USER-CONTRIBUTED CONTENT
User-contributed content allows users to create, share, copy, and modify their own content on RDA Toolkit. User-created content tools can be used to produce and share local workflows and training guides, local policy statements, mappings to encodings standards, and whatever else users might require. The Co-Publishers have created two initial categories for user-contributed content—Workflows and Mappings.
Workflows
Catalogers routinely create workflows (processes or procedures) and other documents to use while cataloging. The Workflows section of RDA Toolkit provides an online repository of these workflows for personal, institution, and global reference, thus eliminating the need to leave RDA Toolkit to reference local documentation and providing the ability to link from local documentation directly to RDA instructions.
Creating
To create a workflow, first navigate to the Tools tab. Click the plus (+) sign to open the Workflows browse tree.
Click Create Workflow to open the Create Workflow dialog box. Fill out the fields in the dialog box. The only field that is required is the Name Your Workflow field. The rest are optional. These additional fields are all searchable and allow users to maintain richer metadata for their documentation.
Name your workflow choosing a short descriptive name that will help you and others recognize this workflow when you return to it. Some non-alpha numeric characters are accepted but not recommended in workflow names. Workflows will be sorted alphabetically by this name. It is recommended that you include some type of institution naming prefix so that all of your institutions workflows will sort together and others can identify the authorship of shared workflows.
The Author field should contain your name or the name of your institution. Next, select one of the license options from the drop down menu. By clicking the information button to the right of the menu, you can access a full description of each license type. The licenses are provided through Creative Commons and are intended to facilitate sharing of cataloging documents while also protecting the copyright privileges of document creators. For more information about licenses, click here
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.The Version and Date fields allow users to track the updates to their documents. The Category field serves as both a suggestion of uses for the workflow tool and a way to organize the types of documents you keep on RDA Toolkit. Feel free to suggest new categories to include in the drop down menu. The Language field is self explanatory. Finally, the Description field is a text field for document creators or editors to add any description of or notes on the document.
After creating a document, its metadata may be edited by clicking on the term “metadata” following an individual document title as it appears in the "Manage Personalization…" section of the My Profile page.
Create New
The Create New option opens a blank page in the workflow editor window.
Copy Existing
The Copy Existing option copies a shared workflow, giving it the new name specified, and opens it for editing in the workflow editor window. It is strongly recommended that you credit the creator of any workflow that you use as a basis for your workflow.
Share Mode
Workflows are designed to be shared. They can use one of three share modes: Do Not Share, Share Locally, and Share Globally.
Do Not Share
Workflows are set to the Do Not Share mode by default and are only visible to the person who created the workflow. They are accessible using the My Workflows link in the left navigation tree.
Share Locally
Workflows set to the Share Locally mode are visible to the person who created them using the My Workflows link in the left navigation tree as well as visible to the other users on the same Institutional account as the user who created the workflow. These users will see the workflow listed under the Shared Workflows link in the left navigation tree.
Workflows set to the Shared Locally mode are only visible to the other users of RDA Toolkit who are part of the same Institutional account. If you have questions about which users are considered part of your subscription, please contact the RDA Toolkit staff. They can review your subscription type and answer any specific questions.
Shared Globally
Workflows set to the Shared Globally mode are visible to the person who created them using the My Workflows link in the left navigation tree as well as visible to all users of RDA Toolkit. These users will see the workflow listed under the Shared Workflows link in the left navigation tree.
Editing Workflows
Only the creator of a workflow can edit that workflow. Clicking the pencil icon 
next to a workflow will open the workflow for editing. If the pencil icon isn't visible, you are not the workflow creator and are not permitted to edit the workflow. You are permitted to use the Copy Existing function to create a copy of the workflow and to edit that copy.
next to a workflow will open the workflow for editing. If the pencil icon isn't visible, you are not the workflow creator and are not permitted to edit the workflow. You are permitted to use the Copy Existing function to create a copy of the workflow and to edit that copy.Workflow can also be managed under the "Manage Personalizations…" section of the My Profile page.
Maps
Some mapping from RDA instruction numbers and RDA element names to encoding standards will be supplied as part of RDA Toolkit content. The Maps tool is a method for users to create additional maps to supplement these official mappings authorized by the RSC.
