Collage Helpful Hints

BODY TEXT

CREATING LINKS

If the same link is needed more than once (either on the same page or on a seperate page), copy and paste the link and the link remains active. It's not necessary to re-type and re-link.

When linking items in a list, Collage may mistakenly group individual items into one big link. For these link grouping problems, try keeping items double-spaced before linking. Then, single space the items (NOTE: to single space items, hit the "SHIFT, ENTER," keys) after the items are linked.

Collage gives users the ability to type within a linked word or phrase. Therefore, to change a URL to a linked word or phrase (eg. to change http://www.uml.edu to UMass Lowell), it's not necesarry to delete the URL and type the phase and then link it. Simply type URL and hit the space bar (hitting the space bar automatically links the URL). Then type the word or phrase anywhere within the URL (eg. http://www.uml.edu), delete the surrounding URL text, and the word or phrase remains actively linked.

FORMATTING

All text should be in Verdana font. If not, select all (control/a) and click "Clear Formatting," on the lower right corner of the screen. If this doesn't work cut and paste the text into a Microsoft Office "text document." This will reformat the text. Then re-save the Collage document (be sure to do this, as it clears any ghost formatting that may linger) and paste in the re-formatted text.

ORDERED, UNORDERED LISTS

To remove bullets or numbers in lists, use the "outdent" button on the upper toolbar.

STYLES

Using the various styles in the "style" icon can have advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is it can be used to give text variety, dimension or "pop." The disadvantage is it can often wreak havoc on surrounding text.

Issue One

You've hard returned a style formatted headline, topic, etc. The new text you're typing is holding the style and you can't remove it.

Solution

Try deleting the funky new copy and saving the page. Then, try re-typing in the style-affected area. The old style should have vanished. Often, saving or re-saving a page will eliminate style issues.

Metadata

The metadata box can be extended by dragging the edge of the box out.

Anchors

If an error message appears when creating anchors or the anchors don't work properly, try removing any puncuation (ie, apostrohpes, commas, question marks, etc.) from the text in the anchor box.

It's possible to move the anchor symbol by dragging and dropping.