FAQs

The Victorian Landcare Gateway websites have been established as a resource for Landcare in Victoria. Currently Gateway sites allow community groups to have a website where they can display their contact details, load a range of information from events & news, reports, photos etc. In addition, a range of resource information developed in Victoria is available on Gateway sites to assist groups.

The new LandcareOnline www.landcareonline.com is developed by Landcare Australia as a National Resource for Landcare. LandcareOnline contains information about Landcare, funding available through Landcare Australia, and a national Landcare Directory to have contact information about groups. At this stage, groups are only able to load information about events in their section.

It would probably be worthwile groups considering having their contact information on both LandcareOnline and their relevant Regional Gateway website. However, it will be critical to ensure that any contact information loaded on a site will be updated.

As the Landcare Gateway sites have greater capability of what sort of information can be loaded onto it, and with the additional subscription tools to notify interested users, the Gateway may be the best site to maintain. Any information loaded onto LandcareOnline can refer to the group area on the Gateway site - then only one site will need to be updated.

The Victorian Landcare Gateway includes the Victorian Gateway (this site) and ten Regional Gateway sites.

The Victorian site allows users to search for any information in all eleven sites, while regional sites will generally only show information from that region, but also display news and events from the Victorian site..

Now, if you join as a registered user on the Victorian Gateway, your username will allow access on all regional sites as well, and vice versa.

NO! It is not essential to join the Landcare Gateway to view or download resource information on the site, as most information is publically available.

However, you will need to join as a registered user if you wish to be able to add or manage content to a Gateway site area, such as a group section, or add comments to content or the Forums.

The quickest way to find a Landcare, Coastcare, Friends or related group on a Gateway site is to use the Organisations search box (top right). Enter part of the name, the town, or area you wish to find a group in the search field, then click enter. The results of your search from across Victoria will show.

If the group is listed on the site, it will show on the search results.

The next option is to go to the Regions page, select the regional site, then to the Groups area of that site, and then to the relevant network or area.

You may find that the group is not listed on the site - or there is no contact information for the group. If you wish to find the contacts for a group, navigate to the regional site, click on the Contact link top right corner of the site, and fill in the form.

This is one of the key aims of the Landcare Gateway sites, to allow groups to add and manage their own content.

It is intended that all local Landcare, Coastcare, Friends of or other environment groups will have a section on their Regional Gateway site.

First search for a group section via the search box or the 'Find a Group' search option.

If there is no section for your group, see the links below.

Use the Search box!

The Landcare Gateway has a powerful search database which will allow users to find most information on the site by entering the relevant words in the search box, which is in the top right of the page.

If you search from the main Gateway site, your search will list information from all regional sites as well.

The sites now have Livesearch, which will start to search for content as soon as you type it into the search box. Multiple words can be typed in, and the search will show items with both or either word. Use the mouse to select the relevant content showing in the list.

If you want to get rid of the list when entering text, press the Esc button on your keyboard to clear the text.

The website view you see contains a range of display content which is intended for viewing, but is not relevant normally when printing.

If you use the print command from the browser you are viewing the website with, you will get a printout of the entire view, including headers, navigation menu's etc.

The Gateway system allows users to simply print just the page content information when required. If you click on the Print this link at the top right of the page content, this will print just the content of the page being viewed, without all the header, navigation etc content

When a page from your site is printed, the browser should employ a special print stylesheet to present the page. The print presentation emphasizes the page content, and suppresses most graphics and sidebar clutter.

This is deliberate, and we think it serves well the purposes of folks who want an optimally useful hard copy of the page's content. It occasionally dismays the proud site maintainer, though, who wants to print a page with all the decoration.

If you need to print a copy of the web page as it looks on a browser, use your computer's copy window feature (Alt-PrtScn on a Windows PC) to copy an image of the current window; then past that into a graphics program.

The 'send this' link at the top right of each page, allows users to send an email to somebody they know to inform them about information on a Gateway page.

If you click on this link, a new form will load, asking for

• an email address to send to - ensure you type the recipient's email address correctly
• your email address (this will be blank if you are not logged in - if you are logged in, your registered email address will automatically be added to the field)
• a comment field - this is where you add some comment to the recipient

Once you click on the send button, an email will be generated by the website system, addressed to your recipient address, with your address in the 'from' field.

The email subject will be the title of the page you are sending

Email text will include;

This link is sent to you from (main website address, eg www.landcarevic.net.au)

You are receiving this mail because someone read a page at Victorian Landcare Gateway and thought it might interest you.

It is sent by (your email address) with the following comment:
(your comment entered into the field)

Title of the page
Description from the page
A link directly to the relevant page

This will enable the recipient to go to the exact page by clicking on the link, but will not include all the page content. This is intended to provide simple access to information, but not send out potentially large emails.

The recent upgrade of the Gateway sites has introduced a new system where your email address is now your login name.

