Author Archives: Meredith Perkins

Disabling Comments on a Static Page

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commentWith our recent theme additions, you may have noticed that not all themes are created equal when it comes to functionality and options.  A question that I have been getting is:

How can I turn off comments for a static page?

This option used to appear on the post page while you were writing/editing.  Most of the new themes do not have this option.  Not to fret.  There is a way to enable/disable comments.  From the navigation menu, click on “Pages” to give the list of your current (or draft) pages for your blog.  Hover over the page that you would like to first work with until the quick edit menu appears.  Click on “Quick Edit.”WordPress Quick Edit MenuThen locate the checkbox to enable/disable comments on the page.

WordPress Allow Comments

That’s it!

The quick edit menu has other features that may be useful to you such as a fast way to change a post title or author.

 

Site Stats Error

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Hi there, Rachel Ellner brought to my attention that the site stats were giving an error message.  The Jetpack plug-in that enables the stats had a bug, and hopefully the upgrade that I just implemented will solve any problems.  Please let me know if you are still getting an error code.

Thanks Rachel for letting me know!!!

Meredith

 

 

 

Simplify Your Blogging Workspace

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WordPress has so many options that every once in a while I wish I could just simplify things a bit.  Well, this post form WordPress can help.  By accessing your “Screen Options” you have the ability to choose what options show on your post pages.

See the instructions on this WordPress Post.

Happy Wednesday.

Page not loading? Delete your cache

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I have noticed that there are times in WordPress where one particular page will not load, especially the “new post” page.  This can sometimes be fixed by simply deleting your cache within WordPress.  Always try to refresh your browser page first, but if that doesn’t work, sometimes we need to take it to the next level.

Every time you access a page, your browser will store a copy of the items needed to display that page to you.  This is usually a good thing becuase it means that the pages you browse more commonly will load faster the next time you visit.  Where this can be a problem is if the page is not loading properly because the cache is storing older supporting files and the page can no longer run.

Right within WordPress, there is a new Delete Cache feature located on the toolbar at the top of any WordPress window.

Delete Cache

If you find you are stuck or a page is not loading correctly, this could just do the trick.

 

Adding Special Characters

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You are typing along and realize that you need to add a trademark  ™ character to your post, or maybe a copyright  ©  character to a brand, or may be you are writing about the FIT Bloggers blog and you want to say how much you ♥ WordPress.  How do you do it?

Symbols Pod

When you are adding a new post, notice on the lower right side of the window there is a new option for HTML Special Characters.  Instead of trying to figure out keyboard shortcuts, or the HTML code for a symbol, follow these easy directions.

By default, you will only see a small preview of available characters.  Click on the “See More” link at the bottom of the HTML Special Characters window to expand the options.

Place your cursor in your post where you would like to insert the character

Click the character in the HTML Special Character window.

Done! You should now see your special character in your post.

 

Role Definitions in WordPress

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Blog RolesAs administrators of your blog, you have the ability to add new users to blog along with you. From training you know that there should only be one administrator per blog, so what role should you give to new bloggers?

If you are not sure how to add a new blogger, or need the naming convention for new accounts, please see the post on Adding New Bloggers.

General Rule of thumb for the various roles: Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber:

Quick Summary of Roles

  • Administrator – Somebody who has access to all the administration features
  • Editor – Somebody who can publish and manage posts and pages as well as manage other users’ posts, etc.
  • Author – Somebody who can publish and manage their own posts
  • Contributor – Somebody who can write and manage their posts but not publish them
  • Subscriber – Somebody who can only manage their profile

Full Summary of Roles

Here I will start with the subscriber and work up to the Administrator.

Subscriber can:  read the blog

Contributor can: (do what a subscriber can and….) edit posts, and delete posts

Author can: (do what a subscriber and contributor can and…) edit published posts, upload files, publish posts, and delete published posts

Editor can: (do what a subscriber, contributor, and author can and….) moderate comments, manage categories, manage links, use the HTML editor, edit other users posts, edit pages, edit other user pages, edit published pages, publish pages, delete pages, delete other user pages, delete published pages, delete other user posts, delete private posts, edit private posts, read private posts, delete private pages, edit private pages, and read private pages.

Administrators can: (do what subscriber, contributor, author, and editors can and…) activate plug-ins, add users, create users, delete plug-ins, delete users, edit files, edit plug-ins, edit theme options, edit users, promote users, remove users, and edit the dashboard.

