From UMW Wiki
Frequently Asked Questions
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. Often associated with a blog, WordPress is much more than a blog- it is a simple and easy-to-use web publishing platform that can allow you to build a web presence with little or no fuss!
UMW Blogs is running a WordPress Multi-user installation which allows the Mary Washington community to quickly sign up for and customize their own web publishing space. By extension, each member of the community can create as many distinct spaces as they like and begin experimenting with this space for teaching and learning. See the "Ten ideas for using UMW Blogs" page for examples of how others have used WordPress at UMW.
How do I get a blog on UMW Blogs?
To setup a blog on UMW Blogs go to the sign-up page and enter a username and e-mail address (you must use your UMW email). Make sure the "Gimme a blog!" radio button is selected.
Once you have done this, you will be taken to a page that asks you to specify a domain (this can be anything you like, however there can be no spaces and no special characters- only letters and numbers), enter a blog title (you can change this later on), and select the privacy settings for your blog.
Once these steps are all completed, you should receive an e-mail confirming that you do, indeed, want a blog. Click on the link in the e-mail to get your login and password, along with a link to log into your account.
How do I just get a username?
To just get a username on UMW Blogs go to the sign-up page and enter a username and e-mail address (you must use your UMW email). Make sure the "Just a username, please" radio button is selected.
Once I have a blog, where and how do I log in?
First things first, where is your blog? Your individual blogs should be located at the address you specified on UMW Blogs. Your initial blog address is determined by the domain you choose when creating your blog. For example, if the domain you chose is "myblog" your blog address will be http://myblog.umwblogs.org.
To access the administrative back-end of your blog, you should see a login link on the main page. If you do not see this link, for whatever reason, enter the following line to the end of your url address: "/wp-admin" (no quotes) - the address should look like the following:
http://myblog.umwblogs.org/wp-admin
Once you are there, you will see two fields asking for your login and password, as pictured below.
How do I change my password?
Once you sign up for a blog, it's a good idea to change your password first thing. To do this, go to the Users tab in the administrative backend and click on the Your Profile subtab. From here you can enter your personal information and change your password at the bottom of this page.
How do I change my blog title?
To change the title of your blog go to the Settings tab in the administrative back-end and you will see a field for blog title as well as a field for the site tagline, which is a space for a brief description of your site. Just type in a new title or tagline and save the changes.
How do I deal with issues of privacy?
Privacy at UMW Blogs is a major concern, and it is important to realize from the start that the spaces you create here are, by default, open and accessible to the general public. You can password protect individual pages and posts (learn more here), as well as select more granular privacy settings for your entire blog or website.
To make your blog or site private, go to the Settings tab and click on the Privacy subtab. From here, click on one of the the five options for controlling external access to your space, each of which is detailed in the image below. It is important to keep in mind, however, that if you restrict your privacy settings to members of the UMW Blogs community, registered users, or administrator only, the RSS feed will be disabled (find out more about RSS feeds and what they do here).
What's the difference between writing a post and writing a page?
This is an important terminological/conceptual distinction to grasp, as posts and pages serve radically different functions. A post is an article that shows up in the chronology of your blog. In other words, posts appear in your blog, most recent at the top of the page.
A page is what most folks may be more familiar with. This is a static space that is not part of the chronological logic (try saying that five times fast) of the blog. A page sits outside of this inverted time line, and often features more static content like information about the site, the author, a syllabus, readings, etc.
What are comments and how do I manage them?
Part of the logic of a blog is allowing people to comment on your work. Comments are often associated with posts (as opposed to pages- see an explanation of this distinction above) and offer a way to have a discussion about a particular post.
Often times, initial comments are placed in a moderation queue until you approve them. Once you approve a comment from a user, he or she should be able to comment freely thereafter. You can view the comments on your blog as well as those awaiting moderation in the Comments tab in the back-end of your blog. If you want to change the permissions for your comments- say allow anyone to comment without moderating- see the Settings tab and look for the Discussion subtab. This is where you can control the comment settings.
