed
to read "Restore"(in case you change your mind before
updating Link Manager).
Click "Update Link Manager". This will delete the link
and the file associated with it.
Note: You cannot restore a link or its associated file after
clicking "Delete" and updating Link Manager. If you want the
link back, you'll have to upload the file again.
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Moving a
File:
Select the link you want to move from the drop down
list that appears in the upper left of the Link Manager.
Click the "Edit LINK" radio button. The link editing page, with
3 drop down lists will appear.
Select the directory you want to use from the drop down list named
"Move File?". If you select "other" a JavaScript
prompt will appear, requesting you to enter the name of the directory you
want to use. Be sure the directory name you enter is valid; if you're
not sure, click "Cancel" at the JavaScript prompt.
Click "Update Link Manager" after you have selected a directory,
or entered a directory name at the JavaScript prompt.
Note:You must be sure that the directory name you enter is the name
of a valid directory on your Remote Control site. Otherwise, the file will
not be moved even though the link information contains the directory name
you entered.
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Default
Values:
Following are the default values for all files uploaded with
Link Manager's file upload system (you can change the default values for
any file known to Link Manager by editing and updating its permanent
link data):
Directory Location: All files are loaded into the owner directory by
the file upload system. See here for information
about duplicate image names.
Page files (.htm/.html/.pdf/.txt): The default target for page files is
the frame which appears as the main frame in your published Remote Control
web site (to the right of the contents frame).
Image files: The default alignment for all images is
"center"
Sound files (midi): The default loop value for all .mid files is
"FALSE". This means that the file will play once and stop each
time the web page is loaded.
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Questions and
Answers:
This section contains frequently asked questions and
answers about Link Manager. We will add to it as we receive new questions
of general interest and develop authoritative answers.
Why would I want to use
Link Manager?
Link Manager just makes it easier to cut and paste
links into your web pages. It also contains features that make it easy to
test the validity of the link inside your editor and to simplify
targetting and image alignment procedures.
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What do you mean by
"targetting"?
"Targetting" tells the web browser where to display the page
that a viewer wants to see. It is one of the most powerful features of the
advanced technology available to Remote Control customers. So you can
direct the viewer's web browser to use a new window to display a page, or
virtually any part of the existing window. Click here to see examples.
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What targets can I
select?
You can select targets that will replace the contents of the existing
window completely (Replace entire page), all of the existing window below
the banner frame (Across the bottom), the part of the window that is to
right of the contents frame (default) or you can even create a new window
(New Window).
Of course, you can specify "Current frame" or "No
Target". Both of these selections load the requested page into the
frame which contains the link.
Our screen shots give you an example of each
targetting option.
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What is image
alignment?
Image alignment tells your browser how to relate image placement to text
on the web page. Align=left signals the browser to place the text
as close to the left side of the image as possible. Align=right does
the same thing in the other direction. This feature means that text can
flow around an image without having to use additional HTML coding for
tables or other page elements.
The default setting, "align=center" is useful when you want
text to begin at the center point of the image, looking from top to
bottom. Settings of "align=top" and "align=bottom"
provide similar results.
Click here to see examples of each image
alignment.
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How can I test the validity of a link I want
to use?
When you insert a link from Link Manager into your Remote Control editor
and click "Update", we put a special copy of the link
information into the editor. So when the page returns from the Update
process, it will include the link. If the link is to an image or sound
file, you'll see or hear the results.
If the link is a pointer to a page, it will appear just as it will
on your published page. Just click on the link and the page will
replace the main frame in your editor if it is valid (targetting
information is ignored in the editor).
Choose any page you want to edit from the contents frame and you can
resume editing or "Publish".
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Are there any pages that I should not cut
and cut paste links into?
You should not cut and paste links or use any HTML coding in your Keyword
Editor. Links or other HTML coding will likely cause problems for Search
Engines and could even prevent a viewer's browser from displaying your
site at all.
You should not use links to "Live Picture" images in your
contents, banner, custom link or showcase listing pages. They won't
display properly because of space limitations on those pages.
Some pages contain fields where you should not use links or other HTML
code. We have attempted to label all such fields with "No
HTML".
Be careful when considering the use of links in the banner or contents
pages. Unless you have some reason to have the link replace the banner or
contents pages, do not use the targetting option "target=_self".
The same thing will happen if you use "No Target" for banner
links.
You also have to be careful with image size with the banner and contents
pages. The width of images you want to link into the banner should not
exceed 420 pixels and the height should not exceed 100 pixels. The width
of images you want to link into the contents page should not exceed 170
pixels. There isn't any suggested limit on height; your own taste is the
best judge.
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Can I use Link Manager for links to pages or
images that are not on my site?
