We will be adding to these Frequently Asked Questions as time goes by, so please get in touch and ask us about anything that might be confusing, troubling or baffling you.
All questions and issues related to www.ABCtales.com should be directed to tcook@abctales.com.
We will try as hard as we can to get back to you in less than 48 hours.
Contents
1. What do I do if I've forgotten my password?
2. How do I change my password?
3. How do I contact another ABCtales member?
4. How do I add my stories and poems to ABCtales?
5. How do I create a collection?
6. Is there any limit to the amount of stories and poems I can submit to ABCtales.com?
7. How do I sort my stories and poems into collections?
8. How do I delete a story or poem from ABCtales.com?
9. How do I find the most recently posted stories on ABCtales?
10. What is a cherry-pick and how do I get one?
11. Where do I find the cherry-picked pieces on ABCtales?
12. How do I add information to my personal page?
13. How do I use bookmarks on ABCtales.com?
14. How do I turn off the 'bookmark' function on ABCtales.com?
15. How do I put in Bold, Italics and other HTML tags?
1. What do I do if I've forgotten my password?
To request a new password, under 'user login on the Right Hand Side Navigation bar you'll find a link 'Request new password'.
Follow the link and enter either your username or the email address that used for that account into the form as requested and a new password will be emailed to you.
Once you've logged in you can change your password at anytime by following the instructions below.
2. How do I change my password?
If you would like to change the password to your ABCtales account, login to the site and go to 'my details' on the right hand side navigation bar.
Click the 'edit' tab at the top of the page.
You will find a box to set a new password. Enter your new choice of password twice as specified and scroll to the bottom and click 'submit'.
You now have a new password of your choice!
3. How do I contact another ABCtales member?
If you would like to contact the author of a piece of writing, you must first click their username as it appears on their story or poem. This will appear below the story or poem title. Clicking this will take you to the personal page of that author. Below their name on that page you will see a tab marked 'contact'. This will lead you to a form where you can send an email to that author.
You can also use the 'Find an author' link on the Right Hand Side Navigation bar to search for an author. Search results will take you to the personal page of an author as outlined above.
4. How do I add my stories and poems to ABCtales?
To add stories and poems to ABCtales, you must first create a collection for them to fit into. (see 5)
To fill your collection(s) stories and poems, click the 'Write a new stories' link on the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar.
Here you will find a field for you to input the title of your story or poem, and drop down menus for 'age rating', 'genre' and 'type of story'.
The age rating you choose should follow the guide of UK film and video classification, so 'U' is suitable for all, 'PG' is mostly suitable for all but may contain some things that parents may not want younger children to view, '12' may contain mild swearing or sexual content, '15' more extreme language or content and '18' should be selected for themes, content or language only suitable for those over eighteen years of age. 'Genre' and 'Type of story' control where your piece of writing will appear on the site, so it will help it to be read by others if it is correctly catagorised.
Below these options you will see a drop down Which of your Collections should this go in?. Use this to select which of your collections you would like your poem to be stored in.
You will then find a box that asks you to 'Enter your story here'. You may enter your story either by typing it directly into the box or by cutting and pasting it from another document. You will find a link below the box ('More information about formatting options') which offers advice on formatting your work.
The box labelled 'Exerpt' allows you to write a short taster for your piece of writing that will appear alongside the title when your story appears in the ABCtales public gallery and recently added lists. You might like to try to draw people in to your story, or provide them with information about your piece of writing. For example 'On a dark night, four strangers meet to make music like the world has never known' or 'A set of three haiku written late August 2005 sat on the banks of the river Tees'. If you do not specify an exerpt, the site will generate one from the opening lines of your writing.
Finally, you are given the option to either 'Preview' or 'Submit' your piece of writing. If you are confident that you have everything the way you want it, press 'Submit'. You can edit it later, anyway.
If you'd like to see how your piece will look before you submit it, press 'Preview'. This will show you your piece as it will appear on the site, then below this you will be able to alter it by going through the processes we have already discussed. Once you are happy with it, remember to press 'Submit' and there it will be, on ABCtales for all to see!.
5. How do I create a collection?
Think of a collection as being like a folder that your work will collected into.
Go to the 'Make a new collection' link on the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar. Firstly, you will see a field marked 'Title'. Fill this in with the title you would like your collection to have, for example 'My Writing 2005' or 'The Preserved Moose'.
