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

Poll Bar Style

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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

Poll management is performed through the Polls > Manage Polls menu link.  This control panel provides three different poll management categories:

  • Polls
    • Provides a table that includes the following information:
      • All polls on the blogsite
      • Total Voters
      • Start Date/Time
      • End Date/Time
      • Status of the poll (whether it’s open or closed)
      • Actions to use on the poll (Logs, Edit, Delete)
  • Polls Stats
    • Provides an aggregated summary of poll activity that includes the following information:
      • Total Polls
      • Total Poll Answers
      • Total Votes Casted
      • Total Voters
  • Polls Logs
    • Provides a log of users who have participated in polls

The Polls menu block, which is created by the WP-Polls plugin activation, is located in the lower left corner of the Dashboard.

This menu block contains several different poll creation and management tools:

  • Manage Polls
    • Manage your polls, view poll statistics, and view poll logs
  • Add Poll
    • Add a new poll to your blogsite
  • Poll Options
    • Set different options for your polls related to style, sorting, poll permissions, and poll archival
  • Poll Templates
    • Change the layout and information display of your polls (for advanced users)
  • Uninstall WP-Polls

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

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