My class was a success, but now I have a new request.
Manila class was much better today. I always hated the blank stares I got when I tried to explain the Navigation XML. But during this last class it was pointed out to me that deleting Items from Manila is very hard to understand.The present scenario is to find the item you want to get rid of, that might mean that it's in the Stories or Pictures list. Then click on the "Discuss This Message Link" (which by the way can say anything the theme designer wants it to say - so that in itself makes it a bad UI cause the button name is different on nearly every site). Once you've clicked on the Discuss Link, you need to scroll down to the bottom of that page to find an Admin Box. Now click on the Delete Message/Item radio button and finally click on the submit button.
There needs to be a better way to administer pages. Stories, and NewsItems.
Update: There was a solution. UserLand made it so the Admin box appeared on every story reader page. That works great, but the fix only shows up on new Manila site created after the fix was Installed. Why?
Plus there seems to be a problem with that solution. While new users have the ability to "remove the iteme form the list", "turn on and off Bylines", and "set a relative path", the delete function is strangely absent (example). Oversight Possibly. What I would like to see is for the story reader "Admin Box" to acquire the delete function, and then it turned on in every Manila site.
I'm actually excited about doing a Manila training today.
I have a few teachers coming in to do some Manila training this afternoon, and for the first time in a while I'm actually excited. Mainly cause I finally have a good answer for how to add to the navigation.Every one seems to understand that you click the Edit this Page button to make changes to a page, and they seem to understand how to upload images to the server. But you should see the color leave their face when I tried to show them that you had to edit a "simple" XML outline to make addition to the navigation. It was heart breaking.
Now all I have to say is "click the edit button underneath the navigation and have at it." This is going to be great.