VLS WordPress Guide

Creating a VLS Notebook
Your notebook was created for you, see below on how to find it.

Where is my notebook? And how do I login?
First things first, where is your notebook? Your individual notebook should be located at your username. In other words, if my login username is jimgroom, my notebook will be http://virtuallanguagestudies.net/jimgroom.

You can login by going to the VLS Homepage. After logging in, click on the link in the lower-right sidebar “Connect to WordPress.”

Once you do this you will see a link to visit your site (which will bring you to the front end people see) or to go to the dashboard to write a post.

Changing your password
You really can’t change your password in WordPress, because this application is logging you in based on your Moodle username and password. To change those, you need to speak with Julio Rodriguez.

The Dashboard
Once you log in, you will be brought to the Dashboard. This is the default starting page of the administrative back-end. From here, you can click on several different options that will bring you to various sections of your backend wherein you can post new articles, edit your own posts or comments, update your user profile, and return to the front page of your blog, etc. The Dashboard gives you an overview of your blog activity including recent postings, comment activity, incoming links, a section to write a quick post (titled "QuickPress"), as well as providing several links to recent news from the WordPress community (often containing useful info about updates, features, and more general information about this open source community). Keep in mind you can customize your own dashboard to your liking by simply dragging and dropping each of the sections around and/or clicking the "Screen Options" tab in the upper right-hand corner of the Dashboard to decide what you would like to be visible or hidden.

Post Section
This section is where you can write new blog posts and edit existing posts. Writing a post (as opposed to a page which is distinct from blog posts because pages remain outside of the blog's reverse chronology) is probably the lion's share of how you will use your blog. When writing a new post you can control the status, i.e., make the posts a draft, password protected, etc. You can also change the time stamp to control when the post shows up in the blogs chronology of posts.

Additionally, you can add categories and tags to posts to create a personalized taxonomy of terms and sections in your site. You can add tags and categories while writing a new post or editing and existing post. And the sub-sections "Tags" and "Categories" allow you to manage tags and categories across all your posts.

Media Section
Allows you to search media you have uploaded, such as images, music, videos, etc. Keep in mind, however, that your storage space on this system is quite limited (75mb), so you may want to use external services for media such as Flickr, YouTube, or Google Docs.

Links Section
The Links section is where you can add new links and manage existing links. To add a new link click on the Add Link sub-section and enter the appropriate information in the following three fields: link name, link address and link description.

Also, you can categorize your links into link categories by simply adding a new category in the categories section, or choosing an existing category. You can also manage these categories in the "Link Categories" sub-section.

Once you have added links and categorized them they can then be added to your sidebar using the Links Widget in the Appearance-->Widgets section.

Pages Section
This section is where you can write new page and edit existing pages. Writing a page is designed for static information that stands outside of the time specific flow of information that is the logic of posts. When writing a new page you can control the status, i.e., make the page a draft, password protected, etc. You can also control the order of pages so that the are aligned in the sidebar or in the header in a specific order.

You can add pages to your sidebar by going to Appearance--->Widgets and adding the pages widget if it isn't there already. Keep in mind that the widget allows you to control the display through three different means: name (alphabetically), order (which you control when creating a page), or page ID (which is usually aligned with when you created the post).

Comments Tab
The Comments tab is relatively straightforward. This is where you can manage, moderate, or delete any comments you receive on your blog. To establish the settings for comments or to turn off comments, you need to go to the Settings → Discussion subtab (this is where all of the settings for commenting are controlled).

Appearance Section
The Appearance section is where you control the overall look and feel of your blog/website. If you go to the Appearance section you will see a number of images that highlight different themes you can use for your blog. Double click on any of the over 100+ themes available for a preview of what your site will look like with this theme. If you like it, click "activate" in the upper right-hand corner, or close the preview by clicking the "X" in the left-hand corner and preview another. Once you've selected the new theme, click on "Visit site" next to your blog title at the top of the admin screen to see how you like the new digs.

The Appearance tab is also where you can enable widgets for your blog. WordPress widgets are content elements that can be added to the sidebar of your blog or website. For example there are widgets that include del.icio.us bookmarks, Flickr photos, etc. Read more here about available widgets for UMW Blogs and what they do.

Depending on the theme, you can also further customize the look and feel of your blog/website.

Plugins Section
Plugins extend the functionality of WordPress. There will be a number of plugins made available to all VLS Notebook users. Depending on the added functionality you need, you may very well find a plugin that handles the task for you. For example, including a photo album, adding a contact form, podcasting, etc. Once you activate the appropriate plugin in this tab, chances are one of two things will happen: it will either have additional options to configure in the Settings tab, or it will show up as a widget in the Appearance → Widgets subtab.

Users Section
You can use this section to add other users to your blog and control the level of permissions you wish to grant them. Once you add a user by putting their email in the appropriate field, an email will be automatically sent to them asking if they want to accept the invitation. Keep in mind that a user must be a member of VLS already for them to be successfully added to your blog. Once an invited user accepts the invitation, they will show up as a user within your blog with the permissions you specified.

The Users → Your Profile sub-section is where you edit your personal profile, such as changing your nickname, changing your password, adding your IM address, and various other personalized options. Read more about the details of this page here.

Tools Section
The Tools section allows for a few important options, the first option is Turbo, which is an option for speeding up the performance of you VLS through Google Gears. For more information about this option go here.

The Export sub-section allows each and every users to download the contents of their blog to an RSS file that can then be imported to several other services like WordPress.com, Blogger, or one's own hosted site/blog using an applications like Drupal or WordPress. To find out more about this process go here.

Settings Tab
The Settings section allows you to change many of the overall options for your blog. For example, you can use the General Settings section to change the blog title, change the time zone, or add a brief description. The various sub-sections allow you to control the comments, reading, and writing options for your blog. This is also where you control the privacy settings or even delete your blog entirely.

Additionally, if you are adding plugin functionality, often times you control the settings for plugins within this tab (the plugin will frequently have an associated sub-section in the Settings section). There are many, many options housed within this tab, and it may be useful to read through this space in more detail here.