Guidance on maintenance of Winchcombe Probus website
Winchcombe Probus website: the basics
This is the first in a series of documents giving guidance on how to edit and maintain the Winchcombe Probus website. It gives an brief introduction to Wordpress, the software used to create the site, and to some of the jargon associated with it.
1. WordPress
The Winchcombe Probus website runs on WordPress software.
WordPress is a free, open-source set of tools for creating blogs and websites. WordPress makes it relatively easy to set up and run a website, by providing website templates (known as “themes”) for which all the difficult programming has already been done. The basic themes can then be modified to suit the needs of particular users, and additional facilities added by “plugging in” software available through WordPress.
Our website was put together with the support of Ronald Gijsel of Webbees (), who is available to help us out with technical issues if required.
2. Levels of access
Members who have access to the website are assigned to one of four “user roles”:
- Subscriber . Subscribers can read the protected pages of the site, but cannot amend them. Most members are registered as subscribers.
b. Author. Authors can write and publish articles on the website. They can also edit the information that they have posted.
- Editor. Editors can do the same, but can also make changes to the information that others have posted, and can modify most of the site’s functions.
- Administrator: Administrators have control over all aspects of the site, and also control access to it. Only Administrators can register new users. We have three Administrators at present: Ronald Gijsel (our professional support at Webbees), the Club’s webmaster (Andrew Cordery), and our Secretary (Tony Mason).
The information in this document is mainly for the guidance of Authors and Editors.
3. Pages, Posts and Events
Information we put on the website takes one of three forms: pages, posts and events.
Pages make up the more-or-less permanent components of the site – the pages you see when you click on that main navigation bar links, for example. They provide the framework on which more transitory information is displayed. Authors/Editors will not normally make changes to this framework.
Posts are articles, notices etc. that are of current interest. They appear in predetermined positions on the site, in chronological order, with the most recent at the top of the list. (The WordPress system was originally designed for managing blogs.) Older posts will normally be dropped after a period of time, or when a certain number of newer posts have appeared.
Events, in Wordpress terminology, are a special type of post, used (as the name suggests) for notifying readers of upcoming events. The “event” format is designed to enable event listings to be organised automatically, for example in a programme. Only future events are shown on automatically generated programmes. Like posts, events are listed in chronological order, but with the earliest events listed first.
4. The Dashboard
If you are an Author/Editor a black toolbar will automatically appear under your normal browser toolbars when you open the website.
Clicking on “Winchcombe Probus” at the left-hand end of the toolbar opens up the Dashboard. The dashboard is where you go if you want to do any editing on the site.
The functions controlled from the Dashboard are listed on the menu on the left-hand side of the screen. The ones you are likely to make use of are Posts, Events and Media. I will explain how to use them in other documents in this series.
5. Categories
Posts (and Events) must be assigned to one or more categories. The category determines where on the site the post will appear.
For example, if you want your post to appear on the list of notices in the central column on the home page, you need to assign it to the Notices category.
If you open your dashboard, and click on Posts > Add New, you will see a box labelled Categories on the right-hand side of the Add a New Post page. This shows a list of all the categories.
6. The structure of our site
The pages on our site are organised under seven headings, comprising the Home Page and the six items on the navigation bar.
a. The Home Page
Home page is what you see when you open the site.
The Home page is the only part of the site that is accessible to non-members, and it has on it some basic information for public. Members can enter the rest of the site by using the Members’ Login.
Only those with Administrator access can edit this page.
b. The Notices page
When you log in, you are taken to the Notices page. This is laid out in three columns .
In the left-hand column, Forthcoming Events shows links to the next ten meetings, outings etc. Anything you post as an Event will appear here (unless it is more than ten events in the future)
Under the list of forthcoming events is a calendar on which you can click to check what events are taking place on any given day.
The middle column, under the heading NOTICES, shows messages of general interest to the membership – for example, drawing attention to a newly organised outing or a new post on the site. If you assign a post to the Notices category, it will appear here, at the top of the list. As new Notices are added, it will drop down the list. The column can only contain six[1] Notices, and when your notice reaches the seventh position it will drop off altogether. Only information that is likely to be of interest for a limited period of time should be posted as a Notice.
Tin the right-hand column, the Catch Up section in the right-hand column has links to Write-ups of meetings and events that have already taken place, and to the most recent Members’ News and Comments. To put a post into either of these sections, you need to allocate it to the appropriate category.
Below the Catch Up section is a link to the Rogues’ Gallery of members’ photographs and names. This can only be edited by an Administrator.
c. Programme
The Programme page is in effect an expansion of the Forthcoming Events list. The difference is that
- the Programme shows all forthcoming events, not just the next ten
- there is a bit of blurb (up to about 50 characters) known as an Extract
- the Programme page can be printed off
Anything you post as an Event will appear here.
Note that the Programme is in effect and annotated list of links to separate documents. (The same applies to the Forthcoming Events list). If you click on the links (the blue text) you will be taken to the post itself. The text in the post is not the same as the Extract text shown on the Programme page. (This will be explained more fully in the Guidance Note on how to add an event to the Programme.)
d. Members
The Members link on the navigation bar gives you the option of going to the following pages:
· The Rogues’ Gallery, showing members’ mugshots)
· The “Have your say” page, which all members can use to comment or feed information to the site.
· The “Change your password” page
· The “Log out” page.
Authors will not be able to make changes to these pages.
e. The Administration link
The Administration link leads to the following:
· Club Equipment, which is a record of the equipment the club owns
· Consitution, which gives the current version of the Consitution
· Membership, which currently brings up the Rogues’ Gallery, but will be where the membership list will appear if we decide to put it on the website
· AGMs, which leads to a set of links to the minutes of recent Annual General meetings.
f. Committee
The Committee link on the navigation bar leads to
Committee members, a page listing the current Committee, with mugshots
Committee Records, which brings up Minutes of Committee meetings, with the most recent at the top, and any other records that the Committee may decide to make available to members
Guidance for Editors, which gives access to a set of guidance notes for those who have authoring and editing rights on the website.
g. Archive
After a period of time, Posts and notifications of events will automatically drop off the pages on which they are originally published. The Archive link makes it possible for members to continue to access these items after they have been removed from the main pages.
If you want to make sure that your posts continue to be available, you must allocate them to the Archive category, in addition to whatever other category they are assigned to. (If you do so, they accessible via the Archive link immediately, not just after they have dropped off the main pages)
7. Further Guidance
For more detailed information on how to carry our various editing tasks on the website, see the list of guidance documents, go to Committee > Guidance for Editors.
Andrew
Contact me if you spot any errors or have any queries: 602114
September 2016 Page 3 of 6
[1] This number can be adjusted by an Administrator if required.