Accessing the administrative features

As with any WordPress blog, reach the administrative page by typing “/wp-admin” at the end of your blog’s URL. For blogs.oregonstate.edu users, that would be: blogs.oregonstate.edu/YOURBLOGNAME/wp-admin.

Widgets and regions

The Authentic theme contains a number of custom widgets and layout regions that can be accessed through the administrative panel. These widgets allow for customization of your blog. To access widgets, go to your blog’s administrative page and select Appearance > Widgets from the right-hand menu.

Through using widgets and regions, you’ll be able to customize your layout to create a distinct front page for your blog and to give it a newsletter feel.

Feature

The feature region can be used to create a front-page image or to highlight a feature blog post. You can add a feature region by dragging the Home Page Feature widget to the feature region in the widgets control panel.

You will be asked to input a link to an online image. This image should be exactly 620 pixels in width and roughly 250 pixels in height. The height can be variable, but the width is fixed.

You will also be able to input a link to a blog post or other page or site. Finally, you can input a caption to appear below the photo.

Sub-features

This area is for highlighting three separate pages of your site or within your program or department. You create this space by dragging the Home Page Sub Level Features widget into the sub-features region on the Widget panel.

You must choose 3 photos of exactly 200 pixels in width and 72 pixels in height. These photos can exist online in your blog’s media library or elsewhere on the web. You will also be required to input a link for each photo, and a caption. It provides a great opportunity to highlight different posts or pages within your blog on the home page of your site.

Sub-features can be used with the feature or separately.

Middle and right sidebars

You can customize the content of middle and right sidebars to suit your needs using all of the default widgets that WordPress provides.

Middle sidebars only appear on the blog’s home page and on blog post pages. It does not appear on blog pages.

Contact information

This widget allows you to customize the contact information appearing in the blog’s lower-left-hand corner.

This information comes from the OSU Brand Guidelines.  You can read more about this theme and see a video tutorial on the Brand Guidelines WordPress Themes page.

By default, all blogs are added to the primary OSU profile.  If you would like access to this profile, you can contact Web Communications and they will be happy to help you get the ball rolling.

If you would like to start up your own profile, just do the following:

1. Go to: http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html
2. If you do not yet have a Google account, you must sign up for one to use Google Analytics.  Create an account, if necessary, and then log in to the account.
3. You will be redirected to the Google Analytics starting page – click Sign Up.
4. You will be redirected to the Analytics: New Account Signup page, enter the following information:
   1. Website’s URL field
   2. Account Name field
   3. Time Zone Country or Territory field
   4. Time Zone field
5. Click Continue
6. You will then be redirected to a page where you will have to fill out the following information:
   1. Last Name field
   2. First Name field
   3. Country or Territory field
7. Click Continue
8. You will be redirected to the User Agreement page – read the terms and click the Yes check box to continue
9. Click Create New Account
10. Your Google Analytics code will be presented to you.  Look for the UA-xxxxxx-x number within the code – this is what you’ll need for the Google Analytics setting on your blog

Configuring your blogsite for Google Analytics

Once you have your Google Analytics tracking code, login to your blogsite and do the following:

1. Go to Dashboard > Settings > Google Analytics
2. Paste your Google tracking number into the Tracking Code field on the page
3. Click Save Changes

To check your stats, just log in to Google Analytics and your report will immediately show.  Google Analytics operates on a 24 hour delay, so you must wait at least one day after configuring your settings to start tracking results.

To Use the Global Site Tags Widget

1. From within your Dashboard, go to Appearance > Widgets
2. Locate the Global Site Tags widget in the Available Widgets group at the top of the page. Click on the widget and drag it into an available region such as Sidebar 1, Sidebar 2, etc.
3. Once the widget has been positioned, click on its arrow to open up the widget control panel
   1. Title: this is optional. If you don’t enter a title it will show the default widget title.
   2. Tag Cloud Order: This will determine what order your tags show, choose either Tag Count or Most Recent
   3. Number of Tags: Select a value here.  Numbers are available in one digit increments from 1 to 100.
   4. Largest Font Size: This will show the most popular tags as the largest font in the cloud. Sizes, in pixels, are available in one digit increments from 1 to 100.  It’s recommended that this font be larger than the Smallest Font Size you select (see next step).
   5. Smallest Font Size: This will show the newer or least popular tags as the smallest font in the cloud. Sizes, in pixels, are available in one digit increments from 1 to 100.  It’s recommended that this font be smaller than the Largest Font Size you select.
   6. Click the Save button when completed
4. Click on the Visit Site link to see your new widget in action.

Here’s a list of some of the other really interesting things you can do with Dixi:

• Body Features
  • Change background colors
  • Change content background color
  • Change body line color (such as for grids)
  • Add background images
• Text Features
  • Change body font globally
  • Change headline font globally
  • Change font size
  • Change all text based colors (body text, links, etc)
• Custom Image Header Features
  • Upload custom image header – to your own height requirements

To explore all of the different features available with the Dixi theme, first you’ll have to activate it by going to Dashboard > Appearance > Themes.

After the theme is activated, just go to Dashboard > Appearance > Theme Options to change your theme’s settings.

But this isn’t all Nelo does…here’s how Nelo stacks up, in terms of other features:

• Body Features
  • Change background colors
  • Change content background color
  • Change body line color (such as for grids)
  • Add background images
• Text Features
  • Change body font globally
  • Change headline font globally
  • Change font size
  • Change all text based colors (body text, links, etc)
• Custom Image Header Feature
  • Upload custom image header – to your own height requirements

To explore all of the different features available with the Nelo theme, first you’ll have to activate it by going to Dashboard > Appearance > Themes.

