Fieldtool has three main menu bars. Each one shows which working area you are in and gives you the tools for that part of your work.
Desk, Library, Website Pages, Writing, Art, Archive and Settings.
Use the Author Desk Menu Bar for your Author, Website Pages, Archive, Settings and Tools.
When you are working on a website page, use My Website Page Tools for Page, Content, Images, Gallery, Appearance and Preview.
The Desk is the private working room for notes, ideas, reminders, editorial material and other saved entries.
The title list updates automatically as Desk entries are added, renamed or changed.
Collections bring related Fieldtool material together. A collection can include Desk entries, bookmarks and art records, keeping the notes, links, ideas and other material for a piece of work in one place. Collections can also be shared with other Fieldtool users, allowing people to gather and follow project work together.
Hiding Collections in Menu Focus removes its menu links only. It does not delete a collection or any material stored inside it.
Library keeps bookmarks, collections, saved research material and useful Fieldtool doorways together, making both your own sources and Fieldtool tools easier to find again.
My Images contains images uploaded to your account. Approved images available to Fieldtool users appear through the shared image tools and in the Library banner picker.
Art stores and organises artwork records, illustration notes, visual references and project material.
An image attached to an Art entry belongs to that record. The Art-room banner is chosen separately from My Images and the ready-to-use Fieldtool image collection.
Author Desk is the private workspace for your contributor or author presence. It brings your profile, website pages, publication records, archive items and Author Desk banner together.
Use Author Desk Tools to move between the different areas. Opening one menu closes the previous one. Clicking outside the menu or pressing Escape also closes it.
The menu groups related work under Author, Website Pages, Archive and the other available Author Desk areas.
Open Choose an Author Desk banner or Change Author Desk banner.
The banner bank contains:
Your own images appear first. The chooser displays twelve images at a time. Use Show another 12, Newer 12 or Back to newest to move through the bank.
Select an image to save it as the banner. Use Show top, Show centre or Show bottom to adjust which part of the image is visible.
Use Remove banner when you want the Author Desk to return to its plain banner area.
For a banner, a JPG approximately 999 × 200 pixels is recommended. The maximum upload size is 6 MB.
The banner area gives you three separate image routes:
Each landing page contains a Return to Author Desk link.
Your account owns your personal image record. Linking that image to an author profile is optional. Uploading an image does not automatically give other Fieldtool users permission to reuse it.
The upload and editing forms ask for the creator, public image credit, copyright or permission position, sharing choice and any required licence terms.
Read the full guide at Understanding Image Rights .
Open Author profile to review the identity and public-page information attached to the profile.
Select Save author profile after making changes.
My Website Pages is your editable working area. It is separate from the preserved publication archive.
If you are a Fieldtool member whose work has previously been accepted for publication by The Linnet’s Wings editorial team, working copies of your pages can be connected to your account. You may develop or reuse those copies without changing the accepted work preserved in The Linnet’s Wings archive.
If you are a new Fieldtool member, you may create new pages in this area, develop them with the Page Tools, preview them and, when they are ready, publish them to the live site.
Open the Website Pages menu and choose My Website Pages to see the pages connected to your account.
From there you can:
Attaching an existing page connects the working page to the author account. It does not overwrite or remove the preserved archive copy.
Once a page is open, use its Page Tools for page setup, text and metadata, banners, appearance, content boxes, images, galleries and preview.
The archive preserves the accepted work; My Website Pages provides the editable working copy.
Use Browse Author Item Titles when you recognise the title of an item already attached to the Author Desk. Choose A–Z or Recently updated, then open its complete Current items row.
The title browser shows the item type, publication label, update date and whether the record is marked for the Author page, Publication Archive, Published, Draft or Archived.
Browse the Author item once; manage where it appears through its existing record flags.
Author Desk can keep links and records that belong to the author’s publication history.
Use Author Desk in the main Fieldtool navigation to return from another room.
Image upload, personal-image browsing and Shared Image Bank pages opened from the banner include a direct Return to Author Desk link.
Inside Author Desk Tools, choose Author Desk home to return to the banner and overview.
Page Tools contains the working stages used to create, develop, check and publish a website page.
You do not have to use every tool on every page. Begin with the page record and layout, then use the content, appearance, image and publishing tools that the page needs.
My Website Pages holds the editable working page. Copying it to the live site is a separate deliberate action.
Page setup prepares the basic page record, page shape, layout and styling needed before the other Page Tools can work with it.
Starting a page prepares an editable working page. It does not publish the page to the live site.
Existing Page Found means the requested page number already has a page record. Fieldtool shows the existing details rather than creating a duplicate.
