TTA Fans

HOW-TO: Upload Content

This tutorial will try and help with any questions in creating content, such as stories and pictures.

First, you'll have to be Logged in, or Create a new account if you don't already have one. Either way, you'll want to be sure you are set up as more than default account type. This is because anyone can create a new account without verification, and allowing a default account type to post could result in a lot of spam. Fortunately upgrading is easy enough. Just contact one of the Admin staff listed at the left, let them know you're an author or artist, and you'll be setup once they get your message.

Next, you'll want to look on the left hand side menu for Create content and click that. You'll be brought to the content creation page with a list of items that you're allowed to create.

Of those, there are two of particular interest: Image and Story. Let's start with an Image.

Creating an Image

So, after clicking Create content on the left, and then selecting Image from your options there, you'll be on the Submit Image page.

You'll have to fill in a Title. If you have a nice title for it, like "Tiny Tiny Toons Gang at the Beach" go ahead and fill that in. If you don't, just the filename will do, like "TTA-Beach.jpg" or such.

Next click Browse at the end of the line below and select the image file on your computer.

Fan Content Type: If this is fan art, select Art. Otherwise leave that as "none."

Canon Content Type: If this is something directly from the show, such as a screenshot, or an official model sheet, select Art (or Animated if this is an animated image). Otherwise leave as "none."

Status: Don't worry about Status unless this is a preview or unfinished work. You can select Finished, but this option is mainly for stories that aren't ready for review yet, and need to be flagged as such.

Image Galleries: Select the most appropriate gallery. If this is to be part of a Mailer or the Fan Fic Doodles page, select one of them. Otherwise TTA art and images belong in the Tiny Toons Gallery. Images of your own character that represents you (or drawing or photo of yourself), especially if not a TTA character, belong in the Personas Gallery. If it doesn't fall into any of the other listed galleries, use the Miscellaneous one as your choice.

Body: You don't have to put anything here. However, if you have some description or background or other information you want to give viewers of your image, put that in here.

And that's it. Click preview to check it out, and then make sure to Submit to save it.

Creating a Story

Now we'll look into creating a "Story." That's what the system calls it. Actually, it can really be any type of textual information you want to upload. Like say you have a list of all the characters and who their voice actors were, etc. Also, using Method #2 I'll describe below, you can upload other types of content, like .doc or .pdf files.

After you have clicked Create Content, select "Story" from the options.

Title: Give your story or entry a title of your choosing.

Canon Content Type: If this is exact or official information about the show (like that list of voice actors, for example), select "Written" or the appropriate type(s) here. Otherwise leave as "none."

Fan Content Type: If this is fan fiction or a review or any non-official material, select it's type(s) here. Otherwise leave as "none."

Status: If you're doing some sort of work in progress, or collaborative work, and this is not the finished product, select its current status here. Otherwise if you're uploading a finished work right off, you can safely leave this as "none" and means the same as "Finished" as far as functionality goes.

Now here is where we have two different methods you can consider. Both have their pros and cons.

Method #1:

Body: Very easy, just put all the text of your story or other text-based information into Body field, and you are done.

The Pros with Method #1 are that it's simple, that people immediately see the content of your item when they bring up the page, no real compatibility issues, and the content is all searchable with the TTAFans.com Search tool.

The Cons are that it can only be the single item, can only be text or simple HTML, and people will need to scroll to the bottom of the page for any reader comments and reviews (if it's a long story entry, that can be a ways down).

Method #2:

This one is multiple steps. First off you need to have the item you want to post in a file on your computer. Then go down to File attachments and click on it to expand it.

Attach new file: Click on the Browse button and select the file from were you have it saved on your computer. Then click the Attach button. Repeat for any additional files.

Body: You can leave this blank, or more likely you'll want to give some information about what the attached file(s) is/are, and any other information you want to include.

The Pros with Method #2 are that you can upload other types of files, like .doc, .rtf, .pdf, etc. You can upload multiple files, if you want to group some things together. Files can more easily be saved to a readers computer. You can include information about the stories or files while keeping it separate from them. And the comments and replies are easily seen and accessed below the list of attachments.

The Cons with it are that readers have to go through an extra step to access your content, the content can't be searched by the TTAFans.com Search tool, and your attachments may be in a format that not everyone can view without having to install a reader or such for it (for non- .txt files).

Saving Your Content

Preview: See what your post will look like before you make it available.

Submit: Always remember to click the Submit button at the bottom to save your work once you're done!

And that's pretty much it. Once you actually just do it a time or two, it should come pretty naturally.

Enjoy!