Building a website with WordPress 2011

Building a website with Content Management Systems for Dummies (or busy smarties looking for fast, simple solutions) | March 9, 2011

wordpress.com vs. wordpress.org
Hosted by Automattic
Automatically upgraded - Backup, security, spam filtering included
Cannot upload plugins (some are included)
3 GBs of storage
Limited themes
Can edit CSS for a fee
blogname .wordpress.com is default URL.
Must be installed on a server that allows PHP & MySQL
You handle updates, backups, security
Can upload plugins
Storage only limited by your host
Can use any theme
Can edit CSS for free
Can use any domain name you own

Dashboard> Site Stats

Getting on the Same Page… I Mean Theme
Open “Screen Options and check all options
Under Appearance > Themes, change your theme to “Vigilance”

The Basics
Posts
Categories
Tags
Comments
Pages
Appearance
Widgets

Posts
A Post is a single entry in your blog & appear on the main page of your site (usually)
Library event
New service
Book review
Text editor acts similar to Word
Can easily upload media
Posts can be:
saved as drafts
set to publish at a later date
Made “sticky”

Post Title Publishing Options Categories Tags Post Text

Categories allow you to associate posts on similar topics
e.g. all posts about children’s programs are given the category “Kids”
Tags are similar, but allow you to be more specific in describing your post
e.g. a “Kids” posts might have the tags: story time, ages 3-5, books, puppets, craft, farms
Categories and tags

Comments
Each Post can have comments enabled
Discussion settings can
be changed
Moderated vs. un-moderated
Should email be required?
For how long should comments be open?

Pages
More static than Posts
Hierarchical structure
Don’t use Categories/Tags.
Order of appearance can be
arranged

Possible Pages
Contact information
Hours/directions
Calendar/program info
“ About us”
Link to catalog
Link to catalog
Link to databases
Services
Blog
Library history

Page Title Attributes Publish Page Text Sharing

Choosing a Theme
What appeals?
One sidebar? Two? On the right or left?
How are the tags and categories displayed?
Is this site to be a homebase to pull in feeds from social networks (Flickr, Facebook) or do you want to add content to it?
Explore the available themes
Find a match

Themes
Dozens of free/premium themes available
Each has different features/options
Custom header and/or colors
Drop down menus
Widgets
CSS editing
Custom menus
Can search choices by desired features

Custom Headers
Images need to be 940 × 198 or 900 x 180 pixels for most themes
Can be created in Photoshop, PowerPoint, or Picnik

Depends on the theme. Allows simple edits to the image header and/or provides the dimensions of the header so that a new image can be uploaded

Custom Backgrounds
Can be an image or a color
Nice option, especially if your library has a color theme already
Hexadecimal color code is needed
http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Customizing the appearance

For themes from wordpress.org: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tag-filter/ WordPress.com Theme Filter Page

Widgets
If your theme is widget-ready, you can use various widgets to add content to the sidebar(s) or footer
Examples:
Category list Meebo
Calendar Pages/subpages
Email subscription Text box
Flickr badge Twitter feed

Users
Administrator
Complete ownership of site, including ability to delete
Can have more than one (& should for emergencies)
Editor
Can do everything except change settings and delete site
Author
Can upload files and write/publish posts
Contributor
Can write posts, but not publish or upload files

Review
Your
Settings

Settings > Sharing

Potential fees
Domain name registration + domain mapping costs $17 per year, per domain.
Domain mapping for a domain (or subdomain) you already own costs $9.97 per year, per domain.
Extra storage – 5GB for $19.97
Custom CSS - $14.97/year
Ad removal - $29.97/year

Wordpress.org
A wordpress.com site can be transferred to wordpress.org
More plugins
Akismet
StatPress Reloaded
WordPress Database Backup
Goodreads Bookshelf
Atahualpa and Toolbox
LISHost /Non-profit discounts for other hosts

A Few Libraries using WordPress http:// www.beverlypubliclibrary.org / http:// www.readingpl.org / http:// neponsetpubliclibrary.wordpress.com / More Libraries using WordPress Wp4lib: http://wp4lib.bluwiki.com/ Adventures in Librarianship: http:// bit.ly/ckNiZl

Questions?
Wordpress Support
http://en.support.wordpress.com/
Wordpress Forums
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/
Theresa Maturevich

Building a website with WordPress 2011

by Theresa Maturevich on Mar 10, 2011

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Building a website with WordPress 2011 — Presentation Transcript