The Joomla Article Manager

Posted on | January 4, 2010 | No Comments

To create a new Article click the green plus button in the top right submenu. Make sure that you identify the article’s name, it’s section and category.

Un-publish – To remove a page from viewing, click the green published check mark in the column next to it’s title. The icon will switch to a red x, and the article will no longer be available to the public – although you will still be able to view and edit the page. If you are removing a page from the site, you also need to turn it off in the Menu Manager (see below).

Trash – To delete a page, mark it’s checkbox (to the left of the title) and click the Trash icon (top right menu). This will not completely delete a page – the system maintains a ‘trash bin’ where deleted articles are held until you confirm that you want them permanently delete.

To update the text of any page, click it’s title and you’ll be taken here:

How to Insert an Image into an Article in Joomla

Posted on | January 4, 2010 | No Comments

To insert an image into an article, click the image button at the bottom left hand of the page and the following pop-up window will appear:

If the image has already been uploaded to the site and is in Joomla’s Media Manager then you can just click the image you want, followed by the Insert button at the top right of the page.

If you need to upload the image to the site, click the “Browse files” button on the bottom left of the window, and the next pop-up will appear:

Navigate to the file that you want to upload, highlight it and click Select. The system does not always work perfectly – IF it has worked, you will then see the file appear below the the Browse/Upload/Clear menu like this:

If the file name appears, you can then click ‘Start Upload’, wait for the file to upload and then show up in the thumbnails, highlight and click the Insert button at the top right of the menu.

If the file name does NOT appear, click “Browse files” again, and re-select the file to be uploaded. Then follow the above directions to insert the image into the page.

Changing Image Order in NextGen Galleries

Posted on | September 17, 2009 | No Comments

To set the order of images in your NextGen galleries do the following:

1. Go into ‘Manage Galleries’
2. Choose a Gallery to manage
3. Select ‘Sort Gallery’ above the list of images
   • If you do not see this option, go into the NextGen ‘Options’ Page
     
   • Go into the ‘Gallery’ Tab and set the Sort Option to ‘Custom Order’, now the ‘Sort Gallery’ button will be present as described above
     
4. Now you can drag and drop the images into the order you want

Wordpress SEO

Posted on | August 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, “the process of improving ranking in search engine results” (Wikipedia), and is very important in helping potential customers or readers find your blog.

The All in One SEO Pack plugin for Wordpress is a powerful solution for increasing your SEO and getting more pageviews and visits. It allows you to change various elements of your site which make your page come up higher on the results on Google.

The All in One SEO Pack allows you to change a number of features which will increase your number of visitors if done correctly.

• Plugin Status is whether the plugin is enabled or not. If you want the plugin’s features to work, be sure to select enabled.
• Home Title will set the title of your blog to whatever is in this box. The title of your pages is very important to SEO and should be short, sweet, and to the point. Pica Design recommends keeping the total word number under 10 words, all of which help accurately describe what is on the page (limiting words like a, the, and, etc.). Examples include: Donna’s Local Maine Pottery; GreenVision Environmentally Friendly Homes; or Maine Wedding Cakes, Specialty Catering and Gourmet Dining.
• Home Description is a good place to put the title of your blog if you didn’t use it in your title. It uses <META> tags, which are used less and less by modern search engines, but can still benefit your SEO. This space can also be used for a succinct description of what your website is about, for example “Maine Delights sells cakes for any occasion and is perfect for weddings or parties. We also offer catering for events and will ensure that your guests remember your function forever.”
• Home Keywordsalso use <META> tags, but as with Home Description, can still benefit your SEO. Use this space to put 40 to 50 unique words which describe your blog, product, or website.
• Canonical URLs will generate canonical URLs for all the pages on your site. This will help search engines better scan and crawl your content.
• Rewrite Titles will make the titles of your blog (what is displayed at the top of your browser) more search engine friendly. It will change titles like “Blog Archive >> Blog Name >> Post Title” to “Post Title | Blog Name” which increases your relevancy on search engines and makes it more readable as well.
• Post Title Format is what “Rewrite Titles” will rewrite titles to on posts. The most common setting is %post_title% | %blog_title% . (If you click on “Post Title Format” you can find a list of macros to customize your title.)
• Page Title Format is what “Rewrite Titles” will rewrite titles to on pages. The most common setting is %page_title% | %blog_title% . (If you click on “Page Title Format” you can find a list of macros to customize your title.)
• Category Title Formatis what “Rewrite Titles” will rewrite titles to on category. The most common setting is %category_title% | %blog_title% . (If you click on “Category Title Format” you can find a list of macros to customize your title.)
• Archive Title Formatis what “Rewrite Titles” will rewrite titles to on the archive. The most common setting is %date% | %blog_title% . (If you click on “Archive Title Format” you can find a list of macros to customize your title.)
• Tag Title Formatis what “Rewrite Titles” will rewrite titles to on tags. The most common setting is %tag% | %blog_title% . (If you click on “Tag Title Format” you can find a list of macros to customize your title.)
• Search Title Formatis what “Rewrite Titles” will rewrite titles to on searches. The most common setting is %search% | %blog_title% . (If you click on “Search Title Format” you can find a list of macros to customize your title.)
• Description Format is the <META> description that each of your posts will display. You can have it display tags other than just the description you write here. The default is %description%.
• 404 Title Format allows you to set the title of 404 error pages. The default is ‘Nothing found for %request_words%’
• Paged Format lets you change the titles of each page of your posts when they are more than one page long. The default is ‘ – Part %page%’
• Use Categories for META keywords automatically inserts the used categories into the META description.
• Dynamically Generate Keywords for Posts Page will automatically generate keywords for your page posts. “Check this if you want your keywords on a custom posts page (set it in options->reading) to be dynamically generated from the keywords of the posts showing on that page. If unchecked, it will use the keywords set in the edit page screen for the posts page.”
• Use noindex for Categories will keep your category pages from being seen by search engines, which will help keep duplicate content from search engines.
• Use noindex for Archives will keep your archive pages from being seen by search engines, which will help keep duplicate content from search engines.
• Use noindex for Tag Archives will keep your tag pages from being seen by search engines, which will help keep duplicate content from search engines.
• Autogenerate Descriptions will automatically generate descriptions for your posts if you don’t specify them yourself or if there’s no excerpt
• Capitalize Category Titles will capitalize the titles of your categories for you.
• Additional Post Headers will copy the text written into the headers of all your posts verbatim
• Additional Page Headers will copy the text written into the headers of all your pages verbatim
• Additional Home Headers will copy the text written into the header of your home page verbatim
• Log important events will log ‘important events’ into a .log file for debugging

