Information about posting will appear here, including suggested style guidelines, tips and tricks and general information about interacting with the site.

WORDPRESS HELP

WordPress.org (note the “dot org”) has an excellent set of help files as well as links to video tutorials and a forum for discussing issues and problems.

Some materials may require a membership at WordPress to access. Membership is free.

The primary location for manual-like information about WordPress functionality can be found at the Codex.

Also note: WordPress presents information via a “theme template”. The theme we are using is the Amazing Stories “child” theme, based on Ghostpool’s Bounce theme. If you are trying to address an issue that is not covered in the WordPress Codex, it may be because it is Theme-based, not WordPress based.

POST STATUS

A plugin for a scheduling calendar is used to schedule posts. It is very handy and really helps keep track of things but –

It is only as good as the data fed into it.

The manner in which posts are displayed in the calendar is:  the Title of the piece is displayed on the day of the week the post was initially saved.  The post STATUS is displayed next to it.

For editorial purposes and peace of mind, ONLY posts that are displayed with a Post Status of READY TO GO are slotted into the schedule.

Bloggers should only use one of three Post Status types for their posts:

PROPOSAL/ASSIGNMENT – Use this post status ONLY to suggest a post subject or concept. (Best simply to email)
DRAFT – Use for a post that is not finished or one that is not ready to be scheduled FOR ANY REASON
READY TO GO – When a post is finished and should be scheduled for publication, use this status

NOTE: When the Status is selected from the drop down menu on the right, Click on the “OK” button.
An additional button will appear ABOVE the Status menu that will say “Save As Draft”, “Save As Ready To Go”, etc.
Click on THAT save button – NOT the Save/Update/Publish button lower down.

DO NOT EVER CLICK ON THE PUBLISH BUTTON. This will cause your piece to – Move around on the schedule AND be posted to the front page of the blog.

HOW TO SAVE YOUR POSTS

saving and status

IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY PUBLISH A POST

Open the post up again, select the correct status (Draft, Ready to Go), click ok, then Save As. This will remove your post from the front page of the blog. Note that your post will now have a current date, not the date that you initially saved it.

EDITING A SCHEDULED POST

Posts that have been scheduled and posts that have been published can no longer be accessed by their Authors.  If you discover that you need to make changes to a post that is scheduled or published, send an email to Steve.  The status will be changed so that you or Steve can make the edits.

Note that a post that had already been published will be removed from the front page of the blog and will not be visible or accessible publicly until it is re-published.  Since it may take some time for emails to go back and forth and to change a post’s status, please try to coordinate the time of the changes with Steve.

CATEGORIES

Categories for selection are found on the right hand of the editing screen.

Blog articles can be searched for by Category.

EVERY post should have at least ONE Category check marked.

Categories are broad-based, high-level taxonomical descriptions of the overall content and/or theme of an individual blog post.

Strongly resist the urge to add a Category; try very, very hard to find an appropriate Category(s) from the existing list.  If you can’t find a marginally acceptable category,type in your new Category name and then click Add Category.  The check box for your new category will already be checked after you click on Add.  When adding a new category, try to keep the name as simple and straight forward as possible.  One word names are best, two or more words only when necessary.  The name used should be the commonly accepted version of the name associated with the category.

DO NOT check the following Categories:

Uncategorized
Blog Team

TAGS

Tags are a way of broadening the search criteria for a post and provide the next level down from Category in descriptive granularity.

You may add as many Tags as are appropriate to each piece

IMAGE GUIDELINES

Dimensions

The maximum display area for an image is 580 pixels wide.

Larger images should be reduced to something under 570 pixels (in order to provide a border) in width before being inserted into a post.

Alignment/Placement

Images should be placed with either a LEFT or a RIGHT alignment, since WordPress will not wrap text around a centered image.  (If you want an image to appear as a header, by all means center it.)

Alignment is set when inserting an image into a post.  Check boxes and selection menus for image settings appear on the lower right of your Dashboard once an image finishes uploading, or upon selection of an image from the Image Library.  Settings can always be changed on an image by clicking on the image itself when in editing mode; an editing and a delete icon will appear in the upper left hand corner of the image.  Click the editing icon and make whatever changes are necessary, then click on save.

Images are placed within the body of your blog post by placing the cursor where you want the image to appear (beginning or end of a line of text – preferably the beginning of a paragraph) and then clicking the ADD MEDIA button at the top of the screen.

Selection

Images should only be uploaded if a usable version of the image does not already exist in the Library.

Re-Sizing

The native re-sizer (which is accessed via the menu on the right when working with an image) is not currently functioning. A trouble ticket has been issued and the problem is being worked on.

If you need to re-size an image, do so locally before uploading (there are online re-sizers if you do not have a graphics program to work with, such as PR Remember to save images in a proper format – JPG, PNG, GIF.

Image File Names

Image names should be short and should not contain links or other extended information.