KEEP Toolkit Dashboard Operations

Frequently Asked Questions

Dashboard Operations

1) How do I create a new Snapshot?
To create a new Snapshot, you must first select a template. You may use one of the redesigned templates included in the KEEP Toolkit or start from scratch with a blank template. From the “My Dashboard” page, click on the "New" icon. This takes you to the template gallery. From here you can view the template as it looks in edit-mode, view an example of a Snapshot created using the template and finally, choose to use a template for your new Snapshot. You will be prompted to create a title for the new Snapshot and then taken to your "My Dashboard" page. When you create a new Snapshot it is automatically added to the Snapshot list on the “My Dashboard” page.

2) How do I view a Snapshot?
You may view your Snapshot as it looks published (without editing capacity) from the “My Dashboard” page by clicking on the title of the Snapshot you wish to view in the list. A new window will open for you to view your Snapshot. You may also copy and paste the URL in the address bar and email it to your colleagues if you wish to share your Snapshot with them.

3) How do I make my Snapshot available to the public?
You can choose to restrict or allow access to your Snapshots by choosing “Yes” or “No” for each particular Snapshot under the “Share?” column on the “My Dashboard” page. Choosing “Yes” will allow your peers to view your Snapshot when you send them the URL. If you select “No,” your Snapshot will not be available to view by others even if they have the URL to it.

4) How do I share my Snapshot with peers?
Although the Snapshots are online, people won't be able to find them unless you publicize it. To share your Snapshot's URL with others, click on the title of the Snapshot you wish to share from the “My Dashboard” page and a new window will open. Copy the URL from that window and email it to your colleagues or link to it from another website.

5) How do I edit a Snapshot?
From the “My Dashboard” page you can edit your Snapshot by selecting the appropriate Snapshot’s edit icon. You will be taken to the edit page for the Snapshot. Any changes you make to your Snapshot while editing are automatically saved and updated. You can view the Snapshot you are currently editing by clicking the “View Snapshot” button. A new window will open for you to view your Snapshot. At any time you can return to “My Dashboard” by clicking the appropriate tab.

6) How do I sort my Snapshots?
From the “My Dashboard” page you can sort your Snapshots in ascending or descending order according to the Snapshot title, date of the last update or date created by clicking on the appropriate column title. You can also sort your work by its type by clicking on the type link in the right column of the Dashboard: snapshot, stitch, gallery, public, or private. Please, refer to "How do I find particular items on my Dashboard?" FAQ for more information on finding snapshots in your Dashboard.

7) How do I stitch together Snapshots?
First, select the Snapshots you wish to stitch together by checking the appropriate Snapshot check boxes, located to the left of each Snapshot title. Next, click the “Stitch” icon to format the stitched group. Click "Use Advanced Options" to format the navigation bar, font type and to choose background and text colors. The Snapshots will show up as menu items within a navigation bar that is included on each page of the new group. This way you can link up related Snapshots to create a group of connected Snapshots. The Snapshots themselves remain intact and can be used in as many stitched groups as you want. The vertical menu format is best for long menu names and/or if you have more than seven total menu items. You can also select the "Both" option to have horizontal and vertical navigation bars. Select the number of horizontal items from the drop-down menu (Maximum 4). All other items will be placed on the vertical bar. There is a 35 maximum character limit for the menu names.

8) How do I create a gallery of Snapshots?
First, select the Snapshots you wish to include in the gallery together by checking the appropriate Snapshot checkboxes, located to the left of each Snapshot title. Next, Enter the URLs of Snapshots in other KEEP user accounts. Modify descriptions, author and institution information. Order the Snapshots using the arrow buttons. Click "Create Exhibition" to create the gallery. The Snapshots will show up as items within a single gallery page. You have the option of including thumbnail images of the Snapshots in the gallery as well as title and description information. This way you can link up related Snapshots to create a group of connected Snapshots. The Snapshots themselves remain intact and can be used in as many galleries as you want.

9) The thumbnail images of Snapshots in my gallery are not displaying. What's wrong?
The KEEP Toolkit records an image of every Snapshot created once every 15 minutes. If you have just created a Snapshot and try to include it in a gallery, the thumbnail image will not display. If you wait 15 minutes before creating the gallery, all thumbnail images will display.

10) How do I edit a stitched group?
First, select the stitched group you wish to edit by checking the appropriate check box, located to the left of the title of each stitched group. Next, click the “Stitch” icon to edit the stitched group.

11) How do I create a copy of a Snapshot?
First, select the Snapshots you wish to copy by checking the appropriate Snapshot check boxes, located to the left of each Snapshot title. Next, click the “Save As” icon to save a copy of each selected Snapshot with a new name. This enables you to have multiple versions of the same Snapshot. You do not need to use the “Save As” operation to save changes to your Snapshot as you edit. All changes that you make to the Snapshot while editing are automatically saved and updated. There is no way to undo changes you make to a Snapshot while editing. If you wish to save a Snapshot before making changes, use the "Save As" operation.

