How to use Wordpress for darkmatter Journal: Editors
darkmatter Journal uses Wordpress to publish content online. Below are some how-to's for Editors.
Creating User:
- Login & go-to User link on left sidebar
- Press: Add New
- Fill in Fields: User name; First Name; Last Name; Email (required)
- For username format: first name-initial of surname, e.g. sanjay-s (all lower-case)
- Select Display Name publicly to: First-Name & Surname
- Choose password
- Uncheck: Send Password (send username & p/w in a separate email when communicating with author)
- Role: Contributor
- Add brief biog details and Website url (or at a later stage)
- Press: Add User
Upload & Publish a Submission:
- Login & go-to: Posts
- Press: Add New
- If copying article from a Word doc, use visual editor and via Word tool (you may need to press last button on menu toolbar to display 2nd row of visual editor menu)
- Format article
- Select appropriate Categories and Tags (right sidebar); all posts belong to an Issue, e.g. if posting a Review in a General Issue, check the following boxes: Issues; General Issue [most current]; Reviews
- Scroll down: add appropriate text to Excerpt box (this can be displayed on homepage)
- Add New Custom Field: select appropriate category (e.g. Review) and add value of 1; press 'Add Custom Field' button
- If adding post to a General Issue, also select 'Image_Home' custom field and add value: gen_issue_logo_final.jpg -press 'Add Custom Field' button
- Post Authors: you will see your name; delete and add name of post's author and select from list; if more than one author, add to box below
- Scroll up: Save Draft and view Preview to check post; if ok press Publish
- After the piece is published online, inform the author with the article URL; and encourage them to link to the piece on their institutional (and blog) page - as it increases the journal's page rank
- Publicize new content on delicious/twitter etc - see 'Social Media' section on the Editorial Team page
Insert Image in Post
- Place cursor where image is to be located
- Upload/Insert: use the first media (add image to post) button. (Ensure image is royalty free!)
- Upload your image; best to Scale image (to approx 300 x 200_ you may need to experiment
- Scroll down: Left align usually works well; press 'Insert into post' & 'Save all changes'
- Image should appear in edit page of post (no further formatting or adding borders is necessary)
Featured Post - displayed on Rotating Banner on Homepage
- Login & Goto: Posts. Click on the post you wish to edit
- Featured Articles Lite - press 'Set custom image for this post'
- Upload image approx 150px x 150px - you may have to experiment (need to ensure not too large; image needs to be correct size before upload. If you are uploading a new image you need to do this via the Upload/Insert button first and then select it in 'Set custom image for this post')
- Do not check the 'Set this post as featured…'; instead scroll down and for Category check Featured.
- Publish Post and check on Homepage (upload new image size if required)
- Normally, three or four posts are selected to rotate on the Homepage; if adding a new featured post de-select the earliest dated featured post so it no longer displays
- To de-select an existing featured rotating post, edit it and uncheck the Category 'Featured' and update/save post
Adding Pull-Quotes
For pieces usually greater than 1000 words, it's useful to highlight a section of text in a larger font by using a pull-quote:
- In the Edit Posts page, ensure you are in HTML mode (select tab on top-right of edit area)
- Add the <span> tags to the selected text like this:
<span class="pullquote"> selected text here </span>
- The selected text will be displayed as normal in the flow of the article as well as being highlighted as a pull-quote
- You can select further text too; don't over-do it and try not to select text that is too lengthy