Creating an eNews Campaign

Posted on | August 19, 2009 | No Comments

Start a New Campaign Log into Pica Design eNews Click ‘Create a new campaign’

Step 1: Define the Campaign and Sender Name the email campaign Enter the email subject line Give the campaign a from name (ex. My Company) Give the campaign a from Email address Give the campaign a Reply-To address Once your settings are right click ‘Next’

Step 2: Choose your Template Select ‘Use one of my templates’ Select the template Pica Design has created for you Click ‘Next’

Adding Content to your Template Note: There are 2 different types of content areas in most templates The Main article Multiple sub-articles

Main Article / Content Adding the Main content is as easy as clicking the edit icon for a certain section and modifying it, and Adding a main image if it applies to your template.

Sub-Articles By default, there is one sub-article for you to edit When clicking the edit icon you are presented with options to edit all aspects of each sub-article. Depending on your template, this is also where you can add an image for each sub-article When your ready to add another sub-article click ‘ADD NEW ITEM’

Preview and Define Recipients After you have added all your new content click ‘Preview Email’ At this point you can proof the email, make more changes, or if you are happy with the email, click ‘Define Recipients’ If you want to use a subscriber list you’ve already created, select the list and continue onto Step 5 below Or you can choose to create a list now Select ‘I will type in the recipients manually’ and click ‘Next’ Follow the instructions for adding email recipients, and click ‘Import These Recipients’ When you’re happy with the settings, click ‘Test and define delivery’

Testing your Email Campaign Here you can send a test of the current email Campaign to yourself for proofing Enter your email address and click ‘Send the test email’ Once you’ve gotten the campaign to look correct click ‘Skip the test’ which takes you to the Delivery Schedule Page

Scheduling your Email Campaign Here you can choose to deliver the campaign immediately or set a timer to schedule a later delivery Once you’re ready hit ‘Send Campaign Immediately’

WP-Cycle

Posted on | August 13, 2009 | No Comments

1.a

About WP-Cycle – Wordpress Plugin The WP-Cycle plugin allows you to upload images from your computer, which will then be used to generate a jQuery Cycle Plugin slideshow of the images. Each image can also be given a URL which, when the image is active in the slideshow, will be used as an anchor wrapper around the image, turning the image into a link to the URL you specified. The slideshow is set to pause when the user hovers over the slideshow images, giving them ample time to click the link. Images can also be deleted via the plugins Administration page.

Adding Slideshow Images

1. Open the WP-Cycle Administration (Fig 1.a)
2. Browse for an Image to upload.
   1. NOTE: If we have given you a script or instructions to compress / resize your images do this prior to uploading.

   

Adding Links to your Slideshow Images

1. Copy the URL address from your browser bar when viewing the page your linking to
2. Paste the address in the ‘Image Links To’ Field and hit ‘Update’

 

WP-Cycle Settings

Here you can modify the slideshow timing and transitions.

1. Transition Enabled – Check to enable transitions
2. Transition Effect – Choose the type of transition you want your slideshow to have.
3. Transition Delay – Set a numeric integer time here in seconds that you wish each image to stay on the screen before transitioning to the next.
4. Transition Length – Set a numeric integer time here in seconds that you want each transition to last

The other settings like Dimension and Div Id are made custom for your site please do not modify these settings.

 

OK! I’ve added the images, now what??

