Maintenance of the Web site

Guidelines

These instructions are meant to be guidelines and should be updated as needed. Sharing the load operating the web site can make the job much easier and WordPress make collaboration convenient and rewarding.

Any instructions given here are necessarily incomplete to fit this format. Search engines abound in WordPress articles in much greater depth. Try to find the most recent articles as instructions written for older editions can waste your time.

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Signing in

At the very bottom of the home page you will find the login dialog box. Please use it to login and logout. The web administrator must create your credentials for you to edit the contents.

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Updates to WordPress

The web administrator SHOULD check for updates each day and MUST at a minimum once a week. WordPress is  very popular and exploits are common especially in plugins. These unintended vulnerabilities are usually attacked upon discovery. A typical WP site can expect twenty or even hundreds of automated attacks each day. Be vigilant.

Our WordPress will update automatically (or not). Since you have created an email address for yourself in the Settings section you will be informed of these updates but will not be informed of required plugin updates. If WordPress fails to update it will inform you in the Dashboard and  you can manually update it using the supplied link/button.

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Agenda Updates

The President or designee will update the agenda found on the Meeting Agenda page. The agenda should be written sometime before the meeting and removed afterwards. As soon a possible set the new meeting date by editing  the Next Meeting page. Of course the new agenda creation time is at the discretion of the President or the designee.

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Editing Pages

The web administrator must create a ‘User’ in the User -> Add User configuration for you. The role must be set to Editor which allows the editing of any article and adding events. Everyone should avoid destroying the content of pages.

Use the ‘Add  Page’ to create a new page.

The title should be meaningful and the content edited in the big block at the top of the page. The blue Update button on the right side of the page will update the page. Update often with  each update will count as a revision (ten revisions are kept).

The status of the page is controlled using the status links also on the right can control whether the page is published (or a draft) , it’s visibility (private, password protected, or private) – most pages are for public consumption. Previous revisions can be restored (those saved using the Update button) by using the Revision link. We keep lots of revisions and site backups.

The page can initially be created as a draft until it is complete, Then you can publish it.

If the page is long (like this one) the WordPess short code toc can be placed between brackets “[]”  to create a table of contents based on the headings and sub headings. under the ‘Formats’ drop down box. An example of this is at the top of this page if you edit it.

Finally the page must be placed somewhere on the web site. The Parent drop down box is used for this. Initially it has no parent and is not visible on the site. Giving it a relevant parent makes it accessible. You must also provide a link (hopefully on the parent page) to your article. Links can be created to the same page from other pages on the web. The link button’s gear will show you existing pages on the site where you can send readers.

The web page can be viewed by updating it and using the Preview Changes button on the top right.

If you want to get used to the system before you write please edit the Test Page .

If another person is  editing the page you will be notified. Please respect these notifications.

Comments are disabled on our pages.

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Editing existing pages

Find the Pages on the left  column  and choose All Pages. Choose the page you need to edit and click on it’s link. Edit the page.

Events

 Click on the Events button on the left. You will see a variety of options but the one you are interested in is Add New. You can edit an existing event by choosing  Events or create a new one. This works like editing a normal page (Title, content) but you must set the date range and times. You must choose a Venue (many are already available) or create a new one – check to see if one is already listed).

Wandering through the other options in the Events gives a good idea of the many options available.

The cost value is usually set to 0  for free. If this event requires  volunteers you can use the Volunteer Mgmt choice. Of there is a price it is customarily set to the lowest price for the event

When you are ready to go publish use the Publish button. You may continue to edit it as more information becomes available. or for corrections. This will appear in the right column under the agenda when it comes up or is visited.

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Posts

A post is also known as a blog. Blogs are ongoing articles that have new content added regularly. Posts may allow comments by  readers. Currently posts are not supported here although someone could try. It is difficult to produce the content required to keep your reader’s interest.

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