Welcome to the Stories of Change website. See the guides below or use the menu links above to get started. Any stories or content you add will be available to edit from your dashboard. Uploaded content can be saved as drafts rather than published straight away - so have a play. Something missing? Let us know and we'll add it to the guide.

See the guides below for help using the site and uploading content. Something missing? Let us know and we'll add it to the guide. If you have any questions, feedback or issues with the site please contact us using the email address below.

Email admin@storiesofchange.ac.uk.

The website is designed to showcase Stories around energy change. Stories are a key feature of the site, built by threading together multiple content items around a theme or topic. You could think of them as a narrated feature story, a collection of related content, or a pathway through the library materials. Anyone can create a story - making links between existing content or linking your own uploaded content.

The Library let's you browse all of the individual content items and media - video, audio, images, articles, links and documents. These are the nuts and bolts of the stories - research materials, media and more. We're hoping the different ways to search, sort and view the content will allow unexpected connections and relationships to be discovered.

Cover pictures are highly recommended for both stories and content items. The cover picture you upload becomes the item thumbnail on the Stories and Library pages. It is also used as the large feature picture at the top of the page (for most content types). Please think carefully about this image - a great image that represents your content will help more people find it. If you don't have an image to represent your content you could consider a Google Images search to find one. Use the "Search Tools" options look for images that are "Labeled for noncommercial reuse". Before you use the image double check the licensing terms carefully on the original link by clicking "Visit page".

Recommended format

• Jpeg: high quality, RGB colour format
• Suggested dimensions: 1200 x 500 pixels
• Minimum dimensions: 600 pixels (smallest edge)
• Ideal file size: approx 1-2Mb
• Maximum file size: 10Mb

The system automatically resizes your uploaded image to the required sizes. As long as your uploaded file is big enough, your images will be great quality. If your uploaded image is less than 600 pixels it will be scaled up and may appear blurry.

How to upload an image

• Under "Cover picture" click "Browse"
• Locate the file on your local computer and click "Upload"
• Wait while the file uploads, when it's done you will see the image link in orange (with a new filename) and a red "remove button"
• Add an image caption and photo credit into the Cover picture caption/credit field
• You can change the image at any stage by removing and re-uploading another image

The excerpt is used alongside the title and thumbnail to represent your item. Keep it short and snappy to help people find your content - as a guide 30 words (or 120 characters with spaces). Different excerpt lengths are displayed on different devices. The website will automatically truncate longer excerpts.

Use Topics and Content types to help people discover your content and build relationships between materials. Add as many relevant terms as possible to both stories and content items. Separate multiple terms with commas. The terms are fixed and pre-defined, carefully designed to frame common content types and concerns. If you have any suggestions please send feedback.

To add a term use the Pick buttons. This opens a list of all available terms. Click on a term to select it and add it to your list. The selected term will be added in a lozenge. Use the Pick buttons again to add multiple terms. Remove any selected terms using the "X" link inside each lozenge.

A timeline view of content and stories is planned. Add a related time period reference wherever you would locate your content on a timeline. Please keep it simple - we realise this may be hard, where the content spans multiple periods. Rather than overcomplicating it, we'd suggest nominating a best-fit date.

Currently this is a free-text field, so you could enter "1983", "1960's", "12th-17th centuries" or "12 Jan 2016". This may have to become a single time stamp in the future. In this case we'll attempt a best-fit translation of the related time period provided.

A map based view of content and stories is planned. Add a related geographic reference to pin your content on a map. Please keep it simple and be as specific as possible - we realise this may be hard, where the content spans multiple locations. Rather than overcomplicating it, we'd suggest nominating a best-fit location.

Currently this is a free-text field, so you could enter "South Wales", "Sheffield", "SE14 5SG" or a Google Map coordinate. When the mapping feature is added we may have to attempt a best-fit translation of the location you've provided, so please be as clear and specific as possible.

A wide range of content can be uploaded or added to the website.

