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107 lines
8.2 KiB
107 lines
8.2 KiB
<section data-type="chapter">
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<h1>Quick Start Guide</h1>
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<p>Atlas is currently in its Beta release; this means that, while we feel the system is ready to be used, it's still actively under development and needs some rigorous testing. That's where you come in! Here are the most important things you need to know to get started.</p>
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<section data-type="sect1">
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<h1>Atlas (Beta Release) Is Built on Git</h1>
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<p>The beta version of Atlas is built on <a data-original-title="" href="http://git-scm.com" title="">Git</a>, the powerful version control system that tracks every change in your content, who made it, and when it happened. What this means is that your content is secure and can be rolled back to any previous version if necessary. Git also provides the functionality for seamless collaboration tools (coming soon!).</p>
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</section>
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<section data-type="sect1">
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<h1>Your Projects</h1>
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<p>When you sign into Atlas, <strong>the first thing you'll see is a list of all your existing projects</strong>. If you want to edit or build from an existing project, simply find and click the project in the list. To <strong>create a new project</strong>, click the New Project button to the right of the projects list.</p>
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<figure><img alt="Alt Text" class="icontentsimagesnewprojpng" src="images/newproj.png" />
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<figcaption>Click the New Project button in your project list to start fresh.</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>If you want to start from scratch, you can define the title and description for your project and choose a project template to pre-populate your new repository with some skeleton files based on the kind of project you’re making.</p>
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<p>You can also create a new Atlas project by importing an existing project from GitHub or by taking advantage of Atlas’ conversion services (if included in your pilot agreement).</p>
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<p>Once you select a project or create a new one, <strong>you'll be taken to the project dashboard</strong>, where you'll see a list of all files in the project, and have access to the <a data-original-title="" data-type="xref" href="#building_in_atlas" title="">ebook-building tools</a>.</p>
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</section>
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<section data-type="sect1">
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<h1>The Project Dashboard</h1>
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<p><strong>The project dashboard is your landing page for each project.</strong> It lists all the files and folders in your project and gives you quick access to the build tools (more on building <a data-type="xref" href="#building_in_atlas">below</a>).</p>
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<p>From the project dashboard, your next steps will likely be either to start writing or to build your project. <strong>Click a file in your Files pane at left to open it in the editor.</strong> For more about building, <a data-type="xref" href="#building_in_atlas">see below</a>.</p>
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</section>
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<section data-type="sect1">
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<h1>Writing and Editing</h1>
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<p><strong>The Atlas editor has two writing modes</strong>: the Visual Editor and the Code Editor. The Visual Editor is an online authoring environment similar to a word processor, with a formatting toolbar for tagging and styling your content. Documents created in the Visual Editor are stored as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5">HTML5</a>. The Code Editor allows you to view and edit the underlying HTML5 markup for your document. You can toggle back and forth between the Visual and Code Editors, and changes you make in either mode will immediately be reflected in the other.</p>
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<p>While <strong>HTML5 is the default markup language for Atlas content</strong>, Atlas also supports documents written in<strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> <a data-original-title="" href="https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown" title="">Markdown</a>, <a href="http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/">AsciiDoc</a>, and <a data-original-title="" href="http://www.docbook.org/" title="">DocBook XML</a></strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. All three of these formats can be edited using the Code Editor.</span></p>
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<p>In both writing modes, you can <strong>navigate among your files using the Files menu</strong> to the left of the screen, <strong>create and delete files and folders</strong>,<strong>upload images</strong>, <strong>save your project</strong> (top-right button in the editor, or use the keyboard shortcut ⌘-s/Ctrl+s) and even attach a <strong>custom commit message</strong> to each save (hover over the Save button to open the commit message dialog box).</p>
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</section>
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<section data-type="sect1">
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<h1>Creating a New File</h1>
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<p>To create a new file, click the New File button at bottom of the dashboard. Give your file a name, and hit Enter. You can also do this in the Files pane in the editor.</p>
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<p>You can also organize your files into folders. To add a folder, click the New Folder button (next to the New File button). You can then click the folder name in the Files menu to open the folder and create new files within it.</p>
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<div data-type="warning">
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<h1>Warning</h1>
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<p>You can't currently organize your files within Atlas. If you want to move existing files into a folder, you need to do that outside of Atlas using git.</p>
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</div>
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</section>
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<section data-type="sect1" id="building_in_atlas">
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<h1>Building</h1>
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<p>When you're finished writing, it's time to build your project so you can share it with the world. <strong>Atlas lets you export your project in four different formats</strong>: PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and HTML website.</p>
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<p>The first time you build, you'll need to choose what formats to build, and what files and settings you want to apply to each format; <strong>click Configure</strong> on the project dashboard.</p>
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<p>Every format has a few different options you can choose. Two options that are common to all formats are:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Create a <strong>table of contents</strong> in your built project, based on your section headings.</li>
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<li>Collect all index tags you've added and create an <strong>alphabetical index</strong> in your built project.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Choose a theme for your project (more on that next). Then at the bottom of the Configure page, <strong>choose which files to add to the build</strong>, drag the files into the correct order, and then click Save. Now you can build from the dashboard.</p>
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<p>If the build is successful, you'll get a link to download the file. If it fails, you'll get information about what went wrong (the usual culprit is markup errors).</p>
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<figure><img alt="Alt Text" class="icontentsimagesquickbuildspng" src="images/quickbuilds.png" />
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<figcaption>The Builds menu on the project dashboard allows you to quickly trigger a build using your previously chosen settings.</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</section>
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<section data-type="sect1">
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<h1>Themes and Design</h1>
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<p>All of the Atlas output formats (PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and HTML) are powered by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets">CSS</a>, the standard styling language for the Web. You can write an entirely new theme using CSS that can be used for multiple projects, by multiple people, or you can just add CSS customizations for your specific project.</p>
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<p><strong>To apply a theme to your project</strong>, choose one of the default themes on the Configure page, or add a link to your own custom theme.</p>
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<figure><img alt="Alt Text" class="icontentsimagesthemepng" src="images/theme.png" />
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<figcaption>Add a design to your project on the Configure page.</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</section>
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<section data-type="sect1">
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<h1>Building Locally with the API</h1>
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<p>Atlas gives you the option to <strong>build locally on the command line</strong>, using our API. (Note that you'll still need an internet connection for this to work.) This is great if you prefer to work locally using your own text editor but still want to see the final output.</p>
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</section>
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<section data-type="sect1">
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<h1>Finding Help</h1>
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<p>For more details on any of the above topics, or for more advanced information, <strong><a data-original-title="" href="http://atlasdocs.oreilly.com/" title="">check out the Atlas documentation</a></strong>. If you’re stuck, have specific questions about the app, or just general ideas for improvement, you can contact the Atlas team at <a data-original-title="" href="mailto:atlas@oreilly.com?subject=Atlas%20Feedback" title="">atlas@oreilly.com</a>.</p>
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</section>
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</section>
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