WordPress Basic Training Purdue University Calumet

What We Will Cover WordPress – Brief Overview From Login to Logout Basic Editing Tasks – Creating / Revising Content – Adding Images & uploading documents – Creating Links – Creating data tables Terminology

What About Accessibility? Seamless integration Documents – MUST be accessible BEFORE they are uploaded – Support is available with quick turnaround Resource: Web Accessibility Web siteWeb Accessibility Web site

Internet Explorer is a Diva – Compatibility Mode – Different versions behave differently – Editing issues crop up You can choose another – Mozilla’s FireFox – Google’s Chrome A Word About Browsers

Why WordPress? Started out as blogging platform Now a full-fledged Content Management System (CMS) Lots of features, plugins Customizing We can make it sing!

Content is Key (King? Queen?) What you put on your site matters! Who is your audience? – Current or Future Students? – Faculty & Research Scholars? – Alumni and Donors? – Regulators? How can you best serve them?

Questions to ask yourself about Your Content Who is responsible for creating this? What type of content are we publishing? When will we publish this content? Where will we publish it? WHY are we publishing this?

Posts & Pages & Media Posts Time-based Material – Keeps updating – Transient Relational – Series of tutorials Part of Groups – Categories – Tags Pages Static Content – Changes rarely if at all Non-Relational – Except for Parent / Child Not Grouped Media Images, documents, multimedia Attachment pages

Logging In login.php login.php

Admin Toolbar Front side Back end

Your Workspace Customize Your Workspace – Profile Color Scheme Nickname Password – Dashboard – Screen Options – On almost every page Context

Profile DON’T check this box! Adjust Color Scheme Nickname – sometimes appears on front end Password

Screen Options

Left Side Navigation

Back to the Content! You now have the basic lay of the land You have been given some content to add What’s next? Analyze the content! – (And think about your audience!) – Should it be a Post or a Page? – What does it contain? text, photos

Here is where we talk about “accessibility” Really talking “usability” – Benefits everyone Structure & Organization – Like the framework and layout of a house Headings Lists Paragraphs Tables (for DATA ONLY!) Presentation – Like the paint on the walls and the furniture Colors Look and feel Font size (VERY different from a heading!) Some consideration for assistive technology

Assistive Technology ALL technology is “assistive” – “assists” us in doing things we couldn’t do without it Convenient for some – essential for others – Screen Readers – software that reads to people who are blind – Captions on videos – for people who can’t hear – Zoom Text for low vision – Keyboard navigation – for those who can’t use a mouse

Why is this important to us? As web content editors, we can make things easy or we can make things hard Understanding the struggle – Neil Ewers – Trace Institute Neil Ewers – Trace Institute – WebAIM demos WebAIM demos

Posts / Pages Differences & Similarities Posts have… Categories Tags Excerpts Expiration Dates Featured Images Custom Fields Templates – a few Pages have… Parents or Children Order Expiration Dates Option to appear in the menu bar Templates – more than Posts Featured Images Custom Fields

Which One to Choose? It Depends! For Posts – Think News or Think Boxes – Current now – Irrelevant tomorrow or next week – Falls into Category For Pages – Think Forever, more or less – Current now and tomorrow – Doesn’t need updated often

Creating & Editing Posts & Pages How are they alike? – The WYSIWYG editor – Title – Publish – Featured Image – Custom Fields – Theme SEO settings – Layout settings – Revisions

Enter title here First thing you do

Heading & Link

Next Step – Add the Content Text editor – WYSIWYG (WIZ-ee-wig) – Works just like any other word processer

The Toolbar –Quick Reference

Paste …

Pop up Paste as Plain Text

Text Formatting Text formatting dropdown

Structure: Headings Give structure and shape to your pagestructure and shape – Not just a BLOB of text Not just a BLOB of text Tips Keep them short – 90 characters or so Follow a logical order / hierarchy like an outline – h1 » H2 H3 This is your visitor’s navigation – Roadmap through the page

Structure: Lists If you have a series of short paragraphs, that’s a list Ordered: – When the order matters like Step 1, Step 2 Unordered (bulleted) – When the order doesn’t matter.

Insert / Edit Link Insert Edit Link / Unlink

Link Dialog Box Either paste the URL in the box or…

Link Dialog – Existing Content Link to existing content with dropdown

Just say no to opening new windows! Please! Open Link in new Window

What “open new window” looks like In the editor’s window On the front end

Tips for links Human readable text Don’t use phrases that convey no information as links such as: – Click here, – Here, – More, – Read more Do use text that makes sense out of context such as ‘degree requirements for BS in journalism’. Do make links long enough to make sense – think about the copy you write Don’t make links too long or too short. About seven words is a good maximum to aim for. Don’t use the actual link as your text – (i.e. /creative/services/ ) – Use something descriptive such as Creative ServicesCreative Services

Tables – For Data, not Layout Insert Table Drop Down

Tables – the simpler the better! Tables are read row by row, cell by cell Think them through first – What if you couldn’t see the data? – How could you make sense of it? A few easy steps... – Caption – Header Rows – Header Cells / Scope

Table Properties

No More Summaries Summaries are not required for tables now Instead… – Introduce the table in your copy – Explain the purpose of the table – Outline the basic structure – Explain how to use it

Table Header Rows

Table Cell Properties

Add Media Upload / Insert Images, Multimedia(video/audio/ etc.) and documents (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Insert Media from Library

Settings for Media Settings are on the right of the screen – Title – Caption – Alternate Text – Description – Attachment Display Settings

Editing Images - Icons

Alternate Text

Graphic Text & Tips Alt text must = what’s on the graphic Tip – – keep alternate text about the length of a Tweet – 140 characters If you need to say more, create a separate page and link the image to that page.

Upload Files Easy to do – maximum file size 2 megabytes Not recommended from within Post or Page – use Media Library to upload – Alternate text Stays with image if uploaded via Media Library

Upload via Media Library

Edit Media Add the Alternate Text here, in the library

Where is the HTML Editor Window? Gone. All Gone. Almost.

Preview your post Preview shows you what your post will look like Safe way of testing No commitment required!

Ready to Publish? If you’re happy with the way it looks.. Choose your options – Visibility- usually public – “Sticky” post – Publish now – Publish later – Publish last week! When you edit existing, Published content, the “Publish” button will read “Update”

For Posts: Categories Choose an existing category Create a new one

For Pages: Attributes Parents Templates Order Exclude Pages

Where to get help University Relations – Rob Peterson Ext 2097 Rob Peterson – Pam Riesmeyer Ext 2731 Pam Riesmeyer Web Accessibility Web site DO NOT HESITATE TO CALL US FOR HELP! That’s why we’re here!