An overview of the WordPress CMS (Content Management System) and Responsive Theme usage. (Last updated Feb. 26, 2013.)
Hi everyone! This brief tutorial should be useful for anyone publishing on this site. Some of you may already know how to publish content in WordPress. However, the theme we are using has some unique content creation features that you should know about. One of them is the “Featured Image” and “Featured Video.” Read on and if you have any questions please contact the admin!
WordPress Overview
WordPress has two types of content. Posts and Pages. A Post is for a time sensitive story, and will have a date attached. A Page is static content such as About Us or Contact Us. In most cases, you’ll be creating Posts.
To get started, use the left side nav to create content. To add a Post click Add New.
Titles (Permalink)
Titles should contain keywords that exist in your story, but should also grab your attention. If you change the title please make sure the Permalink (URL) matches the title. In the Permalink, words should automatically be separated by dashes. A permalink should look like this: “https://gameverse.com/new-borderlands-2-trailer-delves-deep”.
Upload/Insert
This little icon lets you upload media such as photos, audio files, pdfs, and docs (except do not upload videos to the server — we’ll use YouTube or Vimeo for that).
Body (center column)
This is where you type or paste in your text. The “Visual” tab let’s you format the text and other fun things (also known as the “kitchen sink”). The Text (or HTML) tab lets you type or paste in text or code without any formatting. USE THIS mode if you are pasting in content from other websites, Word docs, and other applications as it will remove all formatting from the source. (We want to keep consistency in look & feel.)
Categories (in the right column)
Pick all categories that apply to your story. You can have multiple categories, for example, a new story for Xbox 360 may fall under both News and Xbox 360. There is no limit to how many categories you can choose, just be sure they all relate to the story.
Tags (in the right column)
Tags allow easy access to related stories and topics. Tags are also indexed by Google and can help page rank. Create as many tags as you like. Keep in mind there may be an existing tag already. So, why add “innovations” when there is already “innovation”? The CMS should dynamically load tags as you start typing.
Featured Category
Featured stories show up in the top (slideshow) section of the homepage where it rotates through the latest 5 posts. If you want a story to be featured you need to click the “Featured” category as well as any applicable categories.
Featured Image
A Featured Image is necessary if you are classifying a post as “Featured” (this controls the image that appears both in the post and in the homepage rotator). At this time, the image should be exactly 300px high. You can resize in whatever image editor you use. WordPress also has image editing tools. PLEASE NOTE: You still need to insert an image into the Post via the Media icon — as the Featured Image is only for the homepage and search results.
Featured Video
If you have a video that you want to appear in the Featured section on the homepage please paste the embed code into this section. PLEASE NOTE: You also need to insert the full YouTube URL into the post for it to show up.
Inserting Video
As an alternative to using the Featured Video field, you can also use the URL of a video from YouTube or Vimeo. Just paste the URL into the body of the post and WordPress will automatically convert to video. PLEASE NOTE: If you have trouble using a shortened “bitly” URL you may need to use the long URL which YouTube provides in under Share > Options > Long Link.
Use of Images & Copyright Infringement
Generally you should not steal images from other websites. However, if the image has been released as a promotional or press image from the publisher (for example, Ubisosoft’s released stills from Assassins Creed III), feel free to use them. You should also consider taking still shots from your own gameplay if possible. Other resources for usable images include Wikipedia (images under fair use agreement), product images (from Amazon, BestBuy, etc.), and stock images from royalty free sites like https://www.sxc.hu/.
Style Guide
As we start to build Gameverse, we will start to develop styles that should be adhered to so there is consistency throughout the site. For example, game titles, movie titles, and publications should always be italicized. Please email the editor if you have questions or would like to suggest a style.
Publish (top right column)
This is where you can save, preview, or publish your post. Once it is published you can always make changes. However, do not change the Permalink after publishing as this would change the URL and result in a Not Found within Google.
Most of the other fields are optional at this time.
