Updating your blog# How to add or edit a blog post on Baptists Today.

Transcription

1 Updating your blog# How to add or edit a blog post on Baptists Today. Updated: Version 1.0 The new Baptists Today (BT) website uses the Wordpress CMS. This guide will walk you through the steps for correctly adding a new post and editing a previously posted post.# Posts & Pages First, a bit of insight into how Wordpress (WP) organizes content. There are two main forms of content in a WP system posts and pages.# Pages on the BT site include any of the items under the Resources menu, for example. These menus connect to pages that have a single amount of content (a small or large amount - but a fixed set). # Posts include the blogs, the daily news items, and subscriber content. Posts are assumed to be part of a larger collection of content. When Johnny, Tony or Bruce post to their blogs, they are adding one more article to an ongoing collection of related 1

2 content. The WP system uses categories to know where to place a post. So, a post with the category John Pierce check-marked will show up in the John Pierce blog collection.# So, when you work with any blog on the BT site, remember that you are working with Posts. Knowing this language will help you know where to look for things in the dashboard.# The Dashboard When you login to the site to add your new blog post, you will find yourself in the Dashboard area. The dashboard is where the editing and site controls are located. At first the dashboard may seem a bit daunting, since it offers many options. This guide will help you focus only on the areas needed for posting to your blog. It s okay (even recommended) to ignore the other dashboard areas that are unrelated to updating your blog.# These are the areas of the dashboard that you will most use:# Posts# Media# Jetpack > Site Stats# Log In The Dashboard is accessible anytime by clicking on the home icon in the upper left corner of the browser window (you must be logged into the site to see the icon). To login before the site is launched, go to this URL:# # Once the site is launched, you will go here:# # # Use the login credentials (username & password) that were provided to you. # Security Tip: a strong, complex password is our first line of defense against malicious activity. The password provided to you will be a strong password (and thus nearly impossible to remember or guess). We suggest using this password just keep it stored 2

3 somewhere on your computer where it s easy to copy/paste as needed. If you choose to change your password, please make sure it meets these standards:# at least 8 characters# no words in it that can be looked up in the dictionary# a mixture of letters and numbers# Adding a new blog post# Follow these steps to add your new blog post.# 1. Prepare Your Text While you can write your blog post in Wordpress, we recommend writing in a text editor (not a word processor) and copy/pasting the text into the Wordpress editing pane. This allows you to have a copy of all your writing offline, and also protects you from losing work in the event you are writing and your internet connection gets flaky. # Windows text processor option: Notepad (already installed) Mac OS X text processor option: Textwrangler (free)# And while you should write your article in a text processor, wait to do formatting (bold, italics, etc) until you have the text in Wordpress.# 2. Find a Photo Tip: This link offers a list of sources for photos you might like: Every post (except classifieds) needs at least one image associated with it as a Featured Image. The featured image is the image that appears with the post title and excerpt on the homepage of BT, in blog lists, etc. WP automatically resizes the image for each location where it appears, so you only need upload 1 image. # The image needs to be at least 800 pixels in width, and landscape oriented photos work best (wider than they are tall). # Be sure to honor copyrights for images. There are also several good sources for free or creative commons photos. # 3

4 3. Add a New Post Login to the BT site. In the Dashboard, hover your cursor over the Posts menu (left column). A pop-out menu will reveal additional options. Choose Add New. # A fresh editing window will appear. Use the image below to guide the creation of your post. # 4

5 Choosing a Category (important)# Most posts will only need 1 category choice. These are the ones that MUST be used (in order for the system s automations to work properly):# Johnny s blog: category - John Pierce # Tony s blog: category - Tony Cartledge# Baptists Yesterday blog: category - Baptists Yesterday# Jackie s Bookshelf blog: category - Jackie s Bookshelf# News Headlines: category - News Headlines# Classifieds: category - Classifieds # If you wish to add more topical options please use Tags. # Adding a Featured Image# Note: CLASSIFIEDS is the only category of post that does not need a featured image. You can either upload a new photo (minimum 800 pixels in width) or choose from any of the previously-uploaded photos for any content on the site. When you click Set a featured image a new window will open (it may open slowly - please allow it time to populate - it is loading images). When loaded, the window will show the most recent uploaded photos. Either drag n drop a new photo to add it (jpg preferred) or choose an existing photo.# 5

6 Automations When You Add a Post When you add a new post, several automations occur. # 1. Your post (if categorized properly) appears in the proper blog area.# 2. It appears in the sidebar list of new posts for the appropriate blog# 3. It appears on the homepage in the area where the particular blog is featured# Editing a Previously-Published Blog Post It s easy to find and edit a previously-published blog post either to fix an error or add an update. In the Dashboard, hover your cursor over Posts and additional options will appear. Choose All posts. A list of posts will appear, with the latest posts on top. If the post you wish to edit is shown there, click the title and the editing window will open. Make your edits and click update to save.# If your post is older and does not appear immediately, use the search box to search for the title or a portion of the title. This should cause the desired post to appear. # Cleaning Up Your View# Notes & Tips Notice the small grey triangle to the right of each heading/area on the screen. These allow you to toggle open/closed certain areas. Several were toggled closed for this screenshot. You can set them as you wish. You can also use the tab Screen Options (upper right) to hide certain elements to make your screen cleaner (it will save your choices for your user account).# 6

7 Ignoring Areas# Note that you ll only use a few of the many options on the post screen. In particular, there s no need to worry about choosing the author or the sidebar, since we ve set these to be auto-selected per your login or category choices.# Saving Along the Way# If you want to save along the way as you are building your post, use the Save Draft button. Use the Publish button when ready to make your post live. Note that the Publish button will change to read Update after the post is initially published. You can update a post as many times as you wish across time.# Your Login Matters# The system knows it is you posting due to your login. Any posts you create while logged in as your user will automatically be assigned to you as author. To change the author for any post, just use the pop-up menu in the Author area of the editing window. This is handy if you are posting for someone else, or using someone else s computer while they are logged in. Just be sure to click update to save your edits. You can always see who you are logged in as by looking in the upper right corner of the browser window.# Revisions# Wordpress automatically keeps a certain number of revisions for any post, so if you happen to need to roll back to a previous version, it s usually possible. Look for the Revisions link under the Publish area of the editing window for any post. 7

8 Set Publish Date# Sometimes you might want to add several posts at once, and yet set their publish dates to stagger out over a period of time. You can set the publish date in the future for any post. Just click edit under the Publish area of the editing window for any post. 8