Updated October 4, 2008.
The Big Medium book is available as a free PDF download. If you prefer your books in atoms instead of pixels, the book is also available in paperback for $14.20 plus shipping.
Big Medium 2: The Complete Guide is a comprehensive resource for writers, editors, designers and administrators. The 256-page guide provides a friendly, accessible tour of Big Medium. It starts with a nuts-and-bolts explanation of how non-technical editors can add and edit webpages without any HTML know-how. The book gradually builds to more advanced topics, from custom site design to system administration.
Tips for printing the PDF
The PDF is designed for double-sided printing. If your printer doesn’t do that, or it just seems like too much work, please consider saving paper by printing two pages per sheet after printing the cover page. On Mac OSX, for example, you can do it like so:
In the "from" field of the print dialog, select pages 2 through 300.
From the print dialog, select "Layout."
In the Layout dialog, select "2" from the "Pages per Sheet" field.
Select "Single Hairline" from the "Border" field, and print.
How to use this book
The skills and know-how that you’ll need to use Big Medium vary according to your role in managing your site. Here’s a rundown of common categories of responsibility, along with the chapters of the guide that can help you to find your way.
Writing and editing
Adding and editing pages and other content to your site requires only basic word-processing and web-browsing skills. For details about how to add and edit pages, review these chapters:
- Chapter 2: “Ready... Set... Go!”
- Chapter 3: “Editing Webpages”
- Chapter 4: “The Page Types”
- Chapter 5: “Micro-Content: Announcements & Tips”
- Chapter 6: “The Libraries”
Site design
You’ll need basic to intermediate knowledge of HTML and CSS to create your own custom design. However, Big Medium does provide a modest library of built-in design themes, and using one of these themes requires no technical knowledge.
For information about setting up your site’s sections and using the theme library, review Chapter 7, “Sections and Content Categories,” and Chapter 8, “Themes and Site Designs.”
For information about using your own design or editing an existing theme design, review these chapters:
- Chapter 7, “Sections and Content Categories”
- Chapter 8, “Themes and Site Designs”
- Chapter 9, “Templates”
- Chapter 10, “Widgets”
- Chapter 11, “Styles”
- Chapter 12, “Image Management”
System administration
Administrators are responsible for installing the Big Medium software and adding new sites, creating new accounts and adjusting systemwide settings where necessary. You’ll need basic knowledge about loading files to your server and setting file permissions (never fear, the installation section offers some pointers for these basics).
For more on these topics, review these chapters:
- Appendix A, “Installing Big Medium”
- Appendix B, “Preventing Spam with Akismet”
- Chapter 13, “Account Management”
- Chapter 14, “Site and System Properties”
- Chapter 15, “Managing Multiple Sites”
- Chapter 16, “Backups and Server Moves”
Make your own Big Medium guide
Create your own custom Big Medium guide, tailored to the specific needs of your
organization or clients. The complete text of the book is available as a free RTF file for editing in Microsoft Word or your favorite word processor.
Big Medium 2: The Complete Guide is licensed under a Creative Commons license. You’re allowed (encouraged!) to make copies, share the content or mix it with your own work, provided that you credit the original version to Josh Clark and Global Moxie and that you do not offer the content for sale without permission from Global Moxie.
Tags:
bigmedium,
cms,
pdf
