Windows to the Universe Journal Tutorial

You should print this to refer to as you work through this tutorial. Following this tutorial from start to finish will give you all the tools you need to use this journal feature. However, you can click a link below to jump to a specific section of this tutorial:

Getting Started

  1. From the main Windows to the Universe homepage (www.windows.ucar.edu), choose to "Create a Journal" located in Stuff to do box.
  2. Click on the "Register and create your own journal!" star.
  3. Make up a username and password. Select a question that we can ask you if you forget your password, and type in the answer to that question. Enter your email address if you want to. Unless you are a student in a class that is using the Journal, leave the "Classroom name" blank.
    1. Your username can include letters and numbers, but not spaces!
    2. Your password must be at least four and at most fifteen characters long.
    3. If you include your email address, we will notify you before deleting your Journal. (If you don't use your Journal for five months, we may delete it to clear off the space on our server.)
    4. Once you have typed in all of the information, click the "Submit" button.
  4. At the next screen, click the "Start a New Journal" link.
  5. A box will pop up asking you to make up a name for your Journal and for the title of the first page or your Journal. Type a title for the Journal and for the first page, then click the "Submit" button. For this tutorial, we will assume you type in "My Tour of the Solar System" for your Journal's title and "The Sun" for the title of the first page. You can change these titles later if you'd like to.

Making Pages

  1. First, you will write some text for your Journal page about the Sun.
    1. Find the text on the Journal web page that says "Type text in the box and click Add Text to add it to your page." Right beneath it is a box that you can type in. Click in that box, then type whatever you want to say. If you cannot think of anything, type "The Sun is a star. It is at the center of our Solar System."
    2. Click where it says "Add Text" in red right above the box you just typed into. The text you typed appears below the box you typed in.
    3. You can add more text by typing into the box again, and clicking "Add Text" again. New text appears beneath previously entered text as you add to your page. Later you will learn how to move text around into a different order if you wish.
  2. Next, you will add a picture to your page.
    1. Click on the "Windows to the Universe" logo in the lower left corner of the Journal web page. A second browser window will open, displaying the main page of the Windows to the Universe web site.
    2. You need to navigate to the page containing the picture you want to place on your page.
      1. Click the "Our Solar System" link near the top center of the page.
      2. Click on the "The Sun" link.
      3. Click the "Interior" link.
      4. You should now be at a page titled "The Solar Interior". You will add the image of the Sun's interior on that page to your Journal page.
    3. Do not close the window that is showing the "The Solar Interior" page. However, you need to have the window containing your Journal page on top. If you can see part of your Journal page window in the background, just click anywhere within it. Otherwise, you need to do whatever it takes to get the window containing your Journal page window back to the front. Doing that depends on what type of computer you are using. If you don't know how, you may need to ask a friend for help.
    4. Once you get your Journal page window back to the front, click the "Add Picture" link along the left side (near the bottom). A window pops up showing all the graphics on the opened Windows to the Universe page. Click on the diagram of the solar interior. Type in a caption, such as "The interior of the Sun". Click the "OK" button.
    5. The picture and caption have been added to your Journal page.
    6. You can now close the window containing the image of the Sun's interior.
  3. Now you will add another page to your Journal.
    1. Click the "Start a New Page" link along the left side of your Journal.
    2. Type in "Mercury" for the page name and click the "OK" button.
    3. If asked if you want to save your work so far, answer "Yes".
    4. Add some text to the "Mercury" page, using the same steps you followed to add text to the "Sun" page. Type "Mercury is a very hot place!" in the text entry box and click the red "Add Text" link.
    5. Now go back to the "Sun" page in your Journal. Just below the title of your Journal, near the top of the screen, are some blue arrows that look like this: << < > >> . Click on the " < " arrow to go back one page to the Sun. Or, to the right of the arrows where it says "Go to page:", select "1. The Sun" from the popup menu.
  4. Now it's time to add some hypertext links to your Journal. There are two types of links you can add: links to other pages in your Journal, and links to pages in the Windows to the Universe web site. Sorry, you cannot make links to other web sites. The next few steps will explain how to add each of these two types of links.
    1. First, you will add a link to the Mercury page in your Journal from the Sun page.
    2. Click the "Link to Another Journal Page" link along the left side of your Journal.
    3. Select "2. Mercury" from the popup menu. Click the "Create Link" button.
    4. Type in "Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun." for the title of your link, then click the "OK" button.
    5. The link appears at the bottom of your Sun page. Try clicking on the link. It should take you to the Mercury page in your Journal.
    6. The second type of link is one that leads to a page in the Windows to the Universe web site. Go back to the Sun page in your Journal if you are not already there.
    7. Click the Windows to the Universe logo in the lower left corner; the one you used when you added a picture to your Sun page.
    8. You need to navigate to the page you want to link to.
      1. If you are still at the "The Solar Interior" page from when you added an image, click on the words "Windows to the Universe" in the upper left corner of the page.
      2. Click the "Our Solar System" link near the top center.
      3. Click the "Venus" link.
      4. You should now be at a page titled "Venus". You will add a link to the Venus page from the Sun page in your Journal.
    9. Do not close the window that is showing the "Venus" page. Just as you did when adding a picture, you need to bring the window containing your Journal page to the top.
    10. Once you get your Journal page window back to the front, click the "Link to Windows to the Universe page" link along the left side.
    11. Type "Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun." in the box and click the "OK" button.
    12. Your new link should appear by the Mercury link.
    13. Now is a good time to save the work you have done so far. Click the "Save Journal" link near the top left corner of your Journal. A window will pop up saying "Your journal has been saved successfully". Click "OK".
    14. Next, test drive the new "Venus" link you've just created. Click on the link. It should take you to the Venus page on Windows to the Universe (but within your Journal page). Use your browser's "Back" button to go back to the Sun page in your Journal.

