POSTING ON THE ACIS BLOG HOW TO DO IT

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1 POSTING ON THE ACIS BLOG HOW TO DO IT Here are the instructions for contributing posts to our blog. We have tried to avoid both information shortfall and overload: features for more advanced use are included in the FANCY ADDITIONS section. They may seem a little daunting at first (like some journal guidelines for authors) but they will soon become second nature. If you find we could make some improvements to simplify them or explain them better, we would be delighted to hear from you (our addresses are at the end). POSTS AND COMMENTS The instructions below refer only to writing a new post (article). Anyone can write a short comment on an existing post using the Leave a Comment option under each post. LANGUAGE Posts can be written in either English or Italian. FIRST POSTS We ve established a quick filter system FOR THE FIRST POST you contribute. We re doing this just to check that we haven t inadvertently provided instructions that turn out to be ambiguous or have an effect quite different from the one we intended. 1. Let Francesco Ricatti know by (Fricatti@usc.edu.au), copied to David Moss (dmoss26@gmail.com), that you would like to contribute to the blog. 2. Francesco or I will then send you an invitation via ACIS to join the blog as an author. The invitation has two instructions: to sign up, and to Accept Invitation. 3. Before you can accept the invitation, you need to sign up for a Wordpress account (you only have to do this once). Click on the link to sign up and complete the page by choosing an , a username (one is suggested) and a password. Click on Sign Up. 4. Then go back to your account where a new from Wordpress will ask you to activate the account. Activate it. Wordpress will then confirm by that you have set up your account successfully. 5. Go back to the original invitation and click on Accept Invitation, This will take you to a Wordpress page from which you access Blogs I Follow on which you will find the link to ACIS. 6. It sounds complicated but the whole sequence should actually take you no more than 10 minutes. If you do encounter difficulties at any point, don t hesitate to contact Francesco fricatti@usc.edu.au 1

2 CREATING YOUR PROFILE NAME 1. The first thing to do is to create your public profile name (i.e. name + surname) so that searches can find all the posts you contribute. You only need to do this once. 2. Click Dashboard > move mouse over Users > click My Profile > fill in the box Display name publicly as with your name and surname, separated by a space (e.g. David Moss) > click Update Profile. WRITING A POST 1. Move your mouse over ACIS in the top left corner, and from the drop-down menu select New > Post. 2. Then make sure that the option Visual (NOT Text) is selected (top right corner of the post window that comes up). 3. Enter the title you want to give your post in the box at the top where it says Enter title here. It should indicate in a few words the content of the post. Readers will see this at the top of your post on the ACIS Home Page when you publish it. 4. Then, on the first line of the screen, write your name and surname and affiliation (if applicable), leaving three spaces between surname and affiliation; then click the Blockquote icon ( ) on the top row of the toolbar. If you have an institutional or personal webpage and want to hyperlink your name + surname to it, just follow the instructions in the section Adding hyperlinks on page 4 below. 5. Then press Return and deselect the Blockquote by clicking on the icon ( ) again. 6. Start writing on the line below your name and affiliation. Use the STYLE GUIDE and SOME DOs AND DONTs below. 7. IMPORTANT: After the first 100 words or so by when it will be clear what the post is about at the end of a sentence press Return and then click on the Insert More Tag button on the toolbar (fourth icon from the right on the top row of the toolbar, looking like a hamburger). Then go on writing your post in a new paragraph below the line with More at the end. This step is important because it ensures that only the first part of the post appears in the Home Page so people can see what it s about and then click on Continue reading if it interests them. The Home Page can t accommodate entire posts. 8. Once you have written your post, select the Categories and Tags (instructions below). 9. Remember to save the draft! You retrieve all saved drafts, stored under All Posts (the first line under Posts), by following this sequence: Move mouse over ACIS (top left corner) > click Dashboard > move mouse over Posts > click All Posts > move mouse over the title of your post > click Edit. 10. FIRST POST ONLY: Let David and Francesco know when you are ready to publish the post. Then we can check with you that the instructions are accurate (no glitches caused by an unfamiliar browser, for example, or by interference from other software) and you are successfully managing them. 11. ALL SUBSEQUENT POSTS: just click on the blue Publish button on the screen. Once you publish them on the ACIS site, the first few lines will also automatically appear on the ACIS Facebook page (drafts of posts do not appear only those actually published). 2

