AOL Slideshow Guide
This guide will be updated as developoments and improvements warrant. But for now, the Rainman steps required for slideshow replacement are:
A. Uploading your slide shows to AOL
B. Incorporating the new slide shows into our AOL site
A. Uploading a slideshow to AOL:
1. AOL Keyword (ctrl-K): cbstest
2. Doubleclick on "CBS Software Libraries"
3. Doubleclick on the active software library. For now, it will be "CBS Temporary," but that is destined to change regularly as libraries are used up.
4. Click on "Upload" at the bottom of the "CBS Temporary" Library page.
5. Put a filename for the slideshow that you are going to upload in the subject field. To start out, let's use the naming convention date_correspondent_one-word-subject_production-tool-piece ID#
e.g. 0110_Roberts_cancer_333333
This field cannot exceed 32 characters.
6. Put "CBS News" in the "Author" field and fill out a brief description of the slide show in the "description" field. Don't worry about the "equipment" or "needs" field.
7. Click the "Select File" button and browse to the "filename.art" file that you are uploading.
8. Return to the "CBS Temporary" library page that we first encountered in step 3. If you closed it, reopen it by going to keyword: cbstest and clicking into the "CBS Software Libraries." Click on the "See hidden" button at the bottom of the page.
9. When the new page opens up, doubleclick the file you just uploaded then hit the "release" button at the bottom of the page that opens.
10. You have now uploaded your slide show to the proper place. To make sure its there, go to keyword: cbstest again, click through the "CBS Software Libraries" into the active library (in our case now, "CBS Temporary." Your file should be at the top of the list.
B. Incorporating the new slide show into our AOL page(s).
I. Overview
II. Show me the scripts
Overview - What may look like a single slideshow page is actually four separate pages. The only difference between any of the four pages at any given time is which particular slide show is set to play and which story is indicated to be playing (by a lightened arrow) in the list below the slide show.
That means when you click on story number 2 in the list below the slide show, you will be sent to a different page where the slide show you requested is set to play and the list below the slide show indicates that story number 2 is playing with a lightened arrow.
The names of the four pages will not change for now:
Top story - cbs_ss1
Story 2 - cbs_ss2
Story 3 - cbs_ss3
Story 4 - cbs_ss4
One implication of the fact that we are dealing with four separate pages is that even if you only change one slide show -- such as the top story - all four pages will have to be modified so that the list below the slide show reflects the new headline for the top story page. Ths can all be done with a single script.
Show me the scripts:
I. Overview
II. Scripts
III. Sending your completed scripts to Rainman
I. Overview -- Its useful to break down scripts into two categories: scripts that modify a page and scripts that create. When we put up new slide shows, we will only be modifying permanent pages. Later, when we place stories in the archive, we will also create simple new pages.
II. Scripts -- When modifying our slideshow pages to add new slideshows, you can use the following scripts:
Changing slide show number 1
Changing slide show number 2
Changing slide show number 3
Changing slide show number 4
III. Just copy and paste the script, changing the highlighted file name and headlines as necessary. Then open keyword: interact; copy, paste and hit send. Rinse and repeat with each slide show you want to change.