Wordpress Instructions for MyHousegretchenshouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/wordpress...Wordpress passwords are private. I didn’t get my Wordpress login info/I can’t login

Updated 12.2014

Wordpress Instructions for MyHouse Guidelines for Head Teachers, Program Directors, and Directors

©2009-2014 Gretchen’s House, Inc.

Contents MyHouse Wordpress Login Info: .................................................................................................................. 2

Posting to MyHouse Pages............................................................................................................................ 3

Adding Links to a Post ................................................................................................................................... 5

Adding Photos (or Files) to Posts or Pages ................................................................................................... 6

Using the Gallery Function ............................................................................................................................ 7

Optimizing Photos for the Web ................................................................................................................... 8

Editing Photos in Wordpress ......................................................................................................................... 9

Calendars, Flyers, and other Special Files ................................................................................................... 11

Using Notes ................................................................................................................................................. 13

Suggestions for Classroom Page Posts ........................................................................................................ 14

Posting Tips ................................................................................................................................................. 15

www.gretchenshouse.com

LOGGING IN-2-

MyHouse Wordpress Login Info: Wordpress is the program HTs, program directors, and directors use to post things to MyHouse pages. Go to your center’s MyHouse page by going to our website/parents/myhouse and selecting the appropriate center. (Make sure you are on your MyHouse page, not just www.gretchenshouse.com).

If your computer hasn’t been logged in to MyHouse for a while, it will first ask you to login as a viewer. This is a small pop-up window– the username is myhouse, the password is homeagain[center number]. (For example, Mt. Vernon = homeagain01, Mt. Vernon is -02, and so on. Little Huskies = 09, ELCC=10). Once you are into myhouse, you can log in to post. At the bottom of the left side of the page, you’ll see the word login. Click that.

All usernames and passwords are case-sensitive. Now you may compose and edit your posts.

FAQ

My computer didn’t make me login to MyHouse before logging in to Wordpress. Your computer has recently been logged into MyHouse and it stored the info. No problem.

It’s too many passwords to remember. For your convenience, you may post the viewing passwords for Parents, Staff, and MyHouse on computers in staff workspaces. Wordpress passwords are private.

I didn’t get my Wordpress login info/I can’t login with my Wordpress credentials. Double check you do not have caps lock on. Re-set your password using the login prompts, or contact Beth for assistance.

FYI: The following passwords are for access to view pages:

GENERAL PARENTS PAGES: password = quality09 GENERAL STAFF PAGES: password = hergenreder09 GENERAL SUB PAGES: password = davis09 MYHOUSE( username myhouse): password=homeagain+centernumber (see above) ANN ARBOR P.A.G.(for PAG members only): password = teamwork09


OPTIMIZING PHOTOS-3-

Posting to MyHouse Pages Log into the WordPress dashboard using your username and password.

• Select New Post (see left sidebar) to compose a new post. (Click on “drafts” to view/edit previous drafts.) Title your post.

• Make sure the visual tab at the top of the text box is selected. • Type your text into the box. Format using the formatting buttons. • Be sure to check the appropriate category for your classroom. • TAG the post with key words for easy searching (e.g., field trip, newsletter, songs, etc.) • Double check that you selected the appropriate category, if applicable. Then click Submit for

Review in the publish box. ***Click Save Draft to save your work as you go. Use Preview to check your work before finalizing. TO ADD PHOTOS OR DOCUMENTS: See detailed instructions on p. 6 TO SCHEDULE A POST FOR THE FUTURE: As soon as you submit for review, use the Posts menu to select Edit Posts. Hover your mouse over the title of your post. Select Quick Edit from the floating menu that appears. In the Quick Edit window that opens up, set the desired time and date (detailed diagram on next page). Click update post. Once approved, your post will wait in the queue and be automatically posted as scheduled.

More visual aids on next page!

ROLL YOUR MOUSE OVER THE POST TITLE IN THE “EDIT POSTS” WINDOW TO SEE THE QUICK EDIT OPTION.

PUBLISH BOX

VISUAL TAB

SUBMIT FOR REVIEW


VISUAL POST GUIDE -4-

TITLE

SAVE DRAFT

PREVIEW

CLICK HERE WHEN POST IS READY

KEYWORD TAGS

VISUAL TAB

SAVED NOTES SHOW UP HERE

COMPOSE NOTES TO REVIEWERS HERE

WRITE POST HERE

YOU CAN DISALLOW COMMENTS HERE IF DESIRED.