3 STYLE GUIDE 1. Do not use bold or ALL CAPITAL or underline. 2. Use Italics only for titles of books, journals, films, etc, and for any copyright notice you need to put at the end of your post (see below, Copyright, section 3) 3. For the main text use Paragraph, default colour. 4. Main text should be Align all (icon immediately right of Underline on the toolbar) 5. You probably won t want or need to use headings within your post. If you do, you can find the instructions under FANCY ADDITIONS below. SOME DOs AND DONTs 1. LENGTH: posts should be no more than 800 words, with a minimum of c. 100 words. 2. COPYING AND PASTING: avoid if possible (it can create formatting problems). If you really have to, do so only from Word documents using the Paste from Word icon (with the W letter) in the middle of the second row of the tool bar. After copying and pasting the text from your Word document into the dialogue box, select what you have pasted and then press the Remove Formatting icon (immediately to the right of Paste from Word ) on the toolbar. Then format it as Paragraph (from the dropdown menu at the beginning of the second row of the toolbar). 3. CONTENT: normal etiquette (avoidance of swear words, insults and offensive or libellous language) must apply for obvious reasons to the style and contents of posts. 4. SAVING DRAFTS: remember to use the Save Draft button (in the Publish section of the screen) regularly, especially if you suspend writing for a while. Saved drafts are stored in the All Posts section (to access them, see WRITING A POST, point 9, above). USING CATEGORIES AND TAGS To make sure your post gets into the right category to find its intended readers, it needs to be categorised and tagged correctly, hence the need to select from the lists under Categories and Tags on your screen. Categories and tags must always be in English, even if your post is in Italian (the tag Firenze, for example, will not pick up posts under Florence so that you will miss most of the relevant contributions). 1. Scroll down to select (clicking on the empty box to the left of each category) at least one of the following content-categories that you will see under All Categories: Culture & Society; Fashion & Design; Film, Theatre & Media; Fine Arts; History; Language & Linguistics; Literature & Translation; Music; Politics & Economics. 2. Then select at least one of the following period-categories from the same list: Contemporary; Modern; Early Modern; Medieval. 3. If applicable, select also one of the categories: Publications and reviews; Events. 4. IMPORTANT Please contact Francesco or David before trying to add a new category. 5. Select or add other tags applicable to the content you have posted, first consulting the list of Most used tags at the bottom right of the screen under Tags. Using one of those Most used tags will increase the chances of your reaching the readers you want to find. 3

4 6. If you can t find a suitable one and want to create a new tag, using the box in the Tags area, follow these rules to ensure you reach the people you want to reach: make sure a similar or identical tag does not exist already keep the new tag simple (max two words) and not too specific i.e., migration, rather than emigration or immigration an example: if your post is about garlic bread and its importance in the diet of Italian migrants to Australia, tag it: food, migration, Australia, Italian migrants. don t capitalise the first letter in the tag unless it is a proper name: so food, but Australia. Use Anglicised names of locations when they are available and common (Italy, Florence). 7. Scroll down and click Save draft, then click Preview (usually located beside Save draft ) to see how your post looks. If you like it, click Publish. FANCY ADDITIONS You may want to add headings, hyperlinks, photos, images or videos to your posts. Here s how: Adding headings within a post 1. If you want to use headings within a post, select Heading 3 (from the menu at the beginning of the second line of the toolbar), colour #9a182d. Copy this number, then go to Select a colour > More colours and paste the number into the space after Color and then click Apply. 2. Headings should be Align left (icon on the first line of the toolbar). Adding hyperlinks 1. Don t use too many - a maximum of three per post. 2. Copy the link address you will need to insert. 3. Highlight the relevant word(s) in the post; the icon Insert/edit link in the toolbar (top row, sixth from right, looking like a barbell) will become active: click on it. 4. A new small window will open, headed Insert/edit link. Paste the link address into the URL box. Click the box below marked Open link in a new window/tab, then press Add link. 5. Check that all the hyperlinks actually open the desired pages when the post is published! Adding photos and images 1. Use no more than 2 per post as a general rule, using photos of good quality and medium-high resolution. If you insert the first photo before you click on the Insert More Tag on the toolbar, it will then make the Home Page more colourful. 2. If it is a post about visual arts or photography, you can post up to 8 photos, but in this case please make them a gallery (see below for instructions). 3. Make sure the cursor is blinking where you want to place the image (see point 8 below). 4. Click Add media (the little icon of a camera at the top left of the post window, just above the toolbar). 4

