Operator`s Manual for the New ACS Website

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Operator’s Manual for the New ACS Website!
At the National Meeting in August, 2013, the American Conifer Society unveiled a
redesigned website with more functions and content including a new conifer database.
Sometime later a gateway to the business office was opened where memberships and
registrations for ACS Events can be processed. !
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Designed for ease-of-use to attract new members and extend the Society’s mission
across the internet, most of the website’s editorial content is available to the general
public. However, some areas are for ACS Members only and require a registration in
order to log in to the site to access this content. The website registration procedures can
be outlined here except for the Invite Code, which is automatically e-mailed to the user
by the National Business Office upon receipt of their paid new or renewed
membership.!
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The National Business Office’s online presence facilitates certain membership
operations online such as new/renew memberships, registration for meetings, sales of
collector conifers and special events and can take online credit card payments. !
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The website (with member only content) and the business office are two separate
systems, each requiring a username and password but they are integrated at
conifersociety.org. Because of privacy and security issues, getting into the business
office portion of the website requires another log in (but the Username and Password
can be the same as that used for Member Login to the website.)!
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What follows is a guide to using the new site and an outline of some of its many
features. Registering with the National Business Office is covered in another document.!
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While current ACS members don’t have to be logged in to access most of the website, if
users want to upload photos of their specimen conifers to the database, comment on
the conifer records, news stories or blogs, as well as initiate Discussion topics and
respond to the postings of others, they need to be registered and logged in to the site.
Further, back issues of the regional Newsletters and some issues of CQ are also
available for downloading only by registered and logged in members.!
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WEBSITE LOGGIN!
Only current Members can register for the website. When you become a member online
<http://www.conifersociety.org/organization/membership/> and complete that process,
the Business Office will e-mail you an INVITE CODE that you must use towards the end
of the website registration process.!
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The upper right corner of the website has a tab that
says Member Login (figure 1).!
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(The Join ACS button is for new users and leads
to the Membership page where they learn about
the society and then go to the Business Office to
sign up. It is only visible to new/unregistered/notlogged in users.)!
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(figure 1)!
Clicking on Member Login exposes two windows where members enter their Username
and Password. (figure 2)!
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(figure 2)!
The Username is
your first and last
name as one word
(such as “johnsmith”)
It is always one word
and in lower case
letters entered into
the box on the left.!
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The box on the right is for your Password. It must be at least 8 characters (letters/
numbers or both.) !
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If you are registering for the website for the first time, click Register Now (figure 2, red
arrow, above.) !
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If you’ve registered
before but forgotten
your password,
click that field to
obtain a new one.
(figure 3, red arrow,
right)!
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(figure 3)!
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First time registrants who click Register Now are taken to a Signup screen (figure 4)!
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Here you
enter into
the grey
boxes your
Username,
email
address,
Password
(which you
will have to
do twice)
and fill in a
the box with
an INVITE
CODE. !
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(figure 4)!
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Then click
Signup.!
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Next, check your email Inbox for a
message from ACS requesting
confirmation of your registration.
You must click the confirmation link
in the email to complete website
registration.!
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If you don’t find this email in your
Inbox, check your spam filter for it. !
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If you are still having trouble, use
the link at the bottom right corner of
the page (figure 5) to write to the
business office for help.!
(figure 5)!
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Now, return to the ACS Home page, click the Member tab and login with the Username
and Password that you created.!
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HOME PAGE!
The home page features a rotating gallery of background images of conifers by Janice
LeCocq. There are two navigation bars (nav bars) at the top and bottom of the page that
persist on every page on the site. At any time while on the site you can use these nav
bars to get back to the Home page or any of the major sections listed.!
(top nav bar)!
(bottom nav bar)!
If you get lost there is another short cut back through the content and that is by following
the “breadcrumbs” at the top of a page that show the current page in relationship to the
other sections it may be nested in.!
Featured on the Home page are Upcoming Events, What’s New (go), and Video (go).
The items listed in these boxes are chronological, most recent at the top. Clicking the
listing takes you to that item, which is nested in a page that is a collection of those
items; i.e., clicking on an Event, takes you to that Event’s page within the Events
section. The What’s New box in the center of the Home Page lists the five most recent
postings to the web site from across all sections of the site. !
