| You cannot directly upload word processor or pdf documents to ELTBase. Instead, you create your document in an online office application, use the 'publish to Internet' option, and then add the link created to ELTBase. This minimizes the risk of virus infection, reduces the storage load (a link to a document takes up far less space than a document), and allows the creator of a document to maintain greater control over the document. Therefore, if you want to share printed materials, you will first need to open a free online office account. This is extremely easy to do and costs nothing. (1) Using an online office account The number of free online office suites is growing. Here are some popular ones: Zoho ThinkFree A valid email address is all that is required (in the case of Google it doesn't have to be a Gmail address) (2) Creating or uploading documents You can either create documents in your online office account or upload existing documents into your online office account from a personal computer. Tip Where possible, create your documents on a personal computer using a conventional word processor such as the free Open Office Writer, or Microsoft Word. These are faster and rather easier to use than the online processors offered in the online office suites, especially if you are using tables to format your documents. (3) File formats Rich text format (.rtf) is the most widely accessible document format that will allow the kind of formatting common in ELT handouts - a range of font faces and sizes, styles such as bold, italic, and strikethrough, and tables. Avoid Microsoft's new .docx format, as this is only accessible from the latest versions of Microsoft Word. Microsoft's standard .doc format is fine. (5) Publishing your document In your online office suite, select 'publish' to create a url (web address) for your document. (6) Adding the link to ELT base Copy and paste the link into the 'Share printed materials page' in ELT base. (You can find a link to this next to the  button on any page that displays printed materials). (6) Labelling and tagging Give your document a short, descriptive title. Tag your document. Try to use tags sparingly - a great cloud of tags will confuse rather than help another user. Three should be a maximum. If you like, add a longer description of your document - maxium 256 characters or around 30 words. (5) Submit and check Click 'submit materials'. Follow links to review your materials. Note If you need to make changes to your document, you can do so in your online office suite. Any changes that you make there, should be automatically applied to the published version of your document. Tip At the present time, Zoho offers the most options for downloading and printing the finished document. You can directly download a document from Zoho in a choice of formats - Microsoft Word, .rtf, PDF, text, and others. For this reason we recommend Zoho as the best choice of online office suite for sharing materials on ELTBase. Google and ThinkFree materials have to be printed from the browser window. This can sometimes cause problems with formatting. It may help to enable the 'Print background colors and images' option in your browser (Internet Explorer - Tools -> Internet otions -> advanced tab -> scroll down to 'printing'; Firefox File -> Page setup -> check 'Print background (colors and images). |