TOPIC:

We are considering resurrecting the FreeToastHost FAQs on this website, but in a new form, as a new additional type of index to the existing online documentation. By doing it as an index we are just using links to various user docs as the "answer" to the questions, so unlike the old FAQs, there should not be any major maintenance effort involved once the index is created, other than just adding new questions. We could use some of the old FAQ questions, but just put them in this new format.

Essentially, this would look something like the following:

Membership FAQs

• How do I add a new member? link to relevant doc
• How do I send a welcome email to a new member? link to relevant doc
• How do I delete a member? link to relevant doc
• etc.

Agenda FAQs

• How do I create an agenda? link to relevant doc
• How do I create an agenda template? link to relevant doc
• etc.

However, we need suggestions for what FAQs to put into the index page... Anyone have some thoughts?

How do I add a lot of members at once?
How do I hide the TI information banners on the home page?

please read the documentation on this site.

support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc

Emma wrote:

How do I add a lot of members at once?
How do I hide the TI information banners on the home page?

Emma, thanks for your suggested FAQs... I admit I thought you were asking for support help on those.

Suggestions to what should be in the Index...

Administration FAQ
-How do I switch from Administration mode to Member mode?
-As the administrator, do I need to set up a separate login for myself as a member?

Image FAQ
-How can I move and resize an image around text?
-Can I make an image of a document?


html FAQ
-How do I make a (r) or (tm)?

8228 wrote:

Suggestions to what should be in the Index...

Administration FAQ
-How do I switch from Administration mode to Member mode?
-As the administrator, do I need to set up a separate login for myself as a member?

Image FAQ
-How can I move and resize an image around text?
-Can I make an image of a document?


html FAQ
-How do I make a (r) or (tm)?

Well, some of these things are already in the documentation and could be referenced by an index, and some are not. Typically, with an index you are only referencing content that already exists... (Note above that my intention is the answers to any FAQs in the index be links to existing documentation.) Just to be clear... are you suggesting that we should additionally create new documentation?

Hello Steve,

What I still need help with is how to place a new or changed agenda template into the slot I want it to go into. It alwasy seems to either go to a new slot, or worse it overwrites an existing template. An index for that would help a lot I believe.

Steven Sigrest
TravTalk Toastmasters Club #4418
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Currently - I have to save after every change I make to an agenda - if I make multiple changes - the last change is lost - it would be good if there was some kind of cache that enabled me to make multiple changes - see how the overall agenda looks like and then hit "Save" once I'm done. This would make a good FAQ.

Adrian Watts
doublec.toastmastersclubs.org
lia.toastmastersclubs.org

FAQs should exist but they should continually mold the official manual. Many program authors rely 100% on forums to provide the users with the operating instructions, and that's a messy and awkward and bad approach. Keyword searches in forums are a very flawed method if the user doesn't happen to know the right terms or jargon, and sometimes they just don't work anyway.

There should be FAQs but every FAQ represents a failure in the original documentation, and those failures should be continually addressed.

As far as my own FAQ requests, I've had a bunch of questions and I would never remember any of them. Probably most people wouldn't remember either. Monitoring FAQs, hence, should be a constant.

Cube wrote:

FAQs should exist but they should continually mold the official manual. Many program authors rely 100% on forums to provide the users with the operating instructions, and that's a messy and awkward and bad approach. Keyword searches in forums are a very flawed method if the user doesn't happen to know the right terms or jargon, and sometimes they just don't work anyway.

There should be FAQs but every FAQ represents a failure in the original documentation, and those failures should be continually addressed.

As far as my own FAQ requests, I've had a bunch of questions and I would never remember any of them. Probably most people wouldn't remember either. Monitoring FAQs, hence, should be a constant.

Thanks for your feedback. Sometimes I find that we have the answers to user's questions, but they are buried in the existing docs somewhere. This is *not* a criticism of our existing docs. I am simply pointing to the reality that different people may use different wording and or have a particular question that leads to the same answer already existing somewhere in our docs. Thus, I think this is the value of having multiple types of indexes that help people find answers.

However, you also make a good point that we need to have a good mechanism for quickly addressing information not already in our docs. I tend to think Jane is very good about continuously looking for where our docs can be improved--she has put a lot of very solid effort into that. However, I also realize that sometimes we don't get direct feedback on doc improvements from our users... The "feedback" is in what FAQs people ask that they are not finding the answer to in our existing docs (and existing index) for whatever reason.

Q: Can I host a blog here?

I know the reasons why you don't want to host a blog here - and I don't blame you one bit. But those reasons are not obvious to people who don't have a lot of experience with CMSs. A brief explanation of this and suggestions for a few places to get started might be helpful. Thanks for asking!

Can I add additional social media that is not already in the list? (eg: Pinterest, StumbleUpon, etc)
How can I add social media icons to individual pages or articles?

Yes you can in the other, in the admin section

Videos are everything. They drive page views for media organizations around the globe and create immediate understanding. The expression "monkey see, monkey do" truly is the most helpful method for how things work. I think we've all searched YouTube a time or two when a home repair has left us scratching our heads. I think it's much the same with technical things such as accomplishing tasks on FTH. If videos are not feasible, then definitely screengrabs for each topic. But, I really think videos are the answer. I have often considered creating videos for my media organization on how to activate digital access and use e-Newspaper features. I'm the web geek for our Toastmasters club and would be interested in exploring the possibility of creating videos. As a side note, media organizations are discovering that text-on-screen videos are especially helpful.

Full disclosure: I am a member of the media.

Videos can be nice but they can be not too. Most of the time I'd rather have something I can print out and follow with my finger on the page, line after line. Videos are good for people who remember forever every detail that they quickly and fleetingly see, but that's not me.

Videos are in fashion now, and that means that they will be prescribed in cases where they are not the best method. They do have their place.

FAQ: How do I add a guest speaker to my agenda?

Suggestion for answer: support.toastmastersclubs.org/5-support-...te-agenda-help#56291

Either add guest speaker or keynote speaker with no email address to the member database

"Either add guest speaker or keynote speaker with no email address to the member database "

Do you mean to add "Guest Speaker" to the database, or the guest speaker's name?
We have "Guest Speaker" in the database.

I mean guest speaker or Keynote Speaker and place the persons name where their introduction would go...

I found it difficult to figure out how to use the calendar. I would appreciate FAQ links for that.

Please add your club number and name to every post here

Regarding suggestions for frequently asked questions.

How do I type in text in the website so that the word locations stay the same after I save as when I typed them in the edit mode. Further information: currently if things look good in edit mode, they are shifted strangely after saving. Also if it looks good in Chrome, the same website has shifted word locations when viewed in Firefox, and vice versa.


I get a scary message when I try to paste a Word document into the paste box for a submenu in the Public menu. It says it must be plain text or I might ruin the whole website. How can I convert my Word into something acceptable without retyping it all?
Further information: the submenu has earlier newsletters that have color photos, varying column formats, and color graphics so there must be a way to get non-plain text there. Can I do screen shots, crop and resize, convert to pictures, and past the picture?

On the websites download section, is there a way to organize documents and digital manuals in folders?
Further information-We have many more documents and digital manuals we would like to add but it has to be subdivided into folders to be useful.

Madison Achievers 1521807 Kathy Vielhuber

You add folders to the download area by: Example: member notes: (downloaded material)

You can also read all about how to do that and more from this site at: support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc