Stamporama FAQ Maintainers' Manual
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Index
Formatting your FAQ File
Contents of your FAQ
Formatting your FAQ File
Maintaining the data for a Stamporama FAQ file is very easy, but a few simple rules must be followed:
- Data must be maintained in a plain text format. That means it must be maintained with Windows Notepad, Wordpad,
Excel (forced to print out a *.txt or *.prn file) or some other program that does not use any of its own formatting. MS Word and other
word processors that normally include formatting will work, but only if forced to save the file as plain text (in Word, choose MS-DOS text with line breaks).
If in doubt, ask the Webmaster.
- The data content must follow a specific format and contain some "markers". The marker we use is a series of three "plus" signs (+++):
- First Line of the file must contain:
FAQ name+++Maintainer's name+++maintainer's email address
for example:
Postal History FAQ+++Roy Lingen+++webmaster@stamporama.com
notice the "+++" characters separating the information. Do not include any extra spaces.
- Questions and answers.
Each question or answer will be indicated by a marker, on its own line. +++question will mark a question following
and +++answer will mark an answer following.
Example FAQ file:
Postal History FAQ+++Roy Lingen+++webmaster@stamporama.com
+++question
How do I start collecting Postal History?
+++answer
Roy Lingen suggests Start by acquiring inexpensive covers
that catch your eye. Try lots of different areas. Look at exhibits,
either at stamp shows or on-line. Notice that almost all collections
have a "theme". Think about different themes that may hold
some appeal and acquire a few covers. Follow up on the theme
that catches your interest the most and find out everything you
can about it.
+++question
Next question
+++answer
Next answer
- Filenames. Each FAQ is given a short name by which the server calls it. For example, the one above is called "postalhistory"
(all small letters!). You will be given a short name for your FAQ when you begin maintainance of it. Your FAQ must be maintained and uploaded
with a specific file name. The file name will be "faq-shortname.txt". Notice it's all small letters. That is very important. The server will not
recognize your FAQ file if the file name is not exactly correct. In this example, the file name is "faq-postalhistory.txt"
- Upload your newly edited FAQ file using the form at this link http://www.stamporama.com/faq/uploadform.shtml (you will also find it on the FAQ Index page) and that's
it, you're done! The server takes it from there. Go to your FAQ through the FAQ Index page and you will see your changes and
"Updated ..." with a new date and time.
Some Enhancements
The program that generates the final FAQ page the user sees will ignore all line breaks and blank lines in your text file, so you don't need to worry about lines or how many spaces
between question and answers. It will provide all it's own formatting of questions and answers. But what if you want a paragraph break
within an answer? -- for example, to separate two different responses to the same question. Leaving a blank line in your text file won't do it, because that will be stripped out.
There are some easy to remember "tags" that can be used to force the program to recognize formatting you want included.
<P> forces a paragraph break.
Example:
Roy answered: I would go about it this way ....
<P>
David answered: My preference would be ....
Without the <P> tag, regardless of how many blank lines you left, your answer would end up looking like this:
Roy answered: I would go about it this way .... David answered: My preference would be ....
With the <P> tag, your answer will appear the way you intended:
Roy answered: I would go about it this way ....
David answered: My preference would be ...
Useful tags are:
<P> | new paragraph, as described above |
<BR> | causes a new line, but without the extra blank line. |
<B> </B> | causes anything between these two tags to appear in bold text. Notice that both tags are required, and that the second one has a slash: "/" |
<I> </I> | same idea, but creates italic text. |
If you know HTML, you will recognize these tags. All HTML tags will work, and be maintained in your data file. You can even use more
complex structures like lists, links and images etc., but please refrain from using Table structures or any other tags that might affect the overall page
layout.
If you don't know HTML, don't worry -- you don't need it. Making a note of the two tags above, <P> and <BR> , for the times
you want to force a new line is quite enough.
Contents of your FAQ File
The FAQ file is yours -- you are the "boss". You can include whatever you like, but we would like to offer some suggestions.
Faq Index Page
Last update: Aug 8, 2002
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