Using the Joomla! Content Editor's HTML templates plugins. PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ken Task   
Monday, 11 September 2006 06:08
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Joomla! CMS is a very flexible CMS.  Not only does one have site templates (which can be assigned to Section/Content area of Joomla! - ie, the template changes with the content), but one may also develop their own "templates" for content categories.

Take the following senario and example:

We have an Elementary Section and Category specifically for Elementary content.
The campus desires to "push" all they can a category in their content called
"Parent Letters".   The parent letters are sent home with the students every week and are a summary of what each grade is doing, concentrating upon, etc..
(Goliad ISD does this).

The Parent Letter has the following sections:
* Title with the date
* a logo
* a section for Special Announcements
* a section for Reminders
* a section for each Curricular area: Math, Science, Reading, Writing,
and so on ...
* at the bottom a set of navigational links or anything one desires.
(this is all placed into an HTML table with "hints" like "Title: replace me" or "add content here").

Each Elementary submitter then does NOT have to "re-invent the wheel" and every Parent Letter that is online follows a similar format! :)

IF one has the JCE HTML plugins loaded into the JCE Editor, here's a how-2:

1. begin a new article

2. build your table with the characteristics as mentioned above - or anyway you desire.

3. press the return key a few times to open some space above your "footer".

4.  Now to save the template.  Click the "save template" button in the JCE editor and make sure you save it in the "templates" folder with a descriptive name, something like "parentletter".  The editor will add the file  name extension .html for you.

5. Cancel the new article you've begun.

Next time an Elementary teacher logs on to create a Parent Letter, they just have to load the template (parentletter), fill in the table with appropriate content, set to publish, and save. Done, for another week ... and it's taken just a few minutes time.

Screen shots (illustrations):

Menu example - shows links to Parent Letter Blogs
joomlamenuexample














The JCE Editor's icons for Templates: jcehtmltemplateicons



Selecting or saving the template:
insertingtemplate

























Previewing Template:

previewoftemplate







































BTW, creating it online FIRST gives one the advantages in:

* creating a PDF file of the article on the fly (click the PDF icon when viewing the article).

* EMailing the article to a distribution list of parents
IF one has Acajoom NewsLetters installed in Joomla, the  teacher can create a new submission and distribute to all parents that have subcribed!  One less item for
the "forgetful child" to loose! :)

* Printing X number of copies of the article for sending home with students.

Since, in Joomla!, these areas have been setup as "blogs", the most recent Parent Letter is listed first AND all the previous weeks Parent Letters are still accessbile!

Visit GISD's GES area to see the output ... right now  there is only 2nd Grade.

http://labahia.goliadisd.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=71&Itemid=161




SOS site syndication.
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