Configuration comes in two parts: configuring the system and configuring the appearance of the articles.

It's actually quite possible to enter the Control Panel with the default configuration. So it's suggested that you familiarize yourself with the Max News pages and reading about the Control Panel and Creating Issues, before coming back to configure the system.

System Configuration.

The system configuration is straight-forward. Actually, as of this writing, your name and email address aren’t used by the system. (Maybe in the future…)

The most important field is called Location of MaxNews. This is the folder where you placed the PHP pages. All articles will be created in a folder under this one. It is called ‘articles’

And every image uploaded as part of an article goes in the ‘uploaded’ folder under this folder.

This field is used the create the addressing of the articles. In other words, the starting page will link to the articles by using this address and appending the pagename. It’s important to note the http:// at the front. This is essential. Also, the ending slash (although the system WILL add the ending slash, if you forget.)

Article Configuration

Here’s how you configure the appearance of the articles when the webpages are created.

First comes the HTML Template for Articles when created.

Note: it's important, when entering in the text box, to put every line beginning with <p> on a separate line. This is an HTML consideration, not a Max News problem.

Here’s what the [] markers represent:

[ARTICLENAME] –- the title of the article

[AUTHORNAME] – the author of the article

[ARTICLE] – the actual article in full

[BACK] –- a back button to the starting page

[CENTERIMAGE] – the image is centered

[IMAGE] – the image is left-justified

Note: if you define fonts in the article template, the font options on the Configuration page will over-ride the fonts in the template. You need to blank out the font field in the Config in order to use the fonts specified in the template. (See fonts description.)

Next on the Configuration page is HTML Template for Abstract of Articles

This refers to the summary paragraphs that go on the issue starting page. You get to choose how those look, also. Before your starting page of the issue can be created, you need to specify how you want the abstracts (summary paragraphs) of your articles to appear. The starting page is normally a list of the abstracts of the articles with a link to each article.

For example:

This will put the articlename linked to the article, followed by the authorname, and then the summary paragraph. The starting page will be a list of these, one for each article. Note: it's important, when entering in the text box, to put every line beginning with <p> on a separate line.

Next on the Configuration page is Header HTML for article pages when created

And Footer HTML for article pages when created

This is the HTML code for the header on each article page. It’s how you get the articles to match the appearance of the pages on the website. (Or create a nice layout for the articles, if the appearance is to be different.)

After you've added a number of articles, you can create the web pages for those articles. A page will be created for each article with the page name of issue_pagename.htm where 'issue' is what you entered in the Issue field. And 'pagename' is what you entered in the Page Name field. For example, vol1_findingjoy.htm

Each of those pages to be created can have a header and a footer. In these two fields, you may enter the HTML code for the header and the footer. Note that all href= and all src= html tags must use absolute addressing, i.e., http://something/

Next on the Configuration page is Line Length for Text Newsletters

After you have entered all your articles and created an issue, you can choose to view that issue in either HTML or text format. When viewing in text format, this option sets the line length for the viewing of the text. If you intend to copy/paste the newsletter text into an email, it is important to remember that line lengths greater than 68 may create weird-looking line breaks in some email readers.

Next on the Configuration page is where we define the fonts to be used when creating article webpages and the starting pages. The following configuration fields set the font, font size and font color of the various elements of the HTML newsletter. If you wish to set font, size and color in the template(s), you MUST blank these out as these take precedence.

First is Font, Size and Color for Article Text

Then Font, Size and Color for Article Headline

This defines the way the headline (called Article Name in the Article entry form) will appear, when the page is created.

Then Font, Size and Color for Abstract Text

This defines the way the abstract (summary paragraph) will appear, when the starting page is created.

Then Font, Size and Color for Abstract Headline

This defines the way the abstract headline (called Article Name in the Article entry form) will appear, when the page is created.

Then Font, Size and Color for Introductory and Ending Messages on Start Page

The starting page has a Introductory Message at the top and an Ending Message at the bottom. You can control the appearance of the body text of the messages with the three options called Font for Introductory and Ending Messages, Font Size for Introductory and Ending Messages, and Font Color for Introductory and Ending Messages. This defines the way the messages will appear, when the page is created.

Next, let's look at Starting the Max News System....