- Role- A Role defines the tasks a user is allowed to perform. WordPress uses roles to give the ability to control and assign what users can and cannot do in the website.
- Editor- An Editor is someone who can publish and manage the posts and pages created by him/herself as well as by others. In other words, Editors have the ability to write, publish, and edit anything on the website. They are in charge of the entire publishing side of WordPress.
- Contributor- A Contributor is someone who can write and edit their own posts and pages, but cannot publish them. Contributors submit material to the Editor for review. They do not have access to publish anything on the website.
- Page- A Page is one of the two places to edit and publish content. Pages are meant to be a permanent staple in your website, and only one page is displayed at a time.
- Post- A Post is one of the two places to edit and publish content. Posts are (often) shorter, time-sensitive chunks of information. Many posts are displayed at once, in a list, for newest down to oldest. However, you may choose to only have one post show at a time.
- Sticky Post– A Sticky Post is just like a regular post, only it has been selected to be a “sticky” at the top of the page. No matter when it was posted and how much is posted after it, it remains right at the top. It is also highlighted inside a green box by the AAUW style template.
- Plugin– A Plugin is a site addition in WordPress. Plugins provide auxiliary functions to your site, such as spam protection (Askimet), newsletter signup (MailChimp) and online payments/donations (PayPal).
- Parent– A Parent is a page or category that stands alone and is not navigated to or organized under another page or category. For example, your homepage is always a parent page.
- Child- A Child is a page or category that is navigated to or organized under another page or category. For example, “Summer Events” might be a child category of “Events.”
- Links- Links (or hyperlinks) are what facilitate movement from one page or media object to another on the internet. There are links within your website that take visitors to different pages, and there are links that can take visitors to other websites or media from your own. A link can be set to open in a new window, or it can take the place of the webpage in the current window.
- Dashboard- The Dashboard is the back-end editing interface for your website and also the first thing you will see when you login to WordPress. All the editing and publishing of a WordPress site is done through the dashboard.
- Widgets- Widgets are the objects, usually containing various information, that appear in the right sidebar on your WordPress site. Some examples of widgets are a plain text widget (usually edited to contain “Contact Us” or other pertinent information), the Calendar widget, and the Categories widget (displays the categories of your posts). Widgets are always visible, no matter what page you are on.
- Menus- Menus are navigation groupings that allow your WordPress site to be highly customizable. An example of a menu is the horizontal navigation bar running directly under the site banner.
- Permalinks- Permalinks are the extension name given to a particular page or post. WordPress automatically gives your page or post a permalink that corresponds to the title. So for example, if I titled my post “New Year’s Eve Benefit for Children with Diabetes,” my permalink might look something like this: http://aauw.net/2011/26/12/new-years-eve-benefit-for-children-with-diabetes/. As you may have noticed with this example, some permalinks can become long and unwieldy, especially with posts, which include the posting date. Fortunately, WordPress allows you to edit the permalink at any time, so I could effectively keep my long post title and shorten my permalink to something like: http://aauw.net/2011/26/12/new-years-eve-benefit/.
Author Archives: Cheryl Bond
WordPress Terms & Definitions
- Role- A Role defines the tasks a user is allowed to perform. WordPress uses roles to give the ability to control and assign what users can and cannot do in the website.
- Editor- An Editor is someone who can publish and manage the posts and pages created by him/herself as well as by others. In other words, Editors have the ability to write, publish, and edit anything on the website. They are in charge of the entire publishing side of WordPress.
- Contributor- A Contributor is someone who can write and edit their own posts and pages, but cannot publish them. Contributors submit material to the Editor for review. They do not have access to publish anything on the website.
- Page- A Page is one of the two places to edit and publish content. Pages are meant to be a permanent staple in your website, and only one page is displayed at a time.
- Post- A Post is one of the two places to edit and publish content. Posts are (often) shorter, time-sensitive chunks of information. Many posts are displayed at once, in a list, for newest down to oldest. However, you may choose to only have one post show at a time.
- Sticky Post– A Sticky Post is just like a regular post, only it has been selected to be a “sticky” at the top of the page. No matter when it was posted and how much is posted after it, it remains right at the top. It is also highlighted inside a green box by the AAUW style template.
- Plugin– A Plugin is a site addition in WordPress. Plugins provide auxiliary functions to your site, such as spam protection (Askimet), newsletter signup (MailChimp) and online payments/donations (PayPal).