Check that it is the page you intended to open. You can then refresh its layout or return to My Website Pages without starting another copy.
Refresh Page Layout rebuilds the page layout and website styling so the working page is ready to preview.
Refreshing the layout is not the same as deleting the page or replacing its written content. It prepares the page structure and styling from the selected page shape.
Start creates the working page structure. Refresh prepares or renews its layout and styling.
Some protected editorial routes also show Compare with archive page. This is an optional archive-checking tool. It does not change the selected page shape and is not required when creating an ordinary new page.
Page Content opens the main Text / Metadata workspace for the selected page.
Use this area to review the page layout, see the content boxes already attached to the page, open an individual box for editing, and save the main page text and metadata.
The page-navigation area identifies the working page and provides routes back to My Website Pages and to the working-page preview.
The layout area shows the current relationship between Column 1 and Column 2 and provides the route to the whole-column appearance controls.
Whole-column appearance is separate from the frame, colour and text styling of one individual content box.
The content-box list shows the text and image areas currently attached to the page. Open a box to edit its heading, body text, image and individual card appearance.
Removing a content box from this screen removes it from the current page only. Fieldtool creates a checkpoint before the removal.
The main form contains:
Select Save Text + Metadata, then use Current verification to check the saved title, heading and description length.
Page Content is the main page-details hub. Individual content-box writing and appearance are opened from the content-box list.
The Meta & Keyword Editor is a focused finishing tool for the page’s web title, search description and archive search phrases.
It updates:
It does not change the story, poem, essay, gallery text or other creative work displayed on the page.
Write a short editorial description that helps a reader, archive search or search service understand what the page contains.
Fieldtool may offer a starter based on the page title and opening text. Treat that as a prompt and rewrite it as a clear editorial description before saving.
Add names, places, themes, subjects, literary form, issue terms and recognisable search phrases. Keywords are particularly useful inside the Fieldtool archive; they are not a promise of search ranking.
Page Content also exposes description and keyword fields during the main page setup. Use the Meta & Keyword Editor when you need a focused final review or later correction of those fields.
Metadata describes and helps locate the page. It does not replace or rewrite the work itself.
Format Story Text is an optional preparation and repair tool for a page that already contains a story or prose text area.
It applies the established story-text formatting to the existing text area. It does not write, edit, summarise or rewrite the story.
If Fieldtool cannot find a story or prose text area, the formatting action cannot run. Return to the content-box tools and add or identify the text area first.
Format Story Text changes presentation, not the author’s words.
The Page Banner is the cover image displayed across the top of the selected website page.
This tool is available for pages attached to My Website Pages. It changes the cover image only. It does not alter the page text, content boxes or other appearance settings.
The Current cover image area shows the banner presently attached to the page. Check this image before making a replacement so that you know which page and cover you are changing.
A page banner may come from:
Check the image’s creator, public credit, copyright position and permission or licence before using it. Selecting an image because it is visible online does not establish permission to reuse it.
For a page banner, a JPG approximately 999 × 200 pixels is recommended. A larger image may be cropped by the banner area, so important subjects should not sit too close to its outer edges.
Fieldtool creates checkpoints of the relevant page banner records before applying the change.
If Fieldtool reports that the page does not yet have a page banner panel, return to Page setup, refresh the page layout and wait for the Built Website CSS result before opening Page Banner again.
Use Back to My Website Pages when the banner work is complete.
Page Banner changes the cover of the editable working page. Copying the completed page to the live site remains a separate deliberate action.
Word Room is an optional experimental writing programme within the Page Tools journey. It is a work in progress, and its rooms, word collections and controls may change as testing continues.
Use it to investigate words, sounds, emotional fields, phrases, sentences and possible scenes alongside your own writing.
When opened from Page Tools, Word Room carries the selected working-page context. It does not publish its suggestions or replace the writer’s original work.
Keep a separate copy of any original passage before experimenting with the current sentence-building controls.
The programme offers choices and possible material. The writer decides what belongs in the work.
Content Panel Appearance controls the larger page areas behind the content boxes. It also provides a quick way to choose the card treatment for each content box already on the page.
The whole content area, the two columns and the individual content boxes are separate layers. Change only the layer you intend to alter.
Content Area changes the background or frame behind both columns together. It does not replace the separate settings saved for Column 1 or Column 2.
The frame list begins with No frame or panel. The panel and white-frame choices then appear in alphabetical order for easier scanning.
Each content box listed on this screen can sit directly on its column or inside a card with rounded corners.
The available card treatments are:
The card choice changes only that individual content box. Choosing No card removes the visible card treatment but does not remove the content box, its writing or its image.