SELECT CLASSROOM

CLICK HERE TO SCHEDULE YOUR POST FOR A SPECIFIC DATE/TIME AFTER YOU SAVE DRAFT or SUBMIT.


ADDING LINKS-5-

Adding Links to a Post

You may link to articles on www.naeyc.org, www.aap.org (American Academy of pediatrics), www.highschope.org, or www.zerotothree.org without prior approval. To link elsewhere, check with your director first.

In the compose window, highlight the text you want to make into a link and click the link button.

This window will open up:

Type or paste* the URL into the Link URL line.

Unless you are linking to a different GH page, be sure the target line has OPEN IN NEW WINDOW selected. Otherwise, clicking the link will take people away from the GH site.

Don’t worry about the other options!

Click Insert.

*To copy a URL, highlight it in the browser bar, then click control + c simultaneously. To paste this snippet, go to the place you want to paste it and click control + v simultaneously.

LINK BUTTON

TARGET

LINK URL


http://www.naeyc.org/

http://www.aap.org/

http://www.highschope.org/

http://www.zerotothree.org/

PHOTOS -6-

Adding Photos (or Files) to Posts or Pages

IMPORTANT: optimize photos first! and name your files something recognizable, i.e., PSArtWinter2010. Any text files you upload to the website should be in PDF format. To create a PDF version of any Microsoft Word or Publisher document, click file/save as, then select PDF from the pull-down menu options. This is an option for all computers running Office 2007 or later. From the compose post dashboard, click on add media.

This window opens up:

Click on Select Files to browse your computer. Navigate to the file(s) you want to post. (Load more than one at once by holding down the control button as you click on files.) Click open. If you select several pictures, you’ll get a window that looks like the following: Click on the word show next to each file to edit it. (This is the same if you just loaded one picture). If you’re uploading a file, you’re done.

Edit the caption, alignment (right), and size as needed. When you have edited your single picture, be sure to click insert into post/page at the bottom of the insert picture. If you uploaded more than one photo, use the Gallery settings described below.

*** If you don’t want a caption, type a few spaces into the caption bar. If you don’t do this, the photo won’t have the nice purple border.

Select files

CAPTION*** here

Don’t forget to click insert!


PHOTOS -7-

Using the Gallery Function The best way to post more than one photo is to use the gallery function (otherwise it is very difficult to get them to align properly, etc.). The gallery tab is located in the top left corner of the Media Library window. Click on Create gallery. Click to select several pictures you’d like included. After using show/hide to edit each individual picture in your list, click save all changes. Scroll to the bottom of that window, which now shows the gallery settings.

Click to link thumbnails to the image file. Click on the create gallery button (bottom right).

In the Edit Gallery window:

• Link to: media file • Select columns (2-3) • Drag thumbnails to re-order images • Caption images below each thumbnail • Click on create gallery.

The Compose Post window will now display a big blue box rather than the pictures. Use the preview function to see how the photos look. They will be small versions of themselves, but if viewers click on the photo, they will see the bigger version.

TO EDIT A PHOTO (for example, fix a caption) THAT’S ALREADY IN A POST, click on the photo in the Compose window. Selection handles will frame the photo and the icons will appear in the top left corner of the picture. Click on the photo icon to edit it, the red button to delete. These icons disappear after a few seconds so click the photo again if you don’t see them. You can edit your gallery the same way you edit an image.

Remember to save all edits to your post and click submit for review.


OPTIMIZING PHOTOS-8-

Optimizing Photos for the Web

If your digital camera is set to take high resolution photos, they will be too large to post directly on the website. You can set your camera to take average resolution photos (which are fine for child portfolios and many other projects), or you can alter the files after taking them. When you upload pictures to MyHouse, always optimize them first to reduce the file size*. This ensures they aren’t too large or too slow to load. Navigate to the computer location that has the photo you want to use. Right-click the photo and select open with…Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Click on Edit pictures in the top toolbar. A right side toolbar will open up. APPEARANCE First, try clicking autocorrect. If this doesn’t make the picture look better, click undo in the top toolbar. If autocorrect does fix it, skip ahead to crop. (You can undo each step as you go.)

