Content: Stories, Blogs, Forums, Books, and Pages

If you visit the create content link you'll see multiple content types configured for your use. In Drupal terms, each page in this guide, story or page is considered a basic content type known as a node. Thus, each of the various content types are particular types of nodes with specific functions and display characteristics:

• Stories are posts which appear on the default home page of a Drupal site, akin to a community weblog or Slashdot-like site where all site members can post. Or, the regular site users can be denied the ability to post to the front page using stories, allowing the site administrators to use the front page as an announcement board.
• Each individual user on the site can have their own blog page. An aggregate of all recent blog posts from all users is available through the Blogs link in the navigation header.
• Forums are much like any other threaded discussion forum where users can post to forum areas created by an administrator.
• Books can be used for collborative projects (not covered within this documentation) or for a collection of related article/tutorials.
• Static pages are a way for a site administrator to create pages which are not included in one of the other node displays and could be used instead of the Books for additional resource pages.

See also the administration help in the Drupal handbook for nodes, stories, books, forums, blogs and pages

Creating and Posting Content

Because nodes are all basically very similar, much of the input interface is the same for stories, books, or pages chosen through the create content menu. For the purpose of introducing how to post on a Drupal site, this discussion will use Submit story as the example and cover many, but not all, of the choices offered through the interface.

• Authoring information. For adjusting the display name of the author and the date.
• Options. This menu is only offered to administrators.
  NOTE: These settings are globally configurable for a node type using the content types configuration.
  • When Published is unchecked, the submission is not available publicly on the site and is only accessible through the administration >> node section.
  • In moderation queue is for the queue module (not enabled in this configuration; for more information, consult Moderation queue in the Drupal handbook).
  • Promoted to front page is useful for books or pages that the administrator might not want to appear in the blog on the home page.
  • Stick at top of lists will make a post sticky at the top of whatever page it displays on (i.e. the front page or a user's individual blog page).
  • Create new revision is part of the version tracking system that is useful when using the book module as a collaborative document publishing system.
  • User comments. Individual posts can be configured with specific comment controls.
• Title. You must use a title with your post.
• Path alias. Note that the Drupal Site Configuration Guide is accessible via the link http://example.com/help. The path alias for that page was set to "help." Paths must be unique and not already in use. This option has been configured to be available only for site administrators.
• Topics. An administrator-configurable category system via the taxonomy module. Users tag their posts with one or more categories. After posting, all nodes with the same category can be browsed via the link in the header or by clicking on a category term associated with a specific post. You can add, edit or delete existing categories or "terms" in the Topics "vocabulary" within the administer >> categories section.
• Body. Text of the post.
• Input format.A site administrator can configure various options for the input format to be used in the body for the post.
• Previewing before posting. When previewing, your Drupal site will display a version of the post at the top of the page. If a post exceeds a predefined, configurable teaser length, two displays will appear: one shorter, which would be visible on the front page and in RSS feeds when posted; the other longer, visible when clicking the title of a post. The teaser break can be manually created by inserting <!--break--> within the post. Drupal will provide a note suggesting this between the two displays--no need to remember the tag--if the post requires a break.