How do I find help with my site?
UD resources
Check out our Frequently Asked Questions and Videos on sites.udel.edu.
UD has an excellent online web based training affiliation: vtc.com
Use our Help Request form to request site specific help, IT CS&S consultation, WordPress training classes, and documentation support.
Outside resources
There are many tutorials and forums available to help you at Codex, including:
How do I stop spam on my site?
Configure the plugin: Akismet. For directions, please review this helpful video. You will have to register to obtain an API key. It is free (simply move the slider to the amount you would like to contribute). All this is explained in the video. If you continue to experience problems: Enable the settings (Settings/Discussion) to disable…
How do I embed a Google Calendar?
The oEmbed services have been built into UD WordPress (YouTube, Flickr, etc). UD IT has added the extra provider http://oohembed.com/ which adds support for Slideshare, Twitter statuses, Wikipedia and a others. View the full list of oohembed providers. Embed a calendar video instructions. Directions to embed a calendar to a UD WordPress site: 1. Open…
How do I create a static home page?
Excerpted from http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page: To create the static front page, go to the WordPress Administration Panels. Create two WordPress Pages from the “Add New Page” panel. If you will not be using WordPress blogging functionality, you can skip the second page. Title the first page “Home” (or another name) as your “static” front page. Set the…
How do I create a WordPress page?
from http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages: In general, Pages are very similar to Posts in that they both have Titles and Content and can use your WordPress Theme templates files to maintain a consistent look throughout your site. Pages, though, have several key distinctions that make them quite different from Posts. What Pages Are: Pages are for content that…
How do I write a WordPress post?
From http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts
Posts are the entries that display in reverse chronological order on your home page. In contrast to pages, posts usually have comments fields beneath them and are included in your site’s RSS feed.
To write a post:
- Log in to your WordPress Administration Panel (Dashboard).
- Click the Posts tab.
- Click the Add New Sub Tab
- Start filling in the blanks.
- As needed, select a category, add tags, and make other selections from the sections below the post. Each of these sections is explained below.
- When you are ready, click Publish.
For the rest of the instructions, visit the source.
Video instructions are available.
How do I add a new user to my site?
To add a new user:
Use the UDelizer plugin under Settings. Once you have logged into the dashboard,
- Click on Settings button.
- Click on Udelizer.
- Under Add Users, type in the user’s UDelNet ID or UDID.
- Select the role you are granting to these users:
- Administrator
- Editor
- Author
- Contributor
- Subscriber
- Click the “Save Changes” button.
- To change a user’s role:
- Go to Users –> All Users.
- Put a checkmark next to the user’s ID.
- Change the role in the pulldown menu at the top of the list.
- Click on the “Change” button.
Video instructions are available.
Custom domains and Headway theme
Sites.udel.edu now accepts custom domain names.
With a custom domain name your users will see your own domain instead of “sites.udel.edu/<your-directory>” in the URL.
You can use a registered domain name which you own or an approved UDEL subdomain. For more information, contact the IT Support Center: consult@udel.edu or (302) 831-6000.
Headway theme has been added to sites.udel.edu
Headway offers a highly customizable theme environment. It is useful for sites that need more flexibility with layouts. You can choose from either one of several preset layouts which can be tweaked, or you can build your site from scratch. Each method can be managed by dragging and dropping via mouse, so knowledge of CSS isn’t required. If you do know CSS, you can tweak even more.
Customizable themes such as Headway have a fairly steep learning curve. There are training videos and other support documents at http://codex.headwaythemes.com/. A direct link to the section with video tutorials is at http://codex.headwaythemes.com/#Beginner_Tutorials
New Features and Themes Added to WordPress
1. We’ve upgraded the server to WordPress version 3! Currently, we’re running version 3.2.1. This gives us the following extra functions:
- Custom menus:
- You can have more than one menu on your site.
- You can include posts, tags, categories, and outside links in menus.
- Customizable header and backgrounds options
- New default theme: Twenty-ten (which supports WordPress 3 functions)
2. We’ve added two themes that support the new features in WordPress 3. Twenty-eleven and Clear Line. These themes offer many opportunities for customizing headers, footers, sidebar layouts, fonts and colors.
3. We’ve also added new plugins for added functionality:
- Akismet — to keep spammers out of the comments on your site. We’ve made a video to show you how to turn it on.
- WPTouch — When turned on, iPhone and smartphone users (Android, Blackberry, etc) will see a mobile optimized version of your content when viewing your site.
- UDelizer– combines several functions that are specific to UD’s implementation of WP on sites.udel.edu:
- Add users to your site: You now have the ability to add users to your site, and specify their role right away.
- UD Theme Module: If enabled for your site, you can add the standard UD header and footer (in either tan, blue or white), along with contact information (departmental name, email and phone) to appear in the footer. Developers can also specify custom CSS here.
- Google Analytics: You can now use GA to collect statistics about who sees your site, etc.