To fix any flaws, use the right side toolbar options. You can manually adjust brightness, color, rotate, and red eye from this menu. After each item, at the bottom right of the screen, click on return to edit picture and proceed to the next thing that needs work.

FRAME

To crop the picture, select crop from the right side toolbar. Selection handles will appear. Drag them to the desired position. Click ok.

*FILE SIZE (Note: cropping only affects what part of the photo displays, not the actual size of the file).

Now you need to resize the picture. If resize doesn’t show up in the right hand toolbar, select it from the top toolbar by going to the picture pull-down menu, then selecting resize.

In the right-hand Resize Settings panel, the easiest way to resize a picture is to use the predefined width x height option. Select “e-mail large”, then click okay.

When your picture is how you want it, from the File menu at the top of the screen, select Save As, then give the file a name and save it in the same location as the original. If the picture only has a number, give it a keyword name like ToddlersSledding09 and add the word web to the title (“toddlerssledding09_web). If it already has a name, just add web to the title (i.e., Lea_web). This way the file name tells you that you have an optimized picture.

The end result should be a file that is under 100 KB in size – most pictures end up quite a bit smaller.

***IMPORTANT: When you go to close Microsoft Picture Manager, it will say you have unsaved changes. Select DON’T SAVE unless you want to modify the original photo permanently.***


EDITING PHOTOS-9-

Editing Photos in Wordpress

If you forget to optimize your photos before uploading them, or you don’t have Microsoft Picture Manager on your computer, you can use Wordpress functions to make basic edits on photos: resizing, cropping, rotating, or flipping horizontally and vertically.

To edit photos that have already been uploaded to Wordpress, navigate to the Media Library and double click it to open. Find the image you want to work with in the list of images. If you roll your mouse over the image title, options appear.

Double click Edit.

The next window looks like this:

Here you can edit the caption and description (keywords or tags – the field for this is not pictured here). Remember to click Update Media to save your work.

Click on Edit Image under the thumbnail to get to the photo editing options.

ToddlersShavingCreamOct09




EDITING PHOTOS-10-

This is what the edit window looks like:

Images for the website should be around 300 pixels wide. If yours is larger, resize it BEFORE ANY OTHER EDITING by double clicking the Scale button. In the window that opens (pic below), type 300 into the left blank box. Wordpress will automatically select the appropriate vertical number for the right box to. Click Scale. Click save.

Crop, rotate, flip, or resize your photo using the buttons indicated by arrows above. When you are satisfied with your changes, be sure to SAVE your changes. Then click Update Media to exit this window.

CROP

SCALE = RESIZE FLIP ROTATE UNDO REDO

SMART CROP (click on help button for tips)

SAVE

Enter 300 in this first box to resize.

SCALE

GIVE IT A MEANINGFUL TITLE HERE



CALENDARS AND FLYERS -11-

Calendars, Flyers, and other Special Files

Any text files you upload to the website should be PDF format. To create a PDF version of any Microsoft document, click file/save as, then select PDF from the pull-down menu options. This is an option for all computers running Office 2007. Staff have two options for posting classroom calendars.

You can use the google calendar tabs to print the whole center calendar or one color of it (if your center has different colors for wings or classrooms.) View the calendar page of your MyHouse.

Click on the down arrow at the top right corner of the calendar. Select the calendars you want to include on your printed calendar.

Click on the print icon. In the print calendar preview window, select font size as desired.

To make a hard copy to post, click on Print. To save a digital copy, click Save As. Give the Calendar an appropriate title and save it to your computer.

You may also create a calendar in Publisher using the GH template or guidelines. Templates are loaded on the computers at every center. Depending on which version of Publisher is loaded on your computer,

Pull-down menu

Print/Save As

Font size


CALENDARS AND FLYERS -12-

there are different ways to create official GH calendars. Detailed instructions are on the website under staff tools, or use this link: http://www.gretchenshouse.com/staff/teacher-tools/templates-and-guides/#USING TEMPLATES. Save the calendar as a PDF.

Once you have a PDF calendar to post, make sure it has an appropriate title (including Date and Classroom name!) before uploading it to Wordpress within the post window. If you load it in the Media Library, the calendar will not show up in a post unless you put it there or link to it. (See the directions for adding items on p.6.)

FLYERS

MyHouse is meant to streamline communications, so we only use “click-to-view” flyers or documents when important formatting would be lost if we pasted the info into a post directly. In addition, flyers take up a lot of space on the server and make posts slow to load.

