Article: Twins Daily Primer: The Basics

[Brock Beauchamp]

The new Twins Daily is certainly a work in progress (as is any living project) but given the number of new features and reshuffled user experience elements, I thought it might help to jot down a few of the biggest differences between the old Twins Daily and the new site.

 

First, we’ll talk about the various sections of the site: some old, some new.Articles: you’re reading one right now. I’m comfortable saying that you’ve found this section and can do so again if need be.

 

Forums: As always, Twins Daily put a lot of emphasis on its excellent user forums. Pop on over here and take a look. A tutorial focused solely on this section of the site is coming at some point.

 

Blogs: This section has been vastly reworked and I’d like to think it’s for the better. As always, every member of Twins Daily has the ability to create a blog in just minutes. Take a peek at the existing user blogs here and stay tuned – a blog tutorial is coming in the next few hours.

 

Schedule: Twins Daily now has a working schedule of Twins games and Twins Daily events. Pop on over here to check box scores, game wraps, and pick up tickets for an upcoming game.

 

Gallery: This section is entirely new, click here to take a look. Now available to all Twins Daily users is the ability to upload images and compile them in personal galleries. You can re-use these gallery images in forum or blog posts (using the My Media icon in the rich text editor). It’s a handy tool to keep your favorite images on hand or to share images with friends on Twins Daily.

 

Roster & Payroll: Jeremy Nygaard has continued his excellent work on the Roster & Payroll section of Twins Daily, now with expanded player pages with additional information. Click hereto find the current contract status of your favorite (or least favorite) Twins player.

 

Organization Chart: Yeah, the old org chart was pretty awesome. This one is more awesome. You can now filter players by position, team, and a host of other options. Want to find the status of all the outfielders in the Twins organization? One click does the legwork for you. Kudos to Jeremy for putting such hard work into this excellent addition to Twins Daily.

 

Those are the sections of Twins Daily. Now it’s time for a few bells and whistles.

 

The header: You’ve probably noticed a few new icons at the top right of the page.

 

Download attachment: td-header.jpg

 

1. Quick Search: Want to quickly search any section of the site? Use this tool. By default, it only searches your current section of the site. By clicking the text found in the right side of the search window, you can change what section of the site you choose to search.

 

2. Advanced Search: Quick search not good enough for your needs? Click here to jump to a search page that gives you a robust selection of options to focus your search.

 

3. Quick Nav: This thing is awesome. Click it to quickly navigate to any part of Twins Daily, including viewing all new content, all unread content, or a host of other options. It’s the bee’s knees. Whatever that means.

 

Along with the redesign, Twins Daily now has a link roll footer to find any section of the site quickly, including the ability to jump to our other MinnCentric sites. This is pretty self-explanatory but here’s a picture because I love pictures.

 

One thing to note is that on the bottom right of your screen, you'll see a light grey box permanently affixed with an up arrow in it. Click that box to jump to the top of your current page.

 

Download attachment: td-footer.jpg

 

Them’s the basics of the new Twins Daily. If you have other tips and tricks that I haven’t mentioned in this article, be sure to post them in the comments section!

 

Click here to view the article

[twinssouth]

Thanks for the Basics. A little 101 refresher is good. Its like buying something and throwing away the instructions. Like the quick nav feature

[Paul Pleiss]

... a bunch of my old blog posts just show up as an empty box with a tiny red x. Any ideas?