Making Changes to Your Pages

  1. First, you will change the title of the first page of your journal.
    1. Click the "Change Page Title" link along the left side of your Journal.
    2. Type "Our Sun, the Star of Our Solar System" into the box and click the "OK" button.
  2. Second, you will change some colors on your page.
    1. Click the "Change Page Color" link along the left side of your Journal.
    2. Click on a color in the popup window. Select a light shade, such as pale yellow or light blue.
    3. The background color of your Sun page has been changed. The background color of other pages in your journal (i.e. your "Mercury" page) did not change.
    4. Click the "Change Text Color" link along the left side of your Journal.
    5. Click on a color in the popup window. Select a dark shade, such as dark green.
    6. The color of the text on your Sun page has been changed. The color of text that is linked does not change, however.
  3. Third, you will change some of the text on your page.
    1. Click the "Edit Page Text" link along the left side of your Journal.
    2. Click on "Edit Text Only" along the top of the new window which appears.
    3. The text from your Sun page appears in the box in the new window. The box also has some items inside of square brackets, such as [/sun/images/solar_cutback_s.gif The interior of the Sun.]. The items inside square brackets are special code for displaying hypertext links or pictures; it is best to leave those alone for now.
    4. Double-click on the first word of your text, "The" (at the start of the sentence "The Sun is a star"). Type in "Our".
    5. Click directly in front of the word "star" in that same sentence. Type "fairly normal " to add that text into the middle of the sentence.
    6. Click the "Apply Changes" link at the top right of the popup window.
    7. A message will appear (near the top of the popup window) that says "Your changes have been saved. Close Window or make more changes." (it may take a few seconds to appear).
    8. Click "Close Window". The changes you made to your text appear on your journal page.
    9. Next, you will add some new text and then move it to a different place on your journal page.
      1. Type "Nine planets orbit our Sun." in the text entry box near the top of your journal page. Click "Add Text".
      2. The text is added to the bottom of your journal page.
      3. Let's move it to a different place on your page.
      4. Click the "Edit Page Text" link along the left side of your Journal again.
      5. Click on "Edit Text Only" along the top of the popup window again.
      6. Click and drag across the text you just added ("Nine planets orbit our Sun.") to select it.
      7. Press the "Conrol" and "X" keys ("Command" and "X" on a Macintosh) on your keyboard to cut the text.
      8. Click immediately after the sentence "It is at the center of our Solar System."
      9. Type a space, then press the "Conrol" and "V" keys ("Command" and "V" on a Macintosh) on your keyboard to paste the text.
      10. Click "Apply Changes", then click "Close Window".
    10. Finally, you will make some changes to the image on your Sun page.
      1. Click the "Edit Page Text" link along the left side of your Journal again.
      2. Click on "Edit Text Only" along the top of the popup window again.
      3. Locate the section of the text that looks like this: [/sun/images/solar_cutback_s.gif The interior of the Sun.]
      4. Drag across that whole section of text to select it. Make sure to get the two square brackets, "[" and "]", within your selection.
      5. Press the "Conrol" and "X" keys on your keyboard to cut the text.
      6. Click near the bottom of the box in the popup window, below all of the text in the box.
      7. Press the "Conrol" and "V" keys on your keyboard to paste the text.
      8. Click "Apply Changes", then click "Close Window".
      9. You have moved the picture of the Sun's interior to the bottom of your journal page.
      10. You can use this technique to move hypertext links or images around. If you do so, make sure you always select the square brackets that surround the image or link text. Do not change the text within the brackets; doing so may produce unpredictable results.
    11. Click the "Save Journal" link near the top left corner of your Journal to save your work. Click "OK" button on window that pops up.
  4. If you know HTML, you can click "Edit Page Text" and then "Edit HTML" to make additional changes to your journal using HTML tags (JavaScript is not allowed). However, this advanced option is not covered in this tutorial.

