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WordPress for Digital Humanists

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Head of Digital Scholarship Services

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Franny Gaede
she/her/hers
Contact:
Knight Library 143
mfgaede@uoregon.edu
541-346-1854
Website
Social: Twitter Page

Digital Scholarship Librarian

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Kate Thornhill
she/her/hers
Contact:
541-346-3714
Website

Adding Content to your website

How to create a post?

Posts are used to publish blog entries, news, or updates. To create a post, go to your WordPress Dashboard. 

1. In the Navigation menu of the Dashboard, select Posts → Add New to begin writing your post. 

Alternatively, you can hover your cursor over the Add New button at the top of the Dashboard screen and select Post. You will be redirected to Add New Post window. 

2. Type the name of your post in the Add Title field.

3. After you add the title, the permalink to your post will automatically appear under the Title field (it might take some time). Press the Edit button next to the permalink to edit it (by default the link contains the title of your post. You might want to shorten it to make it more user-friendly). 

4. Start typing your text in the Visual Editor Area. 
Click on the drop-down menu, available in the toolbar on the top of the visual editor. Select different Headings styles to create hierarchy in your text. 
Use paragraph style for writing paragraphs. Use numbered or bulleted lists option to create lists. By utilizing the functions available in the text editor toolbar you are ensuring basic accessibility. 

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Image of the Add New Post window

5. After you finished writing your post, assign category and tags to it.
Categories and tags are two main ways to organize and group your content on the website. Categories are good for broad grouping of topics (for example, Announcements, Events, Hiring).
Tags are keywords to describe your content in more detail (for example, the posts in the Events category might have the following tags: workshop, presentation, conference, etc). 

Go to the Categories sidebar, which is on the right side of the screen. Select the category or add the new one. If you don't assign the category to your post, WordPress will mark your post as Uncategorized. Type the tags you want to assign to your post in the Tags sidebar and click the Add button. 

6. Go to the Publish sidebar on the right side of the Dashboard screen. In the Publish sidebar you can:

  • click the Save Draft button to save your post without publishing it on the website.
  • click the Preview button to see how the post will look like on your website after publication. 
  • click the Publish button to publish the post which will make it available for the visitors of the website.

How to insert images into posts and pages?

1. In the Dashboard Navigation click on the All Posts/All Pages. You will see the list of all the created posts/pages.

2. Press Edit under the post/page you want to insert image into.

3. In the Edit Post/Page window go to the Visual Editor Area and put the cursor where you want your image to appear. 

4. Click the Add Media button on the left top of the Visual Editor. 

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Image of the Add New Post window with the highlighted Add Media button

5. In the Add Media window you can upload the images from your computer or use the images which you previously uploaded to WordPress. 

  • Select the Upload Files tab to upload images from your computer. Press Select Files button to open a window with the files on your computer or drag and drop images directly to the Upload Files window. 
  • Select the Media Library to use the image previously uploaded to WordPress by you. 

6. Once you selected or uploaded your image, you will see a checkbox next to the thumbnail confirming your selection. On the right side of the screen you will see an Attachment Details pane. 

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Image of the Add Media window

7. On the top of the Attachment Details pane there is an information about selected image - file name, uploading date, file size and image dimensions in pixels. Under information about the image you can see two  action links - Edit Image and Delete Permanently

  • Edit Image - allows to crop, rotate, flip, scale and crop an image. 
  • Delete Permanently - deletes selected image from the WordPress Media Library

8. In the Attachment Details pane, you can also edit the information which is associated with an image. 

  • Title: What the image is called. Usually, the title information is filled in automatically with the file name of your image.
  • Caption: Enter a caption that will  be displayed below the image. (Note that the way the caption displays in your post/page depends on the theme you choose).
  • Alt Text: Controls what text replaces the image in case of slow-loading sites, or for readers using screen readers and other assistive technology.
  • Description: A description for this particular media.
  • Alignment: As required. None usually works better when the image is positioned on a blank line (paragraph).
  • Link URL: Leave blank (None) or select Media File if the image is to be linked to the full size version (this allows the user to enlarge the image). You can also link to any web address (URL) of your choice. 
  • Size: Choose as required. If the sizes displayed are not appropriate for your design and layout. 

9. After you edited the attachment details press the Insert into Post button. 

How to edit already inserted image? 

1. Click on the image. Next to the image you will see a toolbar, which has the following options:

  • Alignment  - align left, align center, align right, no alignment. 
  • Edit - change alternative text, caption, size, replace with another image. 
  • Remove - delete the image from the post/page. 

screenshot demostrating editing inserted image

Image of the New Post window with inserted image. 

