Article Posting Checklist/Instructions
- Open all the documents and pictures. Start with editing the document.
- In the document, bold any headings. Authors or “Interview with” are bold and italicized. In interviews, the text “said” by SLD is completely italicized, while only the name of the person(s) being interviewed is bold. For instance:
o SLD: This is where SLD asks a question.
Interviewee: This is the response from the person.
In any articles with an author but with an introduction from SLD, the introduction written by SLD should generally be italicized to distinguish the two texts.
- Delete pictures, taking care to save the captions provided in the article by Robbin. Take note to make sure you know where certain pictures should go, although ultimately use your best judgment to place the pictures in an aesthetically pleasing way.
- Start a new post. Copy and paste the title exactly as it appears at the top of the article.
- Copy and paste the text of the article. The text should all be formatted. Do not copy and paste the title again, as WordPress will place the title automatically at the top of the post.
- At this point or earlier, change the post to private, select the appropriate categories (always at least “Review Post”) and “Update” it (this saves the post, and can/should be done throughout posting the article).
- At this point or after inserting the photos, do the excerpt. The excerpt should, unless it is an article written by SLD collectively, include the author or person(s) being interviewed in bold, the date in orange, and a small excerpt. HTML code must be used in the excerpt box. It should look like this in the excerpt box:
o <strong>By John Doe</strong> (or, <strong>An Interview with John Doe</strong>)
<span style=”color: #e85516;”>12/17/2010 – </span>This is the where the excerpt from the text goes. Use your best judgment—try to pick something that gives the reader a snippet of information and grabs their interest.
- As always, update frequently to save your work.
- Insert the date in the article, at the beginning of the text, just like in the excerpt box. The code for the orange color used for the date is like in the HTML code for the excerpt: #e85516. If you’re not sure of the date, put it in and leave blanks—Murielle will change it to the appropriate date when she posts it.
- Edit the photos in Adobe. Take a printscreen, then in Adobe go to file, new, image from clipboard. Crop the image so it is just the photo. Go to file, save for web. Change the picture to a JPEG, and then right underneath to “medium.” Change the size of the picture by the width—always try to keep the picture to a size of 25K or less. The picture doesn’t need to be more than 800 pixels wide generally, although it can be resized easily in WordPress. Save the picture however is easiest for you to insert the picture correctly into WordPress.
- Toggle to the fullscreen mode in WordPress to insert the pictures (or whenever it is easier for you to work this way).
- Insert each picture where it is supposed to go using the insert picture button. Browse your computer for the jpeg file and upload each picture to insert it. It is very important that each picture have a title visible in the article, including a credit for the picture. Copyright laws are important for the credibility of SLD. So, in the box where a picture is inserted, in the first box (“Title”), there is generally a caption (though not always), and always a credit. It would look something like this: A B-2 Spirit dropping Mk 82 bombs into the Pacific Ocean in a 1994 training exercise off Point Mugu, California. (Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_82_bomb)
The “credit” should be put in parentheses, with “Credit:” before the website or person being credited. If SLD took the photo, then the credit is simply “SLD.”
Take this text in the “title” box and copy and paste it into the “alternate text” box.
***If you wish to have the picture aligned to the left, then copy and paste the same text into the third box, “caption.” If you want the picture in the center, leave the caption box blank. Try to mix up left alignment and center alignment for aesthetic purposes. If you center the picture, you must copy and paste the text from the “title” box underneath the picture after it has been inserted. Center the caption and italicize it.
If you aren’t given a credit for the photo, always ask Robbin or Murielle, whoever sent you the article to post (usually Robbin).
Try to pick an appropriate size for the picture. Not too big, not too small—use your judgment.
- Add tags in the “Post Tags” section on the right if you feel comfortable.
- Update the post.
- If ever in doubt, always try to copy previous posts. It doesn’t matter so much what the formatting for the articles is, what matters is that everything look alike. So, you can always go into any post and look at the formatting of that post.