Yes, though it's a bit tricky and updates to Link Manager will ignore any
changes you make that reference off-site pages or images.
A good way to use Link Manager in this way is to select a file that has
the targetting or image alignment you want to use. Place your cursor in
the text box that contains the link and enter the URL information that
identifies the page or image you want to use. Two examples follow:
<a href=http://www.ezusa.com/rc-linkmanager/index.html
target=_self>Linked text</a>
<img src=http://www.ezusa.com/rc-linkmanager/image.gif
align=left>
Note that off-site links need the full url to direct the viewer's browser
to the right location.
If you're linking to an off-site page file, be sure that you include one
of the targetting options that includes "target=". Do not use
"No Target".
After you make any necessary changes, cut and paste the link just as you
would for an on-site link.
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Can I combine
links?
Yes, you can combine page and image links so that the image itself is
the link to the page you want to show. Here is an example:
<a href=http://www.ezusa.com/rc-linkmanager/index.html
target=_self><img border=0
src=owner/banner_test.jpg></a>
You can see that we replaced the link text with the link to the image.
Note: you cannot combine page links and sound links. Sound files are
embedded and do not have any visible appearance on your page.
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Can I upload Real Audio/Video and "Live
Picture" files via Link Manager?
Yes, you can upload "Real Audio/Video" and "Live
Picture" files to your
web site via Link Manager. These are two part files that need special handling so it
is important that you follow the upload procedures carefully.
Uploading Real Audio/Video files. Uploading Live Picture files.
There are some pages where you should NOT use "Live
Picture" images including the Banner, Contents, Showcase and Custom
Link pages. See here for details.
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Uploading Real Audio/Video files
After you have created your Real Audio/Video file, and opened Link
Manager's "Upload File" page,
select the "Real Audio/Video File" radio button. When you browse
for the file to upload, you
may see two files with similar names. One will have an extension of .ram and another may have the
extension of .rm. It is important that you upload the file ending in .ram.
Do NOT upload the .rm file. We will create the .rm
file as part of the upload process. This insures that the .rm file is
linked to the right directory.
Back to the "Upload" section
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Uploading "Live Picture"
files.
There are two files that must be uploaded for "Live
Picture" images. One file name ends with the extension .ivr while the
other ends with .jpg. The order of upload is not important.
After you have created your "Live Picture" file and opened Link
Manager's "Upload File" page, select the "Image
File" radio button. After you upload the .ivr file and
update the Link Manager, you'll be able to see that the link text
contains provisions for selecting alignment and the use of a
caption.
We have used align=center caption=Caption for default values. You
can change these default values to meet your needs. An example of each
is here.
Note that the use of center alignment results in a large image.
The "Live Picture" images are usually large and require several
seconds to appear on the viewer's screen. The Remote Control editor
pages use representations of the actual image you upload. This expedites
down load processing so that you can edit your pages more
quickly. See examples here.
Back to the "Upload" section
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Where not to use "Live Picture"
files.
The ability to control the size of "Live Picture" displays is
very limited. They will not display properly on your Banner, Contents,
Custom Link and Showcase listing pages. Additionally, this sizing
limitation can create appearance problems on certain other pages that
contain specialized image placement rules. These other pages include your
Staffing, About, Newsletter and Forms pages.
You can eliminate these appearance problems by choosing "No
Image" for the image that creates the conflict. Click here for examples.
Back to the Upload "Live Pictures?" section
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Can I upload a new image that has the same name as
one I've uploaded earlier?
Yes though we reccomend against this where possible because the chance
for making an error is high. This is because you must enter a
different directory name in place of the default(owner).
When you attempt to upload an image that has exactly the same name as one
you've uploaded earlier, Link Manager will alert you, and ask you to
overwrite the existing image or to cancel the upload.
Click "OK" if you simply want to replace the existing image with
a new version. Click "Cancel" if you don't want to overwrite the
existing image. This cancels the upload but leaves the upload screen
in place.
If you need to upload the image without changing its name, place your
cursor in the field labelled "LINK code:". Delete the word
"owner" and replace it with a valid directory name. Leave the
"/" in place.
Examples of valid directory names include: images-about, images-banner,
images-news and images-team.
Spelling must be exactly as shown above, including the hyphen. All
letters must be lower case. An example follows, using the directory
images-about:
<img border=0 src=images-about/adot_00ff00.gif align=middle>
Click "Upload" after changing the directory name. The upload
will succeed if you entered the directory name correctly. Otherwise
you will get an error message stating that you used a "Bad
Directory". If this happens, click "Cancel Upload". Then
click "Cancel" in response to the alert message.
Back to the Default or Upload Section.
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