Step 1: Choose a Topic

What you are seeing now is a site page created using the process discussed on the page. Here is the Timmia's Proccess for creating this site page.

Timmia was given the task of creating site page templates. After looking through many examples on other Omeka S sites, filling pages of notes, and consulting the team at CHNM, she created two templates on Microsoft Word and began to outline some instructions for use. Then came the dilemma, what is the best way to transfer those word templates onto Omeka S. She came up with a few ideas that did not quite work out, then came the big A-HA – moment, she could use the creation of a page on Omeka to teach about how to use those page templates. From there it spiraled into a whole guide on creating site pages. Now let’s take it back and look at her step by step process for creating this page.

Step 2: Brainstorm and Research

What template works best for the topic?

Review the resources presented during the June 2024 Convening such as “Caring for Community in Black Digital Public Humanities” and the "Site Page Construction Reference Guide." Building on these resources you can also consider, if it is helpful, the purposes of these pages. Do you primarily want to inform, persuade, describe, or tell a story. From there you can consider what types of resources you will need to fulfill that purpose. Some of these purposes are better represented using certain layouts, but the way you choose to represent the content - primarily through text or primarily through images - can also influence your choice. The following template, created by CHNM, are two layouts for site pages. They represent only two possibilities for formating a page. They are really only a starting point to help you as you begin to create site pages. They will help you consider what types of elements are on a page and brainstorm how you might want to place them on the page. The final page on the Omeka S website, will probably look different from what you intially layed out. If you are already familiar with the functionalities of a site page, you do not have to use the web templates on the Omeka S HCAC Beta Site . Once the Word template has been approved, you can transfer the content onto the HCAC Beta Site on your own. 

How will you represent the topic?

1. Consider what types of materials you might need to represent this topic. Look through your collections and gather those materials. Do you have enough information to create these pages.  
2. Also consider the best ways to represent the materials. Will you need to make infographics, charts or visualizations? What outside resources do you need? Is there anything you need to research more about. You will have to prepare this material outside of Omeka S and upload it using the appropriate format and process.

Use Case

You want to create a site page about an organization promentially featured in your collection. You think that this will help enhance the website visitors' understanding of the collection and your institution is uniquely positioned to provide this information because of your collections. You also have many items in your collection that can be featured throughout that page. You primarily want to describe to or inform the audience. This is probably a more complex narrative, with multiple parts, so the multi-page template works well for this topic. One section of the page can be about the organizations beginnings, another about some prominant members, and another highlighting a connection to your institution. Each of these sections could have media accompanying the text. Alternatively, you could also use the simple page template for this topic, for example, if instead of using mostly text, you choose to tell the story of this organization primarily through media files/graphics such as images with a bit of text scrolled through horizontally or a video.

Include your team and director in this brainstorming process. Reach a consensus about what to research and how to represent the topic before moving forward in the research process. 

Step 3: Draft

Decide on your main points and what media connects to those main points. Draft out the written content of your pages. In this stage also think about what resources connect to the different sections of your outline. If you are including graphs or images that need to be created, they  should be made elsewhere and then imported as JPG, PNG, PDF or other compatabile formats onto Omeka S. 

If it is helpful, you might create an outline of the page to help organize the content on the page. This outline can just be headings and subheadings at first but as you revise you can optionally add additional layers such as text, pictures and links. You may share this outline at any stage and ask for feedback. You might also try freewriting or organize your content visually on a white board or using some type of chart such as a flowchart. It is important to note, that what is on this page might not end up on the final version of the website, this is just a place to get started on writing out and organizing your ideas. 

Timmia's Process:

This is one approach to drafting content for your page.  Attached is the outline,Timmia created for this webpage. This is the final version of it, but in its earliest iterations all she had written down was some tentative titles, and bulleted points about the sub topic or topic sentences. As she continued to work on it, she filled out more sections of the outline, adding more bullet points for the subtopics and adding some text. She also divided up and color coded the content. She also began to make and modify some of the supplementary materials that are attached to this site page. For example, the outline below was created in word then saved as a PDF before it was uploaded to Omeka S.

Step 4: Input into the Template

Step 5: Input into the Web Template

Copy and Paste the information from the word template to the provided link for the web template. In the beginning it might look at little bit messy, but as you continue to work on formatting it will come together. Contact CHNM if you need any help. Continue to refer to the page Page Blocks on Omeka S for more information on using the Page Blocks, particularly the section on the HTML Block. See the following video  for a demonstration on inputting values into the web template. Ask for feedback as needed from your team and director. This process will look slightly different when creating internal site pages or additional external site pages, you can copy the template yourself as demonstrated in the video. 

• The first part of the video is an introduction to the web templates and their layout.
• Around the 5:30, Timmia begins to demonstrate adding content onto the web template
• Around the 18:00 minute mark, Timmia begins to demonstrate some of the ways you can reformat the page.

Select Input Guidelines:

• If desired change the title and update the URL Slug to the site page.
• The first block group with the text [[Optional Introductory Text, Subheading] is for any introductory text that you have created [on the simple page template this is prior to the display of any media]. Delete the whole Block group if you did not create any introductory text. Erase the subheading if you did not include a subheading. Select, modify and add media blocks and multiple HTML blocks to the block group as desired.
• Each of following Text Block group follow the same format as the first one.  As with the last text block you should delete and add page blocks and continue to adjust and reformat as needed. 
• On the simple page template you may choose to add text to both or either of the text block groups.
• Delete any unused block groups. 
• Add as many new block groups for text sections as you need to complete your site page, delete any text block groups you do not use. 
• The next block group, after the text ones is an area for acknowledgements/credit, please use the space to acknowledge those who have contributed to the page using the provided format. Copy as many times as need.
•  Use the following block to provide a list of further readings. There should be no more than 3 sources listed in this space. Use the MLA style – see this resource - for citing outside sources. 
• Copy and paste your updated citation into the following block. You will have to update the title. 
• The final optional block group is a place for all of the blocks that will help provide connections to other content on Omeka S. Delete the Block group if you did not use any of these options, feel free to modify as needed.

Tip: Sometimes when you are copying from a word processor such as Word, you are also copying all of formatting styles and pasting them into the HTML block. We recommend not copying that formatting. This can make the HTML source code a bit confusing and hard to modify. Additionally, the CSS for the website will provide that type of formatting. To copy text over without formatting using the short codes for a Mac is Shift + Command + V and for Windows is Ctrl + Shift + V.

Step 6: Revise and Link

You will probably have to go through several rounds of revisions before you are finished with your site page to prefect the content and the format. Ask for feedback! The page you are currently on is a intensely revised version of the page created in Step 5. It was looked over by the team at CHNM multiple times before being presented to you. For example, after looking over the page Timmia realized that it would be helpful to include a Table of Content at the beginning of the page. After consulting the team, she added some more media files to the page and took a few others away.

Finally, if desired, add and update all page links. If this is an internal site page make sure to link the page to all the appropriate items' metadata. The page should be linked in the relation property. 

Once you are happy with the site page, share it will your director. When your director is ready, they should send a message to someone at CHNM to let them know the page is ready to be included in the project.

What's Next

Credits 

Timmia King, Graduate Research Assistant for the HCAC Project at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University  

Further Readings

1. Creating Site Pages for HCAC Resources
2. Page Blocks on Omeka S 

How to Cite This Source

"Six Steps to a Site Page for HCAC," in HCAC Training Site https://hcactraining.org/s/main/page/site_pages_HCAC [accessed Month, Day, Year]

Attached Resources