As a Wordpress site administrator, you can add users and assign them different permission levels. These permission levels get pretty granular. For instance, you may want some folks to draft things, but have them reviewed before publishing them. You may want to share site administration with another person (always a good idea), or allow other people broader privileges to edit other's content or upload files. The Wordpress.org codex has a very detailed breakdown of what all of these user roles mean. Bookmark this site as a reference for when you assign permissions to different people to edit your sites. http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities Happy Wordpress! … [Read more...]
New Tutorial on Managing the Users on your Site
April 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Did you know that you can add users on your site yourself, without the intrusion of the system administrator or webmaster? Did you also know that everyone in your department is automatically an "Author" on your site? To find out about what all this means, plus how to use Wordpress user management tools in UMW.EDU, visit the new tutorial video and instructions > … [Read more...]
Randomize Your Slideshows!
March 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Now you can click a button and have your Wordpress slideshows display in random order! For more, visit the tutorial at http://technology.umw.edu/wordpress101/make-it-spiffy/department-home-page-design/making-a-slideshow/ … [Read more...]
Division Policy Manuals Live on Web Site
March 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
You may not get excited about this kind of thing, but I'm enough of a geek to think it's the bees knees! Now, each major division has a "policies" page that loads directly from an XML feed from BoardDocs. Translation: Our UMW Policies Manual is shaping up, and the days of disjointed online policies are OVER. Check out these pages: President: http://president.umw.edu/policies Provost: http://provost.umw.edu/policies Administration and Finance: http://adminfinance.umw.edu/policies Advancement: http://advancement.umw.edu/policies Student Affairs: http://students.umw.edu/policies Foundation: http://foundation.umw.edu/policies … [Read more...]
Publishing Policies on the UMW Website
March 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
As you may or may not know, the official UMW policy repository on the web is in Board Docs. Board Docs is used by the BOV to organize meetings and post minutes. However, it also has document management functionality. The trouble is, it's separate from the UMW website and not terribly intuitive to navigate to and through. Did you know we now have a cool new Wordpress tool that allows you to publish your policies from Board Docs onto your website? If you've been wondering what to do about navigating your users to your official policies now that Board Docs is the official University-wide policy manual, fear not! We've got you covered! Visit the tutorial for more information > … [Read more...]
New Feature: Advisories and Announcements on UMW Websites!
March 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Thanks to the genius of our fearless Webmaster, Curtiss Grymala, we've got ways to post announcements and last-minute advisories on your UMW Web site. For more information on these new powerful features, visit our new tutorials> … [Read more...]
WordPress 3.3 is here!
February 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
As the administrators of UMW Blogs (the "Cool Kids") will tell you, UMW.EDU administrators (the "Nerds") are always the last kids on the block to get with the upgrades. But, we finally did it! Wordpress 3.3 has some differences in the interface and it will take some adjusting. However, once you get used to the side navigation rollovers, you will never want to go back to that moldy old 3.2. And if you've been using UMW Blogs this semester, you've been using 3.3. If you feel like you want to see a preview, head on over to the Wordpress101 Videos where you can get the lay of the land, and see how the new interface differs from what you've been using. Remember, you'll need to login to see these videos! … [Read more...]
SPAM-BE-GONE! Akismet is Here!
February 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
We have just installed Akismet on the Wordpress umw.edu server. What does this mean? Well, we have been using a free spam-filtering tool called TypePad Anti-Spam. While it works, its functionality left a lot to be desired: false positives and tons of emails in your inbox. At the time we launched the new UMW.EDU site, Akismet, the premier spam-fighting tool for Wordpress, was becoming prohibitively expensive. Thanks to a revolt by higher education institutions (our own Jim Groom being among the most vocal), Akismet lowered its costs to something we can all manage. Full disclosure: The fee for the University is now only $550/year. So, you should be receiving far fewer spams in your in-box. What reaches your in-box should be largely REAL emails. But, you'll still want to check your site to make sure you're not missing anything. To do so, simply check your Comments on the left-hand side of your site. This will give you a list of comments that have come in. Those in yellow are likely … [Read more...]
UMW Home Page Modifications
February 2, 2012 by 5 Comments
We have made modifications to the navigation on the UMW Home page. These changes have been based on analysis of traffic on the site, feedback regarding desired visibility for much-visited sites, and the creation of the new Research and Diversity sites, both critical to the mission and image of the institution. These modifications were proposed by the Web Communications office and approved by the University-wide Web Advisory Committee. Changes include: 1) "Current Students" and "Faculty and Staff" are now combined in a single link labelled "Students/Faculty/Staff." Although they had both been going to the most visited page on the site (http://www.umw.edu/resources), we had been contemplating separating these out into two sites. Judging by site behavior and feedback, this appeared to be unnecessary, and perhaps would generate confusion. So, we reverted to a single link, as it was on the old site. 2) News and Events are no longer on the main navigation. These pages are are … [Read more...]
UMW Community Update: Status of Web Site
December 5, 2011 by 1 Comment
Now that the fall semester is coming to a close, I wanted to keep everyone informed regarding some issues we've encountered since the launch of the new site, as well as planned changes and enhancements: Broken Links on Web Sites: After an initial push to fix broken links on critical sites, as well as working with some departments directly to get this done, we are still getting isolated reports about broken links. Please know that other than the absolute upper-levels of the Web site, these fixes need to be made by individual department web administrators. To that end, we are in the process of running a script/report of all broken links to distribute to web administrators. If you find a broken link, please report it to the department, or to the webmaster, and we will work with that department to get a fix for it. Remember when you are reporting a broken link, PLEASE GIVE THE URL OF THE PAGE WHERE YOU SAW THE LINK. We can't fix it if we don't know where it is! Broken Links in … [Read more...]
