Trillium

Trillium & Web Novices

21 November 2007
Morgan Grether

One thing great about Trillium that should be in everyone’s mind: People who are novices to webwork can actually get some fairly complex content online. Each page is a separate html file that can be accessed via the “secret button,” which wonderfully takes them to a true WYSIWYG page for them to edit their content. Content is split into blocks that are accessed individually right above the block itself; see the image below for a block containing a short unordered list: Trillium block Users know exactly what they are manipulating. And they can remove [rmv], or add something new above it [ins], or change the order with other blocks [ ^ v ] , or of course edit it right there. There is little chance of a user manipulating the wrong content. Furthermore this content can be headlines (with a choice of h-tags), text with autoformatted p-tags, text with autoformatted br-tags, objects like images or .pdfs inserted from Trillium’s Object Utility, autoformatted links, autoformatted lists, autoformatted tables, or even out-and-out HTML. Additionally, users can repeat their blocks via the “Existing Content Block” feature. While this interface can be frustratingly simplistic at times, it also can be quite convenient even for the most advanced users; more importantly, it enables users with little knowledge of HTML and other Web technologies to post and maintain their content.