• Articles - text based content, with optional links and images
• Video (via YouTube or Vimeo)
• Audio (via Audioboom)
• Single images
• Image galleries - a collection of images
• Documents - PDF, DOC, PPT
• Links - links to websites or online resources

These are the nuts and bolts of the stories - research materials, media and more. We're hoping the different ways to search, sort and view the content will allow unexpected connections and relationships to be discovered.

Articles may be predominantly text based. You have the option of adding images and links within your text using the Markdown editor.

To add an Article

• Go to your Dashboard and click the "Add content" button
• Enter a summary of your content in the Overview area
• In the "Content" block click the "Article" button and paste or type your text into the Article field
• Use the Markdown editor buttons to format your text e.g. bold, italics, lists
• The "Link" button enables you to add web links within your text
• Use the "Insert image" button to add images to your article
• Enter usage rights details, categories and metadata
• Click "Save and publish" or "Save as a draft"
• Your article will be listed and available to edit in "My content" on your dashboard

You can add single images (e.g. a photo or map) or image galleries (a collection of images). Please add image captions and photo credits where possible.

To add a Single Image

• Go to your Dashboard and click the "Add content" button
• Enter a summary of your content in the Overview area
• In the "Content" block click the "Images" button
• Click "Browse" and locate the image file on your computer
• Click the blue "Upload" button
• When the image upload is complete you will see filename as a link and a red "Remove" option. Click the filename link to preview your uploaded image
• Add an image caption and photo credit details in the credit/caption field
• Enter usage rights details, categories and metadata
• Click "Save and publish" or "Save as a draft"
• Your content will be listed and available to edit in "My content" on your dashboard

To add an Image Gallery

• Add additional images using the "Add one more image" button
• Click "Save and publish" or "Save as a draft"

The website supports video embeds from popular video hosting sites including YouTube and Vimeo. To add video to the website it first needs to be uploaded to a video hosting site. You should upload your content to your own account and then embed a link to the uploaded video.

Upload the Video

• Go to: YouTube or Vimeo and login or register
• Click the "Upload" button and follow the upload instructions
• Once the video has uploaded, choose a thumbnail, enter a title and short description
• Copy the full URL or link of the uploaded video page e.g. https://vimeo.com/168803427

Add the Video

• Go to your Dashboard and click the "Add content" button
• Enter a summary of your content in the Overview area
• In the "Content" block click the "Video/Audio/Link" button
• Enter the full URL of the uploaded video page on Vimeo/YouTube e.g. https://vimeo.com/168803427
• Enter usage rights details, categories and metadata
• Click "Save and publish" or "Save as a draft" and the website will auto embed and display your video from the URL provided
• Your content will be listed and available to edit in "My content" on your dashboard

The website supports audio embeds from AudioBoom. To add audio to the website it first needs to be uploaded to Audioboom. Follow the steps below, or see our guide on how to add audio files.

Upload the Audio

• Go to: audioboom.com and login or register
• Click the "Upload a clip" button and follow AudioBoom upload instructions
• Once your audio file has uploaded, choose a thumbnail, enter a title and short description
• View your uploaded audio to check it's uploaded fine e.g. https://audioboom.com/boos/3425417-an-energy-generation-interview-with-leonie-greene
• Click the Embed button and copy the embed code

Add the Audio

• Go to your Dashboard and click the "Add content" button
• Enter a summary of your content in the Overview area
• In the "Content" block click the "Video/Audio/Link" button
• Paste the embed code you just copied into the "Insert video, audio or an external link" field
• Enter usage rights details, categories and metadata
• Click "Save and publish" or "Save as a draft" and the website will auto embed and display your audio
• Your content will be listed and available to edit in "My content" on your dashboard

The website supports document formats including:

• DOC - Word Docs
• PDF - Portable Document Format
• PPT - PowerPoint Presentations

To add a Document

• Go to your Dashboard and click the "Add content" button
• Enter a summary of your link in the Overview area
• In the "Content" block click the "Document" button
• Click "Browse" and find the document on your computer - supported file types include DOC, PDF and PPT
• Click the blue "Upload" button
• When the file upload is complete you will see filename as a link and a red "Remove" option. Click the filename link to preview your uploaded document.
• The website will automatically build a preview of PDF documents, along with a view/download button
• Enter usage rights details, categories and metadata
• Click "Save and publish" or "Save as a draft"
• Your content will be listed and available to edit in "My content" on your dashboard

You can add a Link to the website - this could be a link to an external website, web page, blog, application or resource. All you need is the full URL of your link e.g. http://www.atlas-id.org.