Creating
To create a map, first navigate to the Tools tab in RDA Toolkit. Click the plus (+) sign to open the Maps browse tree.
Click Create Map to open the Create Map dialog box (shown below).
Fill out the fields in the dialog box. The only field that is required is the Name Your Map field. The rest are optional. These additional fields are all searchable and allow users to maintain richer metadata for their maps. Name your map choosing a short descriptive name that will help you and others recognize this workflow when you return to it. Some non-alpha numeric characters are accepted but not recommended in map names. Maps will be sorted alphabetically by this name. It is recommended that you include some type of institution naming prefix so that all of your institutions maps will sort together and others can identify the authorship of shared maps.
The Author field should contain your name or the name of your institution. Next, select one of the license options from the drop down menu. By clicking the information button to the right of the menu, you can access a full description of each license type. The licenses are provided through Creative Commons and are intended to facilitate sharing of cataloging documents while also protecting the copyright privileges of document creators. For more information about licenses, click here.
.The Version and Date fields allow users to track the updates to their maps. For the Category field select “Map” from the drop down menu. The Language field is self explanatory. Finally the Description field is a text field for document creators or editors to add any description of or notes on the map.
After creating a map, its metadata may be edited by clicking on the term “metadata” following an individual map title as it appears in the "Manage Personalization…" section of the My Profile page.
Create New
The Create New option opens a blank page with only your map name as a title in the map editor window. Editing this title will edit your map name.
Copy Existing
The Copy Existing option copies a shared map, giving it the new name specified, and opens it for editing in the map editor window. It is strongly recommended that you credit the creator of any map that you use as a basis for your map.
Share Mode
Maps are designed to be shared. They can use one of three share modes: Do Not Share, Share Locally, and Share Globally.
Do Not Share
Maps set to the Do Not Share mode by default and are only visible to the person who created the map. They are accessible using the My Maps link in the left navigation tree.
Share Locally
Maps set to the Share Locally mode are visible to the person who created them using the My Maps link in the left navigation tree as well as visible to the other users on the same Institutional account as the user that created the map. These users will see the map listed under the Shared Maps link in the left navigation tree.
Maps set to the Share Locally mode are only visible to the other users of RDA Toolkit who are part of the same Institutional account. If you have questions about which users are considered part of your subscription please contact the RDA Toolkit staff. They can review your subscription type and answer any specific questions.
Share Globally
Maps set to the Share Globally mode are visible to the person who created them using the My Maps link in the left navigation tree as well as visible to all user of the RDA Toolkit. These users will see the map listed under the Shared Mappings link in the left navigation tree.
Editing Maps
Only the creator of a map can edit that map. Clicking the pencil icon next to a map will open the map for editing. If the pencil icon isn't visible, you are not the map creator and are not permitted to edit the map. You are permitted to use the Copy Existing function to create a copy of the map and to edit that copy.
next to a map will open the map for editing. If the pencil icon isn't visible, you are not the map creator and are not permitted to edit the map. You are permitted to use the Copy Existing function to create a copy of the map and to edit that copy.Maps can also be managed under the "Manage Personalization…" section of the My Profile page (shown below).
Using the Workflow and Map Editor
The workflow and map tools use the same basic editor. The editor is an HTML tool with a WYSIWYG display that allows users to enter and edit content via their web browser without installing any additional software. While the editor tool has the familiar look of a Microsoft Word document, it does not have the rich functionality found in Word. It is truly an HTML editor, and users need to understand the capabilities and limitations of the editior when creating documents. What follows is meant to explain the tool's capabilities.
Menu Bar
The Editor uses an icon driven menu bar (shown below) that looks similar to many popular text editors.
Many of the icons are self-explanatory as they are used widely in other software programs. A few of the icons are not as familiar, so we have described them below.
Paste from Word
The Paste from Word icon 
allows you to preserve basic formatting when you paste a text fragment from Microsoft Word. It is important to understand that this function is meant to be used with portions of lightly formatted Word text. It will not be effective in transferring whole documents with complex formatting. Complex formatting should be done within the editor tool and not imported from another document.
allows you to preserve basic formatting when you paste a text fragment from Microsoft Word. It is important to understand that this function is meant to be used with portions of lightly formatted Word text. It will not be effective in transferring whole documents with complex formatting. Complex formatting should be done within the editor tool and not imported from another document.Source
The source icon 
changes the view from a WYSIWYG display to an XHTML display. If you would like to copy or paste XHTML, first switch the source view and then copy or paste as desired.
changes the view from a WYSIWYG display to an XHTML display. If you would like to copy or paste XHTML, first switch the source view and then copy or paste as desired.Special Characters
The Special Character icon 
opens the special character dialog box.
opens the special character dialog box.Clicking a character from the dialog box will add the character to your document.
