This is a step-by-step guide to creating your first site using Metawrite. In a matter of minutes, you will have a site up and running that you can browse through. All the navigation will be automatically generated.

Step One: Create a new workspace

A workspace is just a folder that you designate to contain the sites you are working on. Anyfolder can be a workspace, but it is usually a good idea to create a new folder for this purpose. When you first launch Metawrite, you will be prompted to select a workspace folder.

Figure 3.5.1 Create a new workspace

Step Two: Create a new domain

Now that you have a workspace, you can begin your site. The top-level folder of each site is called a domain. You create a new domain by clicking on the New Domain button in the toolbar.

Figure 3.5.2 Click on the New Domain button in the toolbar to create a new domain

Next, you will need to provide a title for the domain and, optionally, write a description for it. The Creator is the author of the document. Metawrite will automatically use your username that you use on your computer, or you can set up your name by changing the preferences. You can also simply type in whatever name you choose.

Figure 3.5.3 Fill in the title and description of the new domain

Step Three: Create a new group

Once a domain has been created, you should select it. Once selected, you will see that the New Group button is now available, but the New Item button isn't. The reason for that is that domains can only contain groups. As you will see when we get to the discussion about groups, groups can contain both groups and items.

Figure 3.5.4 Click on the New Group button in the toolbar to create a new group

Next you will fill in the basic metadata for the new group. This works just like it did for the new domain.

Figure 3.5.5 Fill in the title and description of the new group

Step Four: Create a new item

Select the new group you have just created and you will be able to create a new item for that group. Once again, it works just like creating a new domain and a new group.

Figure 3.5.6 Click on the New Item button in the toolbar to create a new item

One more time, you'll fill out some metadata for the item.

Figure 3.5.7 Fill in the title and description of the new item

After you've created your new item, you can select it and begin typing. Metawrite lets you use simple shortcuts to embed links and style information in pages. You can read more about it in the Metatext section. The following figure shows how you can automatically link to other pages within the same domain simply by placing brackets around them.

Figure 3.5.8 Automatically link to other pages by including brackets around their titles

Step Five: Preview the site in your web browser.

Once you've typed your document, you will want to preview you it in your browser. Select the Preview in Browser menu item in the View menu, and the page will be displayed in your default browser. The next figure shows the fully rendered page, including the generated links.

Figure 3.5.9 Preview the item to see the generated links

When your site has many pages, you will need to update all the pages of the site periodically so that all the embedded links will be updated properly. This makes it possible to navigate the site directly, without having to use a web browser. In order to rebuild the pages, select Update Links in the File menu.