I guess you can call me a "tweak geek". The first thing I do whenever I purchase software or sign up on any type of of web site is determine what I can customize to suit me.
I wanted to be able to personalize my Medsphere.org home page in a a manner which allowed me quick access to the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions for the newbies) posted on the site that apply to an entire topic or area, such as Pharmacy or Laboratory.
Well first of all, I used the feature called "Watch a Tag" and specified that I wanted to see the most recent 10 items with the tag "FAQs". (I could have specified more). But the problem with that method is that not only did it show items such as "Radiology FAQs", but it also listed individual items that were posted on the topic FAQs. This defeated the purpose of what I wanted. So I created my own module. It only requires a minimal knowledge of HTML.
When you first begin using Medsphere.org, this is what your home screen will look like (be sure your are registered and signed in). You may wish to open these screenshots in a separate window:
Click on the "Your View" tab, and you will see a screen similar to this (of course, at this point, I've already done quite a bit of personalizing):
Notice that at the moment, Status Updates is in the upper right of this screen. This is where I want to place a new module which contains links to the various Medsphere.org FAQ topics. Next to the words "Your View", click on Personalize. A new box will open across the top of the screen which contains various "widgets" that you can drag and drop into your page. You can even reuse as many of them as you would like:
If you hover your mouse arrow over any of the blue boxes, you will see a brief description of what each widget does. In the above screenshot, even though you can't see the mouse arrow, it is hovered over the HTML widget, and you can see it's description next to the "Reset to Default" button.
Now, I'm going to drag the HTML widget and drop it just above my Status Updates box. This is what I now see:
Notice I now have a new box entitled HTML. Now I'm going to click on the little pencil to the right of the title HTML:
The HTML box has opened so that I can now edit some details. Prior to beginning this procedure, I searched for each FAQ topic on Medsphere.org, and copied and pasted the addresses of each into Notepad for later retrieval. I will now copy those addresses, along with the HTML code I've already placed around the addresses, into the "Your HTML" box. I will also give my box a "Custom Title" of FAQs:
Now click "Save Properties" and the screen will refresh and this is what you will see:
Now, on the left-hand side of the screen just below the widgets, click on the "Publish Layout" button. The page will reload, and voila! You now have your very own customized box with the content YOU want!:
Just in case you would like to attempt this yourself and you're not familiar with HTML coding, here is the information you should paste into the "Your HTML" box:
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1079">BCMA</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1091">Clinical Information System (CIS)</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1193">FileMan</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1124">HIMS/PIMS</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1066">Laboratory</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1140">Master FAQ</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1056">Nutrition and Food Service</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1010">OpenVista Server</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1071">Pharmacy</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1133">Printer Management</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1098">Radiology</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1136">Task Manager</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1150">Using Medsphere.org</a><br>
<a href="http://medsphere.org/docs/DOC-1011">User Management</a><br>
I've also attached a text file below.
_______________________________________________________________________
UPDATE by Hartsel Bryant 11-19-08:
See the discussion below between myself and Jonathan Tai. He was wondering why I didn't use the Formatted Text widget to accomplish the same task. I've explained my reasoning in the comments below and as promised I am posting a comparison of how each of these look. The image on the left is from my method above using the HTML Widget, while the image on the right was created by using the Formatted Text widget. Obviously, the decision of which choice to use would be a matter of personal opinion:
I think the image on the left is slightly less cluttered looking (and only slightly). And having an amatuer knowledge of HTML, I found it easier to use the HTML widget, but truthfully, both widgets have great potential. HTML is not for everyone.
_______________________________________________________________________