5 5. We suggest you use the first option, From Computer, in the window which comes up (you can also use From URL if the image you want is online; but since webpage URLs often change it is better to upload only images you have stored on your computer). Use the drag/drop option or click on Select Files and make your choice from your files. 6. Once the image is uploaded scroll down and insert title and other relevant information, such as a caption (if you want). The alignment and size options depend on how you want the image to look on the page usually a medium-size option is best, with photos aligned in different positions. Try different solutions to get the best effect. 7. Press Insert into post. 8. To make the text flow around the image: Switch from 'Visual' to 'Text' mode by clicking on 'Text' in the top right hand corner of the box in which you are writing Identify the long string of code for the picture. It begins either '<a href=' if there is no caption, or '[caption id=" if there is a caption Find the term 'align' in it. The default instruction you should see is 'alignnone' Change it to 'alignright' or 'alignleft' and click 'Preview'. That should show the picture inserted on the right- or the left-hand side of the surrounding text - you may have to change the position you originally inserted it into in the text in order to see it to best advantage. Press Save all changes. 9. If you want to include other media, such as songs, interviews, videos, etc., please discuss the options with Francesco and David. 10. Publishing photos, images and other media means you must own their copyright or use photos and images with accepted licences e.g., creative commons. See Copyright below. Creating a photo gallery 1. Follow the above instructions for each photo, but press Save all changes, NOT Insert into post. This will create a Gallery. 2. On the top left corner of the Gallery window click From computer and repeat the operation until you have uploaded all photos. 3. Then scroll down and click Insert gallery. COPYRIGHT 1. All posts published on the ACIS blog are licensed as creative commons, non-commercial and non-derivative. That means that anyone is free to copy and republish what you write, provided that: it is attributed to you it is not used for commercial purposes it is not altered in any way For definitions and further details click here. 2. To publish a photo or an image, you must own the copyright, or use photographs with acceptable licences, such as creative commons etc. It is your responsibility to make sure that your post does not infringe copyright. 5

6 3. If you post photos, images and other media which are not licensed as creative commons (see point 1), you must include a copyright notice at the end of the post. If you own the copyright of, say, a photo and want to retain all rights to its use, just put the following notice in italics at the bottom of the post: Images in this post Name Surname, all rights reserved). We hope this covers the basic elements of posting. If you need help, clarification or advice on any technical issue, don t hesitate to contact Francesco Ricatti at fricatti@usc.edu.au. For any issue relating to content, contact David Moss at dmoss26@gmail.com. All suggestions to improve them will be very welcome. 6

Wordpress Editor Guide. How to Log in to Wordpress. Depending on the location of the page you want to edit, go to either:

Wordpress Editor Guide. How to Log in to Wordpress. Depending on the location of the page you want to edit, go to either: Wordpress Editor Guide How to Log in to Wordpress Depending on the location of the page you want to edit, go to either: http://www.necc.mass.edu/wp- admin (for the main website) Or http://facstaff.necc.mass.edu/wp-