CTA Summer Institute 2010

How to upgrade WordPress.com account

Roger Urroz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:57:14 +0000

Upgrading your WordPress.com account allows you to use a custom domain name such as example.com instead of the standard WordPress.com domain name – example.wordpress.com – for your blog. This is a paid upgrade.

To upgrade your WordPress.com account go here.

How to add PollDaddy polls on WordPress

Roger Urroz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:44:27 +0000

The following tutorial comes from a great WordPress Theme site called ThemeLab. In addition to providing free quality themes, ThemeLab also aims to be an authoritative source of WordPress information. Leland (the guy that runs the place) personally writes and publishes unique WordPress tutorials. These guides are usually oriented to beginners. Topics range from basic installation to reviews of popular WordPress plugins. These well-written guides seem to be popular among inexperienced and seasoned WordPress users alike.

Check it out: How to add PollDaddy polls on WordPress

How to crop photos in Adobe Photoshop

Roger Urroz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:43:14 +0000

Open Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Click on “File” and Select “Open.”
Browse for the picture on your hard drive.
Select the Crop tool and make sure your settings are set for the size of the picture you need. For the sake of this tutorial, the settings are 450px by 300px and 72 pixels per inch.
Click and Drag your mouse over the picture. A rectangle will appear and show how much of the picture will be cropped. Click “Ok” or the green check mark icon, on the bottom-right of the picture, to crop your picture.
Click “File” and “Save for Web.”
Make sure the settings are set for your picture. Usually the settings will be High JPG. Click “Ok” to save your cropped picture.

Writing for the Web

dmartin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:37:25 +0000

The following training was presented by Dina Martin.

Content for the web

How to create an RSS feed for a WordPress blog

Roger Urroz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:30:37 +0000

Create an account on http://delicious.com.
To compile your news, you’ll want to “share” articles of interest by clicking on the “Share” button usually found just above or at the end of an online article. By doing this, you will store your “favorite” articles in one place. Make sure you select to share via del.icio.us.
You can check your shared article listings by going to your del.icio.us page and selecting “Bookmarks.”
Once you’ve got this started, you’ll want to launch your RSS widget on your WordPress blog.
Go to your “Dashboard” and click on the “Apperance” tab on the left hand side of the dashboard. Then, click on “Widgets.”
Click and Drag the RSS widget to the right column on the dashboard page.
Type in your del.icio.us username (this is how it accesses your feeds).
Give the widget a title (probably something like “Educational News Stories” or “Recommended Articles”).
Select the number of items you would like to have displayed at one time (3 – 5 recommended).
Click “Save” **important**
Once you’ve done all these steps, “View Site” and you should see your RSS feed in either the right or left column.

Of note: You cannot control the look of the bullets. They are part of the “Theme” you selected.

How to Password Protect a Post in WordPress

Roger Urroz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:29:49 +0000

Follow the steps 1 through 6 in the “How to publish a post” tutorial.
Click “Edit” next to Visibility in the Publish area to the top right.
Click “Password Protected” and click “Ok.”
Type a password and click “OK.”
Click “Publish.”

How to change Themes in WordPress

Roger Urroz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:28:02 +0000

Go to the “Dashboard.” Click on “Apperance” and Select “Themes.”
Each Theme will have three buttons to choose from.
The Activate link will apply the theme to your current site automatically.
The Preview link will show what your site would look like is you activate that particular Theme.
The Delete link will remove that theme from being considered.
Browse through all the themes and when you decide the theme you want, simply click the Activate link.

How to upload a YouTube video to a WordPress blog

Roger Urroz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:20:11 +0000

Once you’ve uploaded your video to http://www.youtube.com, copy the URL for the specific video.
In your post, click on the second icon on the Upload/Insert menu. A new window will open up.
Paste your YouTube URL in the space marked by a red asterisk.
Click “Insert into Post” and then “Save all changes”. **important**
From here, click “save” and “publish” to have it launched on your site.

Of note: Sometimes it takes a long time for YouTube to process uploads, so be patient if the video doesn’t show up for an hour or so.

How to Turn Comments On or Off in WordPress

Roger Urroz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:18:58 +0000

1. Follow the steps 1 through 6 in the “How to publish a post” tutorial.

2. Scroll down to “Discussion.”

3. Unselect the option you do not want for your post.

How to create a Flickr badge (photo stream) for a WordPress blog

Tiffany Hasker — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:08:52 +0000

Create an account on http://www.flickr.com. You can use an existing Yahoo ID if you have one. If not, you’ll need to create one.
Upload photos from your digital camera to Flickr.
After you’ve uploaded your photos, you can name them.
Go to “Your Photostream.”

Scroll down and immediately beneath the pictures, you’ll see the orange RSS icon. Click “latest.”

A new browser window should open. Copy the URL from the browser window.
Once you’ve got this, you’ll want to go to your WordPress blog.
Go to your “Dashboard.” Click on the “Settings” tab and select “flickrRSS.”
Type in your Flickr Id. If you don’t know your Flickr Id, click on the IdGettr icon and find it.
Click “Save.”
Go back to your “Dashboard.” Click on “Apperance” and select “Widgets.”
Click and Drag the flickrRSS widget to the right hand column on the dashboard page.
Click the flickrRSS widget, to edit.
Give the widget a title.
Click “Save” **important**
Once you’ve done all these steps, “View Site” and you should see your Photos in either the right or left column.