How to embed a video into a post or page?

One of the ways to embed video into post or page is to use visual editor in your Dashboard. Here we will demonstrate how to embed the video from YouTube, but the the embedding from other video sharing platforms is similar. 

1. Go to YouTube or another streaming platform and click on the Share button under the video.

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Image of the YouTube video with highlighted Share button 

2. The window with sharing options will appear. Select the Embed option. By default the embedded video will be played from the beginning. If you want to embed the part of the video, check the box Start at and put the time from the video when you want your video to start. 

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Image of the YouTube sharing options with highlighted Embed option and Start at option

3. The Embed Video window will appear. This window contains the Embed code and Embed options. Click on the Copy button to select and copy the embed code. The code will be copied to your Clipboard.

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Image of the Embedded Video window with highlighted embed code

4. Return to your WordPress Dashboard. Create or open the post/page you want to embed your video into.

5. Click on the Text Editor tab. 

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Image of the Edit Page window with a highlighted Text Editor tab. 

6. Paste the embed code to the Text Editor window. You can adjust the width and height of the video by changing the numerical values in the embed code. undefined

Image of the Text editor with the embed code

7. If you click on the Visual Editor Tab you will be able to see the embedded video. You can also add necessary text in the visual editor tab. 

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Image of the Visual editor with the embed video

8. After you finished editing your post/page click Publish or Save Draft on the right sidebar.

How to embed a document into a post or page?

1. In the Navigation menu of the Dashboard, select Posts → Add New (or Pages → Add New) to begin writing your post or page.

If you want to add a document to the already existing post or page, click on the All Posts/All Pages in the Dashboard Navigation. You will see a list of all the created posts/pages. Press Edit under the post/page you want to insert an image into.

2. Click the Add Document button on the left top of the Visual Editor. 

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Image of the Add New Post window with the highlighted Add Document button

3. After you click the Add Document button, the window with different options for adding document will appear.

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Image of the Add Document window with different options for adding a document

4Select the Upload Files tab to upload a document from your computer. Press the Select Files button to open a window with the files on your computer or drag and drop a document directly to the Upload Files window. 

5. Once you selected or uploaded your document, you will see a checkbox next to the thumbnail confirming your selection. On the right side of the screen, you will see an Attachment Details pane. 

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7. On the top of the Attachment Details pane, there is information about the selected document - file name, uploading date, and file size. Under information about the image, you can see Delete Permanently action link, which allows you to delete the selected document from the WordPress Media Library

8. In the Attachment Details pane, you can also edit the information which is associated with the selected document. 

  • Title: What the document is called. Usually, the title information is filled in automatically with the file name of your document.
  • Caption: Enter a caption that will be displayed below the document. 

9. After you made necessary edits in the Attachment Details, press the Select button on the bottom right corner to proceed.

10. The window with Advanced Options will appear. You can leave it blank for default settings. The window with Advanced Options allows you to make the following edits:

  • Width, Height - edit the width and height of the window with an embedded document. 
  • Show Download Link drop-down menu - allows you to choose who can download your file (all users, logged-in users, or no download). 
  • Download text - type the text you want to be displayed as your download link. 

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Image of the Advanced Options window for embedding a document

11Press the Insert button on the bottom right to embed the document into a post or page. 

12. In the Visual Editor Area, you will see an embed code for the document. This means that the document was embedded in your post (or page). 

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Image of the embed code of the document in the Visual Editor Area

13. Go to the Publish sidebar on the right side of the Dashboard screen. In the Publish sidebar you can:

  • Click the Save Draft button to save your post without publishing it on the website.
  • Click the Preview button to see how the post will look like on your website after publication. 
  • Click the Publish button to publish the post which will make it available for the visitors of the website.

14. On the image below you can see how the embedded document looks on the website when published. 

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Image of the embedded document on the website

Web accessibility checklist

Web accessibility checklist

  • Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning
  • Choose colors with ample contrast
  • Create a hierarchy and structure in your post or page by using headings and paragraph styles.
  • Use clear font, which is not smaller than 16 px
  • Use white space to reduce clutter and to make it easier to scan and understand the content. 
  • Using Alternative Text (alt tags) for images. 
  • Create meaningful link text. The link should make sense when read by itself. Certain phrases like "click here" and "more" must be avoided.
  • Provide an alternative option for accessing embedded documents (such as caption with a link to a document)
  • Add Title Attributes to the Navigation Menu