Chapter 15. Using the FAQ Module

Like most other PHP-Nuke modules, the FAQ module is administered through the FAQ item on the Administration menu. You'll need to start by creating at least one FAQ category, since all actual FAQ entries must live within a category. Figure 15.1 shows the Add a New Category section of the FAQ administration module.

Figure 15.1. Creating a new FAQ category.

Once you've got that initial category (or a set of them) created, you can begin adding entries. I'd strongly suggest coming up with some good categories that aren't overly broad; ideally, no one category should have more than 1520 entries because many more than that will make it more difficult for people to find the FAQ they're after. Good, precise, narrow categories will help users quickly drill down and find the FAQ that they need.

The main FAQ Administration page will list all of the categories you've already created, as you can see in Figure 15.1. To add content to a category, just click that category's Content link. Figure 15.2 shows where you enter the new entry's question and answer text. Keep in mind that you can use HTML tags to format the answer. Here's a quick rundown of the common HTML tags you might use:

creates a line break. Use two in a row to create a new paragraph, separated from the previous one by a blank line.
boldfaces text. Just pick whatever you want to be boldfaced, and surround it with and .
works similar to boldfacing, except that it italicizes. Whatever you want to be in italics should be surrounded by these tags.
handles underlining; just surround text with the tags to make that text underlined.
You can surround paragraphs with the special paragraph tags. Doing so eliminates the need to use the tags, because paragraphs are automatically separated by some whitespace.
The  tag, which can be used only in certain areas of PHP-Nuke (and which isn't a standard HTML tag at all, but rather, something special PHP-Nuke utilizes), breaks long content into multiple pages. PHP-Nuke automatically provides next and previous links, allowing users to navigate through your material very easily.
To create images in your FAQ answer, use a tag like this: <img src="http://www.mywebsite.com/images/mypicture.gif">. The src portion points to a graphic file that's living on a Web server someplace, which means the image tag allows you to insert a picture into your text.

Figure 15.2. Creating a new FAQ entry.

Once you've created a FAQ entry, you'll see it listed in the content section for its category, as shown in Figure 15.3. Notice that you're given links to edit the FAQ entry or to delete it from the category altogether. Also notice that the entire FAQ is listed, allowing you to preview your HTML formatting, if you used any, and to quickly read it over for typos.

Figure 15.3. Managing existing entries.