Secondly, you will see a field labelled 'Description'. This is where you will put a short description of what your collection is, what it contains or any other information you'd like other people to to see when they view it. For example 'This collection is made up of my writing from 2005' or 'A memoir of my youth, dedicated to the other boys in the band who always knew that there is a fine line between clever and stupid'.
Ignoring the 'excerpt' field, scroll down the page and press 'Submit'.
You now have created a collection!
To fill it with your stories and poems, click the 'Write a new stories' link on the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar. (see 4)
6. Is there any limit to the amount of stories and poems I can submit to ABCtales.com?
You can post as many stories and poem on ABCtales.com as you like! However, if you have a lot of work you'd like to submit, it is best if you keep your submissions to three stories or poems a day. This makes it more likely that your work will be read and gives other people a chance to appear on the the list of recently submitted stories and poems
7. How do I sort my stories and poems into collections?
You can move your stories and poems into collections, or move them from one collection to another, by firstly clicking the 'My Details' link on the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar. Here you will find a list of all of your stories, poems and collections.
Click the story or poem that you would like to move. This will take you to the story or poem. Below the title of your story or poem, you will see a tab marked 'Edit'. Clicking this will take you to a page where you can alter and edit the story or poem. Half way down the page you will see a drop down menu labelled 'Which of your Collections should this go in?'. This will show the title of the collection in which included in that the story or poem is currently. To move the story or poem to another collection, open the drop down menu and select the collection of your choice.
When you are happy with your selection, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click 'Submit'.
Your story or poem has now been moved to the collection of your choice! To check that all is correct, either click the title of the collection as it appears beneath the title of the story or poem as it is displayed on the site or go to 'My details' and click the title of the collection that you selected. You will see the contents of the collection, including your newly moved poem
8. How do I delete a story or poem from ABCtales.com?
You can delete a story or poem from ABCtales.com by firstly clicking the 'My Details' link on the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar. Here you will find a list of all of your stories, poems and collections
Click the story or poem that you would like to delete. This will take you to the story or poem. Below the title of your story or poem, you will see a tab marked 'Edit'. Clicking this will take you to a page where you can alter and edit the story or poem.
Scrolling to the bottom of the page will take you to three buttons labelled 'Preview', 'Submit' and 'Delete'. Clicking the 'Delete' button will prompt the site to ask you if you are sure that you want to delete the story or poem. ABCtales does not keep copies of deleted stories and poems, so be certain that you have another copy of your story or poem somewhere before you press the 'Delete' button a second time!
Pressing the 'Delete' button as prompted will remove your story or poem from ABCtales.
9. How do I find the most recently posted stories on ABCtales?
To find the most recently added stories and poems to ABCtales, go to the 'Recently added' on the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar. If you follow this link, you will find a list of all of the stories and poems on ABCtales, beginning with the most recent first.
10. What is a cherry-pick and how do I get one?
A cherry-pick, represented by a lovely bunch of cherries, is given by the editors of ABCtales to recognise pieces of writing that they really think that other people should read. This is not a scientific process, but does genuinely represent both an encouragement to writers and also a guide to the most interesting or noteworthy writing on ABCtales. If you do get a cherry, your piece is added to the list of cherry-picked pieces and you'll receive an email of congratulation.
11. Where do I find the cherry-picked pieces on ABCtales?
The cherry-picked pieces on ABCtales are all collected into one list, with the most recent first. You can find this by clicking the 'Public Gallery' link on the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar. On the 'Public Gallery' page, underneath the heading 'List by Type of tale', you'll find a link to all of the cherry-picked stories and poems.
12. How do I add information to my personal page?
To add a biography of yourself to your personal page, firstly go to 'My Details on the Right Hand Navigation Bar, which is only visible if you are logged in to the site. This will take you to your personal page, which has details of all of your stories, poems and collections.
You will see a tab at the top of the page marked 'edit'. Clicking this will take you to a page with further options. Follow the link marked 'Personal Details', which will take you to a further page, where you will find a box labelled 'Author Profile'.
Fill this box with your biog, and then click 'Submit' at the bottom of the page. Your biog will now be visible to the rest of the world!
13. How do I use bookmarks on the site?
The bookmark section of the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar exists so that you can bookmark pages within the ABCtales.com site. You can bookmark stories and poems that you'd like to return to later, or discussions that you'd like to keep an eye on. This is especially useful if you only get to look at the site for short periods of time, and wanted to keep a record of things that you'd like to return to when you get a bit longer.