1. Navigate to your wordpress page that will house the slideshow
2. Add the following to your page’s content where you want the slideshow to live
   1. [wp-cycle]

Like So…

How to Login to Joomla

Posted on | July 23, 2009 | No Comments

The login page will usually be found at www.yourjoomladomain.com/administrator/index.php

The login page will look like this:

Login using the provided username and password. If this page stays open for more than ten minutes (without you logging in), it’s connection to the site will ‘expire’. When you enter your information and click ‘login’, the page will reload and you will see a notice that you need to reenter the information. This does not mean you don’t have the correct login information! Just enter the information again, and you’ll likely be able to get in.

If you have lost your login information it can nearly always be retrieved – don’t panic! If you’re a Pica customer just send us an email and we can easily reset your password. If you’re not, you should get in touch with whoever helped set up your site. If the administrator login is well and truly lost, you’ll need to go through the process of resetting it. There are instructions for that here, but we highly recommend that whoever does this should be a web programmer, you do not want to crash your site!

WordPress Widgets

Posted on | July 16, 2009 | No Comments

The last few versions of WordPress have included widgets. Widgets are a system which allows you to rearrange the content in your WordPress sidebar without having to manually change the code. Widgets can be found in the ‘Widgets’ button  under ‘Appearance.’

Several widgets come standard with WordPress, and others are bundled into plugins and are added to the list automatically. They are extremely easy to use, all you have to activate a widget is:

1. Drag the widget from the ‘Available Widget’ box into a sidebar on the right.
2. Click the gray triangle on the right side of one of the activated widgets to configure it.
   • N.B. Due to the huge variety of widgets it isn’t possible for us to explain the settings for each one. However, the default ones which are bundled with WordPress are all fairly intuitive. If you feel like you need more help, find the widget here, most of them have further instructions.

Some of the default widgets that are included with WordPress include:

• Archives – A collection of blog posts, sorted by month. Settings include title, an option to show post count by month, and an option to display the archives as a drop down menu.
• Calendar – A calendar showing on what days you have posted. Offers an option to display a title.
• Categories – Displays a list of categories, has a configurable title, as well as options to display the list in a drop down menu, to show post count, and to show the category hierarchy.
• Links – Displays the links in your blogroll, which can be set in the ‘links’ section of the WordPress backend. Settings include options to display link image, name, description, and rating.
• Meta – Offers a place to log in and out, view RSS feeds, and show WordPress links. Has a changable title.
• Pages – Displays a list of pages. Options include title, a way to sort pages, and a method to exclude certain pages by ID.
• Recent Comments – Shows recent comments which have been made on your posts. Lets you change the title and how many comments are shown.
• Recent Posts – Creates a list of recently published posts. Title and how many posts are shown are able to be set.
• RSS – Displays any RSS feed upon your page. Settings are the URL of the RSS feed to be displayed, the title of the feed, how many items which are to be displayed, and options to display feed content, author, and date.
• Search – Makes a search bar which can be used to search your blog. Has a customizable title.
• Tag Cloud – Displays a tag cloud of the tags which your blog posts use. Options allow you to change the title.
• Text – Displays any text or HTML to be displayed upon the page. Settings allow you to change the title and the text or HTML to be displayed, as well as the option to automatically add tags around paragraphs.

The NextGEN Gallery Widgets

Posted on | July 16, 2009 | No Comments

Another great feature of the NextGEN Gallery plugin is the widget it comes with. This widget makes it easy to display pictures on your WordPress sidebar without having to use another plugin or to write any code.

Using the widget is easy.

1. Follow the steps in WordPress Widgets to drag the NextGEN Gallery Widget or the NextGEN Gallery Slideshow widgets to your sidebar.
2. Define the title of either or both widgets (what you want to be displayed over your pictures or slideshow)
3. Select what galleries the pictures are coming from through the gallery selection in the NextGEN Gallery Slideshow or by inserting the gallery ID (found in ‘Gallery’ and then ‘Manage Galleries’) and selecting whether these should be included or excluded in the NextGEN Gallery Widget.
4. For the NextGEN Gallery Widget, select how many images you want to be displayed, whether they should be thumbnails or the original photos, and whether they should be in random order or in the order they were added.
5. Select the width and height of each. This is how big the single picture in the slideshow widget will be, or how big each of the Gallery pictures will be.

It’s as easy as that. Click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the widget and they should be displayed the next time you visit your WordPress site.

MapPress (Google Maps in Wordpress)

Posted on | July 16, 2009 | No Comments

MapPress is the easiest way to insert a map into a WordPress post, and it makes inserting driving directions and showing locations much faster.

1. Install the MapPress plugin (Contact Pica Design if you need help with this)
2. Open the MapPress box in the New Post or Page section and enter the address and the caption you want to be displayed in the post
3. Click ‘Save Address’
4. Click ‘Insert map in post’

MapPress also has options to change the width, height, and zoom level which maps will show. Pica will set this up for you, but if you want to change it for all posts go to ‘Settings’ and ‘MapPress’ and change the values to what you want them to be. If you want to change them for a specific map, the MapPress box used in the post page also has options to change the width, height, and zoom level of the map being inserted into your post.

keep looking »

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We are a graphic design company located in Belfast, Maine, offering a suite of services in print design, interactive design, strategic marketing support, research, guidance, and project management. Call us at 207-338-1740.

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