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Documents:

Web site tips:

• What is PDF?
• Document Submitters: How-to Make PDFs
• Document Submitters: How-to name files
• Contribute pictures or photos to the web site

What is PDF?

Many documents on this site are provided in .pdf format. You will need to have a program on you computer that can open .pdf files. If the newsletter opens but it shows "blacked out" portions or other text problems, you may need to get a newer version of the free Acrobat Reader. Click Here to download the latest version of the free Acrobat Reader software.

PDF how-to for document submitters:

If you are a document author, submitting your document for posting on the web site, this section is designed to help you learn to create PDFs from whatever program you use to create your original document.

The problem with programs like Word and Excel is they rely fonts and other settings being the same on each computer that opens the file. If a file is opened on a computer that does not have all the same fonts installed, had different printers installed, etc. the software makes "decisions" for you and substitutes certain things to make the document "useable". The problem is, this destroys much of the hard work the author did to get the document to look "just right". It also means that if someone else makes the PDF version for the original author, that person has to do more work to "fix" it, just adding more steps to the process.

There is a solution... AND IT'S FREE!

For those who are interested, the way all PDFs are created is by using your computer's print engine to create the file. This is why Macs have the option of making PDFs from the printer dialog box and why pdf955 on Windows is in fact adding a new "printer" to your computer. It's just a "printer" that results in a file instead of real paper.

This is the ultimate solution for all document authors, because PDFs embed the font information, making them look exactly the way you see it on your computer for everyone else too. That is PDF's whole raison d’être.

So with that in mind, please only submit PDFs for posting on the web. The next important thing to understand is how to name your files for submission.

File naming how-to for document submitters:

Many of the "rules" we have established for file naming boil down to a matter of preference, but to help keep things organized over time, we thought it would be prudent to codify them.

1. Use only lower case (Example: file.pdf)

2. Use letters a-z, numbers 1-9, and underscore only. No spaces or other characters. (Example: my_file.pdf)

3. Always use the identical file name to previous versions if your document does not have "persistent interest". This will be the case with most of the documents we publish. For example, "restaurant_night.pdf" is preferable to "Daphene's flyer.pdf", not only because the latter uses a capital letter, a space and an apostrophe, but mainly because the next time nobody will care that it was at Daphene's last time. They will, however, always want to know where the current restaurant night is, so we will always simply overwrite the published version with the current information. This means that all links that point to the document remain valid without anyone having to update them.

4. Currently the only document we publish that has "persistent interest" is the newsletter. It requires maintaining an archive of each published version in the downloads folder. It uses the following date stamp format for naming the files: "<filename>YYYYMM.<extension>". Each month we post the new Newsletter, and preserve the old ones going back several months to allow prospective parents and others to browse them. In the filename we put the document name first, followed by the 4 digit year then 2 digit month. Year comes before month so that the newsletters sort in chronological order in the downloads directory.

This is where all the publicly available documents are published:
http://www.oakknollkinderhaus.com/downloads/

Note that there is also a "descending logic" to the file names. For example, auction-related files might be forms, flyers, catalogs, etc. They may also be related to ads, donors, raffle, etc. With a little forethought, we can keep the downloads folder organized by naming a file "auction_form_donor.pdf" rather than "Donor Form (for Auction) #1.doc". Notice I named the latter just about as "wrong" as possible. Capital letters, spaces, parenthesis, pound sign, Word format, the works. The most important thing I did wrong, however was not put "auction" first, "form" second, and "donor" last. I did it completely backwards, which means that when I add a form for Ad placement called "Ad Form (for Auction) #1.doc", not only will half of users not be able to open it because they don't have Word, but it will be in a different area of the downloads folder from the Donor form. If in doubt about how you are planning to name your document, have a look in the documents directory shown above.

Creative Parents:

We are always looking for creative input, and you can help!

If you have any good pictures of the school or school activites that you would be willing to share for the web site you can email them to web@oakknollkinderhaus.com using the subject "Oak Knoll Web Image" so we can take advantage of everyone's inner shutterbug.

Please make sure that you include all the names of children in the photo if you can, to make it easier to check that we have their parents' for permission before using their picture publicly on the site.

Also, if anyone has scans of kid's art that you want to share, we can always use more art!

Creative Kids:

Kids can help too. If anyone wants to work with children to create Header Image artwork, please give them a surface that has a 1:5 proportion. You can use this template or create your own surface. If you use the template or otherwise create artwork that is the right size for scanning, you can create scans to submit for the website. If the artwork is bigger than about 10 inches wide, you can photograph it in nice diffused outdoor light (tip: avoid direct sun). To submit your art project or if you need help with photography or scanning of finished art work, email web@oakknollkinderhaus.com

Instructions on how to create and submit Header Images :

If you are creative *and* have Photoshop, or another image making program, you can take your creativity one step further:

Our site uses a set of specially formatted Header Images which it displays at random each time a page loads. You can browse the index of current images here. To keep the site fresh we can replace these images any time.

To prepare your contribution for submission, format an image or collage as a jpeg at 600 x 120 pixels and email it to web@oakknollkinderhaus.com using the subject "Oak Knoll Header Image" for inclusion in the site header rotation. The same rules apply regarding submission of names for photos of children so we can ensure parent permission before posting them. Header Image contributors should be aware, it's probably best not to build borders into the Header Images, because the site automatically adds it's own.