When you are logged in to the site, you will see a heading '[username's] bookmarks'. Below this you will see the message 'You have no bookmarks. And two links 'Quick Link' and 'manage'.
When you find a page you would like to come back to later, all you need to do is click the 'quick link' link. This takes you to a page titled 'bookmark details'. Under the heading of 'Title' you will see the name of the page you are bookmarking. You can edit this to whatever you find most useful.
Under the heading 'URL' you will see the address of the page you are bookmarking. Leave this alone or your bookmark won't point to the page you want!
Click 'Save' at the bottom of the page and you have created your first bookmark! You will now see that under '[username's] bookmarks' there is the title of the page that you bookmarked, with a little icon of a dustbin. The name of the page is a link that leads you directly there, and the dustbin is a delete button. Click the dustbin, and the link will be deleted.
You will see that you are also taken to page where you can see a list of your bookmarks, with options to edit or delete them. This is the same page to which the 'manage' link on the navigation bar will take you.
Only you can see your bookmarks, and only when you are logged into the site.
It is also possible to turn off the 'bookmark' function by editing your personal preferences (see 14)
14. How do I turn off the 'bookmark' function on ABCtales.com?
To turn off the 'Bookmark' function on ABCtales.com, log in and go to 'My Details' on the Right Hand Side Navigation Bar. Click the 'Edit' tab that appears below your username. This takes you to a page titled 'Account Information'. Scroll down until you see a heading 'Block Configuration'. Below this you will see a tick box titled ' User bookmarks'. Unticking this box will turn off the 'bookmark' function.
Should you need to turn it back on, follow these instructions and re-tick the box.
15. How do I insert Bold, Italics and Other HTML tags?
Allowed HTML tags are: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> and <dd>
-
<a> is for making tidy-looking links.
If you want to link to:
http://www.abctales.com/story/ftse100/fishcake-day
for example, you can just type in the URI (as above)
or, to make it neater, you can use <a> (called an anchor tag).To use an anchor tag you would type in something like:
Footsie's <a href="http://www.abctales.com/story/ftse100/fishcake-day">Fishcake Day</a> story.
and it would appear like this:
Footsie's Fishcake Day story.
A lot neater than the first link, don't you think? It looks a bit complicated, but the recipe is simple.
The magic formula is: <a href="URI">description</a>
where URI is the gunk you normally copy in to make a link and description is the text you want the reader to see.
Notice that the URI goes inside the opening tag, and should be in double quotes. The text you want to display goes between the opening and closing tags.
Easy!
-
<em> is for emphasised text.
By default, browsers display emphasised text in italics.
The magic formula is: <em>text you want in italics</em>
and it displays like this:
text you want in italics
Don't forget the closing tag, even if you want the italics to run right to the end of your post, otherwise everything lower on the page will be in italics too. The opening tag shows where you want the italics to start; the closing tag shows where you want them to stop.
-
<strong> is for strong text.
By default, browsers display strong text as bold text.
The magic formula is: <strong>text you want in bold</strong>
and it displays like this:
text you want in bold
Don't forget the closing tag, even if you want the bold text to run right to the end of your post, otherwise everything lower on the page will be bold too. The opening tag shows where you want the bold text to start; the closing tag shows where you want it to stop.
-
<cite> is for cited text
By default, browsers display cited text in italics.
The magic formula is: <cite>text you want to cite</cite>
and it displays like this:
text you want to cite
So why not just use <em>? The reason is that ABC can provide your browser with a style sheet and tell it to display <em> and <cite> differently. Even if it makes no difference today, that doesn't mean it won't tomorrow, so it's always best to use the right tag.
-
<code> is for computer code.
By default, browsers display code in a monospaced typeface (one where all the letters take up the same amount of space, so an i (not very wide) is allowed just as much room as an m.
The magic formula is: <code>computer code</code>
and it displays like this:
computer codeYou can, of course, use it for anything else you want displayed in a monospaced typeface. Because each character has the same width it's handy if you want text to align vertically. See the chemical diagrams in Footsie's A Gas Called Calor for instance.
-
<ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> and <dd> are for making lists.
I'll show you how to use them if anybody asks. This entire post (apart from the first and last paragraphs) is laid out as an unordered list, using the <ul> and <li> tags. When you make an unordered list, the bullet points are provided free of charge!
If you want to refer to this later, copy it now!