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Help With the St. Thomas Website

Welcome to the St. Thomas Episcopal Church website.

Our website allows anyone with a computer to share news, opinions, pictures, and other information with the other members of the St. Thomas community. No special software or computer knowledge is required.

This page provides some basic information on using the St. Thomas website.

What can I do here?

You can find information about St. Thomas and it's members and also directly add your own news, comments, events, and pictures to the website. To create news, events, and pictures you'll need to register and create an account. However, anyone can add comments to existing items without having an account. For more information on adding things to the St. Thomas website, see "Contributing your own content" below.

Creating an account

Anyone can create an account on the St. Thomas website. To do so, click the "Register" link in the upper right hand corner of the page, underneath the search box. You'll need to enter a username (which will identify you on the website), your email address, and your real name. Once you've registered, you account will be approved by a website administrator (normally within a few minutes), and you will receive an email with instructions on how to log into the website. If you don't receive an email within a few hours, please check your spam folders to make sure the email didn't go there by mistake.

Logging In

To log into the website, use the Login link in the upper right hand corner of the page, below the search box. You'll need to enter your username and password. If you've forgotten your password, click on the "Request New Password" tab above the login area to get a new password.

Contributing your own content

Once you have an account on the website and have logged in, you can create news items, add comments to existing items, add events to the calendar, and share your pictures. Information on adding these specific types of content is below:

  • News - News items appear on the front page of the St. Thomas website. If you have some St. Thomas news or an announcement you'd like to make, you can add it to the front page by creating a "Community news" item. To do so, login to the website, and then click on the "Create content" link in the menu on the left side of the page. Then click on the "Community news" link that appears just below the "Create content" link. On the next page, enter a title for your news item and the "body" of the item. The title is the text that will appear on the front page and at the top of the news item, whereas the body is the main text of the item. When you're done entering your information, click the "Submit" button to save the item. It will appear on the front page of the website immediately. You can go back later to make changes or delete your news by clicking on the Edit link at the top of the page when you are viewing the news item that you created.

  • Comments - You can add your comments to any existing item on the website. Comments are a way of sharing your ideas, comments, or questions about already existing items on the website. To add a comment, just click the "Add Comment" link at the bottom of the page when you are viewing an item. You can also reply to other peoples comments, and edit comments you have already made by clicking the appropriate link below a particular comment. Comments you make are shown directly below the item to which they pertain. Note that you can create anonymous comments without being logged into an account, but to help prevent spam, all anonymous comments are reviewed before they appear on the site.

  • Events - Adding events is just like adding a News item with the additional requirements of a start and stop time. Click on "Create content" and then "Event", and enter the title and body (description) of the event. Enter the start and stop time and date, and then click "Submit" to place your event on the events calendar. The stop date and time are actually optional, so you can leave it blank if you wish.

  • Pictures - Adding pictures works the same way as adding other items. Just click on "Create Content" and then "Image". Then enter a title and body (description) for your image and click the "Browse" button to locate the image on your computer. Once you've entered all the information, click the "Submit" button to upload the picture to the website.

Which web browsers are supported?

Our website has been tested with Internet Explorer and Firefox. It should work with other browsers, although there may be minor issues with layout of the site. There are some known issues with creating content using the Safari web browser on the Macintosh. If you are using a Mac, we recommend using the Firefox web browser, available here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/.

Privacy

Any comments, events, pictures, or news items you place on the website are publicly visible. Your name is also visible to anyone viewing items that you have created. Your email will not be visible or shared with anyone on the website except the website administrators.

Need more help?

If you need more help, or have general questions or problems with the website use our contact form to send an email to the website administrator. We're happy to help!