- Parent– A Parent is a page or category that stands alone and is not navigated to or organized under another page or category. For example, your homepage is always a parent page.
- Child- A Child is a page or category that is navigated to or organized under another page or category. For example, “Summer Events” might be a child category of “Events.”
- Links- Links (or hyperlinks) are what facilitate movement from one page or media object to another on the internet. There are links within your website that take visitors to different pages, and there are links that can take visitors to other websites or media from your own. A link can be set to open in a new window, or it can take the place of the webpage in the current window.
- Dashboard- The Dashboard is the back-end editing interface for your website and also the first thing you will see when you login to WordPress. All the editing and publishing of a WordPress site is done through the dashboard.
- Widgets- Widgets are the objects, usually containing various information, that appear in the right sidebar on your WordPress site. Some examples of widgets are a plain text widget (usually edited to contain “Contact Us” or other pertinent information), the Calendar widget, and the Categories widget (displays the categories of your posts). Widgets are always visible, no matter what page you are on.
- Menus- Menus are navigation groupings that allow your WordPress site to be highly customizable. An example of a menu is the horizontal navigation bar running directly under the site banner.
- Permalinks- Permalinks are the extension name given to a particular page or post. WordPress automatically gives your page or post a permalink that corresponds to the title. So for example, if I titled my post “New Year’s Eve Benefit for Children with Diabetes,” my permalink might look something like this: http://aauw.net/2011/26/12/new-years-eve-benefit-for-children-with-diabetes/. As you may have noticed with this example, some permalinks can become long and unwieldy, especially with posts, which include the posting date. Fortunately, WordPress allows you to edit the permalink at any time, so I could effectively keep my long post title and shorten my permalink to something like: http://aauw.net/2011/26/12/new-years-eve-benefit/.
How to Create a Table
How to create a TABLE in WordPress.
You must create the table using HTML coding.
To start:
- Choose the page where your table should appear.
- Select the “Text” editor rather than the “Visual” editor.
(Inside the text pane, you will see the HTML back-end of what appears on the front end, this means text wrapped in HTML “Tags”.)
NOTE: Each tag must be “closed” with an identical tag preceded by a “forward slash” / . You’ll see what I’m talking about below.
- Using the following coding, build your table. The tags have been color coded to help you see the pairing, and the text that will appear on your page is in black. You do not need to change the color of the code you enter into your site’s text editor.
<table>
<tr>
<td>Month</td>
<td>Savings</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>January</td>
<td>$100</td>
</tr>
</table>
Will return:
| Month | Savings |
| January | $100 |
When you are finished, click “Update” or “Publish” to save your work. Then View the Page to see your handy work!
Congratulations! You’ve just coded a table.
Edit Links on the Right-Hand Sidebar
Now that you know how to insert links, you may want to edit how link categories appear. Suppose you want to change the “AAUW national” link label on your right-hand sidebar to “AAUW national website.”
1. Log in with your username and password.
2. Go to “Links” on the left-hand section of your dashboard and click “All Links.”
You will see the list of all links. Currently, there is only one link: “AAUW national.”
To edit the link name, hover over “AAUW national” and click “Edit.” To delete the link completely, click “Delete.”
3. Type in the new name, “AAUW national website.”
4. If you want to update a URL to point to a different web address, you’ll need to enter a new address in the “Web Address” box. If you want the URL to point to someone’s e-mail, then enter mailto:email_address in the Web Address box. E.g., “mailto:someone@gmail.com.”
5. To save the changes, click the “Update Link” button under the Save toolbar on the right.
How to Add a Link to a Sidebar
You can create a list of links on your sidebar that navigate to whatever sites you choose. This list was originally called the “blogroll” because it was created as a list of links to other blogs.
- Log in with your username and password.
- Go to “Links” on the left section of your dashboard. You will see three options: (1) All Links, (2) Add New, and (3) Link Categories.
All Links: Lists all the links on your website.
Add New: Adds a new link to a page external from your website.
Link Categories: Tags each link with a category. Each link should be listed under a category. For example, the link “AAUW national” could be listed under the category “AAUW Links” or “Related Resources.”
- To add a new link, go to “Add New” under the Links option. From there, a series of options will come up:
From there, a series of options will come up:
Name: This is the text that will be visible on your website (e.g., AAUW national)
Web address: This is the URL of the webpage you’re linking to. Don’t forget to use the full URL path including http:// (e.g., https://www.aauw.org) whether the link is internal or external.