Column 1 and Column 2 can each have their own:
A one-column page will normally use Column 1. A two-column page can use different treatments on either side, although matching settings often create the calmest reading surface.
The colour control changes the background belonging to that whole column. It does not change the colour of an individual content-box card.
Choose a supported panel or frame treatment for the selected column. Choosing No frame or panel leaves the column without that surrounding treatment.
Top padding adds space before the first content in the selected column. It can help align two columns or create deliberate breathing room before one side begins.
Judge the result in the full working-page preview. A colour or frame that looks attractive in the selector may feel different beside the page banner, text, images and surrounding background.
Return to Text / Metadata to continue editing the writing, images or settings belonging to an individual content box.
Saving Content Panel Appearance changes the editable working page only. Copying the finished page to the live site remains a separate action.
The content-box editor uses two related terms:
The editor shows the current page title and the broader page section, helping you confirm that you are working on the intended page.
Layout boxes are placed in one of the page’s visible columns:
Content Panel Appearance shapes the larger column area. The content-box card shapes one individual content box inside that column.
The layout-box map shows the editable positions already placed on the page. The selected position is marked as the Current layout box. You can open another layout box from the map without leaving the editor.
The current Box order number is a position marker. Use it when placing another layout box immediately above or below the current one.
Place a layout box above and Place a layout box below create a new page position directly before or after the current layout box.
The new layout box is separate. It does not replace the content box currently being edited.
Choose a Saved text style to apply its heading and body-text settings to this content box.
A saved text style may be used by several content boxes. Changing it changes every content box using that saved style.
Content box card controls the visible card surrounding this one content box. It does not change the whole Column 1 or Column 2 panel.
A content box can sit directly on the column or use a pale blue, soft pink, soft sage, warm cream or white card with rounded corners.
Choosing No card removes only the visible card treatment. It does not remove the layout box, writing or image.
The divider control places an existing line or frame beneath the whole content box, after its final paragraph. It can separate one box from the next.
Thin Rule is one available divider treatment. Choose None when the box should have no bottom divider.
The image attached to this content box can come from My Images or from ready-to-use Fieldtool images approved for shared reuse.
When an image is attached, the editor can show its title, description, keywords, public credit and rights information. Use the image controls to check its position, displayed width, caption and caption colour.
Return to Text / Metadata to remove a content box from the current page. Fieldtool asks you to confirm before the content box is removed.
Editing a content box changes the working page. Copying the finished page to the live site remains a separate deliberate action.
The Page Images tools let you upload, browse, find, place and caption images used in the selected page’s content boxes.
Open the image tools from a selected content box whenever possible. This preserves the page and exact content box that should receive the image.
When Image Bank is opened from a content box, it begins with a browsable collection rather than an empty search form. The collection brings together:
Images are shown twenty-four at a time. Use the collection controls to see another twenty-four, newer images or return to the newest set.
An available image card may show:
Internal reference numbers and image dimensions remain available under Image details.
Enter simple search words such as places, moods, colours, objects or story details to search the wider Image Bank.
Older style-specific results now include their descriptions and show the licence-review position in plain language:
Held images are not part of the ordinary ready-to-use collection.
Selecting an image does not transfer its ownership or alter its copyright, permission, licence or public-credit requirements.
After placing an image, return to the content-box editor to check its caption, public credit, caption colour, position and displayed width.
A display box places a group of linked cards together on one page.
A display box can contain up to five slots. Each slot can hold:
Display boxes can be used for contents rows, groups of work, gallery links or other visual doorways.
A layout box marks a position on the page.
A content box holds the editable writing, image and appearance settings at that position.
A display box is a separate group of linked cards managed together.
Open:
Page Tools → Images → Display boxes
When you open this route from a working page, Fieldtool carries that page into the Display Box Builder.
Open the Image Bank from inside the display-box slot you are editing. This keeps the correct display box and slot selected. The ordinary Page Images route is for images attached to individual content boxes.
Use Preview working page to check the display box in its page position.
When the working version is ready, use Review & copy to live site to review the publication step.
Removing an image from a display-box slot clears it from that slot only. It does not delete the image from My Images or the Image Bank.
Gallery Page Tools is the gallery workspace for the selected My Website Pages page.
A page gallery has two linked parts:
The visible Gallery Section heading and the managed gallery’s working or public title are separate fields. Changing one does not silently rename the other.
Use Edit saved Gallery Section to revise the visible page heading or short introduction. Use Manage This Gallery for the gallery record and its works.
