#1 — Introducing the WP CoP

Thanks to everyone who attended our first WordPress Community of Practice Gathering, held in Commons on June 24 and 25. For those unable to attend, here’s what was covered:

  • Introduction of the WordPress Community of Practice
  • Sneak peek of the new features in the soon to arrive upgrade to WordPress version 3.9.1
  • Open forum
    • Deleting pages, previewing pages
    • Finding and fixing broken links using the Broken Link Checker plugin. (If your WP site has the plugin activated, you can find it under Tools, if you want the plugin activated on one of your sites, email webteam@bates.edu.)
    • Creating and configuring forms
    • Why the first paragraph is emphasized and how to override it
    • Q: Can the style of links on bates.edu be more obvious?
      A: Yes, one feature of the remodel will be more obvious links.
    • Q: Can web editors have access to site usage analytics?
      A: Since this question was asked, the WebTeam has been working on bringing analytics into WordPress.
    • Q: Can we have a gallery of best practice?
      A: The User Showcase topic within our Google Group will give web editors a chance to highlight good work they’ve done on bates.edu. Over time this showcase will become a gallery of best practices.
    • Q: When uploading images into WordPress, what is the recommended resolution?
      A: Currently, web editors should resize images to be no taller than 1,080 pixels (HD) before uploading them into WordPress. The WebTeam is testing automated resize methods and hopes to address this issue in more detail.