Please enter your email address in the login name field, as the old login name is no longer is accepted.

This way you won't have to remember a username - just your email address.

At this stage, there is a listing for most Landcare and related groups in Victoria on one of the regional site, however, many of these have no information loaded onto the Landcare Gateway, including contacts or background information.   A number of groups which do have information loaded do not have contacts listed on the front page for the group, due to privacy or spam concerns.

For most regional Gateway sites, there is a contacts page which lists the various regional or more local Landcare Coordinators. 

To find this, navigate to the appropriate regional site, and look for the contacts page listed in the navigation from the home page.  There may be contacts listed in the main groups folder of the site.  If you cannot find this simply, search for 'contact' in the search box for the region.

If you cannot find a group or network contact, look for the Regional Landcare Coordinator contact, who should be able to provide you with a current contact for the group.

If this does not get a result, go to the Admin Contact page, fill in the form giving the name of the group and region you are looking for, and send.  You should receive a response within a week or two.

These links allow users to export the event details, such as date, time and details from a Gateway event, and automatically enter these onto their own local calendar, depending upon software.

If you view an event page on the Gateway, and would like to add this event to your own electronic calendar this is a simple option of choosing either the vCal or iCal link.

If you use Apple Mac, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes and other systems, the link to use is the iCal. 

To add a Gateway event to your calendar on these systems, simply click on the iCal link, then when the dialogue box opens asking if you wish to download or open the file, select the option to open with... , select your calendar software, then click ok.   This will then open an appointment or calendar item for you to add further details.  If all is ok, save the item, which will then add the item to your calendar.

If you use web based calendars, such as the Landcarevic (Horde), Yahoo, Gmail etc, the vCal link may work, or the iCal depending upon the system.  You may need to test which one works, and test the way to get these to work.  Depending upon your local settings, you may need to download the file, then open your webcalendar, and import the file.

Many Landcare group and network representatives are hesitant about having their contact details listed on their group or network sites on the Landcare Gateway, due to concerns about spam and privacy.  This FAQ outlines the security of Landcare Gateway systems, and how to ensure privacy.

It is important that users can find the contacts for their local group or network if they want to get involved, but also to protect community contact information.  The system running the Landcare Gateway was selected with security as a priority.

All key content items for groups and networks on the Gateway, i.e. Group or Network sites, Events and Volunteer Activities, have specific contact fields for adding contact information, via the Contact tab when editing the item.  If these fields are used correctly, email contacts will remain hidden.

As long as contact email addresses are only entered in the email field of the contact section, the email address remains hidden to all users, with only a ‘Send a Message’ link.

The Tutorial, and the How To below describes how to correctly add contact details to protect group privacy.

NO! It is not essential to join the Landcare Gateway to view or download resource information on the site, as most information is publically available.

However, you will need to join as a registered user if you wish to be able to add or manage content to a Gateway site area, such as a group section, or add comments to content or the Forums.

Your email address is safe when joining the site. The Gateway system has very strong security which prevents anyone other than site managers from finding user email addresses. The system does not send any emails unless they have been requested.

The only way users will receive emails from the Landcare Gateway is if they subscribe to notices, or request their password, or add their email address to specific gateway content, such as a web page.

Users may get a large number of emails from their subscriptions if lots of content is being loaded.

Any user who adds their email address in some content on a Gateway, such as a web page will be making their address publically available, and may result in this being found by web spiders and used by spammers from somewhere else.

Any email addresses entered into contact information for a group, or volunteer activity will be hidden.  User email addresses remain hidden.  Contact can be made by users, but only via a contact form that still keeps email addresses hidden.

Simply - YES. Now when you join the Gateway, you will be registered on all Gateway sites.

However, if you login to one site, eg the Victorian site, then navigate to a regional site, you will need to login again if required.  As each site operates under a separate address, the login does not continue if you move between sites - though the login details will be the same.

All Landcare Gateway websites now have the option for users to subscribe to email notices of new content on the sites. This system will send an email with the title and description of new information from the relevant sections to subscribers, when this is updated.

The Gateway is currently set to send subscription notices when new content is created. If there are no changes, no notices go out. If there are a number of changes on a single day, there will be multiple notices

Only users who are registered and logged in can subscribe.  If you wish to subscribe you will need to join the site as a user.

Please note that the subscription system only operates with subscriptions to folders or sections, e.g. a group site, a regional site.  It is not possible to subscribe purely to News or Events notices.

If you wish to subscribe, login then navigate to the main section you wish to subscribe to, eg the home page for a group, or the home page for a regional site.  The subscribe box should then show in the left column of the page.  Either click on the subscribe button for a group site, or if you want to subscribe to all new content in a regional site, tick the box beside 'subscribe to the folder above' and click on subscribe.

See the How to section for more detail.

