You find yourself needing to add an item to this website, and you’re wondering how to do it. For example, suppose you want to add a description of the Little Library so it shows up under the Service menu item.
This site uses the WordPress content management system, designed to make it reasonably straighforward to add content like that. Each item is, in WordPress lingo, called a post. This item explains how to create posts.
Fear not
The web site has regular backups. You can’t permanently wreck it even if you make a mistake.
The web site uses the WordPress content management system. The Newburyport Public Library has a really useful book called WordPress for Dummies. That’s the place to start learning more if you want to.
But here’s how we can get started creating good stuff for the web site without getting overwhelmed by complexity.
Get your Author Account
You will need an author account and password on the site. If you don’t have an author account yet, send email to Kathleen at info@centralnewburyport.org and ask for one to be created.
If you don’t have a user name of your own, you can use class1, class2, class3, or class4. to get started. Ask for the password!
Log In
Log in to the web site by visiting https://centralnewburyport.org/wp-admin with your web browser. That’s the address of the church website with /wp-admin on the end.
Dream Up Your Post
Websites like Central’s are made of “posts”. These posts aren’t like the white post in the chuchyard that says Peace on Earth in many languages. Instead they’re chunks of information posted as if to a bulletin board. They can be as long or short as you like. Martin Luther started a ruckus by posting something long — 95 paragraphs long — to the door of a church back in 1517. Your posts will be shorter than that, mostly? hopefully?
Each post will be about some subject. It might be an item of church history It might be an announcement. It might be about Christian Education, or a service project. You’ll need to know what it’s about — what its Category will be.
Good posts need photos. We’ll cover photos next.
Add a New Post
Now it’s time to create a new post. It’s easiest to do this with a laptop (or desktop) computer rather than a phone or tablet.
First, log in to the web site if you haven’t already done so. Visit this link. https://www.centralnewburyport.org/wp-admin Then give your username and password.
After you log in, the top of your web page will look somthing like this.
Click the + New button to create a new post.
You get a little text-editor window, adorned with a lot of boxes on the top and the right.
Write your Post
Simply type the text of your post into the text-editor window. You can also cut and paste it from some other computer document.
We’ll return to the post in a few moments to add images.
Once your post is to your liking you have a couple of things to set up before pushing Publish..
Set the Category
To make it show up in the right place on the web site you need to assign it to one or more post Categories. Do this by finding the Categories box on the right side of your screen and checking the categories you want.
- The Announcements category shows up on the News section of the web site. Incoming Constant Contact email blasts have this category.
- The Service category shows up on the Service section.
- The Education, Adult Education, and Children and Youth categories show up on the Education sections.
- The History category shows up on the History page (found in the About Central menu).
You can check as many Categories as you want. In practice you’ll check one category, but sometimes two categories.
Set the Published On date
This is important for the History section: it allows History posts to be shown in chronological order. (You don’t need to do this for posts for other sections.)
Find the Publish box at the upper right of your screen. In it there’s a line saying something like Published on May 10. Click the Edit link and put in the date of your event. You can put in any date, past, present, or future, you choose. For example, a post about the big fire in 1860 will have the date of the fire. (This doesn’t work well for dates before October 1582, when the western world switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. It does work for dates after that.)
If you set a Published On date in the future, your post won’t appear on the web site until that date.
Other settings
You can leave the other settings untouched. Definitely do not click the purple button labelled Use the Divi Builder.
Publishing
Find the Publish box at the upper right of your screen. It gives you a way to Preview your post if you wish. When you’re ready, you can Publish your post.
What If I Need to Change Something?
You can edit any post on the site. To do this, log in, then click Posts at the top left of your screen.
You’ll see a list of all the posts, most recent first. Hover your mouse over the name of the post you want to edit, then click the Edit link.
You’ll get the editor window. Change whatever you need to change, then press Update.
You can press the Move to Trash link if you want to get rid of your post entirely, or change the Published On date to the future.
And you can add photos, but first we have to take some.
Put Photos On the Website
Photos tell your story, and your post needs them. So let’s work through how to take them and put them on the web site.
Take pictures
You can take pictures with your mobile phone’s camera. There’s nothing special you need to do at this point, just take the pictures. It’s handy to collect and upload any photos you need first. You don’t have to use all the photos you upload. They probably work best in landscape mode, taken with the phone turned sideways.
Try to make your subjects fill your pictures. If you’re taking pictures of people, get close.
Upload pictures
Next, upload the pictures to the website. Point your phone’s camera at this QR code or visit this link.
https://www.centralnewburyport.org/wp-admin/media-new.php
Here is the process for uploading your photos to the web site.
1. Log In
2. Select Files
3. Tap Photo Library
4. Tap photos, tap Add
1. The first time you do this you’ll have to give your author account’s username and password. Tap Remember Me so you won’t have to log in again the next time you do this.
2. You’ll see the Upload New Media screen. Tap Select Files.
3. You’ll have the choice of using photos from your Photo Library, or taking a new photo or video. You already took some photos so tap Photo Library.
4. Tap on the photos you want to upload to the web site and then tap Add. Your files will upload to the web site. You can use them later as you create and you can get them later.
Edit Your Post To Include Pictures
Once you’ve uploaded your photos, you’re ready to add them to your post. Back at your laptop browser, edit your post.
Click to place your cursor at the beginning of the line in your text where you want the picture to appear. Then click the Add Media button. You’ll get the Media Library, a gallery of available photos. Pick the one you want. Then click the blue Insert Into Post button at the lower right corner of your screen.
You can click on a photo, then click the little pencil icon, to change the way the photo gets displayed. You can set the size and position. Most authors fiddle with these changes until the post looks acceptable.
And, this is important for the sake of inclusivity: you can type a brief description of the photo for the benefit of web site visitors who can’t see it. “Accessibility”, it’s called.
Set the Featured Image
Some sections of the site show images next to various posts. These are the Featured Images you set, Do this by finding the Featured Image box on the right side of your screen and clicking the Set Featured Image link to choose an image.
You usually will choose one of the photos you included in your post.