Adding Images/Boxes on your Website

Website Settings Page

The Website Settings page is a great place to start for editing your ejournals page. Whether there are big changes to flow and what is and is not accessible, or just changing background color - it all starts on the Website Settings page. This page will outline the process for adding a box to your sidebar, specifically adding an image to your sidebar.

Below is a picture of the Library Test Journal Homepage - on the right hand side, the sidebar consists of 3 "boxes" titled Subscription, Current Issue, and Information

Library Test Journal Homepage Screenshot

Adding a box to the sidebar can be a great way to add content - especially small images or a graphic piece of information - to your site. Here, we are going to demonstrate how to add a picture, in this case a picture of Reuben the Dog, to the sidebar:

Reuben the Dog Photo

1. The first step to adding customized content to your ejournals page would be to add a box. This is done through the Custom Block Manager Plug-in under the Plug-ins tab on the Website Setting screen:

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2. Once you have found the plug-ins tab, search for the Custom Block Manager plugin using the search tool; the Control+F (Find) feature on your browser also works well on the plugin screen, once you have found the Custom Block Manager, click the little toggle triange next to it and then click on "Manage Custom Blocks." Do make sure the checkbox on the right side of the screen is checked as in the image below.

Finding the Custom Blocks Manager and Selecting Manage Custom Blocks

3. This will prompt a new window where you can view all of the Custom Blocks that you have created - in this case, the Library Test Journal does not have any - so our option is to "Add Block."

Click on Add Block

4. After clicking on Add Block, the box will expand and prompt you for a title and text for your new box. For our purposes, we are interesting in simply adding an image. Click "Upload."

Uploading an Image in Custom Blocks

5. Another box will pop up - at that point, click on "Choose File" and select the file would you like to have in your block.

Choose File to Upload Window

Once you have chosen your image, you should see it populate the textbox of your new custom block. At this point, the image will appear in your sidebar - but it may not be in the exact place you want it.

6. In order to position the picture where you want it, navigate to the Appearance tab in the Website Settings screen:

Appearance Tab Website settings

7. Once you are in the appearance section, scroll down to "Sidebar Management" where you should now be able to view the box you have created:

Sidebar Management With new custom block showing

8. We cannot edit our custom block from here, we will have to go back to the plug-in screen for that - but we can drag and drop the boxes in the order we want for the sidebar. Additionally, we can hide this box for by dragging it to the "unselected" side of the Sidebar Management box. In the example below, I have dragged the Language Toggle Block to the unselected side and dragged the ReubenTheDog box up above the Web Feed Plugin:

On the home screen, my dog photo will now appear between the Information and Web Feed blocks, as I have dictated in the Sidebar Management tool above. Below is a labeled example of what your sidebar will look like after you have changed the order.

Screenshot of the Sidebar with labels

In order for your journal to have the feel you want, it will be important to play around and ask questions regarding the functionality of OJS. The new version gives a lot freedom and flexibility as far as your ejournal's website design, so don't be afriad to play around as you try to find the right fit for your readers.