Hi All, As you may know, Bates, led by ILS, has partnered with Goodkind, an AI chatbot, to improve the user experience across our website. This new tool uses our site’s content to provide quick answers and assistance to users — all in the chat format they’re increasingly looking for. Early Access for YouBefore the…
Dear WordPress Community, We are excited to share with you recent changes and accessibility improvements that have been made in WordPress this morning, as well as an offer of personalized WordPress training. Update to 6.6 This morning, we updated the instance of WordPress running www.bates.edu to the most recent version, 6.6. Most of this update’s changes are…
One of the most powerful ways we can improve the accessibility of our website is the creation of alternative text for images. Alternative text, or alt text, is a concise text description conveying the content or purpose of an image. Of our website’s 36,000 images, some are missing alt text — therein lies our opportunity.…
Emergency Example Our Emergency Banner is the one banner option that defaults to presenting open (it can be minimized by clicking the X). The status and content of the banner itself are driven by our cloud-based Emergency website, emergency.bates.edu. The text elements, timestamp, and click-through link of this banner can all be customized, with the…
Hi all, The Webteam would like to draw your attention to two new features we recently added to WordPress which are likely to be useful for you. Block Patterns Do you have a bunch of information, but are not sure of the best way to present it? Block patterns give you the ability to insert…
The Hidden, Scheduled and Expiring Content Block allows WordPress users to control the visibility of specific content on individual pages and posts on any Bates website they have access to. This block provides two main features: content visibility restriction and content scheduling. Most other WordPress blocks, such as Media & Text, Columns, or Foldaways, can…
What is a Block Pattern Block Patterns are a collection of predefined blocks that you can insert into pages and posts and then customize with your own content. Using a Block Pattern is an easy way to create beautiful layouts that combine different blocks to produce professional designs. Most of our Block Patterns at Bates…
Dear WordPress Community, We are excited to share with you the recent changes and updates that WordPress has made to their interface as part of WordPress Version 6.2 These changes are relatively minor but they do improve the overall user experience and it’s always helpful to stay up to date with the most recent version…
The Faculty Expertise website — bates.edu/faculty-expertise — features profiles for members of the Bates faculty that are easily searchable by the college’s many audiences, including prospective students, parents and families, journalists, and prospective faculty.
Each faculty profile includes academic titles, department/program associations, relevant expertise, and contact information. Many faculty members have also chosen to include photos, biographical information, and professional links.
The profile information in Faculty Expertise — whether drawing from Banner or user-provided information— will automatically flow into two places: The Faculty Expertise website, and all associated departmental/programatic websites.
The Faculty Expertise website — bates.edu/faculty-expertise — features profiles for members of the Bates faculty that are easily searchable by the college’s many audiences, including prospective students, parents and families, journalists, and prospective faculty.
Each faculty profile includes academic titles, department/program associations, relevant expertise, and contact information. Many faculty members have also chosen to include photos, biographical information, and professional links.
The profile information in Faculty Expertise — whether drawing from Banner or user-provided information— will automatically flow into two places: The Faculty Expertise website, and all associated departmental/programatic websites.
Question I published a new post to appear on my Latest Updates page, but I’m not seeing it appear on that page. How long before the public can view this new post? It seems to be taking a long time, and maybe I missed a step. Answer This is a common question. Maybe you’ve found…
Hi all, We’ve just finished up some updates to the “featurettes” (the three large colorful panels that can show on your site’s landing page to feature content). Specifically there are two new enhancements that we hope will make featuring content easier and more intuitive. Enhancement #1 – optional start/end dates You can set a “start”…
Dear Bates WordPress Community, In an ongoing effort to keep our website up to date, safe, and easy to manage, this past Wednesday we upgraded WordPress to the latest version, 5.8. Thanks to Jake and SDI for keeping us on the cutting edge. Here are the key changes to look out for: Widgets/Sidebars can now use…
Check out the documentation below to learn how we maintain a clear and consistent workflow for all Bates College YouTube uploads. Upload Workflow to the Bates College YouTube Channel (Google Doc) Upload Workflow to the Bates College YouTube Channel (PDF)
Below are two ways to embed a Google Slideshow/Presentation within the Bates.edu WordPress environment. The “Advanced” way is slightly more lengthy but has the advantage that the slides will automatically resize to the optimum size based on the size of the screen. Open your slide presentation, pull down the File menu and select Publish to…
So what’s the problem? And what’s a block? One of the things you hear a lot about during discussions of Gutenberg are blocks. These blocks are a unified way to style content that currently requires shortcodes, embeds, widgets, post formats, custom post types, theme options, meta-boxes, and other formatting elements. By allowing rich customization without…
I’m pleased to announce that yesterday we upgraded WordPress to its most recent version (5.3). One change you’ll notice immediately is the little blue eye in the password field of the login screen (screenshot below). This new icon allows you to view your password if you want to. It’s a small change and nothing to be leery…
