The Triden theme provides an optional custom homepage feature.  When this feature is used, Triden becomes a feed machine.  Best suited for news-based blogs, this theme has the space for five separate news feeds in separate feed blocks.

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.

The Poll Templates features provides the ability to change various elements of your poll form when it’s displayed to an end user.

To use poll templates, you will need to be an intermediate to advanced level user who is fairly comfortable with HTML and CSS.

Poll templates utilize Template Variables (also sometimes known as tokens – indicated by the percentage sign tags).  These token values can be compared to “placeholders”.  They are slots where appropriate pieces of data fill.  The Poll Templates feature offers 23 different variables to choose from – which provides a great deal of variety regarding both the appearance and informational content of forms.

There are four main template groups that can be customized:

  • Poll Voting Form Templates
    • Voting Form Header
    • Voting Form Body
    • Voting Form Footer
  • Poll Result Templates
    • Result Header
    • Result Body (before User has voted)
    • Result Body (after User has voted)
    • Result Footer (before User has voted)
    • Result Footer (after User has voted)
  • Poll Archive Templates
    • Poll Archive Link
    • Individual Poll Header
    • Individual Poll Footer
    • Paging Header
    • Paging Footer
  • Poll Misc Templates
    • Poll Disabled (only shows when poll is disabled)
    • Poll Error (only displays if an error has occurred while processing the poll)

There are quite a few different Poll Options that can be configured to your liking.

Poll Bar Style

This feature currently is not working.

Polls AJAX Style

The AJAX acronym stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XMLAJAX programming combines many different web technologies together all at the same time.  What this means for the typical user is that parts of your website can be updated without the need for the entire page to reload.

The Show Loading Image With Text option allows you to choose whether or not a sprite graphic shows while the poll results are loading.

The Show Fading In And Fading Out Of Poll option allows you to control whether or not the fade visual effect is used when a poll loads and after it is taken.

Sorting Of Poll Answers

This allows you to determine how your poll answers should be sorted.  There are a couple of different items to consider:

  • Sort Poll Answers By
    • Exact Order – default
    • Alphabetical Order
    • Random Order
  • Sort Order of Poll Answers
    • Ascending (from A-Z or 1-10) – default
    • Descending (from Z-A or 10-1)

Sorting Of Poll Results

This allows you to determine how your poll results should be sorted.  There are a couple of different items to consider:

  • Sort Poll Results By
    • Votes Cast – default
    • Exact Order
    • Alphabetical Order
    • Random Order
  • Sort Order of Poll Results
    • Ascending (from A-Z or 1-10)
    • Descending (from Z-A or 10-1) – default

Allow To Vote

This section provides you the ability to determine who is allowed to participate in your poll:

  • Who Is Allowed To Vote?
    • Guests Only
    • Registered Users Only
    • Registered Users And Guests – default

Logging Method

Poll activity can be logged.  What this means is that the system can keep track of “who” has taken your poll.  The WP-Polls plugin allows a few different methods by which poll activity can be logged.

  • Poll Logging Method
    • Do not log
    • Logged by Cookie
    • Logged by IP
    • Logged by Cookie and IP
    • Logged by Username (non-ONID users can not vote)
  • Expiry time for Cookie And Log field = 0 – default

Poll Archive

WordPress archives are quite common.  They allow you to make old material available to your audience.  Polls, like Posts, can be archived.

Before creating a poll archive, you will need to create an Archive Page on which to display a list of all of your archived material.  To create the Archive Page, do the following:

  1. Go to WP-Admin -> Pages -> Add New.
  2. If you ARE using nice permalinks, after typing the title, WordPress will generate the permalink to the page. You will see an Edit link just beside the permalink.
  3. Click Edit, type in the word “pollsarchive” in the text field (without the quotes), and click Save.
  4. Type [“page_polls”] in the post’s content area (without the quotes, but keep the brackets).
  5. Click Publish.

After the archive page is created, you’ll want to return to Polls > Poll Options and determine the following archive settings:

  • Number of Polls Per Page field= 5 – default
  • Type of Polls To Display In Poll Archive field
    • Closed Polls Only
    • Opened Polls Only – default
    • Closed and Opened Polls
  • Poll Archive URL field = provide a URL similar to http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/yoursitename/pollsarchive where “yoursitename” is replaced by the actual name of your site. – your URL should show there automatically.
  • Display Poll Archive Link Below Poll field
    • Yes
    • No – default

Current Active Poll

There are a few different ways to determine the current, active poll that displays on your site.

  • Current Active Poll field
    • Do NOT Display Poll (disable)
    • Display Random Poll
    • Display Latest Poll – default
    • List of Available Polls
  • When Poll Is Closed field
    • Display Poll’s Results – default
    • Display Disabled Poll’s Voting Form
    • Do Not Display Poll in Post/Sidebar

To add a poll to your blogsite, do the following:

  1. Go to Polls > Add Poll.
  2. Enter a question in the Question field.
  3. Provide at least two answers in the Answer fields.  If you would like to add additional options, just click the Add Answer button for each additional answer you want to include.
  4. By default, users are only allowed to provide one answer.  If you would like to allow your users the ability to provide multiple answers, change the Allows Users to Select More Than One Answer? option to Yes.
    1. If you allow your users to select more than one answer, change the Maximum Number of Selected Answers Allowed? field to the number of answers you will allow them to provide.
  5. Decide when you would like the poll to begin
    1. By default, the poll is set to start right after you create it.  If you would like to start it at a later date, just enter the desired start date and time in the Start Date/Time fields
  6. Decide if and when the poll should expire
    1. To keep the poll open indefinitely, just leave the Do NOT Expire This Poll box checked
    2. To set an automatic expiration date, uncheck the Do NOT Expire This Poll checkbox. A date and time field widget will appear.  Enter the desired end date and time in the End Date/Time fields.
  7. Click the Add Poll button