Creating a New Article

These are the instructions for creating posting an article in the creative teaching archive. Please follow them closely so that we can maintain a consistent look and operation to the web site.

1. You must be logged in to create new posts. The Meta menu in the side bar has a log-in item you can click-on.
2. At the top of the web site there will now be a tool bar and at the end of it is a “+ New” using that drop down menu you can tell the web site you want to create a new post. Please choose post. Pages are similar but will not be put anywhere that visitors can find them.
3. You should now see the post editing window. Different tools will be open depending on how your Screen Options are set so lets fix that to avoid confusion in the future. This is a small drop down right under the tool bar at the top right of the screen.
4. Once it has dropped down you want to make sure that all of the options below are checked. Most important are “Sharing”, “Categories”, “Tags”, and “Featured Image”. The remaining options you are welcome to explore.
5. Now you need to create the title for the post. Note that underneath the title it is creating the internet address of the post. If you go back and edit the article title it will not change the address (as that would break any links to that article). However, if you haven’t published the article yet or only just recently published it and need to fix the title you may want to edit the “permalink” to reflect the proper title. Because this is an address each article must have a unique name.
6. We are almost ready to enter in the article. First lets get our toolbars set as there are essential tools you will not be able to access with out a slight customization. Push the “Toolbar Toggle” button to open up two additional toolbars.
7. Using the toolbar you can format, add pictures and video, add lists and do most things that you might do in Word. A few important notes:
   1. After entering in the abstract add a read more break. This makes listings of multiple articles only show the abstract helping users quickly scan through and find what they are looking for.
   2. When creating the required headings for each section please format them as “Heading 3” using the drop down menu at the beginning of the second toolbar. This will keep their formatting the same and if we change the overall site design those headings will automatically update to the new formatting. You may use headings 4, 5 and 6 for sub-categories.
   3. There are some annoying things. If you want a single return between lines you have to hold down the shift key while pushing the return key. If you don’t do this a space will be inserted between paragraphs.
8. Assign the article to the proper Category.
9. Assign all appropriate Tags to the article. If you click “Choose from the most used tags” a large tag cloud will come up where you can choose from previously used tags. It is recommended that each editor keep a list of tags and try and control tag growth. If a site ends up with too many tags they can become overwhelming rather than helpful for searching.
10. If an image is available that would work well as a banner for the post (recommended resolution is 782X300) you can use the featured image box to set it.
11. Finally make sure that “show sharing buttons” is enabled.
12. In the top of the right sidebar are your save and publish commands. At any point in the process you can click preview to see your work in progress. No one else can see the post until you click the big blue publish button. Click that button and you are done.