Before you use tags, you need to know what they are and their function. Tags, which usually look like this ***something*** are used to put a marker in your html document. When the page loads, that marker makes a call to some information that will be displayed there.
This makes it very easy for the information to change, should the need arise, while the tag remains unchanged. Why? Because if a change is needed, you won't have to cut out a huge portion of html coding on your page and redo it. This allows the tech guys at Keenspace to improve on things that would take effect on everyone's pages without everyone having to recode like crazy. Much more efficient.
To use a tag, you would simply put the tag on your page where you would like the information to be displayed and it will show up there when the page actually loads. If you want the entire bit of information centered on your page, then you need to put the appropriate html coding for it to work (i.e. <center>***something***</center>). That will center whatever is placed there from the marker's call. The same works with bold, or italics, or making it a link.
A fine example would be here
Below is a list of the tags and what they do.
***advertisement***
This is probably the most important tag as it put the rotating ads that we get from flycast on the top of your pages. You always want to have this displayed at the tops of your pages and centered. It's ok to put your logo next to it as seen at the top of Life at Bayside. There, you can see that the logo is next to the ad (which, is 468 pixels wide, by the way).
***keenspace_dropdown***
This wonderful tag places the Keenspace Dropdown on your page. Just include this tag where you want it and the dropdown will appear. Only comics who sign up for the dropdown will be listed in the dropdown. If you sign up for the dropdown you should include it on (at least ) your main page as a courtesy to the other Space Cadets who will be cross promoting your site. To sign up, go HERE.
***todays_comics*** ***this_weeks_comics*** ***last5*** ***last3*** ***day_of_the_month*** ***month_of_the_year*** ***short_month*** ***the_year***
This is a very important tag as it is what will display your comic(s) for the day, both on your main page (indextemplate.html), and on your daily archive pages (dailytemplate.html). The page for January 6, 2001, for instance, will display everything in your comics directory that has the 20010106 date in it, such as nukees20010106a.html or 20010106b.gif. These comics and/or text will be shown in alphabetical order of the extension given immediately after the date. In the above example, nukees20010106a.gif is shown before 20010106b.html, because "a" comes before "b".
This will display all the comics from that current week. So July 3rd would be listed on top, July 4th down below, then July 5 and so forth. This is for those of you who like to have a page which displays the whole week for the readers to view.
This tag will display the last 5 days' comics on your page.
This tag will display the last 3 days' comics on your page.
This tag will show the current day of the month (relative to the comic displayed on the page being created).
This tag will show the current month of the year.
This tag performs the same function as the one above, but merely displays the first three letters of the month (e.g. Jan, Feb, ...)
This tag simply displays the year.
***day_of_the_week***
This tag returns the day name, such as Monday, Tuesday, etc.
***todays_date***
This tag takes the ***day_of_the_week***, ***day_of_the_month***, ***day_of_the_month***, and ***the_year*** and rolls them all into one, such as Friday, July 7, 2000.
***first_day***
This tag produces a link to the first comic in your archives directory. You can make a graphical "button" and put it in your /workspace/images directory. It MUST be named first_day.gifor first_day.jpg. The graphic will then be displayed where the tag is and it will be linked to the first comic in your archive. If you don't have a graphic, then a text link that says "first_day" will be displayed.
***previous_day***
This tag produces a link to the comic that comes before your latest comic. You can also make a graphical "button" for this and put it in your /workspace/images directory. The same rules apply here as with the ***first_day*** tag, although the graphic you create MUST be named previous_day.gif or previous_day.jpg. If there's no graphic a text link appears called "previous_day".
***next_day***
This tag produces a link to the comic that comes after the currently displayed comic. If there is no later comic, there will be no graphic button or text displayed for the next day. Same rules for the creation and placement of the graphical "button", except this one must be named next_day.gif or next_day.jpg. If there's no graphic, a text link appears called "next_day".
***last_day***
This tag produces a link to your latest comic. Same rules for the creation and placement of the graphical "button", except this one must be named last_day.gif or last_day.jpg. If there's no graphic, a text link appears called "last_day".
***first_week***
This tag is just like the ***first_day*** tag, except it's for those comics which are weekly. It will display the first "week's" comic. All rules for creation and placement of the graphical "button" apply here. The graphic must be called first_week.gif. If there's no graphic, a text link appears called "first_week".
***previous_week***
This tag is just like the ***previous_day*** tag, except it's for those comics which are weekly. It will display the comic prior to the latest. All rules for creation and placement of the graphical "button" apply here. The graphic must be called previous_week.gif. If there's no graphic, a text link appears called "previous_week".
***next_week***
This tag is just like the ***next_day*** tag, except it's for those comics which are weekly. It will display the comic after the current comic that's being displayed. If there is no later comic, no text or graphic then nothing will appear there. All rules for creation and placement of the graphical "button" apply here. The graphic must be called next_week.gif. If there's no graphic, a text link appears called "next_week".
***last_week***
This tag is just like the ***last_day*** tag, except it's for those comic which are weekly. It will display the latest comic in your comics directory. If the reader is on the page displaying the latest comic, then no graphic or text will appear. All rules for creation and placement of the graphical "button" apply here. The graphic must be called last_week.gif. If there's no graphic, a text link appears called "last_week".
***storylinestart***
This tag will display a link to the start of the current storyline. It will look at your dropdown.txt in your /workspace/data directory, find the first storyline listed, and display a link that will take the reader there. All rules for creation and placement of the graphical "button" apply here. The graphic must be called storystart.gif. If there's no graphic, a text link appears called "Beginning of storyline."
***storylinestarturl***
This tag will only return the address of the current storyline in your dropdown.txt file. You use it like this: <a href="***storylinestarturl***">Your text goes here</a>
***next_days_comics***
This tag, usually placed near the bottom of the page out of sight, will produce a 1x1 pixel of the next comic to be loaded so that the reader can go to the next comic and it's already been loaded into memory. This is for quicker browsing through your archives.
***previous_days_comics***
Same as the tag above, except it loads the comic that comes before the current one displayed.
***storyline***
This tag placed a dropdown menu listing your storylines so the reader can go to them directly. Visit the Storyline Dropdown Primer to see how to set up your list of storylines which will be displayed in the menu.
***story_archive***
This tag produces a listing of links from your dropdown.txt file.
***calendar***
This tag produces a calender box of the current month. The dates that have comics in your comics directory will be clickable, taking the reader to that day's comic. This is both for daily and weekly strips.
***big_calendar***
This tag displays a calendar month for every one of your archived comics, so if you have 12 months worth, you'll see all calendar for each month displayed down the page. This tag will not work on your daily strip pages, as it takes too much time to create and generates a lot of HTML and complicated tables, which can take a great deal of time to lot and display, slowing down your page loading considerably. It is recommended it only be used to create a single archive page.