Info Menu Special Actions
How do I change the Info Bar Heading?
How do I add and remove items from the Info Bar?
How do I create a divider or heading in the Info list?
How do I get to the document directory?
Can I create "drill downs" on my menu?
Can I use special characters in the menu bar?
Can I have the menu bar link to and open a different file or force a download?
There are two things to be aware of prior to working with the Info Menu.
First, make sure you understand the Info Menu overview.
Second, keep in mind that in order to see changes to the menu bar, you will need to activate those changes in one of the ways described here. Changes to the menu listings are not activated unless you refresh your site. This is where most hangups occur when people are working with the info bar. They make a change, but then don't instantly see it on the end user site. This is surprising since most other changes are instantaneous.
By default, the Info Bar Heading will begin as "General Info" but you can change this heading in "General -> Basic Site Settings -> General Site and Contact Information -> Info Heading." You can type up to 20 characters, but too long a phrase may spill over onto a second line.
The adding and changing of info items within the info section is handled in: Info -> Edit Info List (Messages). You add items by the link at the bottom and you change items by selecting the "edit" button to the left of an existing item.
There are two ways to remove an item: First, if you change the status to "no" it is removed an not accessible to anyone, except to edit. But if you simply want the item removed but then accessible by direct reference, you leave the status as "yes" but change the i_type to "Private."
This answer is incomplete.
Note when the "i_title" and the "i_msg" are both blank, that turns the "i_menu" into a simple divider. that does not link anywhere -- it is not an < href> .
Here are some special things you can do with the left info menu. NOTE: To enter in some of the special tags below you must be in the BASIC editor mode. Also in the notations below an extra space is left between the left bracket < and the beginning of the text. When you actually enter in the text, you close that space.
Make a divider: Put an < hr /> tag in the "i_menu" and leave the "i_title" and "i_msg" both blank. You can change the size and color as a normal < hr /> . For example, < hr width="50%" size="4" color="#ff0000" align="center" /> will creat a solid red bar, 4 pixels high, solid, centered at 50% of the width.
Link to Document Directory: Put the word ShowDox in the "i_title" field and nothing in "i_msg". This then becomes a link to the Document Directory.
Link to File in Custom Directory (Force Download): Begin your "i_msg" with < download >and then put in the name of the file. If it is in your base custom directory, just the file name is used. If it is in a sub-directory add that to the front with a slash. For example, photo/mypick.jpg would then force a download of the mypick.jpg from the photo sub-directory. This could be used as a way to open a .pdf or a Word Processing file (.doc, .txt, etc.)
Link to File in Custom Directory (Open in New Window): Begin your "i_msg" with < as-link>. If it is in your base custom directory, just the name is used. If sub-directory, use the instructions in the previous section. (note: this is only valid in 2.0: in earlier versions, you need to put in the extra path, e.g. customs/site99/documents...)
Link to External Site: Begin your "i_msg" with < as-link>and then put your link. The "i_menu" field is how you want the link to be listed in the left menu. The "i_title" field is not used but you should put a brief description in there so that it shows on your admin info listing. So for example if you wanted to create a link in the left menu to CNN you would: put "CNN" in the "i_menu" field. Put "External link to CNN" in the "i_title" field and your "i_msg" field would be: < as-link>http://www.cnn.com. It is very important that you put the absolute url. For example, http://www.intre.org or http:/help.intre.org for example. An external link must begin with "http://"