Welcome to the Troop 215 website!
You do not need to log in to read most pages, but you will need to log in to contribute.
Some pages on the site require you to be logged in to view.
Important:
- Remember when posting, anyone in the world can read your post, so be aware of what you post.
- Most everyone’s user ID is their first initial and their complete last name all in lower case, so John Smith’s user ID would be “jsmith”. The few times a Scout and parent share the same first initial, the parent’s user name will have a period between first initial and last name, i.e. “j.smith”.
- Your initial password is the last four digits of your home phone number that was on file. You should change your password when you first log in.
- If no email was on file for you, a fake email of userid@troop215.com was created. This email does NOT function, but was used to complete the required email field. Please check this email in your profile when you log in and provide us with your current email so we can update it if needed.
- Scout’s “display name” is their first name and last initial.
- Adult’s “display name” is greeting, first initial, last name, i.e. “Mr. J. Smith”. Unfortunately, the data files used to create the users does not know if the women in the list are to be referred to as Mrs., Miss, or Ms. Please check and fix this if needed.
- Currently, only adults on file with an active leadership position are included in the list.
Header area, below the big picture:
— On the top of the screen are 2 rows of buttons.
— The first row of buttons has specific pages:
- Camping tips = camping hints
- Photos = album (slideshows do not work yet)
- Get text alerts = add your cell number to receive mass troop text alerts
- Troop calendar = displays all the events and activities of the troop
— The second row of buttons are quick links to post categories. If no category is chosen when a post is created, it will be in tagged as “Uncategorized.”
Left side column:
— “Upcoming Events” lists what is planned in the near future for the troop.
— A few of the newest photos from the photo galleries are posted here.
— “Search by tag” quickly finds posts about the tag.
Right side column:
— A mini calendar is posted in this column. Click on a date to see the details of any events planned for that day.
— Login/user area:
- Username: it will initially be your first initial then your full last name. Your initial password will be the last 4 digits or your listed phone number. You should change your password after first logging in.
- Dashboard: a link to a site information page, more for the administrators than everyday visitors
- Profile: a link to edit your profile, change your password, upload an avatar (small picture for your ID), and other information.
- Logout: you should log out of the system if you are not using your own personal computer.
— Scouting Links: takes you to other sites with great Scouting information.
— Past Messages: a quick way to jump to posts written in the past.
Creating a new post:
— Log in to the system.
— Click “add new” from bar at the VERY, VERY top of the screen (above Troop 215 and the Scout Logo). — Click “Post.”
— Enter a title and the body of the post.
- You can edit the body in a visual, word-like view, or via HTML code with the tab on the top right of the body area.
- Click any icon above the body box to add pictures or other data. These do NOT get put into the main photo album page of the site.
- If the body text is long, consider adding a “more” link to split it on the main page after a paragraph or few lines. The “more” icon is to the left of the spell check icon in the body area buttons. It looks like two rectangles.
- Add links to other pages by typing the text, highlighting it with the mouse, then click the chain icon in the body area buttons.
- In the right column of the page, choose the proper category from the list.
- Under that, enter any post tags in the box for tags to help find posts with others. Post tags are words or phrases that describe the topic(s) that your post covers. To make the post private (meaning you must be logged in to view it), make sure there is a check in the “restrict post” box.
- If you want to save what you have written and finish it later, click “Save as Draft” at the top right of the page.
- When you are done with your post, click “Publish” on the top right side to publish your post.
Replying to a post:
— You must be logged in to reply to a post.
— Click on the post to view its entire content.
— At the end of the post, enter your comments in the area provided.
— Hit “Post Comments” to finish.
— You can reply to someone else’s comment by clicking “reply” in that comment’s header.
Editing a post or comment:
— You must be logged in to edit a post.
— Click “Edit Post” at the bottom of the post.
— Hit “update” on the right side to finish.
Troop calendar details:
— Under the calendar is a legend of what each icon means.
— Click on any event to view the event’s details. Click again on the details to close them.
— New events can be added via the “Adding an Event” link at the bottom of the page:
- Enter a short title for the event;
- Give a detailed description of the event;
- Give a short description;
- Make sure to choose the proper category from the list;
- If there is a post created about the event, put a link to that post in the event link area;
- Enter the start and end date and times. Do not enter a specific time for all-day events.
- If you have a location for the event, enter it and the site will offer a map in the details.
- All other options are really not needed.
- Click “Save Event” at the bottom of the form to save the event.
Uploading photo albums:
— Click “Dashboard” by the login area.
— Click “Gallery” near the bottom left.
— Click “Add Gallery/Images” to create a new gallery.
— Click Other tabs to upload images.
— Files cannot be bigger than 2 MB.
— Reduce the size of your pictures to 500 pixels wide to fit most people’s screens and save space. Remember, a Scout is thrifty.
— A good free bulk picture resizing program is axiomx picsizer at http://www.axiomx.com/picsizer.htm.