Writing Guidelines & How To’s

What to write about

Anything, as long as it’s Berlin-related. You can write about places to eat, drink, buy books, hang out, or take visiting relatives. You can give advice for dealing with the Ausländeramt or how to use the libraries in Berlin. Our goal isn’t to be comprehensive, but helpful. So writing about a friendly Kneipe ten blocks from the nearest U-bahn is fine, but perhaps you could balance it with an entry about a museum or famous Berlin landmark. Take a look to make sure that what you want to write about hasn’t already been covered. If it has, feel free to add your comments to the entry using the “Add Comments” link that goes with each entry.

Logging in

The first time you use the system, you’ll login with a user name and password I’ll send you. If you check the “Remember me?” box, you won’t have to enter your name and password next time. Click “Edit Your Profile” and change your password to something you can remember. Fill out the “password recovery” field, just in case you forget it.

Writing an entry

Once you’ve logged in, click on “Berlin Guide.” You’ll see a welcome screen that’s used to manage all your entries to the site and add new ones. It’s pretty self-explanatory, and you’ll probably only need to worry about the “New Entry” button. Click it, and you’ll see the form to write a new entry. (If you click on “New Entry” from the main menu after login, you’ll come right to this screen.)

You’ll see three things on the New Entry screen: Title, Entry Body, and Primary Category.

• Title is the title of your entry and is how people will find your entry. Please use the name of the place if it has one (“Café Miro”, “Reichstag”, “Gorlizer Park”) or use a short descriptive title otherwise (“How to get an Arbeitserlaubnis”).
• Entry Body is the entry itself. Just write normally here. (Sorry, no fancy formatting, but you can use HTML tags like the bold tag, the italic tag, or regular “a href=” links if you want.)
• Primary Category is used to place your entry somewhere in the site’s sections. Choose the one from the list that best fits what you’re writing

Please don’t use the category “_private_admin.” Also, “Berlin Web Links” is a category that behaves a special way (see below) and shouldn’t be used for regular entries.

Fill those three fields out, click “Save” at the bottom of the screen and you’re done. The system will do some stuff, and confirm the save.

You might want to Assign Multiple Categories to make it easier for people to find your entry. (See “Choosing Categories” below.)

Choosing Categories

For each entry you write, you have to choose at least one category. (Or else no one will ever find what you write!) Categories are the main links you see when you look at the home page: “Bars & Cafes”, “Advice for Students”, etc. Every entry gets filed under at least one of these.

Most entries should be filed in at least one category. For example, the Pagoda Thai restaurant on Bergmanstrasse should really be in both “Restaurants” and “Kreuzberg” so someone could find it in both places. You put an entry in multiple categories with the “Assign Multiple Categories” link which appears once you’ve saved an entry. If you’re writing about a place (like a bar or museum), please make sure one of the categories you choose is a district.

If there’s a category you think should be added to the site, contact me and I’ll add it.

Again, please don’t use the category “_private_admin.” Also, “Berlin Web Links” is a category that behaves a special way (see below) and shouldn’t be used for regular entries.

Berlin Web Links

You might find useful links to other web sites about Berlin. You can add them to the site easily, and they’ll show up in a list on the left of the Berlin Guide home page.

Adding a link is easy:

1. Click New Entry from the main menu
2. Type the name of the link in the Title box (for example, “Zitty Magazine Online”)
3. Type the URL of the link in the Entry Body field. Don’t include http:// (for example, www.zitty.de)
4. Choose the “Berlin Web Links” category from the category menu
5. Click the Save button

Please don’t choose any Additional Categories for any Berlin Web Links you add to the site.

Posted by Andrew at November 5, 2002 12:10 PM