Fermilab LInC Plone Instructions

About Plone

Plone is a collaboration software program that we use as a bulletin board discussion forum and file sharing facility for the Fermilab LInC course. The Plone home page (http://www.plone.org/) has more information about Plone.

Getting Software to Use Plone

You do not need to download anything to use Fermilab's Plone server. You can just use it through your a web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater for PCs or Safari for MacOSX. (Internet Explorer can not be used on the Mac because the Internet Explorer version on the Mac does not support the needed security features. Microsoft is not making a newer version of Internet Explorer for the Mac, so a different browser needs to be used if you want to use Plone.)

Tutorials and Animations for Plone

  1. Logging In To Plone

  2. Changing Your Password

  3. Commenting on a Document/Reflection

  4. Adding and Editing a Document

  5. Structured Text Cheat Sheet

  6. Uploading a File

  7. Deleting, Copying, Cutting, Pasting and Reordering Content

  8. Viewing Recent Postings

Logging in to Plone

  1. Click on the link to your bulletin board.
  2. Type your username into the Name field.
  3. Type your password into the Password field.
  4. Click on the Login button.

Adding a Comment to an Existing Document or Reflection Prompt

  1. Click on the link in your assignment sheet to go to the right place to add your comment in the bulletin board. Log in with your username and password if you are not already logged in.

  2. You will be taken to the Document to add your comment to. Click on the add comment button at the bottom of the initial document text. You can reply to a comment on the document (rather than the document itself) by clicking on the reply to this button in a particular comment.

  3. Type in a Subject in the Subject text field and the comment you want to add in the Body text field.

  4. Click on the add comment button at the bottom when you are done to save your work. Your work is not saved until you click on the add comment button!

  5. You will be taken back to the "display" view of the document or original comment and you are done. Your comment or a link to your reply will have been added to the bottom. You may need to scroll down to see it.

Adding and Editing a Document.

  1. Go to the folder in Plone where you wish to add your document.
    Log in if you have not logged in already.

  2. From the "add new item" menu, choose "document".

  3. An "Edit Document" window will pop up.
    Put in a shortname for the document which uses only small letters and numbers.
    i.e. No spaces, upper case, underscores, or special characters.
    Type in the "Title" you would like shown for your document.
    Then type in a "Description" of what your document will contain.
    Then type in the content "Body text" for your document.
    Near the bottom of the window, Select the "Format" of "Structured Text".
    Then click on the "Save" button at bottom.
    Your work will not be saved until you click on the "Save" button.

  4. You can edit your document at any time later, by navigating to your document in the bulletin board, and clicking on the blue "edit" tab. Edit the "Body Text"(content), Title, Description, ... as needed. Be sure to click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the window to save your changes when you are done.

Uploading a File to Plone

Use these instructions to upload and post a file from your computer onto Plone in the designated folder. These instructions can be used to post a single file such as a Word document, a web page that does not have pictures, or a PowerPoint document. Use these instructions to upload and post a student product file, a student reflections file, one of your project documents, or a Discussion Plan in Word or HTML.

Before you upload any file, check that the file name has only lower case letters and numbers in it (no spaces, punctuation, or other characters such as @ # $ % ^ & * - ( ) [ ] { } " ' ; : | < > ? . , / ... ). These special characters in your filen ame can cause links to your file to be broken. Your file name should also end in the right suffix for the type of file it is. i.e. It should end in .doc for a Word file, .html or .htm for a web page, .ppt for a powerpoint file, .gif or .jpg for an image file etc. If needed, change the name of your file so it follows the above rules.

  1. Click on a link on your assignment sheet to get to the folder where you should upload your file.
    Log in with your username and password if you are not already logged in.

  2. From the Add New Item menu, choose file
    (Do not choose "document".)

  3. Type in a Title and a Description for the file you are about to upload.

  4. Click on the Browse button near the bottom to find the file on your computer that you want to upload. A file selection dialog box will pop up. When you find the file you want to upload, click on the filename and click on the Open button in the bottom right corner of the dialog box to choose that file. The dialog box will go away and the path and name of the file you chose will be filled in for you in the File text field of your plone form.

  5. Click on the Save button at bottom to finish.

To test that your file upload worked, click on the Click here to view the file link.

Uploading Multiple Files to Plone

To upload multiple files, just upload each file one at a time using the instructions to upload one file above.

Viewing Recently Changed Items

  1. Click on the "Recently Changed" link in your bulletin board area.
    A list of recently changed items will be shown.
  2. Click on the Title of the item to view the item.
  3. Use the "Back" button on your browser to return to the list of recently changed items.