Te Puna Mahara
Website Handbook

Section 1

Before you start

The Te Puna Mahara website runs on the Central Otago District Council website platform. Your login only gives you the Te Puna Mahara part of it — you can't accidentally change centralotagonz.com or the main Council site.

Two systems, one website

Almost everything you'll ever edit lives in the website CMS. Events are the exception — they live in Dottie, the district's listings system, and flow onto the site automatically.

Logging in

1. Go to the website address with /admin on the end.
2. Enter your email and password. Forgotten it? Use I've lost my password — don't create a second account.
3. Check the site selector under your name says Te Puna Mahara. If it says anything else, switch it before you edit.

Section 2

A tour of the CMS

The dark strip down the left is the whole system. You'll live in Pages and Files.

Section 3

Pages & the site map

Pages sit in a tree, and the top level of that tree is the main menu. Child pages become dropdown items — that's why Cinema and Café AWA sit under Discover.

Adding a new page

1. In Pages, click the page the new one should sit under (or nothing, for a top-level page), then Add new Page.
2. Choose where it goes, then choose the page type — for a normal page that's Content Page.
3. Give it a page name and click Publish straight away, while it's still empty.
4. Now add your blocks, and publish again when you're happy.

Page name, URL and menu label

• Page name — the heading, and the default menu label.
• URL segment — the web address. Once a page is live and people are linking to it, leave this alone.
• Navigation label — use this when the menu needs something shorter than the page name.

Hiding a page from the menu

Open the page, go to the Settings tab and untick Show in menus. The page still works if you link to it directly — handy for thank-you pages and one-off forms.

Section 4

How blocks work

Every page is a stack of blocks. A block is one band of the page — a hero, a paragraph, a photo beside text, a grid of cards. You add blocks, fill them in, drag them into order, and publish.

Adding a block

1. Click Add new block.
2. Pick a type from the picker, or type in the search box.
3. The new block appears at the top of the stack. Fill it in, then drag it into place with the dotted handle on its left edge.

The fields every block shares

Reordering, duplicating, removing

• Reorder — drag the dotted handle on the left of a block. On a long page, drag in short hops.
• Duplicate — … → Duplicate. The fastest way to build a matching band.
• Remove — … → Archive. It leaves the page but can be recovered by your web contact. There's no hard delete, on purpose.
• Hide temporarily — … → Unpublish. The block stays in the editor but drops off the live page.

Section 5

The block library

Ten blocks build the entire site. For each one: what it's for, its fields, the editor, and what it looks like live.

Banner Big statements — heroes, coloured bands, calls to action, the newsletter sign-up

One block, four Variants. Pick the variant first; it changes which fields matter.

• Variant Hero / Compact / CTA / Subscribe
• Theme light or dark
• Eyebrow / label
• Heading
• Cycling words
• Subheading
• Supporting note
• Primary button
• Secondary button
• Background image
• Background video
• Social URLs

Backgrounds

A hero photo needs to be at least 1920 px wide, with quiet space where the text sits. Text is always laid over the image — busy photos make it unreadable.

Rich text Any straight writing — paragraphs, lists, tables, a statement band

• Width
• Statement band
• Content

Tick Statement band to turn the text into a centred, coloured band — that's the "More than an events centre" section on the home page. Leave it off for normal body copy.

Feature A photo or video beside text — the workhorse for storytelling

• Eyebrow / label
• Heading
• Media side left / right
• Video URL
• Button
• Image
• Body

Alternate Media side down a page so features zig-zag — that's how Cinema, Café AWA, The Junction and the Gallery read on the home page. A YouTube or Vimeo link in Video URL replaces the image with a player.

Collection Rows or grids of cards — spaces, news, team, or cards you write yourself

• Source Spaces / News / Team / Manual
• Layout Grid / Rows
• Columns
• Heading
• Intro text
• Number to show
• "View all" link

Spaces and News fill themselves from the pages you've published — add a news article and it appears here automatically. Manual lets you write your own cards (title, text, image, link), which is how the partner band and the Gather / Remember / Create / Discover pillars are built.