Additionally, when writing a post, you can turn off the comments on a post-by-post basis by clicking on the Discussion section of the right-hand sidebar and un-checking the comments field.
Keep in mind that comments are extremely vulnerable to spammers, so be sure to activate the Spam Karma plug-in to control those nasty vermin! Read more about controlling spam here.
How do I control the comments, reading, and writing settings on my blog?
All of the options for reading, writing, and commenting are housed within the Settings tab in the administrative back-end of your blog. For example, using the reading options will allow you to create a static front page for your site rather than the default blog. You can also use the discussion tab to turn off comments on your blog, etc. For more detailed information go here.
Why do I only see code buttons in the text editor?
If for some reason you don't see a visual text editor (as pictured in the image directly above) then you have to enable this option in the Users tab in the Your Profile section.
In the top-left hand corner of the Your Profile page there is a check box that says "Use the visual text editor when writing". Make sure this box is checked. After that, editing your blog will be much, much more intuitive.
If this does not work, another potential cause of the problem is that you are using Apple's Safari web browser. Try another browser (we highly recommend Firefox) and see if the problem persists.
How do I add users as authors to my blog?
1) Go to the administrative backend of your blog, and navigate to the Design-->Widgets subtab. Widgets allow you to customize your sidebar. Add the widget titled "Add Users" (you may also want to add widget like recent posts, recent comments, meta (which is the login link) and anything else that catches your fancy. Also, you can drag the widgets to arrange them as you see fit.
After that, you should edit the add users widget (click on the edit button) and make it so that those who are added are authors, and no password is required nor a pre-existing list of emails. Then save the new sidebar settings.
2) Tell the potential authors they need to sign up for a username at umwblogs.org (if they already have a blog or username on UMW Blogs they can skip this step).
3) Now anyone who has an account on UMW Blogs can login, then navigate to your blog and click on the "Add Me" button in the sidebar of your blog and immediately have privileges to post on your site (if you are already logged in as an author, you won't see the "Add me" button, but a Welcome, Jane Doe message). Users who add themselves to your blog will not have administrator privileges, just permissions as an author and will be able to write posts.
What's a feed?
A feed is a way to subscribe to blog posts, comments, etc. You can subscribe to a feed use an RSS reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines. To find out more about this RSS thing click here.
What is this RSS stuff?
Why listen to me? Watch the movie that explains RSS in plain English...
How do I upload a document and place it in a post or page?
You can easily upload documents, such as a course calendar or syllabus, into a post or page. Doing this is relatively straightforward. Go to Write → Post (or Page) and look for the "Add media" button that looks like a gray asterisk, as pictured below.
When you click on that button, a dialog box will appear offering you the option to upload a file from your hard drive, or to link directly to a file that is already online. Once you have located your file (whether on your hard drive or online) click on the "Upload" button or "Insert into Post" button, respectively.
If uploading a file from your hard drive, you will get a dialog box asking you to title the document, as well as to provide a caption and description (both of which are optional). Once you are done, click on the "Insert into Post" button and you are done.
How do I upload an image and place it in a post or page?
As with documents, you can easily upload and insert an image from your hard drive into a post or page. Go to Write → Post (or Page) and look for the "Add Image" button that looks like a picture canvas immediately following the "Add Media" title as pictured below .
When you click on that button, a dialog box will appear offering you the option to upload an image from your hard drive, or to link directly to a image that is already online. Once you have located your file (whether on your hard drive or online) click on the "Upload" button or the "Insert into Post" button, respectively.
If uploading an image from your hard drive, you will get a dialog box asking you to title the image, as well as to provide a caption and description (both of which are optional). Once you are done, click on the "Insert into Post" button and you are done.
How much upload space do I have on UMW Blogs?
As of now you have 75 MB of upload space. If you need more, please contact us with the details.
Additionally, you cannot upload a single file that is larger than 20 MB.
