Wordpress

Mar

2011

Adding images

If you have a Redback Graphics installed CMS website

To add an image to a page
Login to your Dashboard, under “Dashboard”, click once on “Pages”, then once on the page title of the page you want to insert an image into.

In the editing box that contains your page content, position your cursor where you would like to insert the image.

Then, above the main editing box, you have a selection of editing icons. You can mouse-over the icons to see what they do. Above the top line of icons, choose “Add Media”, click that once. Then click the “Select Files” button and locate the image from your computer, select it, then it will “Crunch” to load, you can then edit the title of the image, change the URL that links to that image, or choose “None” to remove all links. You can choose to Align it left or right or centre, so that text will wrap around the image, leave Alignment on “None” to place the image just where your cursor was positioned.

You can choose to insert a Thumbnail of the image or insert it at full size. Do not select full size unless the image will fit on the page comfortably with your text.
Click on “Insert into Post”. You should now be able to see the image or its thumbnail (depending on which you chose) in your main editing box. You can Cut and Paste to move the image to another position on your page, or even copy it into another page. You can edit the images Title by clicking on it once, then click the “Edit” icon.

You can then click the blue “Update” button over on the right side of your screen to publish the updated page. It will be live immediately.

Tip 1
Prepare images to the desired size before inserting, using photo editing software. Inserting a large image, then resizing using the options available is not ideal, only because it will take more load time for viewers and use up unecessary bandwidth. You can resize it using the options available when inserting though, if you are unable to resize before inserting.

Tip 2
It’s always handy to have another browser window open to view the “public” side of your website to see the changes without having to log in and out of your Dashboard to see the public website. The changes will be live immediately. Use CTRL+F5 in your live website browser window to force a refresh of the web page you are viewing to see the updated image and link.

Tip 3
Always backup your website before doing any updates until you are very familiar with updating pages and images etc.
See backing up your website.

Mar

2011

Adding/editing pages

If you have a Redback Graphics installed CMS website

To add a new page
Login to your Dashboard, under “Dashboard”, click once on “Pages”, then once on “Add new” button (near “Pages” title), put the title of the page where it says “Enter title here” (this is what will appear in your menu/navigation, so keep it brief).

Put the content in the main editing box of the page by typing or copying and pasting from a Word doc.

You can then click the blue “Publish” button over on the right side of your screen to publish the page. It will be live immediately.

Note – if your new page doesnt appear automatically in the navigation, you may have a custom menu installed. See Adding/editing Navigation items to add/remove or edit navigation items from a Custom Menu.

To update an existing page
Login to your Dashboard, under “Dashboard”, click once on “Pages”, then hover the relevant page title, and choose “Edit” of the page you wish to edit.

Add/edit the content in the main editing box (centre of screen) then click the blue “Update” button on right.

Tip 1
It’s always handy to have another browser window open to view the “public” side of your website to see the changes without having to log in and out of your Dashboard to see the public website. The changes will be live immediately. Use CTRL+F5 in your live website browser window to force a refresh of the web page you are viewing to see the updated image and link.

Tip 2
Below the editing box you may have an option to uncheck “Allow Comments”. This should always be unchecked unless you are running a blog and want readers to be able to make comments on your posts or pages.

Tip 3
Over on the right hand side, under the “Publish” button (which will change to “Update” after a page has been Published for the first time), you may have an option to uncheck “Exclude Pages”. Only uncheck this if you DO NOT want this page included in the menu/navigation. The page will still be available via its URL link (permalink shown under the pages title), but will not be included in the navigation.

Tip4
To make that page a “sub page” of another page (appears under that page in the navigation), select which page you want to be its “parent page” (the page above this page in the navigation), from “Page Attributes” under the blue “Update” button. Select your parent page from the “Parent” drop down box.

Mar

2011

Website Backups

Creating a backup of your website
You should backup your website on a regular basis, weekly or before and after you make any significant changes is recommended.

Previously, backups were able to be stored on the server of the website. This is no longer available using the WordPress backup facilty. There are dozens of Backup Plugins available, but I prefer to backup a websites files and folders by copying the entire site via FTP to a local computer, then backup your database via the WordPress instructions link below.

Backing up files and folders
Using an FTP client (eg Direct FTP by Coffee Cup), with your FTP settings (in your hosting email), FTP (copy, not move) your website folders, including root directory to your local computer, making sure you keep the same folder structure. In the event of a website failure, these files and folders can be copied back to the server in the same way.

Backing up your datebase
See WordPress instructions here.

Mar

2011

Saving images

Saving images? What format is best?

jpg had long been the dominant format for saving web images, but now png is the preferred format in many cases.
A png is most suited to graphics with text or content that needs to be crisp and sharp with excellent clarity to blocks of colour. Can be saved with a transparent background like a gif.
A jpg is the better option for photographs. jpg’s can be optimised to reduce file size with little visible loss of quality, but reducing file size excessively can be noticeable to quality.
A gif can be static (one image) or animated (a set of gifs forming a simple animation). A gif can also have a transparent background.
tif is generally only used by industry professionals in the print industry. File sizes are large, but quality is excellent (high res tif).
bmp (Windows bitmap) is rarely used these days, file sizes are large and quality is poor (comparitively).