• Post a flyer/document for these items: calendars, permission slips, items requiring a response. • Cut and paste the info from these items into a post: times, dates, and event descriptions;

reminders; letters to the group (introducing new staff, for example).

If you upload a flyer that uses too much space, it will be deleted and you’ll need to repost the info.


USING NOTES -13-

Using Notes

The notes function allows us to communicate using the Wordpress dashboard. There are two kinds of notes: collaboration notes, and general notes.

Collaboration notes are attached to a particular post. If you have trouble with pictures or a link and don’t have time to troubleshoot it, you can leave a note to the reviewers here. The reviewer may also leave you a note here – either a compliment or a request for edits. If your

Administrators receive your post note when you submit a post for review.

The picture at right shows the interface for collaboration notes.

General Notes are available for any of your center’s MyHouse users to see. You might get a message from the webmaster or Beth, or you might write a note to your peers to let them know you have posted about something that pertains to their room, and therefore included their category. E.g., “Railroad teachers, I posted our potluck reminder to everyone’s room.”

Both Collaboration Notes and General Notes show up in your dashboard when you log into Wordpress.

Compose your note here.

Within the compose post window, saved notes show up here.


SUGGESTIONS FOR CLASSROOM POSTS -14-

Suggestions for Classroom Page Posts

REMINDERS

Upcoming events

• Clothing or material needs • Remove shoes before entering classroom in winter, etc.

CLASSROOM NEWS

• Welcomes, Goodbyes, Birthdays • Quotes and anecdotes • Favorite songs, activities, books • Parent involvement opportunities

CURRICULUM

• Highlight themes in your planning and children’s play. • Describe an activity:

o What skills are children developing with this activity? o Explain how process is more important than product. o Suggest ways parents can extend play at home

• Explain how a photo of children at play shows how much they are learning o For example, block play can include seriation, classification, and other math and reading

skills. o Use the Interest Center flyers and Active Learning Brochures for ideas and terminology.

• Link to GH publications (Active Learning, Purple Pages, Interest Area Sheets) that relate to the children in your class, or articles from NAEYC, zerotothree.org, or aap.org (American Academy of Pediatrics). Check with your director before linking to any other outside site other than those three.

• Share classroom stories, kid conversations, or project descriptions.

PHOTOS

• A picture tells a thousand words – it’s true. Parents love to see snapshots of their kids engaged with interesting activities and people.

• If you post something that shows curriculum, include a brief explanation of what’s going on in the body of the post.

• Scrutinize pictures from an outsider’s point of view. Does anything look unsafe? Dirty? Are the children happy?


POSTING TIPS -15-

Posting Tips • Post at least once each week. • Separate “housekeeping” posts – dates, calendar notes, events, reminders—from curriculum

posts. • Posts do not have to be lengthy or involved – touching base is fine. • You can write posts in advance to be posted later – some people may find it easier to write

several posts in one session. Go to Edit Posts, then select Quick Edit from the menu below the post in question to change the posting date.

• Be sure to proofread your post for clarity, spelling, and grammar. • If you post a reminder that applies to all the classrooms at your center, why not coordinate your

efforts and select every classroom category? This saves time and makes the summary e-mails tidier. • Teachers who post should subscribe to the automatic e-mail updates so you can see how your posts

read when they are compiled. • It is great for centers to share posts. For example, if one center director shares recommended books

for a particular subject, the other directors can copy it and share it. Be sure to give credit. For example, “Lea Augustine, Director at GH-Traver, recently compiled a list of books about feelings that I thought you might find interesting: [insert post].” You must copy the text and paste it, rather than link to it, because parents won’t be able to log in to other centers.

ARE YOU WONDERING WHY YOU GOT EDITED?

• Tone: It can be hard to discern tone with electronic communications. We tweak wording to ensure it is neutral/appropriate.

• Typos: We correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. A sentence that calls for an exclamation point only needs one!

• Clarity: We adjust wording where meaning might not be clear to casual readers; we clarify procedures or practices where parents might have concerns.

We know that teachers have widely varying writing skills, and that posts are often composed on the fly. We expect to do minor editing for the majority of posts, so please don’t feel criticized.


Documents

Wordpress Instructions for MyHousegretchenshouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/wordpress...Wordpress passwords are private. I didn’t get my Wordpress login info/I can’t login