Categories: Select the category or grouping for the link (e.g., AAUW Links). You can also put the same link into multiple categories. Click “+Add New Category” to add a new category.
Target: Use one of these two options:
- _none: This will open the link in the same window (default setting). This should be used for internal links within your site.
- _blank: This will open the link in a new window. This should be used for external links outside your website.
- To add the link, click the “Add Link” button under the Save toolbar on the right.
- Go back to your website. If the category “AAUW Links” has been added to the right-hand sidebar, you will be able to see a newly added link “AAUW national” link underneath it.
If you do not see the green link Category “AAUW Links,” it’s probably because the link widget is not activated in your sidebar. If you are a super editor, follow these guidelines to add a Link Widget to your sidebar (Note: This will be added in the future). If not, contact the AAUW Site Resources manager.
Repeat from step two, above, to add more links under “AAUW Links”.
How to Put a PDF or Word Document in a Post
Need to link to a document from your website? You can add PDFs, Microsoft Word files, or similar word processing documents to your media library and then link to them from any page on your website.
Note that there is a slight difference between PDFs and other documents when it comes to uploading. When you add a PDF file to your WordPress media library, you will be able to view the file first without downloading it. When you add a Word file, however, you will have to download it to your machine first before you open it. If your machine does not have software that supports Word, you might not be able to view it.
If you are uploading a PDF file, make sure to compress it first. To compress your PDF file, please follow these directions.
Suppose you want to add a file called “September-2016-newsletter.pdf ” to your page.
1. Log in to your website with your username and password.
2. Navigate to the page or post where you want to display the content.
3. Select “Edit Page/Post” on the top black navigation bar.
4. In editor mode, you will see a “Visual” tab and a “Text” tab. Select the Visual tab to format your contents; that will show you a view similar to that of a word processor.
5. Select “Add Media”
6. Select “Upload Files” then “Select Files” to select the file from your machine and upload your document to your website’s media library.
Note:
• The maximum file size you can upload is 3MB. Remember to compress your file if it is too big to upload.
• You can upload multiple files at once.
7. The “September-2016-newsletter.pdf” is uploaded to the media library. Click “Insert into page” on the bottom right to insert your PDF file into the page.
8. You’ll know the last step worked when you see a link appear on your page. The link will automatically take the file name. See the next step to change that name.
9. For more link editing options, such as changing the link title or setting the link to open in a new tab in your web browser when clicked, select the link you just created and click the icon in the toolbar above it, “Insert/edit link.”
10. Once you do, you’ll see a new button pop up that looks like a gear. Click the gear icon and select “Link options.”
11. To change the title of the PDF, type new text in the “Link text” box.
Check the option “Open link in a new tab” if you want the link to open in a new tab in your web browser when clicked. (If this option is not checked, the link will open in the same tab as the page it lives on when clicked.)
Click “Update” at the bottom to save the changes.
12. Once you save your changes, you will be directed back to your main editing page. If you’re finished making changes, select the “Publish” button under the Publish toolbar on the right. If you are not ready to post it yet, select “Save Draft.” If you were editing an existing post or page that has already been posted, you will see “Update” instead of “Publish.”
13. Go back to your website and open the page you just edited. You have successfully added a PDF to your page!
Add content from the monthly suggestion e-mail to an existing web page or post
Every month, site resource staff from AAUW national sends content suggestions, including necessary HTML code, to all website contacts. Any AAUW branch, state, or affiliated programs interested in adding this content to their website can simply copy the code into the desired section of a website.
The HTML code includes image location paths to the AAUW national website (where offered), and you won’t need to upload images into you website’s media library separately.
You may download HTML for content suggestions in Word format.
To post content to your website:
- Log in with your username and password.
- Navigate to the page/post where you want to display the content.
- Select “Edit Page/Post” in the navigation bar.
- In Editor mode, you will see a visual and a text tab. Select the text tab
- Copy and paste the section(s) of HTML code from the content suggestions Word document into the desired area of your page/post.
- If you switch to the visual tab, you will see the changes in graphical format. You may now move content around a page through the visual tab using drag and drop rather than returning to the text tab.
- To save the changes, click the “Update” button under the publish toolbar on the right.
You have successfully added content to your website. Follow the same process for other suggestions as well.
How to compress pdf files?