12) How can I share a Snapshot with another KEEP user?
First, select the Snapshots you wish to share by checking the appropriate Snapshots' check boxes, located to the left of each Snapshot title. Next, click the “Send To” icon to send a copy of the Snapshot(s) selected to another KEEP user's account. The Snapshot(s) will show up in the addressee's “My Dashboard” page. This will send a copy of your Snapshot(s) to another user's account. This Snapshot will not reflect changes to make to it after sending. The Snapshot in the addressee's account is entirely independent from the original Snapshot.

13) Can more than one user work on the same Snapshot?
At this time, groups of KEEP Toolkit users cannot simultaneously work on one Snapshot. Using the "Send To" operation, one person can author a Snapshot and send it to other KEEP Toolkit users to edit. The "Send To" operation in effect creates a copy of a single user's Snapshot and assigns it to another KEEP Toolkit user's account. The "sent" Snapshot is its own discrete object. Changes that are made to the original will not be reflected in the "sent" Snapshot. Multiple authors can contribute to a single Snapshot using the "Send To" function, considering the Snapshots as drafts of a final copy.

14) How do I rename a Snapshot?
First, select the Snapshots you wish to rename by checking the appropriate Snapshot check boxes, located to the left of each Snapshot title. Next, click the “Rename” icon to specify a new name for each selected Snapshot. To create a copy of a Snapshot, use the “Save As” operation.

15) How do I delete a Snapshot?
First, select the Snapshots you wish to delete by checking the appropriate Snapshot check boxes, located to the left of each Snapshot title. Next, click the “Delete” icon to permanently delete the selected Snapshots from your account. This operation cannot be undone.

16) How do I tag my snapshots?
Select the items you want to tag, using the check box on the left of each item. Click on the Tag button to open the dialogue box that will allow you to apply tags to your selections. enter the tags you want to apply to your selections. You may enter more than one tag per item.

17) How do I find particular items on my Dashboard?
Once items are tagged, use the Tag Cloud or Tag Search to locate collections of work. Choosing a Tag from the Tag Cloud or Searching for a particular tag, highlights items and causes all items with that tag to "float" to the top of the list. KEEP Tags allow you to find types of items included on your Dashboard.

18) How can I share my work with KEEP?
KEEP provides several mechanisms for sharing snapshots, galleries and stitched groups. Users are only restricted from viewing a snapshot if the owner of that snapshot marks it as "private." Public snapshots can be shared with others by sending the URL of the snapshot. Note that you are also able to send a copy of the snapshot to another KEEP Toolkit user by using the "Send To" function from within the Dashboard. Finally, when you are ready for a wider audience you can "publish" your snapshots. Publishing a snapshot announces it to search engines and allows you to create a short, memorable URL. The clear advantage of the short URL is that it can easily be written down, remembered, retyped and emailed to colleagues. Publishing a snapshot usually takes a few days to be noticed by search engines, and there is no guarantee that a specific search will find your snapshot. However you can publish links to your snapshots in your other web pages, on newsgroups which all help search engines find and rank your work.

19) What does "found in Google" mean?
The KEEP Toolkit team realized that some of the snapshots in our system were intentionally published by their authors for a wider audience (by posting to lists, or linking to another webpage). We have annotated these in the Dashboard to let the user know that these snapshots were found, and to recommend that they choose a Creative Commons or other license.

20) How do I prevent Google from displaying my work? Does this work for all search engines?
If you later decide to remove your work from Google you can choose "unpublish." Not that there is a specific mechanism built in to KEEP for dealing with unpublishing, and that if you only send out short URL's for your published work (and not permalinks), the simple fact of unpublishing will not make your work unreachable. You also have the option of making the work private which will prevent anyone from looking directly at it. Please note that search engines frequently cache (maintain a copy for speed or access) of public work and that simply disconnecting a snapshot does not guarantee that no one will see the content, additionally people may retain full copies.

21) What is a permalink?
With the addition of short URLs there are now multiple ways to reach a snapshot. You may have noticed that the basic links in KEEP are fairly complex:
http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=15637111398985. These are permanent links that work for snapshots regardless of whether the snapshot is public or published.

22) How do search engines find my published snapshots?
We have created a map to KEEP of all snapshots that are available. This map is updated at regular intervals, but we have no control over when a search engine chooses to crawl these pages.

23) If I am unable or unwilling to grant additional rights to the work produced here, can I choose a traditional copyright?
Yes, all unpublished work is covered by a traditional copyright, but because of copyright's restrictive nature you will most likely want to choose a Creative Commons license when you publish your snapshots. In the future we will allow users to choose a default license for all of their work and then modify this choice on a case by case basis.

24) How do I attribute work that I find in KEEP?
At present if the author of the snapshot is not listed we recommend that you use the permalink to refer to the snapshot. We shall shortly be releasing a tool which creates Chicago Style links for snapshots to enable you to more easily attribute the work of others.