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In this example, there is a
News story on Dennis
Dodge’s passing but there
are also Comments from
Members who reflected
on his contributions to
ACS. There are two
different Discussions
going on about combating
deer predation and about
gold cultivars. And ACS
President Larry Nau has
posted his quarterly report
to Members.!
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Clicking on the “go” button
pulls up a list of the past
three weeks of recent
postings.!
The web site is actually five web sites integrated into one. Each ACS Region, Northeast
(NER), Southeast (SER), Central (CNR) and Western (WSR) have their own Home
page within the National web site (ACS). The Regions can be accessed in the top nav
bar which takes you to a page that directs you to one of the four Regions, each of which
has their own color palette.!
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When looking at the Home
Page boxes, like What’s
New, the origin of each
item, whether a news story
or event, is represented by
the three letter acronym for
the Region in their color.!
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Thus, in this look back at
three weeks of recent
postings, all items of a
National interest are
identified with the dark
green ACS button.!
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In this case (right) there
are three stories of
regional interest that are
from SER and CNR
(circled red).!
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The Regional stories
actually reside in an
archive of news stories and
events (but also regional
newsletters and Reference
Gardens) in that Region’s
web site and can always
be found there in a
dedicated archive.
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The Home Page Video Box shows a
rotating list of videos, most of which are
2-3 minute productions focusing on a
particular conifer cultivar.!
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Clicking on the Video “go” button takes
you to the Conifer Videos page (below)
that lists all the current videos on the site. !
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The index on the
right of the video
page goes to the
Conifers section
where there are a
series of
instructional
articles that help
users interpret
information in the
Conifer
Database. NAVIGATING THE CONTENT SECTIONS!
Think of the website as a file cabinet. The Home page is the cabinet itself; there are
seven large drawers in the file cabinet, each housing content relevant to that drawer.
The top drawer contains the main activities of the Society; it is called Organization.!
The Organization page explains some of our signature programs; it has an index on the
right side that lists all of them. !
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Click on the items in the index to go to a page(s) dedicated to the individual programs
such as Reference Gardens, Publications, CCOY, Grant & Awards, Scholarship,
Seed Exchange, etc. These programs are folders within the Organization file drawer.!
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NEWS PAGES!
The News section contains summaries of all stories since the redesign; there are 5-6
summaries per page. !
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At the bottom of the page is an index to previous pages of news summaries.!
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EVENTS PAGES!
All events that are National in scope (i.e., the National Meeting) reside in Events. !
Events that are Regional in scope (i.e., Regional meetings/Rendezvous, etc.) are listed
in the Events Archive at right.!
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Clicking on the Event Archive goes to a list of all past Events. Clicking on the individual
Regions (NER, CNR...) goes to that Region’s upcoming Events and Events archive.!
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DISCUSSION PAGES!
Clicking on the Discussion in the top nav bar takes you to five standing Discussion
Forums where Members can create Topics for mutual discussion: General
Discussion, Conifer FAQ, Plant ID, ACS Business, and Feedback & Suggestions.
Each forum button launches a page of Topics ranked by current usage.!
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BLOGS!
What is called a column in a newspaper or magazine is called a Blog (from “web log”)
on a website; they are assigned by the Web Editor. They are personal observations that
are arranged in four general groupings: Mulch (a catch-all), Brooming (tales of broom
hunters), Presidential Proclamations (quarterly reports to the membership by its
officers) and an Editor’s Blog.!
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REGIONS!
As mentioned,
there are four
Regional websites
within the ACS
website. In the top
nav bar, clicking
Regions takes you
to the launch page
for the Regions in
the form of colored
tiles, each
distinguished by
their own color
palette.!
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REGIONAL HOME PAGES!
Clicking on the tile for Southeast Region takes you to its home page. This page, like
the other three, has its own web address (here: <http://southeast.conifersociety.org >)
which can be bookmarked to access direct allowing the Region to have it’s own
presence on the web without having to maintain a separate website and hosting service.!
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This Regional Home page has the Region’s primary contact info plus an index to all it’s
regional content. Each region has its own regional web editor maintaining the region’s
content (in this case it’s, Ben Ford.) !
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The index, at right, leads to the Regional News, Events, Newsletter and that Region’s
Reference Gardens. The user can also link to the other three regional Home pages.
