Inserting files, images and multimedia with MoST CMS.

When you use MoST as your content management system you have a wide range of file types that you are able to upload to your website. You can upload images such as jpegs and giff, files like word documents and PDF or you can upload movies and audio. This tutorial will show you how to upload and resize files, images and Multimedia.

File

By inserting a file you are creating a “link” to a file that the user can click on to view or download the file.

MoST will allow you to upload the following file formats to your pages: Word (.doc), Excel (.xls), Powerpoint (.pps) and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)

Here is how:

• In the MoST Editor
• Highlight the text you want to use as a link
• Click on the Insert button
• Select File from the dropdown menu
• The file management window will appear
• You can now browse to your computer to select a file to upload to your website.

Tip: Make sure you name your file correctly before you upload it, so that you can find and recognise it at a later date.

Note: If you have already uploaded the file it will show up in the menu. You can select a file from the menu to link to.

• Click ok
• Click on the preview button to check that the link works and is in the correct spot
• Click save

Image

By inserting an image you are doing just that. Placing an image on a page of the website.

MoST will allow you to upload the following image formats to your pages: GIF(.gif), JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) and PNG (.png)

Here is how:

• In the MoST Editor
• Place the mouse curser where you would like the image to appear
• Click on the Insert button
• Select Image from the dropdown menu
• The Image management window will appear
• You can now browse to your computer to select an image to place on the page.

Tip: Make sure you name your image correctly before you upload it, so that you can find and recognise it at a later date.

Note: If you have already uploaded the image it will show up in the menu. You can select an image from the menu to place to.

• Enter a descriptive ‘Alt Tag’, This should be a description of the image. The ‘Alt Tag’ will show up when the mouse rolls over the image.
• Select an ‘Alignment’ option, this relates to how text behaves in relation to the image.
  • None - aligns image left with text below.
  • Left - aligns image left with text left beside the image.
  • Right - aligns image right with text right beside image.
• Enter the size of the image. Only one dimension is required, the image will reduce proportionately.

Tip: MoST will resize you image for you when you upload it to your website. Only one dimension (height or width) is need and MoST will reduce proportionately. This will save you the time and hassle of taking each and every image into an image editor to get it to a web ready resolution and the correct size.

• Add Padding – this adds space around the image, mouse over input box to identify direction. At least 20 pixels padding is recommended to images that are aligned to the left or right of the page.
• Click ok
• Click on the preview button to check that correct image has been placed in the correct spot
• Click save

Multimedia

Video and audio files can be inserted with the ‘Multimedia’ option under the ‘Insert’ menu.

While MoST supports various file types (avi, mpeg, mpg, wmv, and swf), the best file type by far in terms of browser compatibility is Adobe Shockwave Flash Video (.swf).

Tip: Swf will work in all browsers but it will not work on an iPhone or iPad.

Note. You may need to stipulate a size in pixels for video and this must be in a compressed format for web (.avi would probably be the most compatible).

Here is how:

• In the MoST Editor
• Place the mouse curser where you would like the video to appear
• Click on the Insert button
• Select Multimedia from the dropdown menu
• The Multimedia management window will appear
• You can now browse to your computer to select a video to upload to your website.

Tip: Make sure you name your video correctly before you upload it, so that you can find and recognise it at a later date.

Note: If you have already uploaded the video it will show up in the menu. You can select a video from the menu to link to.

• Enter the size of the image. Both dimensions are required.
• Click ok
• Click on the preview button to check that the link works and is in the correct spot
• Click save

The easiest free video convertor is Free Video to Flash Convertor. It’s free and does not contain spyware or adware and does not embed a watermark in the finished product like some other free software does. It also offers easy pre-sets like ‘Normal’, ‘High’ and ‘High Definition’ so it leaves the guess work out of the process. The ‘High quality’ setting is the best fit for most web videos as it’s a good trade off between quality vs filesize.

If you are familiar with video editing then you can use custom settings to find what’s right for you but they should be aware that a maximum file size of 30MB is allowed unless otherwise agreed.

Figuring out file sizes is a complex issue as it takes many aspects into account such as resolution, bitrate and audio compression ratio. Basically, with the above mentioned software you could convert a high definition (1280 X 720, 6000kbps) wmv file of 25MB to a swf file of 3.4MB using the ‘High Quality’ preset (480 X 360, 760kbps). The quality was obviously far less than the original but fine for web use.

Now, if you don’t want to go through that hassle you can just upload your video to youtube and then embed the link in your webpage. Do this by simply copying the ebed code from YouTube and pasting it in the source of your MoST document. This way is way easier but it has the disadvantage of the YouTube ads and comments as well as links to take you away from your site. Read our Tutorial on loading YouTube video to your website.