There are basically two ways our editor can accept submissions for the website:

• if you are a member, you can simply login, go to your "My Folder" and edit the article yourself; you don't need any special web skills, there are some tips below
  
• you can create the text in a word-processor document and send it with any pictures & game files to our editor at editor@ulsterchess.org.  Please don't add photographs into your document - pictures and text should be seperate files
  

Before an article will be published on the site, it will be reviewed by our editor and in some cases it may be rejected. Here are some notes on how to avoid an embarrassing rejection slip:

1. keep in mind the readership of the website - visitors from all over the world read our pages so avoid any rudeness, bad language or inappropriate humour.
2. cheek the speeling and grammer
   
3. make sure any photos or images are relevant to your article, of reasonable quality and appropriate for the site; make sure you have copyright on them too.
   
4. try and scale photographs so they are appropriate for publication on the web; they should not be larger than 1024 x 1024 and if you have a few pictures for a single article, make them smaller still, either 800x600 or 640x480 depending on the number of photos
   
5. photographs should be compressed and formatted for publication on the web - generally this means jpg or JPEG files compressed to about 75%. Bitmaps (.BMP), Photoshop (.PSD), Illustrator (.AI) and some other types will be rejected immediately as web browsers cannot display them

If you don't know how to manipulate computer images, please ask for advice.

Here are some tips if you are editing the article yourself:

Which type of article should I use?

After you login and go to your "My Folder" (see the example image above to locate the button), to add a new article, look for the "add to folder" tab. Clicking on it will drop down a list of different types of content available to you Choose the best one for your article. The ones you are interested in are:

• article - use this if your article will have several pictures and/or files as well as text
  
• page - use this if your article contains just text
  
• news item - use this if your article is topical and should appear in the news list - you can add a single picture if you want
  
• event - use this to give advance notice of a forthcoming event; events appear in the calendar and should usually have another longer article describing the event in detail; the longer piece can be linked to another website

See the top image for an example of the "add to folder" drop down menu.

Remember to "Save" your article when you are finished; quite often your browser will tell you if you are about to leave an article which has not been saved but not always. Documents are not saved automatically, you must click the "Save" button or risk losing your work.

Do I need to know how web pages work?

Not really. If you use a modern browser such as Firefox, Safari or a recent Internet Explorer, when you edit a page, it appears as a form to be filled in.

Just type text into the appropriate boxes. For larger articles there will be a section called "Body" - this is for the main text of your article. At the top of this text box are the typical buttons you see in a word-processor for highlighting text and such. See the example image of what the tool bar looks like.

Use this tool in the same way as you would in a word-processor: highlight text by dragging over it with your mouse and then click the style button you want.

How do I get my article published?

Beside the "add to folder" tab is another labelled "state" This describes the current state of your document. Initially it will be "public draft"

When you have finished your article and you are satisfied it is ready for publication, click on the "state" tab and choose "submit" (see the example image to locate this button). Our editor will be advised an article is waiting for review; after reviewing it, the editor will either "publish" it or "reject" it. If it is rejected you should receive a message explaining why it was rejected with suggestions for correcting before re-submitting it.

After your article is published, it cannot be edited or changed. If you do need to change it later, it must be "retracted" first (using the "state" tab) and submitted again.

While your articles are in the "public draft" state, visitors can view your work - if they can find them. Articles can be searched for and viewed when they are in either "public draft" or "published" states. You can make a document "private" if you prefer to keep it hidden while you finish it - use the "state" drop down menu and click on the "make private" state to do this.

Can I move my article into one of the special folders?

No. Only the editor or webmaster can do that.

News items and Events will automatically appear in the appropriate lists when they are published and don't need moved. If you think your article should be in a particular folder, suggest this to the editor.

Exceptions to this rule are when you are in one of our membership groups. They can add articles directly to folders they have access to. This includes Club Secretaries who can edit their club pages, and Schools Editors who can add to the Schools section.

Can other people edit my article?

Generally no. The editor and webmaster can make changes to articles, correcting simple spelling mistakes for example, and move them about the site. If you are in one of our membership groups you may have communal access to some documents so your group can collaborate in preparing pages for publication.

If you have any questions please write and ask our Editor for guidance.