Site Management Resources
This evolving resource contains important information to assist site administrators and editors in site construction and maintenance.
Open Labs are conducted from 9:00-10:00am the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. These sessions are recorded and posted here for reference. Use the contact form below to submit topics for discussion at an Open Labs session.
Zoom Meeting: 9:00 a.m. on 1st & 3rd Thursday of month. See newsletter for details.
Open lab videos [YouTube Channel]
November 16, 2023: [67 min] – click to see content list.
November 2, 2023: [50 min] – click to see content list.
events calendar public/private separation, WooCommerce possibilities, King County issues with accordions in Firefox, hover text on social icons, the mobile experience, November/December open labs schedule, Clark County url for menu items, breadcrumb review, scrolling (fixed) Hero Image, carousel scroll rates, redirecting old site at go-live, site emails (basic or office365), user roles and capabilities.
October 19, 2023: [53min] – click to see content list.
block editing toolbar functionality and document overview section, accordions (2 types) – how to use and style, moving blocks using the document overview section, a look at Pierce County plant sale page concept, aligning Hero image content, adding icons to buttons, a look at King County fund raising thermometer, short discussion of html and javascript permissions, page redirects when search engines index old urls after changing them on site.
Videos of previous sessions
September 21, 2023: [52min] – click to see content list.
changes to editing toolbar, mobile display-menu’s and buttons, css for password page to add border for input field – unresolved, menu icon review and icons for blocks and buttons, how to open menu item in new tab, exporting contact form entries, site statistics, numbering post slugs
September 7, 2023: [60min] – click to see content list.
Menu Icons plugin, Admin Menu Tree Page View plugin, Page hierarchy – Usability & Web Accessibility (yale.edu), accessibility testing, Island County ask about member directories and need for captions, adding a GivePulse logo and link, some general discussion to make Open Labs better.
August 17, 2023: [61min] – click to see content list.
adding GTranslate to menu, menu item spacing, breadcrumbs revisited, displaying newsletter posts, adding GTranslate to menu
August 3, 2023: [48min] – click to see content list.
site translation using GTranslate, HTML anchors (aka menu anchors), member databases – maybe try PODs plugin.
July 20, 2023: [49min] – click to see content list.
post feed (query loops), preventing comments, breadcrumb options, general discussion – King County events, stock image discussion.
July 06, 2023: [41min] – click to see content list.
parallax image and other settings in Hero banner, menu title attributes, discussion of plugin updates, which counties are in the pipeline.
June 15, 2023: [1hr: 20min] – click to see content list.
mobile menus, changes in block formatting (WP or plugin updates?), security and backups, replacing media, Tablepress, carousels, options for future MGFWS podcasts.
June 01, 2023: [50 min] – click to see content list.
QR codes (static vs dynamic), Secure PDFs using PDF Embedder plugin (pros and cons), Site management resources page (changes and goals), customizing social icons, site security
May 18, 2023: [56 min] – click to see content list.
creating site redirects, allow search engine indexing, Cloudflare dashboard. zip archive and local hosting of old site, Google Analytics, formatting blocks with shadows.
May 4, 2023: [1hr: 34min] – click to see content list.
responsive sites, pages, blocks, block visibility on small devices, embedding Google map code, block sizing (spacing, paddings, margins) and more.
April 20, 2023: [1hr.-18min] – click to see content list.
menus (mobile & footer), fine tune formatting for mobile, site accessibility, embedding & viewing PDFs.
April 6, 2023 [48min]
March 30, 2023 [12min]
March 16, 2023 [27min]
Submit a topic(s) for Open Lab discussion
Click to open submission form.
WP documentation & tutorials
Usability & Web Accessibility
The following links direct you to yale.edu for usability best practices.
Site accessibility
- WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools (webaim.org) [test your pages]
Video – Designing for accessibility – WordPress.tv
Theme and plugin videos
Customizing Blog Archive Page – Blocksy Theme.
Grow Beyond Posts & Pages with Pods – introduction.
Build anything with Pods – a workshop.
Email and SMTP
Domain email
Does your county provide domain-based email accounts for board members and others? Are using Microsoft 365 accounts?
- Our hosting provider offers Titan email with 1GB storage,
- Microsoft offers Office 365 non-profit accounts which provide Office apps, Exchange email, 1TB Onedrive, Sharepoint and more..
- Let us know if you wish to use either of these email options so we can facilitate your configuration.
SMTP & Contact Forms
Contact forms send email and you may have problems if not configured properly. We have a plugin to help.
- WP Mail SMTP allows you to configure your site to send email in a manner that reduces the chances of it being tagged as spam.
- You can see an explanation here about why a plugin like WP Mail SMTP is desirable.
- DMARC message in WP Mail SMTP may be ingnored if you are using Hostinger’s Titan email because DNS is configured with an alternative DKIM. You don’t need to know the technical description, just ignore DMARC messages.
- Let us know if your Contact form emails are not being delivered or you have questions about setting up WP Mail SMTP..
Configure email app for Titan IMAP email
- Email address: Your full email address
- Password: Your Titan email Password
- Incoming server: imap.titan.email
- Encryption: SSL/TLS (Port: 993)
- Outgoing server: smtp.titan.email
- Encryption: STARTTLS (Port: 587)
- Encryption: SSL/TLS (Port: 465)
Domain Forwarding
Retention of your previous domain and forwarding it to your new site is a recommended option for maintaining continuity between your old and new sites.
It is important to begin the discussion early to identify the necessary steps to take for your specific configuration.
Gutenberg vs. Classic Editor?
What’s best for you and how to select your preference.
The WordPress Gutenberg editor has become the default WordPress page editor and undergone dramatic improvement since inception. However, many users find Gutenberg intimidating and clunky with a preference for the Classic editor or other options.
Two plugins have been added to give site admins classic editor options.
- Advanced Editor Tools
- Classic Editor
Gutenberg remains the default editor, but Classic and/or Classic Paragraph may be selected when selecting a block to insert.
Once a Classic block has been inserted, the user may toggle between Classic and Block view for that block. But if a Gutenberg block was first inserted, it will always be a Gutenberg block.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs – two methods:
- Blocksy native breadcrumbs
- Add shortcode block and insert the text blocksy_breadcrumbs and enclose with [ ] brackets.
- In Customizer – General – Breadcrumbs; select Default as the Breadcrumbs Source
- Breadcrumb NavXT – 2 ways to accomplish this.
- Add shortcode block and insert the text blocksy_breadcrumbs and enclose with [ ] brackets.
- In Customizer – General – Breadcrumbs; select Default as the Breadcrumbs Source
- or insert Breadcrumb Trail block
- Format in Settings – Breadcrumb NavXT
- Add shortcode block and insert the text blocksy_breadcrumbs and enclose with [ ] brackets.