NEWSLETTERS!
The Regional Newsletters are accessed from this page (but also from a Publications
page within the Organization page.) The Newsletters are uploaded by the Region’s
web editor as PDF documents. Logged in Members will be able to see all the
newsletters in the archive. !
If you are not logged in as a registered member of the site, or a non-member accessing
this page from the public internet, you will only see the latest issue of the newsletter
(below.) !
As part of our business model, we reserve the complete archive as a benefit of
membership and hope this will serve as an incentive to join ACS. !
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REFERENCE GARDENS!
Since the ACS Reference Gardens are created and
administered by the Regions, the RGs reside in the regional
sites. Although they can be accessed direct from the bottom
nav bars at the bottom of any page, the RG’s front door is off
of the Regional Home page.!
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The RGs are arranged in summary fashion, alphabetically by state. Click on the
headline to go to its RG home page.!
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CONIFER DATABASE!
There are over 4,600 conifer records here with over 2,100 photographs and more being
added by Members daily. For the new user, a gallery of random genus photos at the top
can be scrolled, left or right. Clicking on the image brings up all the species of that
genus currently entered. Articles explaining the terms in the conifer records are at left. !
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For coniferites, a new, easy-touse search methodology,
“Quick Jump,” lets you start by
selecting a genus from the pulldown menu (in this example, at
left,Tsuga.) The adjoining pulldown menu then generates all
the species of that genus
(canadensis in this example).
The user selects the species
and clicks GO to pull up that
species record.!
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The Tsuga species page comes up
with a pull-down window in the lower
left corner of the page for its cultivars.!
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Click on the “Select One” pull-down
window to see Tsuga canadensis
cultivars in the database.!
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The cultivar Tsuga
canadensis
‘Albospica’ has
been selected
here.!
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The conifer record for Tsuga canadensis ‘Albospicata’!
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PERSONALIZATION!
This is a Society which, by definition, means we’re a collegial group. To illustrate this to
others (who we hope will join us at ACS) Members can personalize their Member
Profile with a head shot photo and any information that they wish to share with the
Membership. Only Members can see the Member Profile page; however, your head
shot becomes an “avatar,” a thumbnail-size image of you, that appears beside any
postings you make as Comments to News stories, Discussions and Conifer Records —
all content that is public. Go to the Member tab, log in and click View Profile to get to
your personal page:!
Members who have not contributed a headshot, will see a generic
graphic symbol (right) in this spot in their postings. We encourage all
Members to upload a photo to their profile; it’s always good to be able
to put a face to the comment. Further, it encourages other members to
respond to what you’ve said.!
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Instructions on how to utilize these Personalization features in your
postings are in the Discussion section, in Feedback & Suggestions.!
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CONIFER QUARTERLY (CQ)!
As mentioned, there are numerous back issues of Conifer Quarterly on the
Publications page but CQ is also reachable from the nav bar at the bottom of every
page.!
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Members, when logged in, will see all the issues we have digital copies of as PDF files
available for downloading.!
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The public, upon reaching this page, however, will see a PDF of an issue with covers,
table of contents and only one selected story. It is described as “a sample issue.” As
with the Newsletters, the complete archive is reserved as a benefit of Membership and
an incentive to get users to join ACS. !
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HELP!
If a user has questions about the web site, in the
bottom-right of every page there are three ways to
get assistance.!
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If you are having trouble logging into the web site or
into the Business Office the issue may have
something to do with your Membership. Clicking on
Submit a Membership-Related Issue will direct
your query to the National Business Office.!
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If you have a question about the editorial content on
the web site, Submit a Content-Related Issue will
direct your query to the Web Editor.!
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If you have a question about how the pages display
(or don’t) in your browser, Submit a Website
Problem will direct your query to our technical
support staff. Always use the Website Problem link from the page that is causing you
technical difficulties. This “marks” the problem page for tech support. In the e-mail
message that is generated, describe as best you can what’s happening.!
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THANKS!
To the ACS Board of Directors under President Larry Nau, the many capable volunteers
who collaborated on this year-long project and the talented web development team at
Pica Design+Marketing in Belfast, ME, we extend our thanks for their efforts,
encouragement and support.!
— Sean Callahan, Web Editor!
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