Getting Started Tutorial

This is some basic information for first time visitors to the website, to help you get started, learn more about the website, and find your way around.

Getting Around - First Time Visitors

This information is to help you if you are visiting this website for the first time. Please make sure to look at all the links in the Help section, as these will give you technical support to use the website, and also help you understand the purpose and the guidelines of the website.

The other help links are listed below. You can click on any of these to take you to further information:

This website is a place to collect, share and explore the stories of places and people in Northland. It is a community project that has been made possible through funding from the Community Partnership Fund, and with incredible support from the Northland community. One of the main goals of the website is to give anyone with internet access the chance to share their stories and experiences of places in Northland, to provide a digital space where these stories – whether historical or modern day – can sit together, and begin to build a living history for Northland. You can be a part of this project by registering on the website and adding your story.

Dial Up vs. Broadband

Please note - if you are on dial up, the website will operate and load much faster if you do not use the map. While this is a disadvantage (the map is a great way to explore), you can easily search for places and stories through the orange search box on the left hand side. When you go to the Explore page, choose the ‘Close Map’ option and the website will then be much more effective to use.

Registration

To register on the website, go to the homepage (www.thisistheplace.org.nz) and click on the Register Now link on the right hand side of the website – it is a brown box. This will take you to a page, where you are asked to fill in your name, a username, email address and a password.

Name – your name is asked for, so that we can verify that you are a genuine individual wanting to contribute to the website

Username – your username will be what displays on the website when you add places and stories. This can be different from your full name, in order to protect your privacy. It may be just your first name or a nickname

Email address – we require your email address so we can verify your details and then communicate with you in the future if changes are made to the website that you need to know about

Password – this password gives you secure access to parts of the website that are unique to you, including ‘My Place’ and your user profile

Once you have registered, you will need to return to your email account, where you should have an email waiting for you from This is the Place : Ko Tenei Te Wahi. You need to click on the link in that website to confirm your email address, and this will take you back to the website so you can log in and begin adding stories. You only need to verify your email address once. If you do not receive an email from the website, please Contact Us with your details so we can help you.

Login

Once you have registered, the next time you visit us, you can go straight to the login. To login, you need to enter your username and password, and then click the Login button

Top Menu

The top menu bar are the items that you see along the top of the screen, such as Home, Explore, and The Project. These are all links to different parts of the website:

Home

This link takes you to the home page. From the home page, you can:

Register on the website
Login to the website
Read the Featured Story – if you click on this story, it will take you to the full story, so you can read it in full, and see all the images and audio.
Click onto different stories in the website using the grid of images. Each image comes from a different story in the website, so if you click on an image, it will take you to that story.
Read and hear the mihi or greeting for the website in Te Reo Maori, read by Bryan Pou
Click on links to Blue Orb and Community Partnership Fund, the two key organisations behind the project
Search engine – this allows you to type in any words and search the content of the website for those words.
Advanced Search – this does the same job as the basic search but allows you to be much more specific in your search

Explore

This link takes you to the explore page, which is designed to help you search the website. You can search the content of the website with a word search, using the orange search box on the left hand side of the page, or you can use the map to search for stories

If you are using the map, you can zoom in to find particular places by using the zoom tool on the left hand side of the map, or you can double-click in the map, and it will zoom you in. You can use your mouse to move around inside the map.

The more you zoom, the more information and stories you can find. Once you click on a particular story (shown by small images and icons) you will see a range of places and how many stories they hold in an information bubble. You can then click on these to see the stories. If there is only one story in that place, you will see the name of that story in the information bubble.

You can then keep searching, or you can click on the name of the story, and see the full story, including any text, images and audio. When you have finished reading a particular story, you can go back to the Explore page to see more. When you go back to the Explore Page, you will begin a new search.

If you don’t want to begin a new search, there are orange links on the right hand side of the page, where you can look at other stories from that place, or other stories that you may be interested in.

Add Story

This link takes you to the beginning of the process to add a story. The first step is to identify the place you want to add your story to. When you type your place name in, the website will search for other places of the same name, and suggest you add your story to these places, or make a new place. If the website does not recognise your place, it will display a map, so you can zoom in and place a marker on the map where your place is. You can then give your place a unique name (e.g. Brown family bach, Grandad Tom’s first house’, or ‘Paihia fishing spot’.

Once you have confirmed the name and location of your place, you will be taken to the Story Page so you can add your story. For more information, go to these links: Adding a Place Tutorial and Adding a Story Tutorial.

My Place

This page is designed as a page just for you. It is unique to each person registered with the website, and gives you a summary of all the stories you have added to the website. It also contains all your details in your ‘User Profile’. This allows you to go back and change any details once you have registered. In the User Profile, there are also options to register for the website newsletter, and sign up for Notifications.

These notifications keep you informed if other people add stories to your places, or add stories to places where you have added stories. For example, if you grew up in Tutukaka and you had added stories to Tutukaka about your childhood, you may be interested to know when other people add stories to Tutukaka, as they may be people you know, or once knew, who share similar experiences.

The Project

This link takes you to background information about how the project got started, and who has been involved. There are also links on this page to some of our key supporters.

Help

This link takes you to pages that will help you find your way around the website, if you are visiting it for the first time, or want some instructions or support to use the website.

Contact Us

This link takes you to contact details for Blue Orb Charitable Trust, founders of the project. You can contact us if you have any questions or concerns about the website. We welcome any feedback.

The Story Page

Each story in the website has its own page. At the top of each page is the name of the place and the story, the author of the story and the creator of the place the story is linked to.

There are also tabs at the top of the story, so you can click between the text (words), images (photographs), and audio (oral recordings). You can go backwards and forwards between the different parts of the story, just by clicking on these tabs.

There is also a map on the right hand side of the page to give you the geographic location of the place.

If you are on the written story page, the text tab is highlighted. Some stories may also contain links to organisations, such as libraries and museums, to reference where some of the content for these stories was located. If you want to find out more about these particular stories, you can follow these links

If you are on the photographs / images page, the image tab is highlighted. One image will appear enlarged, and all other images will sit below it. Any of these images can be enlarged, by clicking on them. Images all have their own captions, and may include other information such as photographer credits.

If you are on the oral recordings page, the audio tab is highlighted. To listen to the oral recordings, you need to click the arrow at the left end of the audio track. The sound for the audio will come through your computer’s speakers. You can continue to listen to the audio while looking at the text and images from the same story. Audio recordings may also contain extra information, including a description of the recording, the speaker/s making the recording and the time it was made.

This is the place

Getting Started Tutorial