Autreach websites have some public pages that anyone with a web browser can view. They also have private pages, readable only by people who have logged in with username and password (or via a special link in an email). When logged in, you can create and change items on pages by clicking the Edit link next to the item.
To make minor adjustments to a single page, email ku.oc.hcaertua@nimda, giving the page number (the 7 digit number in the page address, so you would request 1341452 to edit this page):
you will receive a reply from “Backpack” with a link to click
login with your email address
move the mouse pointer over the text to be changed
click the Edit link that appears in the left margin
make the change, and click the Save button. Your change is effective immediately: anyone accessing the page (assuming it is public) will see the new version.
If you would like to experiment with editing a private page, without having to sign up for a Backpack account, follow the instructions at Autreach/Backpack getting started exercises.
After signing up for a free Backpack account, you can log in at http://NAME.backpackit.com/, where NAME is your Backpack sitename (usually the same as your username). Or you can enter NAME in the login box on Autreach pages and click the “Go” button — you will be prompted for password if necessary.
(Autreach team members log in at autreach.backpackit.com, or just click the Go button without entering a name.)
1. Site navigation: finding your way around Autreach websites
The navigation panel for logged in members has pop-up menus — Groups, Actions, and Resources in the Autreach Network example shown — other groups may have different categories. Below are links to view the history of changes for this page, and the public view of the page (if public access has been enabled).
Among the links at top right is a special index page: All pages — pages which have changed since you last looked at them are highlighted in this list.
If you want to be able to get back to a page with one click, you can use the Keep this page in my sidebar link — the page is then added to the alphabetically sorted list below, as has been done for Backpack Notes in the example.
2. Creating a web page: Backpack pages and what you can do with them
Creating a web page and adding items is easy — this 2 minute video shows how.
Important note: the editing links starting “Add to page:” at the top of the page are normally obscured by the page header on Autreach pages. They appear when you click an “Add here” tab, which itself appears when moving the mouse pointer down the white left margin area of the page.
With a free account you can create up to 5 pages of your own, in your website http://NAME.backpackit.com/. You can create a page from scratch, by editing each part of the page, or you can duplicate someone else’s page and make changes to your copy. Click the “Make a new page” button near the top right of the window to create a blank page. (If you don’t see this button you need to log in.)
When you are logged in, there are links at the top of each page to special pages (Newsroom, Calendar, etc) for personal organisation and site administration. The Welcome link explains these pages.
3. Page controls: The Sidebar and other links
When you are logged in you see the following extra control areas:
the links at the top to special pages
the sidebar on the right to get to your own web pages (or ones shared with you)
links at the foot of the page to perform special actions on this page
These control areas “belong to” your Backpack account:
you decide what links to add to the sidebar, and they are always there, whether the main page content is one of your pages or someone else’s
links at the foot of the page apply to your pages only (for example, “duplicate” allows you to make a copy of someone else’s page, but the copy is in your site, not theirs)
There is a Help/support link at the foot of every editable page.
4. Public, private, shared: what’s the difference?
Making a page public really means enabling a public copy of the page (the address of the public copy is formed by replacing /pages/ by /pub/). The public copy does not have the sidebar or other controls; it is automatically updated if changes are made to the original page.
You can make any of your 5 personal pages public by clicking the “Share” link at the top of the page and checking the appropriate box — anyone can then see the page, if they know the address. Just click the “Change” link and uncheck the box to go back to private mode.
Remember that sharing a protected page doesn’t just allow the other person to view the page — they can also make changes to it.
If you are editing a page owned by someone else which has been shared with you, be aware that it is the owner who chooses whether to make a page public (so anything added to someone else’s page could be made public in the future, at the owner’s discretion).
When a shared page is made public, it remains shared and so can still be edited by the people with whom it is shared (although not by anyone viewing it as a public page, of course).
Backpack includes document editing, discussion, and public website features in one place, to enable collaboration on making progress towards shared goals:
Having these features on a shared website facilitates collaborative creation: information can be quickly drafted, discussed, revised, distributed, and optionally made available as a public web page or other document (Backpack pages and writeboards can be printed as is — the editing controls aren’t included in the printed version).
Most of the links above are to parts of the Backpack Tour page, which has short videos demonstrating how to use each feature.