AAUW site resources websites receive 350MB of online storage space. To maximize that space, the file upload size for image, PDFs, and other media files is 3MB. The huge size of the file will load slower, that could create negative impact upon the users. It is always recommended to compress PDF files before uploading into your website’s media library, not just when the size is greater than 3MB.
To reduce the size of PDF files, use an online compression tool such as http://smallpdf.com/compress-pdf or http://www.ilovepdf.com/compress_pdf. These websites contain a free tool that will compress your PDF file significantly without affecting the file’s quality.
When you compress a file using smallpdf.com, it will append “.compressed” to the file name. For example, “May-2016-Newsletter.pdf” will look something like “May-2016- Newsletter.compressed.pdf.” Make sure to remove “.compressed” and rename the file to “May-2016-Newsletter.pdf” before you upload it to your media library. This is particularly important when updating an existing media file.
If you have a newer version of Acrobat Reader installed on your machine, you will see an option to reduce your PDF file size. Go to Document > Reduce File Size.
A PDF file before compression
A pdf file after Compression
How to improve search engines results?
WordPress is one of the best content management systems when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However, there are a few simple yet powerful practices that will make a site appear higher in search engine results:
- “Content is king” for optimization. Search engines don’t care how fancy sites are, but the quality and relevance of content counts. When you write any content, think about key phrases or words someone would use when searching your information. The actual content should be arranged in a logical and visually pleasing manner. And, the copy should be rich in keywords. You can use those keywords more than once, but not in every sentence or so.
- Once search engines index your new site, and your contents have keywords then only the site will start displaying in queried search results. However, this does not necessarily mean you’re going to be on the first page of search results.
- Highlight informative content or keywords on your website using headings and sub-headings (h1-h6) or a bold tag (<strong>…</strong>) but don’t overdo it.
- Inbound/outbound links help to improve search results. Link to relevant pages on other websites relating to that topic and also with websites with high page ranking, but do not link every page to another site. Outbound links help search engines understand your focus areas. Similarly, you can make request to other relevant websites to add your content link to their page. You can share your website content on social networks to increase inbound links.
- For image files, use a meaningful name. For example, a picture related to equal pay day can be named “Equal pay day 2016.jpeg” instead of “IMG1001.jpeg”. Site engines can read it if someone searches with keywords such as “Equal pay day”.
- Use the alt tag and title tag for images and links on your site. Images are used to entice visitors to read your content and these tags strengthen the message. The alt text describes what’s on the image and the function of the image on the page. For example, if you have an image that’s used as a button to register for an event, the alt text would say: “button to register for AAUW state conference.”
- Make sure that your HTML code is clean. Errors in code may prevent a search
“Rules” and things to know about a new domain or changing an existing domain
The typical naming convention for Site Resources website subdomains is branchname-stateabbreviation.aauw.net. Most branch websites with shorter branch names do not have an issue with the naming convention as they can use the full name of their branch in their URL. Some branch names are quite lengthy, though, and members may be confused about whether to use a full branch name, a portion of a branch name, or just an abbreviation in their URLs. Several branches who launched their websites using one subdomain later changed it for marketing or other reasons. It is typically recommended to finalize your domain name during your initial set up and not change it whenever possible.
There are two ways to change a domain name:
- Set up a brand new subdomain with a new name and redirect the older website to the new one.
This means creating a duplicate website including all your content and maintaining the same content in two places. Search engines frown upon this practice and might penalize your site.
- Within the existing site, update the subdomain name with a new name.
When a domain name is modified, there may be several repercussions:
- Your old URL will appear as a broken link when someone types an old URL to your browser. It will not redirect to a new URL automatically.
- For several days after the domain name is changed, it will still display an old link in search. When the link is opened, it will direct the user to the Site Resource site at https://site-resources.aauw.org/ and not your old branch website.
- A new site will not appear in search engines immediately because they have not indexed the site yet. It might take a week or more for search engines to show up your new domain. This is valid whether you are changing an existing domain or you have just launched your brand new website.
- You can submit a request to search engines to index your new URL by using their Webmaster Tools, but even if you don’t the search index will eventually catch up.
- You can also request removal of the older site from search engines by using their Webmaster Tools.
- Google: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals
- Bing: https://www.bing.com/webmaster/tools/content-removal
- If the site is removed from the Bing search, it should take care of yahoo search as the Bing provides the actual search engine for Yahoo searches.
NOTE: If you have used your old URL in print or other promotional purposes, you should inform your members about the URL change and update print pieces when possible.