eHenke.com User's Guide

by Warren

Keep in mind, the site is not done! Help me finish it by reporting suggestions and bugs!

So you want your own blogger but don't know where to start? Think it might be cool to have your own website? Maybe you are looking for a way to collaborate online with friends and family. Well, you have come to the right place...you get all that and more with eHenke.com! Minutes from now you can be posting your first journal entry on your very own website! (You might want to print this page for reference).

What can you do with eHenke.com?
• Create your own personal (professionally designed) website
• Access an easy to use admin tool making your site dynamic
• Collaborate online with family, friends, church groups, clubs, or any other group you define
• Read featured stories, photos, movie reviews, book reviews, and journal entries.
• Print out a journal, including; pictures, favorite books and movies, journal entries, essays, and stories.

The coolest part of all this, is that everything ties together! When you post an entry, you have the option to mark who can view it! Mark it private, and only you can see it. Specify a group (or groups) and only members of that group have access. Or, share it with the world! You can sign your name to it (which posts it to your website) or post it anonymously to the pool of eHenke.com articles. When you make an entry, you build your own web page, contribute to the community, and add to your journal all at the same time!

To begin, register as an eHenke.com user. Go to this website: http://warren.ehenke.com/register.php. Enter your name and email address. You may choose to make this information public or keep it private. If you keep it private, people can send you message via the website without actually seeing your name or email address. By making it public, visitors to eHenke.com can search for you by your real name. Choose a nickname. This is how you will be known on the site. When you post a comment, article, or journal entry…your nickname will be attached to it (unless you post it anonymously). It can be your real name or, like the name implies, a nickname. This must be unique. If you choose a named that has already been picked by someone, you will be asked to choose another. Your login and password are what you will use to log into the administration portion of your website.

Ok, great! You've registered! Now you have a web page! Immediately after you register a link that says "Go to Administration" will appear. Click here and you are ready to begin! You will also see the address of your own personal web page in the admin center. You can access your tools at any time by choosing the "Member Site Administration" link at the bottom of the main page. This is where you configure your website.

There are three main categories of options on the left menu column; modify your website, post new entry, and edit/delete an existing entry.

Modify your website
The Personal info link will let you change your user registration information (password, email...) which was explained above. The Appearance link (when I finish it), will let you change the colors, banner caption, and look of your website.

The statements link is where you add some basic information about yourself. When you click the link, you will see a bunch of text boxes with headings like “hobbies,” and “photography.” You can type directly into these boxes, or use another program (like Word) to write up your summaries and then copy and paste them. If you do that, you'll have the benefit of a spell checker. This information appears in the appropriate places of your website. For instance, there is a box called "hobbies". Once you write in your hobbies, they will show up on your website when your “hobbies” link is chosen. You can add career information (a resume), a short bio, and several other bits of information. There are also entries for your thoughts on movies, books, photography, journals, and writing. Each of these entries will correspond to that section of your website. For instance, when a web browser goes to your movie review section, in addition to the list of movies you have reviewed, they will see a short introduction from you (if you have filled it out).

Post New Entry is where you actually add more content to your website, contribute to your community site, add to the eHenke.com searchable content, and contribute to your own personal journal. This is how you make your website dynamic! Click on the type of entry you would like to add and a short form will appear. Fill out this form, submit it, and poof! You have accomplished everything listed above! Of course, that is assuming you haven’t placed any restrictions on the posting. If you marked it as private, all you have modified is your personal journal. If you marked it as available to the group, you have also added to your group’s collection of information (only group members will be able to access it). If you have posted anonymously, you have added to your personal journal and contributed an unsigned article to the eHenke.com website. If, however, you have posted an item without restrictions, you added it to all these places!

If you mark the date of your posting in the future, it will not appear until that day. This allows you to schedule postings. For instance, if you post a movie review every week but will be out of town on the normally scheduled review day….post-date it! Without any effort from you, it will automatically appear on the specified date.
To edit an existing item, choose Edit Entry. Your item will appear in the same form window in which you created it. Make the changes and repost it! You can also delete the item by typing ‘YES’ in the delete box. Note: deleting is permanent. Once it’s deleted, it’s gone! As an alternative, just mark the item as private.

Issues regarding posting pictures
Pictures require more storage resources than text. Right now, the site will allow you to post thumbnails (small pictures). When you upload a picture it will be resized to conserve space if it is too large. Otherwise I will exceed my storage allotment and have to shell out the bucks! Not a good thing! There are, however, some options for you in this area. I mean, a collection of thumbnail sized pictures is cool…but larger pictures are even better.
If you have ftp access and space already (and usually, you do when you get the internet), upload your pictures to this site. I’d suggest you resize them to about 640x480 so they will fit nicely into the form. Then, copy the full url of their location (pull the picture up in your web browser and copy it), and paste that into the form. Perfect! Now, post the form and your pictures will appear in the right place.

That’s kind of a pain, I know…and I’m working on an easier way. I host my site through a company called www.nomonthlyfees.com. Basically, you pay a $200 startup fee and then $70 per year afterwards. They give you 600MB of webspace, a domain name, email addresses…all kinds of cool stuff. If I can work out something with them, I’m thinking I could make it so you could sign up with them and post your pictures directly to your own space from my form. Maybe I could even make a commission on the deal! ;) You wouldn’t have to do a thing…just upload your pictures and bam! They show up on your website. The other benefit of this option you have your own domain name! Like…www.yournamehere.com. I could set it up so the website you created at eHenke.com pops up every time somebody goes to your address! Cool eh!

If you already have your own site but want to use some of my features, set up a link from your site to your user page at eHenke.com. Then you can keep a blogger on eHenke.com and tie it into your existing site, somewhat. You can also forward directly from another domain name. For instance, I tell people my website is warren.ehenke.com. When they type it in, they automatically are routed to my eHenke.com user site (which I use for my personal website). Much better than saying; yea, my website is at www.ehenke.com/user.php?member=344.

Rules
No Porn, advertising, or soliciting (other than showing off your writing and photography skills).

Creating and Managing Membership Groups (coming very soon)

Adding pictures to your Journal and Prose entries (coming soon)

eLink: Connect items that are related (coming soon)

For Advanced Users
Notice all that nifty formatting...the bold items and hyperlinks I have used? For those of you who have some html experience, you can markup the text in your forms! Even easier, write your page in Front Page or some other editor and let it handle the html code. You can even insert a picture by referencing it's location on the web. (Note...stick to basic html text formatting, other stuff isn't allowed).

Ways you can utilize eHenke.com (feel free to add more ideas in the comments section).

The whole basis of my website is related to self-improvement, exploration, and sharing intimate experiences. A business that addresses these issues would be ideal for eHenke.com.

For instance….a therapist could do the following:

Purchase a domain name (let’s say www.goodtherapy.com). Forward this address to the eHenke.com user page. Now, tell clients to visit goodtherapy.com for weekly newsletters, suggestions on books, movie reviews, and access to your weekly newsletters (posted in the blogger section). Provide worksheets, questionnaires, and supplemental materials for the books/movies posted in the prose section, and provide a link to these in the movie review. Under the “bio” info, expound on background, philosophy, training, and such. Use the photography section to post pictures of your office, retreat locations…or whatever. Wow, cool, eh! Good P/R, good karma, and good information for people on the web. And the coolest part? It’s easy to maintain! Add a newsletter, movie suggestion, or book review in minutes!

This same approach could be applied to many non-profit type organizations. This type of an organization might also want to make use of the “group” feature which is coming soon.

Features I am considering
Customize the web content categories for your home page (Change Book review to “Computer Software” review).