Instructions

ADMIN AREA

Most of your work will be within Appearance Header, Media, Posts, Pages, Appearance Menus, and Meta Slider. It’s helpful to have the public site open in one window and the admin in another so you can view these instructions and see your post on the public site without having to leave the admin.

Featured Media

Although there are three places where you could upload the featured images, the easiest place is 1) under Appearance Header. The process is:

  • Browse to select file, Upload. Chose area to be cropped, save.
  • When you’re done, under Uploaded Images, select random, Save Changes.

The only disadvantage of the above is you may not want it forever in the random Header images and the only way to remove it from there (Appearance Headers) is to delete it from Media.

2) If you need to make image modifications, or if you don’t want the image in the random Headers, go to Media instead. Click Add New at the top.

  • Browse to select file or drag and drop, click Edit.
  • Click Edit underneath image.
  • Scale it first.
  • Then select area to crop, making sure to end up with 1000 X 351 at right under Image Crop. (Setting to 351 will result in a 350 high image.)
  • Then click the crop icon above left of picture.
  • Then click Save.
  • Optional: change file name, add caption, alt text, description.
  • Then click Update.
  • Then go to Appearance Header and choose this image from the media library (it will be the first one), Set as Header, Skip Cropping, Publish Image as is. When you’re done, select random, Save Changes.

3) Featured/Header images can also be uploaded within a page or post by clicking “Set featured image” or within Meta Slider.

No real disadvantage to either of the 2nd or 3rd methods except you end up with a duplicate if you want to also set it as a random Header image.

Posts

  • Best if you type the post right in the admin. Copy and paste can have some formatting consequences, especially if copying from Word.
  • If you make a long post, suggest adding a “more” tag, also located in the top row of the formatting bar. This will keep your post short on summary pages.
  • Please DON’T FORGET to categorize your post at right, multiple categories allowed.
  • You can add images to the body of your post, or attach files.
  • If you feel additional categories are warranted, add them.
  • Note that if you change a page or post title after creating it, you should edit the Permalink immediately below it.

Note: NEVER allow trackbacks and pingbacks. Although they were good in concept, the abusers have totally thwarted their usefulness and they result in huge amounts of spam.

Images

  • You may add an image inside your post. Put your cursor where you want it and click “Add Media” above the text window. You can upload an image from your hard drive. The system will save it in multiple sizes. You’ll most likely want the medium or small size. I suggest you align small images to right or medium images to none (center). You can give it a caption if you’d like.
  • If you want a specific featured image attached to a post, click “Set featured image” to the lower right. You can choose from the uploaded media or upload a new one. If you upload, you will have the chance to scale and crop it. The final size should be 1000 X 351. You need to save the changes within the images panel, and then the post.
  • Any time you are inserting an image from the Media Library, you can select the one you think you want and verify its size at right.
  • Multiple images can be uploaded at once into Media Library–those not destined to be headers (needing scaling or cropping). It stores multiple sizes.

Pages

Click Edit or Add New.

  • Page Attributes
    • Choose placement in navigation hierarchy.
    • Use Default Template. I have not styled Showcase or Sidebar.
    • Do not change Order.
  • Featured image if desired, as above.
  • See other possibly helpful bullets above under Posts.

Navigation

Set to include all new upper level pages in navigation.

  • Go to Appearance Menus
  • View All Pages, select any additional pages for menu, drag and drop.
  • Save

Slideshow

  • Go to Meta Slider. Settings at right should be Flex Slider, 1000 X 350, Fade, Arrows, Hidden, Auto play, Hover pause, 6000, 800, Print CSS, Print JS. These will stay like this for new sliders.
  • Click one to edit or click + to create new.
  • Name it to match the page (for convenience).
  • Add Slide(s). Captions discouraged. (Note: caption will attach to the image in all places, i.e. in other sliders.)
  • Copy shortcode (metaslider ID#), add to header.php file in Appearance Editor. (Darlene will have to do this step for now.)

Miscellaneous, One-Time or Advanced

  • In every admin panel, there are Screen Options at the upper right. We set these during our meeting.
  • For Posts, un-check Slug, Custom Fields, Send Trackbacks, Excerpt, Format; these will be out of your way in the future. (We are only using the Standard Format, no excerpts, no pingbacks or trackbacks, leave the slug alone.)
  • For Pages, un-check Author, Slug, Comments, Custom Fields; these will be out of your way in the future. (We are only using the Default Template.)
  • In the formatting bar, expand “Show/Hide Kitchen Sink” near right end to see more formatting options.
  • Switch to “Text” tab (upper right), and get used to reading the html. Sometimes copy and paste is easier in this mode, then clean up under “Visual” tab.
  • Feel free to use Tags on Posts, optional. (I prefer to stick with Categories.)
  • You may Comment on Posts while logged in.