Drupal tinkering - images walking into walls

I managed to wade into Drupal last night, not quite the dive I had in mind although still very useful.

Drupal is a gift for creating communities of users as the Drupal site title makes clear. So here am I wanting first to create an archive, basically duplicating three existing pages with some corrections/revision along the way:

1. Brian's lecture notes introducing Hodges' model;
2. Brian's notes on bridging theory and practice;
3. My original 1998 introduction to the website and Hodges' model, written after interviewing Brian in Manchester.

I created an Adobe pdf version of Brian's intro notes many years ago, but never had the bandwidth to publish in this way. It's not that I expect a deluge of downloads, it's just that I know how many papers I download and never quite have a chance to read in full. Now though thanks to Chris Ward's great offer of sponsorship with hosting the future looks a lot more open. There should be scope to offer several formats.

After the PC power supply problem interrupted play I fired Drupal up and quickly ran into a wall. There does seem to be some issues with image management in Drupal. Drupal's community plumbing prowess is concerned with how users can add images to their posts, not the type of static content I am concerned with at present. There's a way around this which I am looking at - using inline images. Also wondering about 'content types' and what the existing ones may offer? At last month's Drupal meeting TinyMCE and IMCE image tools were discussed. It looks like there are many options with the modules on offer. The .pdf, .doc option may be simpler for this at least?

Anyway I've an image in the 'files' directory and added the necessary html to the page, but the image wants to play hide and seek. Will tackle this later.

I'm using the Ubiquity theme (see below) at present and will need to settle on one theme soon. I think themes are up for discussion in Manchester MDDA this month. It's one thing to keep changing themes and posting pretty (or not so pretty) pictures here, but it's what's under the surface that counts. I'm going to have to dig a little bit. Mercer's beginner's Drupal book will be required (re-)reading for a long time yet! Drupal's is now on version 5.5, so I will update this week - another useful lesson just before the next Drupal meeting on the 19th. The update will also force me to back things up.


Re. Atlantis: hope they sort those engine cut-off sensors soon - there's a lot of medical and materials research to follow when the Shuttle crew finally deliver the Columbus lab to the International Space Station. I wonder what new medical wonders will arise from the materials research, in orbit and at home? Now launch is set for 2nd January. Safety first!