The word "node" is something that many people who are new to Content Management Systems don't quite understand. They're used to .htm ot .html files that can be downloaded and edited using software like Dreamweaver or Front Page.

Content Management Systems don't work that way. With the exception of the template files that control the look of the site (layout, fonts, colors, etc.) and the software that runs the CMS, there are no files. Everything on your site is housed in a database. The software "calls" the database, and displays the appropriate content on each page.

These pages are called "nodes."

There are several types of nodes that come standard with Drupal: pages, blog entries, book pages, forum topics, and stories. There are others, such as audio, video, and events, that can be added on via modules that tie in with Drupal.

There are also modules that allow you to edit existing node types and to create your own.

Nodes:

page: These are the standard pages within your site. You might use them for your home page, about us, contact page, etc. Much of the content in sites often falls in this category.

blog entry: A blog entry is just what its name says -- and entry in your blog. A blog, otherwise known as a web log, is often used for regular updates on your business or organization, diary-type entries about what is happening on the campaign trail, etc.

book pages: These pages work in a hierarchical system. You can have parent pages and child pages. This allows for links inbetween parent/child pages to be automatically added. The parent page has a listing of all the child pages. All pages in the book have "next," "previous," and "up" links as well. The job of editing and adding to these pages can be shared between a group of people, allowing it to take on a wiki-type properties as well.

forum topics: Just as the name says, these are postings within the forum.

stories: These are very similar to pages. Many Drupal users don't see the difference between the two. What I had historically used stories for is to post news articles, press releases, etc. on the site. Typically these types of items are simple in form -- they need just a title and the body. And using the category system in Drupal, you can assign categories like "press release," "speech," "news article," etc., or you can break it up into types of articles.

audio/video: These two types are just what they say -- one allows you to post audio on the site, the other video. They come with a built-in player that allows people to view/listen to the content.

event: This is content that is automatically added to the calendar on your site. With the module that creates this node type, you can have a graphical calendar as well as a listing of events. You can add a "block" to your site (most often used in the sidebar) that allows you to show a listing of the next "x" upcoming events.

Most of these node types are pretty simple -- they ask for a title and a body. Events will ask for date/time. Audio and video will ask for the file.

However, you can expand upon that using the content creation kit (cck). This module allows you to add more fields to each node. So an event could also ask for event web site, contact for more information, etc. A story could ask for the name of the newspaper the news article was originally published in and the link to it online. The possibilities are endless -- but they're also a little on the intermediate-advanced side.