Prepared by the IC Staff for the Business & Social Science Institute

WordPress Tips

Prepared by the IC Staff
for the
Business & Social Science Institute

July, 2016

All instructions are current as of this writing.

Overview of WordPress

WordPress is an open source web development tool and content management system. Brookdale has selected WordPress as the platform for the website.

Overview of WordPress Pages

Brookdale has selected a two-column layout for academic pages. The right-hand column (#5 below) is the navigation bar which is updated automatically based upon pages added. The left-hand column (#1 - #4 below) is unique to each page. A typical academic page may contain the following elements:

1: Page title
2: Inline image (optional)
3: Page text
4: Inline image (optional)
5: Navigation bar

WordPress Page

Preferred Browser

Firefox or Chrome are the preferred browsers for editing sites in WordPress.

Log in to WordPress

Navigate to https://www.brookdalecc.edu/business-social-science-institute/login
Enter the username and password with which you were provided.
Click Log in.

WordPress Login

Profile

Your WordPress password is unrelated to your Active Directory password that you use to log into other Brookdale services. You can change your password or other personal information by editing your profile.

Hover over your user name in the upper-right of the screen and click Edit My Profile.

Edit My Profile

The Back End

A WordPress Web site has two main parts: a frontend, what the public sees when they visit your site, and a backend, where you add, edit and manage content, and control the look and functionality of the site. After logging into WordPress, you are presented with the backend of your website where you have access to the Dashboard and Navigation panel.

Portion of WordPress Dashboard

Pages Hierarchy

The easiest way to view the hierarchy of pages is to click Pages in the navigation bar.

Pages

The pages hierarchy appears. Click the triangle icon to the left of departments to view the pages.

Pages hierarchy

Editing Academic Pages

Parent & Child Pages

Parent pages are pages that contain other webpages. Your department homepage is a parent page. Child pages are launched from parent pages.

Parent and child pages

Edit a Page

Locate the page you wish to edit. Click on the page name, or hover your cursor over the page name and click Edit.

Edit link

Edit Text

Use the WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor to make any needed text changes.

WYSIWYG editor

Set the Featured Image (Optional, but increases search engine optimization

The featured image at the top of the page is selectable from a library of existing images. To set the featured image, follow these steps:

Position your cursor at the top of the page content field.
In the WYSIWYG editor, click Add Media.

Add Media button

If necessary, click Media Library to browse the library of featured images.

Set Featured Image, Media Library buttons

Click the Insert into Page button in the lower-right side of the screen.

Insert into Page button

You may also insert inline images, which are images that appear within your page text. To do so, follow the same steps, begin by inserting your cursor where you want the image to appear, then follow the same steps.

Hyperlinks

A hyperlink is an item that the user clicks on to view other content. Usually, it is a word that the user clicks to go to another page or open a document.

Link to another Webpage

To create a hyperlink to another webpage:

Select (highlight) the text on which the user will click.

Selected text

Click the Insert Link button in the toolbar.

Insert Link button

If you are linking to another page on the Brookdale website, enter (or paste) that URL for the page in the resulting dialog. Then click the blue return button.

Linked URL within Brookdale site

If you are linking to a page outside of Brookdale’s website, you will likely want to open the page in a new tab so that the reader does not lose his/her place in the Brookdale navigation. Click the Link Options (gear icon) button in the URL dialog.

Link Options

Enter the URL in the appropriate field.
Check the Open Link in a New Tab checkbox.

Open link in a new tab

Click the Add Link button.

Link to a Document

To upload and link to a document:

Select (highlight) the text on which the user will click.
Above the WYSIWYG editor, click the Add Media button.

Add Media button

In the resulting dialog, click Documents.

Documents

If a folder for your department does not already exist, find the Add Folder panel. Enter a folder name and click Add.

Add folder

Note: There should be no spaces or special characters in the folder name. Replace spaces with a dash (“-“).

Select the name of the folder to which you wish to add your document.
In the Add File panel, click the Browse button to locate a file on your computer. Then, click the Add button.

Add file

Hover over the document that you wish to insert and click Insert Link.

Insert link

Preview & Publish Changes

WordPress allows you to preview your changes before committing them. To preview your changes, click the Preview Changes button in the Publish panel. A preview of the edited page launches in a new tab. If you are happy with the changes, click Update to publish the change. If not, continue editing or leave the page without saving changes.

Publish panel

Add New Child Pages

If you wish to add a new page to your department, click Pages again.

Hover over the parent page and click Add Child.Your parent page may be your department page or an existing parent page within your department.

Add Child

Enter a name for your new page. Ensure that Template is set to Default Template, then click Add & Edit.

Add page

Use the same tools as discussed earlier to populate your page.

New blank page

Prepared by: J. Shaloum, 04/25/2019