Adding an image to a page gallery does not remove it from My Images, transfer ownership or publish it into the curated Artist Rooms.
Preview and publication are separate stages.
Previewing the working page does not publish it. The live page changes only after the separate confirmed copy or refresh action.
The copy tool saves a safety checkpoint before creating or replacing live-page records.
My Website Pages lists the website pages attached to your account.
Use Browse Website Page Titles when you recognise a saved title. Choose A–Z or Recently updated, then open the complete attached-page row.
The browser follows the current working-pages or hidden-pages view, so records from the two lists are not mixed together.
Browse by recognition; use the attached-page row for preview, Page Tools and record controls.
Word Room is an experimental writing programme and a work in progress. Its rooms, word collections and controls are being developed through use and may change as the programme grows.
Word Room is an optional exploratory space for working with words, sounds, emotional fields, phrases, sentences and scenes.
It can be used alongside writing already in progress or as a place to begin discovering the pressure, movement or undercurrent of a new scene.
The programme supplies vocabulary, structures and possible sentence material. It does not replace the writer’s judgement, imagination or original work.
The writer decides what belongs in the story.
Word Room is still being developed. During this experimental stage, keep a separate copy of any original sentence, paragraph or passage before using the current sentence-building controls.
Do not rely on Word Room as the only stored copy of an original draft. Keep the master version in your normal writing file or another secure working document.
This safeguard can be revised when the live-guidance, blending and saving routes have completed their testing.
Word Room asks the writer to examine both what is visible in a sentence and what may be moving beneath it:
Interrogate the surface. Listen for the undercurrent.
The charged noun, person, object, place or idea carries pressure in the scene. The turn changes its direction. The plot thread carries the consequence of that change forward.
Emotion and Sense Rooms provide different fields of vocabulary rather than a finished interpretation. Use what opens the work and leave aside what does not belong.
When Word Room is opened from Page Tools, it carries the selected My Website Pages context into the writing space.
This lets the page title, existing language and working ideas remain nearby while you experiment. Word Room material is still working material; it is not published merely because the tool was opened from a page.
Return through Back to My Website Pages when the exploratory work is complete.
Archive is used for material that has been put aside or removed from the active workspace.
Settings controls personal workspace choices.
My Images contains images uploaded by the logged-in account. The Image Bank contains approved shared images, including public-domain material and Fieldtool house art.
Use the same practical test for every image: Is it copyrighted? If it is, what permission or licence allows its use? When the answer is uncertain, keep the image private and on hold.
The uploader chooses the requested sharing level. Fieldtool reviews shared images before they enter the reusable Image Bank.
The signed-in user account owns each image record held in My Images.
An author profile is an optional publishing association. It is not required in order to upload, keep, manage or use an account-owned image.
Uploading or using an image does not create an author profile and does not require the image to be attached to one.
Use Edit My Image to review or correct:
Keeping an image private does not prevent its owning account from using it on that account’s own working pages.
The selected image may be an account-owned image or a ready-to-use Fieldtool image approved for shared reuse.
Replacing an image changes the image attached to the current text-and-image content box. It does not create another layout box or separate image area.
Remove image from this box removes the image attachment only. The heading, body text, content-box card and divider remain in place.
The content-box editor provides four image positions:
Displayed width is entered as a percentage of the available content-box width. Check the result in the full page preview because the surrounding text, column width and screen size all affect the final balance.
Save image caption + position saves the content box as well as its image caption, position and width.
Public credit tells the reader who created the image. Copyright or licence information records why Fieldtool is permitted to use it. They are related but not interchangeable.
When the current image came from My Images, the content-box editor may display its saved title, description, keywords, credit and rights information.
Use Search Image Bank with these saved words to look for related images without retyping the subject or search terms.
For an older Shared Image Bank image, Fieldtool may use its saved description, title, caption or filename as the starting search words.
Ready-to-use shared images have been reviewed and approved for Fieldtool reuse. They may include public-domain images, Fieldtool house art and other material with recorded permission or licence terms.
Approval for shared reuse does not erase the image’s authorship, public credit or licence conditions. Keep the required credit and terms with the image when it is placed on a page.
Image cards identify approved shared material and can show the saved rights position, public credit and permission or licence wording before the image is selected.
An older Image Bank result marked Held — needs licence review is not part of the ordinary ready-to-use collection.
An image being visible in a library, archive, website or search result does not by itself make it public domain or available for reuse.
Open Gallery Page Tools from the selected website page. The workspace carries the current page into the gallery route and shows its available image sources and preview doorway.
The Gallery Section is a website-page content box. It holds the visible section heading and its optional short introduction, and it establishes where the gallery begins on the page.
