MARCA's Website Library Organization
The Library is a collection of all kinds of MARCA related information about Activities, Repeaters, What's happening, and of course Presentations by Knowledgeable Presenters.
Our Library is an Electronic Library consisting of various files catergorized into one of two Library Types; File and Article.
The Article Library is a collection of HTML files.
The File Library is a collection of non-HTML files.
Articles or HTML files;
Articles in general are intended to be read ONLY online as a Web Page .... An example of an Article is the "Welcome Page" found when clicking the "Welcome" button on the Main Menu. In fact, all the "news" items on the Home Page are Articles. FAQs are another example. Articles are the information content displayed by a webpage. They are not the webpage (which is a .HTML File). Articles are "viewable" files written with HTML embedded commands to be displayed as a viewable readyable page of information display by a web browser. They are NOT .HTML files you would download, ALLTHOUGH ... you can print them ... or save as a .PDF file on your PC.
Articles in MARCA's Library are actually stored within a database, not as individual "files" like those defined as Files below.
Non-HTML Files;
Most files are defined by the application that created them, such as MS Word, Adobe Acrobat, MS Powerpoint, Text Editors, and so on. These types of files typically have a type designator such as: .doc, .txt, .pdf, .exl, .jpeg, .mpeg, .mov, and so on. These are typically stored individually on a hard disk.
The website or your PC browser typically does not display these documents as a page to read while connected online. However some websites, w7mot.org, are able to display some file types like .PDF and some pictures directly. Otherwise they should be downloaded for viewing with a PC or mobile app that can display them.
Picture and Video Files;
Pictures, or images, are a particular type of File (see above definition of Files). They are typically .jpeg, .pnp, .mov, .mp4, etc.... are included in some Articles but not displayed and may include the storage link of images, pictures, and videos. Pictures and images are stored as individual Files on the websites Storage.
A Picture Gallery is being developed for this website. It is not determined if it will be classified separately as a Gallery or included within the Library.
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Now It gets a little technical, huhh?, an Author uses a special software tool called an "Editor" to write their Article. But ..... hidden behind the scenes, all that text is being converted to HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which is a software language converts all that writing into something websites use to "display" everything in a "Web Page". For anyone that is a techie, HTML is not the only web language and there are "editors" that convert to other languages. Our site uses primarily HTML for Articles.
In simple words, an Article is an HTML document. It can only be displayed or used on a website.
Articles are used to quickly write about a subject that will only be stored and used on the website. (yes, you can print an article, that's not what I'm taking about). For example, FAQs are typically articles because they are intended to be read online.
Articles are stored Online and are either Published or Archived. The FAQs are Online and Published.
Document in general are typically a standardized type of electronic document defined by a software manufacturer such as Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, etc etc. A collection of these Documents are stored in a File Library. Documents can not be display directly on a website. An example would be a Microsoft Word document, Excel Spreadsheet, Adobe PDF, a photograph, a scanned document, an email, a text file, and so on. Websites don't know how to present or show these types of electronic files in a web page. (don't go technical too fast because there is a gray line on how much money you have to buy specialty software and wanting to do this, BTW, we're low budget).
There are lots of reasons for having Documents on our website. Our website is about sharing information. There are all kinds of documents we need to share. One is the CC&Rs are .PDF files and can be downloaded to your PC and viewed. How about Architectural guidelines and applications forms too.
Pictures are a special kind of document because there is an entire industry that deals with Pictures on websites. Pictures can't be displayed on a website directly (don't go there yet). There is a lot of software that will display pictures on a website, we can sort of take Pictures out of the general "Document" classification described above. Because our site has some excellent software to display pictures, we will handled them sperately. Pictures are stored in a Gallery. We have a Gallery software for our pictures. Check it out.
Technically, some pictures are used on websites for the purpose of making webpages. There are many types of picture file types .jpeg being well recognized. The header of our website is a picture, but it's not something stored in a Library or a Gallery. In this case pictures are stored in "working directories" not accessible by a user. All the graphics of a web page, the lines, the icons are pictures. They are only used to make the static framework of the web page.
Our website software displays pictures, users can upload pictures into the Gallery, and users can Download pictures to their PC. Cool stuff. Checkout other FAQ on using the Gallery.
If you followed all this, you're doing good. If all you remember is the difference in file types; Articles, Documents, and Pictures and where they are stored; Online, Libraries, and Galleries; you are doing great and will have a better understanding on where to look for information, documents, or pictures on our site and many other sites.
Plese contact the webmaster if you have any constructive, or critical feedback.