Welcome to iFiles

"iFiles" is a feature that allows you to upload many different kinds of text and HTML files into the iClubs you belong to. If you want to upload a favorite short story, a poem or article you wrote, for example, simply create a new iFile, paste the text under the field of "content" and - poof! - your text is available to all members of your iClub - neatly organized into a folder (named by you).

Remember that you can also use your favorite text editor (Word, ClarisWorks, etc.). Just be sure to save the text with the option "save as" html and then, when you create the iFile, use "browse" to upload it into the iClub.

If you are familiar with HTML, you can go right ahead and compose your iFile as text with the appropriate HTML "tags" or you can use the "browse" feature and find the file you want to upload straight from your computer.
 

iFiles Easy HTML Guide

For those of you to whom the letters HTML have no meaning: a brief guide for beginners.

If you just enter plain text into the "content" box, the text will come out with a blue font over a yellow background. If you're adventurous and want to start using some HTML tags, go for it!

The first thing should be a title, right?
This tag is an easy one: <h1>.
BUT, rule #1: remember that with HTML you always have to close the command with a slash (/) like this: </h1>
The number after the letter is the size you want the text, with 1 being the biggest; 6 the smallest, like this:

<h2> Title 2 </h2>

A tip: you can use this tag when you want other sizes of text; not just titles. All the text you are reading here, for example, is written with <h6>.


Inside the head tags you can also include an instruction regarding how you'd like the text to be aligned (left/middle/right). Yes, we know, it's amazing! The command is align="left", align="center", or align="right". Here we go:

<h5 align="center"> Title 5 </h5>

Remember that it will be displayed like this:

Title 5


By reading this you're already showing us that you're a bold person. Maybe now you want your words to match your personality. The command to make your text font bold is <b> </b>. The text <b>you include within the opening and closing tags will be in bold writing</b>.

Then, for the romantics we have the <i> Italics </i>.

If you want to have different lines and paragraphs, you must use one of these two tags:
To force<br>
line brakes<br>
you have this one <br>
which, amazingly,<br>
you don't need to close.<br>
<p>

Or if you just want a whole new paragraph use the <p> tag, as we just did. This is another one that you don't need to close.
 

In HTML you can also create a list:

To open a list use this <ul>:

<li> This is an unnumbered one.
<li> To add to the list you have to put an "<li>" sign in front of each item.
<li> And then the "<li>" tag will become a bullet, like this:

  • Oh, and you don't need a closing </li> tag.
  • Remember that you can always go to edit and check how this is done.
  • Don't forget to close the list with the
</ul> sign.
 

We've been learning a lot already. What about using a line to separate everything we've said so far? The tag is <hr>


 

Phase II: colors, links and images

 

To add a background color for your whole iFile, you have to modify the <body> tag that automatically appears when you enter a text, by adding <body bgcolor="#000000">. Within the quotation marks you add the color of the background. The background colors are a # sign followed by six numbers. 
To discover a world of colors, go to:  HTML color names 

If, in this beautiful colored iFile you've created, you also want to change the font color, use the command <font color="#FFFFFF"> and close it when you're done </font>. White is #FFFFFF, as you can see. For font colors you can also use the name of the colors instead of the codes. Like <font color="white "> this</font>.

In order to create a hyperlink to another URL, (a word or image which you can click on and be taken to another web site) use the command <a href="http://www.iagora.com"> iAgora</a>. Within the quotation marks you write the URL. Before closing with the </a> you have to write the text you want to be "linked". This is the result:
 iAgora 

To include an image in your iFile, you have to use the <img scr="http://images.iagora.com/ images/ipeople/profiles/ cartoon/lg/ cartoon12_lg.gif"> command. Again, you put the link of the image within the quotation marks. If you ever see an image you like around the web, you simply "right-click" on the image, select "view image", and then copy the URL address that appears. That's the address you put into the tag. (Be careful of copyright laws, though! Be sure to get permission first if necessary.)

Now, if you'd like people to be able to click on just the image and be taken to another page (i.e. make it a link), you just surround the tag with an anchor. Example:
<a href="http://iclubs.iagora.com"> <img src="http://images.iagora.com/images/ clubs/club_logo.gif"> </a>

Well, we've given you the very basics of HTML here. You can play around with your iFile to see how it works. If you like what you've seen and would like to learn some more, check out this guide.

Last but not least

Remember that you can always edit iFiles you've created in any iClub. In addition, you can edit the iFiles in iClubs that you are a co-host of or that you have founded. So,

Happy iFiling!