chapter

Manual for Editors

1. Entering the Back-end

Etherport is a browser-based tool, which works best in Firefox. It is not necessary to install any software.

To register your organization on Etherport, you can send an email to sepp [at] networkcultuers [dot] org, and we will create an account for you.

To create an account, navigate to the overview page of your organization and click ‘make an account’. (If you already have an account, click ‘login’ instead.)

Once logged in, you are taken to the root folder of your organisation. This is an overview of all the organisation’s publications. If you will be working on an existing publication, you can now navigate to the folder with that publication’s name. If you are creating a new publication, proceed to the next step.

2. Creating Publications

In the root folder, click the button ‘+ CREATE NEW PUBLICATION’ in the top right.
Enter the name of your publication and click ‘CREATE’.
This action will create a folder in your organization’s root folder. Each folder in your root folder therefore represents a publication.
Your publication is now generated, and you will be immediately taken to the index pad. (The index will be the landing page of your publication on the front end. See ‘Key terms’ for more information.)
You can navigate between pads in the publication folder and between different publications in the root folder using the ‘bread crumb’ menu in the top left.

After creating your publication, you can continue to creating pads.

3. Creating Pads

To start making content in a publication, you can create a pad for each part of the content. These pads will appear in the web version as a page and in the print version as a chapter.

In the publication folder, click the button ‘+ CREATE PAD’
In the box ‘Name’, enter a name for this chapter
Optional: choose a content template
Click the button ‘CREATE’

You will now be taken to the newly created pad. Some templates, such as the ‘Event report’ template, require customization by the editor.

After finishing possible customizations, proceed to metadata.

4. Metadata

To manage the organization and appearance of pads within the publication, you can insert various types of metadata at the top of each pad.

You can insert metadata by using the following formulas in the top lines in the pad:

• chapter: Name of the chapter > Defines the title of the pad as shown on in the generated versions.
• status: draft or published (default is published) > Determines whether or not a pad is included in the generated versions.
• order: number > Determines the order of appearance of the chapters (chapters are ordered in ascending order).
• position: before_content, after_content, before_indexes, after_indexes > Determines the position of the chapter in regard to special elements.
• on_screen: true or false > Determines whether or not a chapter is included in the print version.
• on_web: true or false > Determines whether or not a chapter is included in the web version.
• labels: list of attached labels Each of these metadata is optional. Often, it suffices to only have the title and order number.

5. Sharing the Pads

In case you are working with (an) external author(s), you can share access to the pad(s) with them at this point.

To make a pad accessible, you will need to make it public. To do so, go to the publication folder and click the button ‘make public’.

To share the pad with the author, you can copy the URL from the address bar and send it to the author, or, in the folder list right-click on the pad and select ‘copy link’.

6. Text

In the pad, author(s) can type textual content. (Please note that multiple authors can work simultaneously in one document.)

Authors can use the functionalities of Etherpad to style the textual content. These functionalities are all found in the top menu bar. It works like any other popular text editor:

• text can be made bold or in italics;
• styles such as ‘normal’, ‘Heading 1’, and ‘Heading 2’ can be assigned;
• numbered or bullet point lists can be inserted. Alternatively, authors can also use Markdown or html syntax.

If you’re working with existing textual content, you can import it into a pad using the ‘import/export’ button at the top right of the Etherpad menu bar. It’s the button with two arrows.

7. Images

Images can be embedded in a pad using the Django File Manager plug-in, accessed through the file widget in the top bar.

8. Audio and Video Content

It is possible to embed audio and video content hosted on an external platfom (such as Vimeo, YouTube, or Soundcloud) using the embed link provided by the platform.

9. Labels

An important feature of Etherport is the labeling functionality.

10. Editing

Once the reporter(s) is/are finished with their initial report, the editor start editing. To accomodate the back and forth between editor and author(s), Etherport features a comment and suggestions-plug-in. To use this plug-in, select a part of the text and click the comment widget in the top bar. Optionally, include a suggestion by checking ‘include suggested change’.

After the editorial process, proceed to publishing!

11. Publishing

The publication can be published by generating a static version.

Click ‘Generate publications’ at the top of the screen
Select the organization hosting the publication you are publishing
Select the publication you want to generate by checking the box in front of it
Click the huge ‘Generate’ button, and wait

In the generation process the content of the reports is read, processed and reordered based on content types and the labels. It automatically generates two versions:

1. The web version, which you can find in the overview of publications of your organization.
2. The print file, accessed by clicking ‘print’ in the web version. Press ctrl+p or cmd+p to either print this version, or to store it as a PDF. Generation is not a one-time process. You can re-generate as many times as you like. Each time, the changes you made to the pads (including themes, styles, metadata and labels) will be included in the newly generated version.