After the theme is activated, just go to Dashboard > Appearance > Theme Options to change your theme’s settings.

Triden also possesses the following customizable features:

• Body Features
  • Change background colors
  • Change content background color
  • Change body line color (such as for grids)
  • Add background images
• Text Features
  • Change body font globally
  • Change headline font globally
  • Change font size
  • Change all text based colors (body text, links, etc)
• Custom Image Header Features
  • Upload custom image header – to your own height requirements

To explore all of the different features available with the Triden theme, first you’ll have to activate it by going to Dashboard > Appearance > Themes.

After the theme is activated, just go to Dashboard > Appearance > Theme Options to change your theme’s settings.

Once the WP-PostRatings plugin is activated a few different things will happen:

• The Ratings widget will be available in the Appearance > Widgets control panel.
• The Ratings menu block will be in the lower left corner of your Dashboard.  This menu block contains a variety of different

To view help instructions on the Ratings widget and settings, just click on the following provided links:

• Ratings Widget help
• Ratings Settings help

You can also locate the specific help post in the Categories menu on this site.

Sites

This is a table view of all social bookmarking sites recognized by the Sociable plugin.  The list is quite extensive – it currently contains 99 different site options.  Just check the boxes next to the sites of your choice.  Icons with links to these sites will then be included at the bottom of your posts.

Sprite Usage

In computer graphics, a sprite is an image or animation, typically a small two or three-dimensional one, that is  integrated into a larger scene.  For example, the little, spinning animation that shows at the top of a web page tab while your page is loading – or the spinning hourglass on a PC – are examples of sprites.

The Disable sprite usage option will turn these little animations off if they appear in an icon.

Alpha Mask

An alpha transparency mask is a semi-transparent image that is overlaid on another image – giving the base image the appearance of being disabled.  When the image is hovered on by a mouse, clicked, or otherwise brought into focus, the base image becomes brightened.  The Disable alpha mask on share toolbar? option, if checked, will remove the alpha mask from your share icons.

Tagline

The Share and Enjoy label, also known as a Tagline, can be changed to read whatever you want it to.  If you wish to change this text, just enter your desired text between the strong tags in the provided field.

Position

The social bookmarking icons, by default, appear at the end of each blog post and may show on other types of pages as well, depending on the theme you use.  You can select where you want these particular items to show up to decrease the littering of your site with repeated icons.  Just check whatever positions you want these icons to display at.

Use CSS

CSS, or Cascading Styles Sheets, is what makes your website look the way it does.  Different sites, and different elements on sites, can have different style sheets.  By default, the Sociable stylesheet will be used.  If you uncheck this checkbox, the icon bar will follow the rules of your theme’s style sheet.  Checking or unchecking this will not harm your site, though it may make the icon bar look a bit funny if your theme is not set up to handle it.

Use Text Links

If you would prefer to use text links instead of icons, just check the Use text links without images? checkbox.

Image Directory

If you would like to replace the logo icons used in Sociable, you can do so.  You’ll want to make sure the replacement images have the same name as the ones that come with Sociable, and you’ll need to upload them into your blog site, and then link them through the Image Directory text field.

Use Thickbox/Iframe On Links?

Thickbox or iframe provide a dark, semi-transparent background that surrounds a framed object such as a log-in form, video player, or slideshow viewer.  If you would like for the login forms that are linked to your icon sets to open in Thickbox or an iframe, just check the box provided.  You can also set the dimensions of the frame yourself, if you so choose.

Open in New Window

If selected, the Use target=_blank on links? box will force linked pages or objects to open in a new frame versus leaving your existing page to visit the linked item.

awe.sm

awe.sm is a web-service that shortens the URLs on your site.  This requires an account with awe.sm and an API key.

Disable Blogplay’s Widget from the Dashboard

This disables Blogplay’s widget straight from your Dashboard.

When you’re finished selecting all of your configurations, just click the Save Changes button and click on Visit Your Site to see the changes.

To view help instructions on the Sociable plugin,  just click on the following provided link:

• Sociable Plugin help

You can also locate the specific help post in the Categories menu on this site.

To Use the Polls Widget

1. From within your Dashboard, go to Appearance > Widgets
2. Locate the Polls widget in the Available Widgets group at the top of the page. Click on the widget and drag it into an available region such as Sidebar 1, Sidebar 2, etc.
3. Once the widget has been positioned, click on its arrow to open up the widget control panel
   1. Title: this is optional. If you don’t enter a title it will show the default widget title.
   2. Display Polls Archive Link Below Poll?: This will provide links to your poll archives, beneath your active poll.  Select yes or no.
   3. Poll to Display: enter a value here.  Keep in mind that this will show as a list on your site.
   4. Exclude pages: choose one of the following:
      1. Do Not Display Poll
      2. Display Random Poll
      3. Display Latest Poll
      4. Specific poll title from list of all available polls on blog site
4. Click the Save button when completed
5. Click on the Visit Site link to see your new widget in action.

To view help instructions on the Polls plugin or settings, just click on the following provided links:

• WP-Polls Plugin help
• Polls Settings help

• Creation of polls
• Management of polls
• Basic styling of poll elements right through the user interface
• More advanced styling and layout control using poll templates (suggested for advanced use only)

The WP-Polls plugin has already been enabled on all sites.  All features provided by this plugin are available as soon as any blog is created.  The settings for these items are located in the Polls menu block at the lower left corner of the Dashboard.

To view help instructions on the Polls widget and settings, just click on the following provided links:

• Polls Widget help
• Polls Menu Block help

You can also locate the specific help post in the Categories menu on this site.