Tips are brief snippets of "micro-content" that you can update frequently and sprinkle throughout your site. You might, for example, use tips to display testimonials, quotes, did-you-know factoids or product tips.
Tips appear on any pages whose templates use the ++TIP++ widget. You can also choose to allow your site's visitors to display your tips on their own websites via your site's content affiliate program.
Use the tip editor to add, edit or delete tips for your site. After each change, Big Medium automatically updates the tip widget on all of your pages to display the new additions. In addition, Big Medium maintains an archive of all of your tips on a standalone tips page. A link to this tips page is automatically included at the end of the tip(s) displayed in the ++TIP++ widget.
Who Can Use the Tip Editor?
Any users with publisher, webmaster or administrator accounts may use the tip editor.
The Tip Editor Menu
Click the "Tip Editor" link under "Content" in the left-column menu of the Big Medium control panel to display the tip editor menu, where all of the tips for your site are displayed. From this menu, you can create a new tip, edit an existing tip or delete a tip.
The current "live" tip(s) for your site are highlighted in the tip editor menu. These are the tips that are currently displayed to your site's visitors. (See "Tip display settings" below for information on how to change the number and manner of tips displayed.)
Creating or Editing a Tip
To create a new tip, click the "Create a New Tip" link at the top of the tip editor menu. To edit an existing tip, click the title of the tip you would like to edit from the menu. Clicking either of these links brings up the tip edit page (blank for new tips and pre-filled for existing tips).
- Make this the first tip in the list. Checking this box pushes the edited tip to the top of the list of tips and ensures that it will be displayed to your site's visitors. (This field is displayed only when you are editing an existing tip; when you create a new tip, it is automatically selected as the current tip to display.)
- Headline. The headline is the heading displayed above the tip when displayed to your site's visitors.
- Tip Text. The tip text is the main content of your tip. Type your tip and click the "Save" button to save your tip and return to the tip menu.
Rich-text editor
If you have a browser that supports Big Medium's rich-text editor, Big Medium provides a toolbar of familiar text-formatting buttons, giving you a workspace similar to a word processor for entering and formatting your text. For more info, see the help page for the rich-text editor.
If your browser does not support the rich-text editor you can instead use Moxie Code to add simple formatting to your text.
Updating the Tip Archive Page
When you save a tip, Big Medium automatically updates the tip information on your site, with the exception of your tip archive page. To complete updating of the archive page, you should rebuild top-level pages of your tip section (Big Medium offers you a link to do this after you save your tip).
Deleting Tips
To permanently remove a tip from the system, click the delete checkbox in the tip editor menu next to the tip(s) you would like to delete, then click the "Update Menu" button. Be careful! Deleting tips is a permanent action and cannot be undone. Once a tip is deleted, it's gone for good.
Tip display settings
Several settings in the "News and Tips" panel of the site's widget settings control how tips are displayed to your site's visitors. Users with webmaster or administrator accounts can configure these settings by clicking "Widget Settings" under "Templates" in the left-column menu of the Big Medium control panel.
After you save your tip-display settings in the site's widget editor, the revised settings will take effect only after you save a new tip or edit an old tip.
Configuring the Tip Section
The tip section must be configured before you can use the tip editor. This configuration tells Big Medium which section template to use when building the tip archive page. Specifically, Big Medium uses the subsection index template for the section you select to build the tips page, displaying the tips with the ++INDEX++ widget. Users with webmaster or administrator accounts can configure the tip section by going to the "News and tips" section of the widget settings.
- Term to refer to tips on the sites.
This word or phrase appears as the headline of the tip archive page and also as part of the link text used in the
++TIP++widget to link to the archive page ("More [YOUR TERM]."). You might choose to set the term, for example, to "Quotes" or "Testimonials." - Number of tips to display This setting determines the number of tips to display in the ++TIP++ widget. Setting this to 3, for example, would display three tips at a time.
- Tips to display in ++TIP++ widget
This setting determines which tips are shown and in what order:
- Most recent tips first. Display the most recently created tips, with the latest tips appearing first. The same tips are always shown, and the display is identical on all pages that use the ++TIP++ widget.
- Random selection(s) from most recent 10 tips. This randomized display changes the tips that are shown from page to page.
- Offer tips as a news feed Checking this option allows you to offer tips as an RSS and/or JavaScript news feed. For more details, see Chapter 11, "News Feeds."
Need more help?
For further assistance and documentation, visit the website of Global Moxie, the developer behind Big Medium.