If you are uploading large pdf files or images it may be preferable to use an outside service that you can integrate with UMW Blogs, such as Flickr for your photos, YouTube for your videos, and/or DivShare for your files. This is probably the best practice, because if you ever want to move your blog to another service you will have persistent links to documents, videos, and images that you will not have to update for the blog when it is moved.
Why should I consider using external services to store my images and documents?
You have 75 MB of upload space. This will not be enough if you are uploading large pdf files, videos, or images. It may be preferable to use an outside service that you can integrate with UMW Blogs such as Flickr for your photos, YouTube for your videos, or DivShare for your files. This is probably the best practice, because if you ever want to move your blog to another service you will have persistent links to documents and images that you will not have to update to the new blog URL.
How do I import my existing blog to UMW Blogs?
You can import a blog from numerous other blogging platforms such as WordPress, MoveableType, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Grey Matter, TextPattern, DotClear, and RSS.
Note: To import your blog from an application other than WordPress, please read your respective blogging platforms details for exporting your data. For information on exporting data from WordPress read more here.
Once you have exported your data from your blog, go to the Manage → Import subtab. From here click on the respective blog type you are importing. Browse for the file (which will most likely be an XML file) and click "import".
Once you're done here, you will be taken to a page that will ask you to map authors. If you are importing a blog with numerous contributors, you may want to allow each author to be associated with their respective blog posts. After that, click the "submit" button and the import should begin immediately.
One note of caution: Depending on your blog application, you may not be able to import pages, links, and theme customization. If you need further help with this, please use the contact form to describe your issue, and we'll get back to you shortly.
How do I export my data from UMW Blogs?
Exporting your blog from UMW Blogs is easy, but there are some important issues you may want to keep in mind, so be sure to read this entire article!
To export your data from UMW Blogs, you need to do an export for your blog (or an individual export for each and every blog you have on this service). You do this in the Manage → Export subtab. When you export your blog you will be given an XML file that stores all of the posts, pages, and comments for your entire blog.
Important: If your blog has a series or documents that you uploaded directly to UMW Blogs, you will need to contact us in order to get copies of all those files. Once you have these files and upload them to your new space, be sure to change the URLs to reflect the location of your blog. Additionally, you will need to update the URLs to images and documents in your new blog in order for them to work. This might all be avoided if you use a third-party service like Flickr for images and Google Docs for documents to avoid chasing broken URLs, as these links to images and documents will not change even if your blog address does- very convenient when moving your data.
What's a plugin?
A plugin is a third-party application that interacts with WordPress to provide a certain, usually very specific, function for your blog or web space. For example, if you have a Flickr account you can use the flickrRSS plugin to bring photos into your blog space. Or, if you are having spam problems, you can activate Spam Karma to help you fight those dirty parasites! Read more about the plugins available on UMW Blogs here.
How do I make my front page a static page rather than a blog?
To make your front page a static page rather than a blog you need to create a static page that you would like as your front page. Then go into the Options tab and then click on the Reading subtab. Once you do this you will see the following:
Instead of having the front page display your latest posts, select the radio button that says "static page" and select the page you created for the front page. Additionally, you can create another page where you would like your blog posts to appear. This is extremely useful when you would like to create a resource more akin to a traditional page rather than a blog, while maintaining the functionality of both.
Important: When using certain themes you may find that when you try this option you have two tabs in the header that both point to the front page. Depending on the theme this may cause you some concern in terms of the presentation. If you are having this problem, we recommend the following themes:
- Ocean Mist: this theme works beautifully with this option right out of the box.
- K2: This theme also works right out of the box with this option.
- Cutline:this theme automatically defaults to a front page tab making the site a perfect space for utilizing WordPress as a traditional web page.
- MistyLook: in the MistyLook Options under the Presentation tab, you can hide pages from the header navigation. If you hide the page you created for the new front page, the blog will use the default home.
- Mandigo: like MistyLook, under the presentation tab in Mandigo options you can hide pages from the header navigation. If you hide the page you created for the new front page, the blog will use the default home.
- More examples to follow shortly...
How do I make my blog look different?
You can change the look and feel of your blog using the Design tab. When you click on the Design tab you'll notice you have over 90 themes for your site to choose from.