If your email address changes from the one you used when you registered, you will need to change this so you can receive email subscription notices, passwords etc from the Gateway.

To change the email address for your username is a simple process of modifying your personal settings.

The link below explains how to change your personal settings, including password and email address.

The recent upgrade of the Gateway sites has introduced a new system where your email address is now your login name.

Please enter your email address in the login name field, as the old login name is no longer is accepted.

This way you won't have to remember a username - just your email address.

Now with so many websites used by people, it is often hard to remember registration details, such as username.

For this reason, the Gateway now has a system in place which users only use their email address as their username.  Your username now to login is your email address.

This means you no longer need to remember a username, as long as you can type your email correctly.

For those users who previously had a username, forget it, as you can not login via username, only email.

If you cant remember your password, go to the Password How-to via link below.

Note - password is case sensitive. This means that upper and lower case are considered different, eg, pass, Pass and PASS are all considered differently for passwords.  Test the possible options you may have used, and check your caps lock is not on.

If this doesnt work, this how-to describes the process.

This is one of the key aims of the Landcare Gateway sites, to allow groups to add and manage their own content.

It is intended that all local Landcare, Coastcare, Friends of or other environment groups will have a section on their Regional Gateway site.

First search for a group section via the search box or the 'Find a Group' search option.

If there is no section for your group, see the links below.

Through assistance from the Victorian Action Plan for Second Generation Landcare, the Landcare Gateway is now available as a resource for all Landcare and related community groups throughout Victoria.

There are now sections on the site for each region, which have the capacity to allow any Landcare, Coastcare, Friends or environment group to create and manage their own web pages, and other online tools. The system is designed to allow general members to be able to manage their own content without the need for special software, web skills or high level training. Generally, if users can create a normal document on a computer, they can create or manage content on this site.

If you or your group wishes to use the Landcare Gateway, have a look at the How to's below.

First, upload the file by adding a "file" content item to a desired folder in your site.

Then, edit the page to which you wish to attach the file. Look at the bottom of the editing form for the Related Item(s) control. Use the Browse... button and find the file you just uploaded. Click on Insert to attach it to the page.

Now with so many websites used by people, it is often hard to remember registration details, such as username.

For this reason, the Gateway now has a system in place which users only use their email address as their username.  Your username now to login is your email address.

This means you no longer need to remember a username, as long as you can type your email correctly.

For those users who previously had a username, forget it, as you can not login via username, only email.

If you cant remember your password, go to the Password How-to via link below.

Note - password is case sensitive. This means that upper and lower case are considered different, eg, pass, Pass and PASS are all considered differently for passwords.  Test the possible options you may have used, and check your caps lock is not on.

If this doesnt work, this how-to describes the process.

Occasionally bugs appear in the Gateway system, which can result in users getting an error message when editing content.

If you do receive an error message, and cannot figure out why and what it is causing it, please notify the Gateway administrators. 

Go to the Contact form and describe what you were trying to do and what the error message was.  Ideally, if you can copy the URL address of the error message, and put this into the form field, this will allow administrators to track the exact error message.

It may take a week or so to track the cause of the error, but you should be notified when the bug is fixed.

These links allow users to export the event details, such as date, time and details from a Gateway event, and automatically enter these onto their own local calendar, depending upon software.

If you view an event page on the Gateway, and would like to add this event to your own electronic calendar this is a simple option of choosing either the vCal or iCal link.

If you use Apple Mac, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes and other systems, the link to use is the iCal. 

To add a Gateway event to your calendar on these systems, simply click on the iCal link, then when the dialogue box opens asking if you wish to download or open the file, select the option to open with... , select your calendar software, then click ok.   This will then open an appointment or calendar item for you to add further details.  If all is ok, save the item, which will then add the item to your calendar.

If you use web based calendars, such as the Landcarevic (Horde), Yahoo, Gmail etc, the vCal link may work, or the iCal depending upon the system.  You may need to test which one works, and test the way to get these to work.  Depending upon your local settings, you may need to download the file, then open your webcalendar, and import the file.

Many Landcare group and network representatives are hesitant about having their contact details listed on their group or network sites on the Landcare Gateway, due to concerns about spam and privacy.  This FAQ outlines the security of Landcare Gateway systems, and how to ensure privacy.

It is important that users can find the contacts for their local group or network if they want to get involved, but also to protect community contact information.  The system running the Landcare Gateway was selected with security as a priority.

All key content items for groups and networks on the Gateway, i.e. Group or Network sites, Events and Volunteer Activities, have specific contact fields for adding contact information, via the Contact tab when editing the item.  If these fields are used correctly, email contacts will remain hidden.

As long as contact email addresses are only entered in the email field of the contact section, the email address remains hidden to all users, with only a ‘Send a Message’ link.

The Tutorial, and the How To below describes how to correctly add contact details to protect group privacy.