To add a Link

• Go to your Dashboard and click the "Add content" button
• Enter a summary of your link in the Overview area
• In the "Content" block click the "Video/Audio/Link" button
• Enter the full URL of your link in the field. The link should start with "http" e.g. http://www.atlas-id.org
• Enter usage rights details, categories and metadata
• Click "Save and publish" or "Save as a draft"
• Your content will be listed and available to edit in "My content" on your dashboard

You can choose from six different Creative Commons (CC) licenses for your content. We encourage you to use the most open license that you can. For more information on all CC licenses, go to https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/

CC0

This “No Rights Reserved” license puts content as completely as possible in the public domain, so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the works for any purposes without restriction under copyright or database law. You should only apply CC0 to your own work, unless you have the necessary rights to apply CC0 to another person’s work.

CC BY

This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. We recommended this license for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. This license requires that others who use your work in any way must give you credit the way you request, but not in a way that suggests you endorse them or their use. If they want to use your work without giving you credit or for endorsement purposes, they must get your permission first.

CC BY-SA

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you (see CC-BY above) and license their new creations under the identical terms. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia.

CC BY-NC

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

CC-BY-NC-ND

This license only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you (see CC-BY above regarding credit), but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. This license is the most restrictive of these Creative Commons licenses.

CC-BY-NC-SA

This license is similar to CC BY-SA, but does not allow commercial reuse of your work: it lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you (see CC-BY above regarding credit) and license their new creations under the identical terms.

The website is designed to showcase Stories around energy change. Stories are the key feature of the site, built by threading together multiple content items around a theme or topic. You could think of them as a narrated feature story, a collection of related content, or a pathway through the library materials. Anyone can create a story - making links between existing content or linking your own uploaded content.

Follow the steps below, or see the story we've created to guide you through how to make your own story.

• Go to your Dashboard and click the "Add story" button
• Add a title and cover picture, see the notes below
• Add some introduction text
• Add multiple content items, with optional linking text
• Add some optional conclusion text
• Click "Save"
• Your story will now be published on the website, and will be listed and available to edit in "My stories" on your dashboard
• As you browse the library you can use the add buttons to add additional content items to your story

The introduction text is displayed at the top of your story in full. An auto generated excerpt of this text - the first 115 characters with spaces - is also used to represent your story alongside the title and thumbnail throughout the site. This excerpt length varies slightly across different devices.

Cover pictures are highly recommended for stories. The cover picture you upload becomes the story thumbnail and is also used as the large feature picture at the top of the page. Please think carefully about this image - a great image that represents your story will help more people find it. See more info on recommended image formats and upload instructions in the "Stories and Content - The Basics" section above.

Stories are built by threading together multiple content items.

To add content items

• Scroll down to the Story Content area on the Add/Edit Story page
• Add a content item by typing its title into the "Content item" field. Titles will be auto suggested as you type e.g. start typing "energy" and suggestions will appear
• Each content item is paired with an optional "Your text" field. This isn't required, but enables you to craft a narrative, frame or explain connections between content items
• Use the "Add another item" button to add multiple content items
• You can remove and re-order items at any stage - see the section below

Browse for content items

You can also add content items to Stories as you are browsing the Library using the "Add to story" button. Once clicked you will be presented with a popup window listing your Stories. Choose a Story and the content item will be added at the bottom.

To re-order content items within your story either:

• Use the "Drag to re-order" button on the top-left of each content item. Then click and drag the block to a new position.
• Or use the "Re-order items" link on the top-right of the "Stories Content" area. This displays the current numeric order of each item and enables you to edit the order.

It is important that you supply Categories and Metadata if you want people to discover your story and connect it with other ones. Please add as much information as possible. See more information on Categories and Metadata in the "Stories and Content - The Basics" section above.