A new feature of the latest version of WordPress paginates the themes and provides users with a preview of each theme that they can either activate or close and select another theme to preview.
If you need to do specific customizations of your theme for whatever reason, this is possible. Just contact your Instructional Technology Specialist for more details or contact us here. To read more specifics about selecting themes, what specific themes provide you with, and the ways in which you can customize your theme click here.
How do I add a custom image to the header of my blog?
Not all of the themes provided by UMW Blogs allow you to add a custom header image. In fact, each theme has its own options through which you can customize the look and feel of your blog, so the theme, in effect, is much more than just look and feel- it is also functionality and possibility.
Below is a list of themes we currently support that allow for a customized header image:
- Ambiru
- Anubis
- BeachLand
- Blix
- BlueSky
- CityScape
- Contempt
- Cutline
- Fauna Beta 2
- Fjords
- Flex
- Freshy 1.0
- iLoveMusic
- K2 0.9.1
- LetoPrime 0.9.6
- MistyLook 3.3.1
- Mother Nature
- Ocean Mist
- PressRow
- Regulus 2.2
- Rubric
- SeaShore
- Semiologic 4.3.2
- Striped Plus 1.0
- Steam 1.0
- Sumenep
- Tarski 1.5
- TechLand
- Wordpress Default 1.6
What are widgets?
“Widgets” is just a silly buzzword for the functionality built into WordPress that allows you to customize the sidebar of your WordPress site without knowing HTML. You can use widgets to add a list of recent photos, comments, flickr photos, del.icio.us links, and much more. You can find your widgets in the Design → Widgets subtab. You may also get access to more widgets as you activate new plugins, for many of the plugins available have an associated widget, such as flickrRSS. To find out how you can choose from over 5,000 additional widgets, read the tutorial here.
How do I get an avatar?
Go to Gravatar and associate an avatar of your choice with the email you use on UMW Blogs. Gravatar is an external service that links avatars with e-mail addresses so that anytime you comment on another blog with that e-mail address your avatar will show up if enabled on that particular blog.
All UMW Blogs sites provide the ability to enable Gravatars. Just go to Design → Gravatar and check the "Enable Gravatars on your blog" button.
How do I deal with spam?
Spam is the bane of any respectable blogger's existence. Luckily we have ways of dealing with these parasites. UMW Blogs uses the spam filtering filtering service Akismet to manage spam comments and trackbacks. If you are getting spam comments, please contact us here and we will look into it immediately.
How do I password protect a page or post?
Password protecting a post or page is quite simple. All you need to do is look for "post password" or "page password" in the "Advanced Options" section and enter a value into the text field. This value can be whatever you want it to be, but if you want others to see what is in this page or post, you will have to share the password with them.
How do I add Flickr images to my sidebar?
Adding Flickr images to your sidebar is a three step process, assuming you already have (or want) your own Flickr account. Although, please keep in mind that you do not necessarily need a Flickr account to include images in your sidebar.
- First, go into the Plugins tab in the back-end an activate the flickrRSS plugin.
- Second, go to the Settings → flickrRSS subtab and you will see the following screen without the values in the fields:
- The IDNumber is your unique id for Flickr if you already have an account. If you just want to stream images from Flickr in your sidebar but don't want your own Flickr account leave the UserID blank and set the Display option to public and create a "tag" (or keyword) to filter Flickr images for your sidebar.
- If you have a Flickr account and need to locate your UserID, then go to your Flickr photos page and locate the 11 digit string in the URL address of your Flickr account. it will look something like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9301848@N07/
- Alternatively, if you have a Flickr pro account you may have been offered a text-based username for your Flickr URL, something like http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgroom/
- Please note: the username you use to login to Flickr will not necessarily be what you enter here, so look at the URL for your Flickr photos to find out the correct value to enter here.
- Display allows you to select whether you want to display all public photos, your photos (User), or group photos -you can also specify how many images and how big (square size recommended for the WordPress sidebar). If you don't have a Flickr account and don't want one, set this option to public and create a "tag" (or keyword) you would like to filter Flickr images by for your sidebar, as described below.
