Page 158 - PAM - PROOF

V 1.1 February 2024

Author Training

This Author Training is not mandatory; it is available for any Web Manager who
wishes to use it. All Web Managers are completely at liberty to decide how best
to train their own authors, creating their own customised material, running
workshops, or any other method that works for them. If you do want to use this
material then please use the email address provided at the end of this section to
request a copy.
Asking around our early SiteWorks web managers what they would like from
Author Training it varied enormously from simple text changes only through to
creation of Posts with templates and query loops. It is just not possible to please
everyone but the learning has been roughly split into sections to enable the new
author to pick-and-mix, perhaps guided by his/her Web Manager. The chart
below is in section 1b of the Author Training and it outlines types of authors and
suggests personalised plans for each type.

Sections
App App
Author type 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 A B
Simple Group Page with text and x x x x x x o
graphics
Comprehensive page with items such x x x x o x x x x
as Gutenslider, bulleted lists, or tables
Expert Group Page using container x x x x x x x x x x
blocks for complex layouts
Any Page with Events x x x x x x x x x x x
Any Page with Posts x x x x x x x x x x x
Any Page with Events + Posts x x x x x x x x x x x x
Number of pages (lots of screenshots) 4 5 28 7 3 2 2 4 4 1 4 1
o = optional

Note that the Author Training document is 75 pages long complete with cover,
table of contents, and appendices. This sounds a lot but the average word count
per page is less than 200 (around ¼ of a page) and the rest is screenshots to
guide the author through the practical elements. Each section also includes a
variety of screenshots from Pioneer websites to demonstrate how text, media,
lists, etc. are being used in practice.

After much discussion those involved have agreed that the author training
content needs to be generic so that any u3a can use it. This has been achieved
although, obviously, the website examples are from real u3as. The easiest tool to
use is your own website and all of the block editing learning and practice will take
place using an uncategorised Post as a page. The author will create and use this
page and, using the instructions provided, will insert and edit a variety of block
types before graduating to his/her own page(s).

Workbook for Web Managers Migrating to u3a SiteWorks Page 158