The managed gallery record is created separately. It stores the gallery’s working title, intended public heading, introduction, column layout, publication status and ordered works.
These two parts are linked but they are not the same record. Keep their wording consistent when they are intended to show the same title.
Use Edit saved Gallery Section when you need to change the heading or introduction that appears directly on the website page.
After a section is saved, the blank form farther down the page is labelled Add another gallery section. Those blank fields create a second section; they do not display or replace the section already saved.
Open Manage This Gallery. When the page does not yet have a modern gallery record, Fieldtool shows Create this gallery.
Enter the gallery title, intended public heading and introduction, then choose Create This Gallery. The new record begins as a two-column Draft and opens in the normal Gallery details workspace.
From Manage This Gallery, choose Add More Work to return to Gallery Page Tools.
Add Work to This Gallery accepts:
Select the image and enter or confirm its work title, public credit, medium, year and optional short note. Where a field permits it, leaving it blank uses the title or credit already saved with the image.
An empty gallery needs one public-page placement point. Use Place the first work after and select the Gallery Section or other intended page anchor.
This placement choice is used only for the first work. It establishes where the gallery’s linked page cards begin.
Once the gallery contains a work, Fieldtool uses the gallery’s final linked work as the insertion point. Each later work is appended automatically in gallery order.
You do not need to choose an unrelated content box or calculate another page position for every image.
The original image record and file remain in My Images or the approved Fieldtool image source. Adding the work does not duplicate the source image, transfer ownership or publish it into the curated Artist Rooms.
Manage This Gallery owns the managed gallery record and its ordered works.
The Gallery details area controls:
The current public page also has a separate visible Gallery Section content box. Use Edit saved Gallery Section when that page heading or short introduction needs to be changed.
Saving Gallery details does not remove, reorder or replace the works already held in the gallery.
Manage each work’s:
These details are saved to the owned gallery record and synchronised with its linked website-page card.
The main gallery action row contains:
Gallery Draft or Published status records the gallery-level state. It does not replace the separate action that copies the completed working page to the live site.
Manage This Gallery owns the work’s meaning and public wording. Edit card appearance owns its visual presentation.
In Edit card appearance, the work title, caption, public credit and Gallery note are visible but read-only. Return to Manage This Gallery to change that editorial material.
The appearance editor controls:
Saving the card appearance returns to Manage This Gallery without replacing the gallery-owned wording.
A complete gallery work cannot be removed by deleting its image in the appearance editor. Add or remove the work through Manage This Gallery.
Use the movement controls in Manage This Gallery to change the order of the works.
Fieldtool keeps the managed-gallery order and the linked page-card order synchronised so the public working-page preview follows the same sequence.
Reordering and removal create reversible checkpoints before the linked records are changed.
Removing a work from the gallery removes its gallery membership and linked page card. It does not delete the original My Images record, image file or rights information.
Read the named removal confirmation carefully before completing the action.
The gallery’s Draft or Published setting records the gallery’s own publication status within its page workflow.
Use the public working-page preview to check:
Gallery status does not replace the separate page-publication step. Copying the completed working page to the live site remains a deliberate action.
My Website Pages holds the editable working page. Preview checks that working page. Copy Page to Live Site creates or refreshes its separate public copy.
The working page is the version being developed in Fieldtool. Changes made to its text, images, galleries or appearance remain there until a live copy is deliberately created or refreshed.
The live page is the public copy.
Editing or previewing the working page does not silently overwrite the live page.
Use Preview working page while building and reviewing the page.
Read the page from beginning to end and check:
A working-page preview is a checking view, not evidence that the page has been published.
Open Copy Page to Live Site and select Check live-copy status before publishing.
Fieldtool may report:
When Fieldtool finds an incomplete state, it stops rather than guessing which version should be used.
The first-copy option appears when the working page is ready and no completed live copy exists.
Fieldtool saves safety checkpoints, copies the complete working-page structure handled by the live-copy tool and rebuilds the live-site styling.
The refresh option appears when a live copy already exists and the working page contains newer edits.
Refreshing saves a safety checkpoint of the current live version and then replaces it with the latest working-page version.
Refreshing changes the live page. It does not change or erase the editable working page.
A first copy and a refresh both write to the live page. Fieldtool therefore saves safety checkpoints before changing its records.
The typed confirmation words prevent an accidental button press:
Read the checkpoint and success messages before leaving the tool. A failed or incomplete check should be reviewed rather than bypassed.
Later edits begin again on the working page. Preview them there, then use Refresh live page when the revised version is ready for publication.
Include the following information: