Useful Tips
As you will notice several things have changed. You will no longer use the content menu.
In order to compose a new article you will go from your dashboard to the top left icon ( K2 Add new item ), or from the components menu => K2 => Items
Using the K2 Editor
Adding Content
As you will see that there are two editors. The first one is for the short description text that visitors will see when browsing articles in category lists (introtext),
so there is no need to use the “read more” feature anymore. You can type your "leading" text there.
Please Note that if you write your entire text there , the entire article might show up on the article lists. Which is bad...
The Lower editor (fulltext) is for the main article body.
Also note that on when your visitors see an article page both the introtext & fulltext will be shown (they are concatenated) so you should not copy what you wrote in your introtext to the fulltext block.
Using the K2 Features.
You now have the option to tag your articles. Tags are a way to label articles with "keywords". Visitors see these keywords and when they click on them, they see lists of all the articles that contain the same such tag. It's a way basically to categorize content "above" your categories. To make things clearer, imagine a sports portal when categories are each sport (e.g. rugmy, soccer, basketball) and authors use "team" tags to organize content from different sports but for the same team.
In order to tag articles you enter your tag word (or short phrase) and press enter, once you see the tag word has a colored (green) background you can enter your next tag and repeat the process. Generally speaking, 3-4 tags for each article are sufficient. If it's a particular race, you can use the venue's name, the country it took place, the winner (or winners) as tags. So, e.g. if you tag an article with "Australia", when a visitor clicks this word on the site, they see all races in Australia. Simple.
Changing the author
You can change the article author from the sidebar on the Author Publishing status box. From there you can also program your articles with the “Start publishing” field.
Adding the main article (item) image
The K2 item form uses tabs to better organize the content and make navigating to different sections easier. Have a look right below the item title and tags block. Next to the Content Tab is the Image Tab. From there you can upload your main image.
Please note that all resizing is done automatically so there is no need to crop any thumbnails at all. Just make sure that the image you upload is at least 900 pixels wide and no more than 1200 pixels wide. K2 will resize the picture to several image copies and use the right one, depending on where an article is displayed. E.g. on category listings you'll smaller dimension images, unlike the main article view.
Adding an image gallery
Next to the image tab is the Image Gallery tab. In the past you had to upload via FTP (or possibly email your pics to the site admins). Now, all you need to do is select your high resolution images (using Ctrl+the mouse's left button) and then immediately "right click" and choose to "compress files" in .zip format. You then upload this .zip file in that form. K2 will extract and create a nice grid of all your images automatically (thumbnails are also auto-generated). Soon, you'll also be able to add captions to each picture. This will come in a few weeks time from now.
Adding a video
Clicking the Media tab will give you four choices.
The first one refers to online services like Youtube, Vimeo etc.
To display a video from youtube or any other service you just have to
a) Select the provider and
b) Enter the full video URL
ie. if the video URL you currently see on your browser is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Yy4FS3Yco for example, then just copy this entire URL and place it in the field you see. This is supported for all the major video providers like YouTube, Vimeo, Blip and Dailymotion.
Extra Fields
The extra fields are enabled only on the events category. You just type the date that the event starts and the day that finishes.
Attachments
You can use this option should you want to upload any files other than images (files such as .pdf's and MS Office files). Just hit the browse button to locate the file you want to attach from your computer.
Featured Posts
Once you select a post to be featured it will show up on the frontpage's "featured" section. Please note that only the most recent item flagged as featured will be shown there.
Managing Comments
In the backend, navigate to Components => K2 => Comments
From there you can either publish, unpublish or delete any comments submitted by visitors.
In the frontend, click on the "moderate comments to my own items" link to see the list of comments awaiting moderation. You'll find this link in the top user menu (you need to be logged in first).
Please Note that no comment will be published if you do not approve it first.
This help article will be updated as new features are added.
In order to compose a new article you will go from your dashboard to the top left icon ( K2 Add new item ), or from the components menu => K2 => Items
Using the K2 Editor
Adding Content
As you will see that there are two editors. The first one is for the short description text that visitors will see when browsing articles in category lists (introtext),
so there is no need to use the “read more” feature anymore. You can type your "leading" text there.
Please Note that if you write your entire text there , the entire article might show up on the article lists. Which is bad...
The Lower editor (fulltext) is for the main article body.
Also note that on when your visitors see an article page both the introtext & fulltext will be shown (they are concatenated) so you should not copy what you wrote in your introtext to the fulltext block.
Using the K2 Features.
You now have the option to tag your articles. Tags are a way to label articles with "keywords". Visitors see these keywords and when they click on them, they see lists of all the articles that contain the same such tag. It's a way basically to categorize content "above" your categories. To make things clearer, imagine a sports portal when categories are each sport (e.g. rugmy, soccer, basketball) and authors use "team" tags to organize content from different sports but for the same team.
In order to tag articles you enter your tag word (or short phrase) and press enter, once you see the tag word has a colored (green) background you can enter your next tag and repeat the process. Generally speaking, 3-4 tags for each article are sufficient. If it's a particular race, you can use the venue's name, the country it took place, the winner (or winners) as tags. So, e.g. if you tag an article with "Australia", when a visitor clicks this word on the site, they see all races in Australia. Simple.
Changing the author
You can change the article author from the sidebar on the Author Publishing status box. From there you can also program your articles with the “Start publishing” field.
Adding the main article (item) image
The K2 item form uses tabs to better organize the content and make navigating to different sections easier. Have a look right below the item title and tags block. Next to the Content Tab is the Image Tab. From there you can upload your main image.
Please note that all resizing is done automatically so there is no need to crop any thumbnails at all. Just make sure that the image you upload is at least 900 pixels wide and no more than 1200 pixels wide. K2 will resize the picture to several image copies and use the right one, depending on where an article is displayed. E.g. on category listings you'll smaller dimension images, unlike the main article view.
Adding an image gallery
Next to the image tab is the Image Gallery tab. In the past you had to upload via FTP (or possibly email your pics to the site admins). Now, all you need to do is select your high resolution images (using Ctrl+the mouse's left button) and then immediately "right click" and choose to "compress files" in .zip format. You then upload this .zip file in that form. K2 will extract and create a nice grid of all your images automatically (thumbnails are also auto-generated). Soon, you'll also be able to add captions to each picture. This will come in a few weeks time from now.
Adding a video
Clicking the Media tab will give you four choices.
- Upload
- Browse server or use remote media
- Use online video service
- Embed
The first one refers to online services like Youtube, Vimeo etc.
To display a video from youtube or any other service you just have to
a) Select the provider and
b) Enter the full video URL
ie. if the video URL you currently see on your browser is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Yy4FS3Yco for example, then just copy this entire URL and place it in the field you see. This is supported for all the major video providers like YouTube, Vimeo, Blip and Dailymotion.
Extra Fields
The extra fields are enabled only on the events category. You just type the date that the event starts and the day that finishes.
Attachments
You can use this option should you want to upload any files other than images (files such as .pdf's and MS Office files). Just hit the browse button to locate the file you want to attach from your computer.
Featured Posts
Once you select a post to be featured it will show up on the frontpage's "featured" section. Please note that only the most recent item flagged as featured will be shown there.
Managing Comments
In the backend, navigate to Components => K2 => Comments
From there you can either publish, unpublish or delete any comments submitted by visitors.
In the frontend, click on the "moderate comments to my own items" link to see the list of comments awaiting moderation. You'll find this link in the top user menu (you need to be logged in first).
Please Note that no comment will be published if you do not approve it first.
This help article will be updated as new features are added.