Manual cards

Save the block first, then add cards one at a time. Add each card's link from inside that card's own edit screen — links added while you're still creating the card sometimes don't stick.

Accordion FAQs and long reference lists people skim

• Mode
• Width
• Heading
• Items (question + answer)

Add items with Add new inside the block. Answers take full formatting, so lists and links work inside them. Good for "Good to know" hire questions; bad for anything a visitor must not miss, because it's hidden until clicked.

Gallery A set of photos — an exhibition, an event wrap-up, a room from several angles

• Heading
• Style
• Intro text
• Images

Upload or choose several images at once, then drag to reorder. Keep them a consistent shape where you can — a mix of tall and wide photos makes a ragged grid.

Embed Things that live somewhere else — a map, a video, a partner's site, a booking page

• Type
• URL
• Button / link label
• Heading
• Caption
• Upload a video file
• Embed code
• Poster / preview image

For most jobs you only need Type and URL. The Poster / preview image is what shows before a video plays — always set one.

Opening hours Any set of day-and-time lines

• Heading
• Note (optional)
• Hours — one "Day: Time" per line

Type one line per row, exactly like Monday: 9am – 5pm. Use the Note for exceptions — "Closed public holidays", "Later on event nights". The café and cinema pages each have their own copy of this block.

Form Enquiries, catering requests, contact forms

• Fields
• Recipient email
• Show on completion
• Submit button text

Build the questions inside the block — Add new Field for each one — then set who submissions are emailed to and what the thank-you message says. Test every new form by submitting it yourself before you tell anyone about it.

Privacy

Only ask for what you actually need, and never use a form to collect card details. Files people attach land in Files → Form-submissions.

Dottie Listings Live events, pulled from the district listings system

• Title / Subtitle
• Categories = Te Puna Mahara
• Select listings manually
• Show only featured
• Region / Location
• Limit
• Display as hero slider
• Link button

This block drives the What's On slider on the home page. It asks Dottie for events every time someone loads the page, so you never touch it when an event changes — you change the event in Dottie.

Don't change these two

Categories must stay set to Te Puna Mahara, and Show only featured must stay off. Together they're what keeps the slider showing our events instead of all 600-odd district listings.

Section 6

Writing & formatting

Every text field uses the same editor. The site handles the styling — your job is structure and words.

The toolbar

Links

• Write links as what they lead to — "Download the Venue Hire Guide", not "click here".
• Tick open in new window for links that leave the site (partners, booking, ticketing) and for PDFs.
• To link to a child page, use the search box in the picker rather than hunting through the tree.

House style

• Macrons matter. Te Puna Mahara, Te Huika Wai, whakataukī. Copy and paste them rather than retyping if your keyboard makes it hard.
• Headings are set in the venue's condensed display face automatically — type them in normal sentence case and let the site do the shouting.
• Dates in full: Saturday 18 October. Times as 6pm, 10.30am.
• Keep paragraphs short. Two or three sentences reads far better on a phone, which is where most people will see this.

Section 7

Images, video & PDFs

Photography does most of the work on this site. Good, big, well-lit photos of the real building beat anything else you can do to a page.

The Files area

What to upload

Putting an image on a page

1. Open the block and find its image field.
2. Upload a new file, or Choose existing to reuse one already in Files.
3. In the picker, use Show search to find a file by name rather than scrolling.
4. Click Insert, then save the block.

Alternative text

Every meaningful image needs a short description for people using screen readers. Describe what's in it — "The auditorium set for a concert, 400 seats" — not the file name. Set it on the file in the Files area.

Video

Paste a YouTube or Vimeo link into a Feature block's Video URL, or use an Embed block. Uploading raw MP4s is possible but heavy — prefer a hosted link, and always set a poster image.

PDFs

Upload to Files (the Venue Hire Guide lives in tpm-venue), publish the file, then link to it from text with Insert from Files. Set the link to open in a new window, and say in the link text that it's a PDF.

Section 8

Saving, drafts & publishing

Nothing you type reaches the public until you publish. That's the safety net — use it.