In addition to using the special character dialog box (shown below), most keyboard character shortcuts also work to insert special characters into your document.
Anchor
The Anchor function allows users to set a named anchor position in their document that can be the destination of a link inserted in another part of the document using the Link tool described below.
Clicking the Anchor icon 
sets an anchor in your document at the current cursor position and opens the Anchor Properties dialog box.
sets an anchor in your document at the current cursor position and opens the Anchor Properties dialog box. Give the anchor position a meaningful name and click OK. The anchor position is now set and will be available to the link tool as a possible destination of a link created with the link tool.
Styles
The Styles menu contains a range of pre-defined combinations of formatting options intended to facilitate the consistent treatment of text elements. The styles can be used on fragments or blocks without having to adjust the font, its size, or the text and background color that you have already set for your document. Styles can be applied to a whole document, a paragraph, or a text fragment. While multiple styles can be applied to document, we do not recommend doing so. This sort of combination can have a negative impact on the readability of the document. The style options are displayed in the menu as they will appear in your document. The inline style options often have names that indicate their typical use (e.g. computer code is used to write application code). Simply click a style in the menu to apply it to highlighted text. Click the style in the menu again to remove the formatting.
Format
The Formats menu provides options for only paragraph or block formatting. The options are pre-defined combinations of formatting options meant to facilitate the creation of consistent headings. The formats can be used on blocks without having to adjust the font, its size, or the text and background color that you have already set for your document. The format options are displayed in the menu as they will appear in your document. Simply click a format in the menu to apply it to highlighted text. Click the format in the menu again to remove the formatting.
RDA Toolkit Specific Tools
In addition to the tools listed above in most standard text editors, the RDA Toolkit has some custom designed or modified tools to serve specific RDA Toolkit functions.
Sharing Mode
The sharing mode as described above under both Workflows and Maps is set in the editor using the Sharing Mode tool (shown below). Users select one of the three sharing modes using the drop down box.
When the workflow is saved, the sharing mode will change to the mode selected. All new workflows default to private mode.
Link Tool
The link tool 
is used to set links from within the document to one of several sources. Users can set links to send email, links to anchor in the text, links to RDA Toolkit Documents, or links to standard URLs.
is used to set links from within the document to one of several sources. Users can set links to send email, links to anchor in the text, links to RDA Toolkit Documents, or links to standard URLs. Links are not active in the edit window. Links are only active once they are saved and when viewed in display mode by clicking the document name and not the pencil or edit icons.
Due to the nature of link formatting it is suggested the users write their content first and then add links to ensure predictable formatting of both the links and the content.
Email Link Type
Sets a link that launches the reader's default email client and pre-populates the email with the default information entered into the fields below in the Link dialog box.
Link to Anchor in the Text Type
Sets a link to an internal document anchor previously set by the user with the Anchor tool. The user sets the destination of the link by selecting the desired Anchor Name from the drop down menu.
Link to RDA Toolkit Document Type
Sets a link to a specific location in an RDA Toolkit document. The user selects the RDA document, chapter, and heading using the three dropdown menus provided.
Clicking OK creates a link to this document and places it in the user's document at the current cursor position.
These links are connected to a paragraph level ID embedded in the RDA Toolkit document structure. They are not directly tied to the RDA instruction number. If the RDA instruction numbers should change the link would not break and would remain connected to the paragraph.
URL Link Type
Sets a link to any URL.
Saving Content Created
All user-created content is saved to the RDA Toolkit servers when the save icon is clicked. If users try to close the edit window without saving their work, they will be reminded to save or asked to confirm the loss of data.
The editor does not have a Save As function. Users who would like to save a backup of any content created in the RDA Toolkit editor should copy and paste the content in a local text editor. Users also have the option to create the content in a local text editor, and then copy and paste into the RDA Toolkit text editor.