More Changes, Printing, and Saving

  1. First, you will delete a page.
    1. Go to the last page of your Journal - the page about Mercury.
    2. Start a new page titled "Pluto", and add some text to the page.
    3. Click the "Delete This Page" link along the left side of your Journal.
    4. Click the "Yes" button in the box that asks you to confirm that you want to PERMANENTLY DELETE this page.
    5. You should be back at your Mercury page.
  2. Second, you will print out a copy of your Journal.
    1. Click the icon in the upper right corner of your Journal that looks like a printer.
    2. A new window appears, with all of the pages of your Journal in it.
    3. You can print this page in the same way you would print any web page, usually by selecting the "Print" option from the "File" menu.
    4. Most web browsers will also allow you to save a copy of your entire Journal onto your local hard disk drive. When you click on the "Print" icon and open the page that displays your whole Journal, select the "Save As..." (or "Save Page As...") option from the File menu. Make sure the "Web Page, complete" option for "Save as type:" setting is selected, then save the file. This should save a copy of your Journal, including pictures, onto your hard drive. Unless you know how to edit HTML, you won't be able to alter this saved copy. These procedures may vary from one web browser to another (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari, etc.) and between operating systems (Windows, Macintosh, etc.), and they may not be available in all cases; but most web browsers support some means to save pages (with images) similar to this.
  3. Third, you will try out the "Undo" feature.
    1. Add some new text to the bottom of the Mercury page of your Journal.
    2. Click the "Undo Changes" link along the left side of your Journal (near the bottom).
    3. The text you just added disappears.
    4. Although some changes are not "Undo-able", in most cases, if you make a mistake, you can use the "Undo Changes" feature to erase your last action.
    5. The Undo feature has "multiple levels of undo"; if you click it more than once it will erase the last several actions you made. Be careful not to click too many times in a row before examining what you've un-done!

Managing Your Journal Library

  1. Save your Journal. Click "OK".
  2. Click the "My Journal Library" link along the left side of your Journal (near the top).
  3. You should be at the "Journal Library" page that allows you to create, view, and manage your Journals. You can have several Journals on different topics if you wish. For now, you should see a listing for a single Journal titled "My Tour of the Solar System".
  4. Viewing your Journal
    1. Click on the "View My Tour of the Solar System" link.
    2. This option allows you to view, but NOT to edit, your Journal.
    3. Click on the "Back to Journal Library" button (upper right corner).
  5. Editing your Journal
    1. Click the "Edit" link directly to the right of the "View My Tour of the Solar System" link.
    2. This option allows you to make changes to an existing Journal. It puts you into the same "mode" you were in when you first created your Journal.
    3. Click the "My Journal Library" link (upper left).
  6. Changing the title of your Journal.
    1. Click the "Change Title" link to the right of the "Edit" link.
    2. Type in "My Tour of Space" and click OK.
    3. The title of your Journal has been changed.
  7. The "Delete" link (to the right of the "Change Title" link) does what it says - it deletes your entire Journal. Only use it if that is really what you want to do!
  8. The next link over, "Printable Version", takes you to a web page showing your entire journal. You can print your whole Journal from that page, or save a local copy to your hard drive. The preceeding section ("More Changes, Printing, and Saving") explains the details of printing and saving.
  9. Make a second Journal
    1. Click on the "Start a New Journal" button above the list of "My Journals".
    2. Type in a title for your new Journal and for its first page. Click "Submit".
    3. Click the "Save Journal" option, then the link back to "My Journal Library".
    4. You now have two Journals in your library!
  10. Click the "Log Out from the Journal" button, next to "Start a New Journal"
  11. The next time you want to work on your Journal(s), click the "Enter My Journal Library" link, type in your Username and Password... and you're ready to go! Have fun!