 

 

 

How to Add a New Blogger

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Having a few friends or colleagues join in on the blogging process not only makes it easier to come up with new content, but adds different viewpoints and flavor to your topics.  If you are ready to add a new blogger to your site, the process is pretty simple.  With a few clicks and guidelines on setting up new accounts, you can soon be on your way to adding a new user.

NOTE: Only blog administrators can add and manage users on a blog. The permission role that you give to a new blogger is very important as the various roles have the ability to not only add but to delete information from your blog.  If you are not sure of the different roles and what they mean, read the post about defining user roles.

To add a new blogger:

Choose “Add New” under “Users” from the left side navigation menu.

Add New User

You will be taken to the “Add New User” page.

If the person you are adding is already a blogger on a different FIT WordPress blog, they already have an account established and you can add their exisiting username and define their user role.

In most cases, the person you are adding probably does not already have an existing account so you will need to invite that new person to blog with you and to create a profile.

New Account Information

Please, please, please, (pretty please)! Follow these guidelines when establishing new accounts.

  1. Usernames must be the bloggers first name and last name as it appears on their FIT email address. ALl letters must be lowercase, and the name should appear as one word. For example “Meredith Perkins” would be created as “meredithperkins.”
  2. And secondly, only FIT email addresses will be accepted to create new accounts.

Once you add the username, email address, and define their role (please read the post on user roles if you are not positive on what role to use) the new blogger will be sent an email to their FIT email address asking them to verify their email address and to finish creating their profile by choosing a password.

Adding New User

That’s it!

 

Choosing Web Colors

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As you start to poke around in your blog settings, you may find a spot or two where you have the ability to change default colors to match a color palette or scheme you have put together.  One of these places is in the options for the “CTC” tag cloud.  Our templates will always ask you to enter a color code that starts with # and is six numbers long.  What do these numbers mean?

HEX Values

HEX Value Examples from BonneyArmstrong.com

BACKGROUND

Computer monitors emit color as RGB, or Red, Green, and Blue light.  This is different from printing color that uses the CMYK system for ink.  Since we are worried about RGB values for the blogs, I am going to stick with discussing only RGB here. If you would like to learn more about the differences between RGB and CYMK, I suggest reading Printernational’s explanation, it is brief, but to the point.

So now that we know that colors displayed combine values of red, green, and blue light.  HTML, short for HyperText Markup Language, the dominant language used to create certain effects on text and images.  HTML defines colors through a hexadecimal notation (HEX) to indicate how much Red, Green, and Blue there is in a color.

HEX values begin with a # sign and are made up of 6 numbers.  The six numbers are actually three-pairs of two-digit numbers each pair for a color.  The lowest HEX value is 00 (equal to “0″ in R,G, or B) and the highest HEX value is FF (equal to “255″ in R, G, or B).

HUH? Let’s look at a few examples.

  • Black has a HEX value of #000000 because black’s RGB value is 0 red, 0 green, and 0 blue.
  • A true red has a HEX value of #FF0000 because a true red’s RGB value has all (255) red, 0 green, and 0 blue.
  • A true green has a HEX value of #00FF00 because a true green’s RGB value has 0 red, all (255) green, and 0 blue.
  • A true blue has a HEX value of #0000FF because a true blue’s RGB value has 0 red, 0 green, and all (255) blue
  • White has a HEX value of #FFFFFF because white’s RGB value is all (255) red, all (255) green, and all (255) blue.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME?

To choose a color for your blog, you do not need to understand how to come up with the above values. Lucky for us, there are hundreds of resources that give us a chart of colors and their corresponding HEX colors. What you do need to find is the six digit code beginning with the # sign. A while ago, computers were able to only support a maximum of 256 colors (now millions are possible), and of those 256 colors, a list of 216 of them became the web-standards and are good to use by rule of thumb to know that your intended color will display as accurately as possible.

WHERE DO I FIND COLOR VALUE NUMBERS?

Here are some of my “go-to” lists that will show you the color and their corresponding HEX values.

BonneyArmstrong.com gives the full list of safe colors with their corresponding RGB values

2CreateAWebSite.com allows to mix your color like a traditional color wheel and generates the HEX value for you.

ColorSchemer.com not only gives you HEX values, but helps to build an actual color palette