1. Edit your blocks, saving as you go — especially before you walk away, because the CMS logs you out after a while.
2. Preview the page in another tab, and check it reads well at phone width too.
3. Click Publish on the page. That publishes its blocks with it.
4. Load the live page and confirm. Publishing is effectively instant, though a page can take a minute to refresh for everyone.

Section 9

News articles

Articles are pages that live under News. Publish one and it appears automatically at the top of the News page and in the news grid on the home page — you never edit those grids by hand.

1. Pages → News → Add new Page → Article Page.
2. Fill in the page name (the headline), Category, Excerpt (the summary on cards — one or two sentences), Publish date, Author, Hero image and the Body.
3. Publish.

Section 10

Space pages

Each space has its own page, and they feed the Spaces grid and the Venue Hire page automatically. They're the most detailed pages on the site, and the most likely to go stale — capacities, rates and AV lists all change.

Section 11

Events — adding them in Dottie

Events don't live in the website CMS. They live in Dottie, the district's listings system, and the website asks Dottie for them every time someone loads a page. Publish an event in Dottie and it's on the website within seconds — on the What's On page, in the home page slider, and with its own event page.

Adding an event

1. Events → Add New Event.
2. 1. Basic Info — Event Name, Primary Category (expand Events and pick a specific one, e.g. Community Events), Description, Summary (250 characters, used on cards) and the venue details.
3. Still on Basic Info, scroll to Additional Categories and tick Te Puna Mahara. This is what makes the event ours.
4. 3. Images & Video — upload the event image with Upload new. Roughly square, about 1400 px, under 500 KB.
5. 5. Prices & Booking — price and the ticketing or booking link.
6. 6. Occurrence Dates — start and end date and time. Add another date for a run of nights; Next Day / Next Week / Next Month are shortcuts for repeats.
7. Click Save & publish. Then publish it a second time — see the warning below.
8. Check the What's On page on the website.

Changing or removing an event

• Edit the event in Dottie and publish — the website updates itself.
• Cancelled? Archive it in Dottie. Past events drop off the listing automatically once their dates pass.
• Never try to fix an event by editing the website — there's nothing there to edit.

Section 12

Site-wide settings

Details that appear on every page live in Settings — the cog at the bottom of the left rail — split across tabs.

Click Save at the bottom when you're done — this screen has no Publish button, saving is enough.

Team members

The Venue item in the left rail holds team profiles — name, role, photo, bio — used by a Collection block with Source = Team. Add people there, then add the block to the page you want them on.

Section 13

Everyday recipes

Put up a closure or urgent notice

Settings → Alert message → one clear sentence → Save. Take it down the moment it stops being true.

Change the opening hours

Home page → the Opening hours block → edit the lines → Publish. The café and cinema pages have their own hours blocks; check whether those changed too.

Swap a photo on the home page

Open the block → remove the current image with × → Upload or Choose existing → Insert → Publish the page.

Add an event

Dottie, not the CMS. Section 11 — and remember to tick Te Puna Mahara and publish twice.

Add a page to the main menu

Create it at the top level of the tree and publish it. To make it a dropdown item instead, drag it underneath the parent page. To keep it off the menu entirely, untick Show in menus on the page's Settings tab.

Add a FAQ section

Add an Accordion block, give it a Heading, then add one item per question.

Publish a new Venue Hire Guide

Files → tpm-venue → Upload the new PDF → Publish the file → check the link on the Venue Hire page points at it → update any rate tables that changed.

Take a page down temporarily

Open it and choose Unpublish from the actions menu at the bottom. It stays in the CMS, ready to go back up.

Section 14

Troubleshooting

Things not to do

• Don't change the URL of a live page — links in emails, posters and Google all break.
• Don't edit anything while the site selector is showing a different Council site.
• Don't paste embed codes from unknown sources into an Embed block. Ask first.
• Don't put important information only inside an accordion — people don't open them.

Section 15

Getting help

When you report a problem, include the page address, what you clicked, what you expected and what happened instead — plus a screenshot if you can. It saves a round of emails every time.