- Set allows you to display a set on Flickr. You need to find the number associated with the set, often found in the URL, and copy it in this field.
- Tags allow you to specify particular tags you want to filter into your site. For example, only photos tagged with "UMW" would be brought into your sidebar if you specified "UMW" here. If you don't have a Flickr account and don't want one, set the Display option above to public and create a "tag" (or keyword) you would like to filter Flickr images by for your sidebar.
- The IDNumber is your unique id for Flickr if you already have an account. If you just want to stream images from Flickr in your sidebar but don't want your own Flickr account leave the UserID blank and set the Display option to public and create a "tag" (or keyword) to filter Flickr images for your sidebar.
- Third, go to the Design → Widgets subtab and drag the flickrRSS widget into your sidebar. After that, you're ready to go...
How do I embed YouTube videos?
You have at least two options for embedding YouTube videos. And, in truth, embedding a video from most online video services has never been easier.
Copy and Paste Embed Code
This is simply a process of copying the embed code from a site like YouTube into the HTML tab of the text editor.
Anarchy Media Player
When writing a post or page in your blog, look for the little yellow "A" icon in the visual text editor and click on it.
Next, paste the URL provided by the respective online video service in the dialog box. For certain video sites, the actual URL in the web browser field is not always the correct URL- for example, in YouTube you can find the correct URL in the field to the right of the video. Keep in mind that Anarchy will play just about any media (such as mov files, mp3 files, mp4 files, etc.), you just need to copy and paste the URL into the dialog box.
How do I copy and paste word documents?
Click on the button the arrow is pointing to below- affectionately termed the "Kitchen Sink"- in order to get additional options for your editing toolbar.
Go from this:
to this:
After following the step above you will see an icon with the MS Word icon in your visual text editor (which the arrow is pointing to). Click on this and copy the Word Document text into this window and save it. This strips out all the MS Word code and "cleans" the text for publishing on WordPress. There may be some minor formatting you have to update afterwards, but most of the formatting from MS Word should remain intact.
How do I map my own domain to my UMW Blog?
Note: these instructions are for Godaddy.com, though they should apply to just about any company that sells domains.
After you have registered a domain (and assuming you are logged into GoDaddy) click on the Domain Manager link on the front page.
From there you will be taken to your domain (or a list of your domains, depending on how many you have registered.) Click on the Domain you want to edit and you should see the following screen. Look for the link to Total DNS Control and MX Records and click on it.
You will then be taken to the following screen, click on the edit button indicated by the arrow below.
After that, leave everything as is, except enter the IP address 67.228.90.197 into the "Points to IP address field"
After that, click OK and you are all done with the GoDaddy settings. Now go back to the UMW Blog you want to map a domain upon, and go to the Manage-->Domain Mapping tab and enter the domain address in the appropriate field (the IP field should already be filled out). Click Add, and your new domain should be mapped.
If for any reason this didn't work, go back into the back end by clicking the back button and go to Manage-->Domain mapping and delete the mapped domain and contact Jim Groom at jgroom_at_umw.edu
There's an error message on my blog. What do I do?
If you are coming across an error message on the sidebar or in the header of your blog please use the contact form to send us the exact verbiage of that message, when it happened, and your blog address so that we can research and fix the problem promptly.
How do I delete my blog?
Deleting a blog on UMW Blogs is simple. Go into the administrative back-end of your blog and click on the Settings tab. From there select the Delete Blog subtab and check the box and click on the Delete My Blog Permanently button.
Once you have done this, you will receive a confirmation e-mail at your UMW address to re-confirm that you want to delete your blog. Just click on the link and your blog will be history. Keep in mind that there is no way to get it back once you have confirmed this deletion.
How do I get more help for issues not listed here?
If there is an issue or question you have that you don't see here, then contact us and we'll be sure to both answer your question as well as update this knowledge base so that everyone can benefit from your contribution (anonymously, of course).