1. Classic Editor vs. Block Editor If you started using WordPress before December 2018, then you’ll recognize the Classic Editor. For years, the Classic Editor was the default content editor in WordPress. It’s similar in appearance and functionality to word processors like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. In December of 2018, WordPress released a new…
1. What are Featurettes? Featurettes are the three pieces of content that appear horizontally across some website homepages between the menu and page content. By prominently featuring three pieces of visual content on your site’s homepage, Featurettes can help your visitors find your site’s most valuable content. 2. How can I add Featurettes to my…
A big thanks to everyone who made it out to our WordPress Community of Practice gathering on August 28th. For the second straight gathering, we fit 29 people into Pettengill’s second floor computer lab. We had great audience engagement, with shared questions and issues that we worked through as a group in realtime. If you…
Changes to WordPress? WordPress is ready with version 5.0: a major upgrade that changes the look and feel of features you’ve become accustomed to. Maybe you can’t wait to play with it. Or maybe, if you’re like most people, the prospect of yet another unsolicited WordPress upgrade is a bit bothersome! In next Thursday’s gathering,…
Hi Everyone, You’re receiving this email because you are able to edit part of Bates’ public website — www.bates.edu. I’m writing to let you know about a resource that can make your work easier. Bates’ public website is powered by a content management system called WordPress. The WordPress Community of Practice is a group of 376 campus web…
Hi All, Happy summer! One-on-one, in person WordPress support Whether you’re new to WordPress, need a refresher, or just want a second opinion on your website’s content, you’re in luck.BCO’s newest Digital Communications Assistant, Ted Burns ’19, can meet with you individually to provide instruction on the nuts and bolts of WordPress. To schedule time…
Parent Sites Included We’ve made an improvement to our site’s breadcrumb structure that allows site managers to articulate their site’s parent site. Previously, our breadcrumbs skipped from the root site (“Bates”) directly to the current site (in this case “African American Studies”). Old The shortcoming of this prior behavior is that parent sites weren’t included…
Today we are releasing two new enhancements to our image galleries as well as a couple of fixes. Optional Thumbnails You can now add clickable thumbnails to the bottom of a gallery by adding the attribute thumbnails=”true” to the gallery shortcode. If you are an advanced user, you can also customize the size of the…
Overview On Thursday, November 9th 2017, Dave Ernst, Bates’ Digital Content Specialist, hosted a Social Media Workshop as part of our Communications Community of Practice. Dave’s workshop was focused on benefits and mechanics of paid content promotions with Facebook and Instagram. Why pay to make content more visible? Dave started by explaining how organic reach…
This morning we upgraded the college’s public WordPress instance from 4.6 to 4.8. We’re now running the most recent version of WordPress, which introduces a few new helpful features. New Features of 4.8 New widgets include Image, Video, Audio, and Rich Text. Embedding images/video/audio files in the sidebar no longer requires knowledge of HTML. Similarly,…
New virtual tour of campus Bates has partnered with YouVisit to create a virtual tour of our campus. From YouVisit’s website: “Virtual campus tours include 360° media, layered with interactive elements that put students in control of their journey through your campus. Viewable across desktop, mobile, and VR, tours decrease cost-per-enrollment while increasing physical campus…
In order to combat the scourge of real “fake news,” Facebook is implementing a change to its API (application program interface) where non-publisher pages (publisher = verified news media, sports and entertainment) including Bates will NOT be able to edit the metadata of the links they post to their Facebook page. Article about policy change…
“Can I have editing access to this site?” The most common question we’ve been receiving about WordPress is, “Can I have editing access to this site?” So far, the answer has always been, “Yes.” Going forward, the answer won’t change, but the person granting access will. Given how popular requests for access are, and how…
Happening on Thursday, May 19, starting at 3 p.m. in Commons 226. Download WP CoP – May 2016 (PDF) Agenda Results of A/B test and Qualaroo survey Managing Widgets Share WordPress help resources Lynda.com WordPress Tutorial Playlist Faculty Expertise and The Quad Open Forum, Office Hours
When, where January 28, 2:00-3:00pm, Commons 226 Recap Style Audit The Style Audit is a collection of visual enhancements aimed at 1) Improving the user experience of our website 2) Bringing more consistency across sites to strengthen the brand Launched December 16, 2015 Overall, launch went well Outstanding issues CTA button size in sidebar Larger…
There’s a very strong precedent for effective student web workers at Bates. 12/12 supervisors surveyed reported positive experience, and recommend working with students on the web.
When, where September 29, 10:00am-11:00am, Commons 226 Presentation Download the presentation (PDF) Agenda Recent changes in WordPress New Fonts, server upgrade, Qualaroo survey, columns shortcode, toolbar configuration, WordPress 4.3.1 upgrade, email newsletters and blogs. Looking ahead Style Audit, The Quad. Open Forum Q: Who can we contact when Nick isn’t available? A: Barry Costa, BCO’s Senior…
Our 9th WordPress Community of Practice Gathering was held on March 25th, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. in Commons 226. Description Global Navigation: New vs. Old The current iteration of the global navigation (launched Nov. 3) receives 2.1x more clicks than the past iteration (known as the Ubermenu). Trends in device usage In the past 3 years, desktop…
Our 5th WordPress Community of Practice Gathering was held on October 28rd, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. in Commons 221. Description We all know what our sites look like on a desktop computer, but how do our sites look on a tablet, or smartphone? This Gathering will allow you to see and interact with our remodeled website before it goes…
Our 4th WordPress Community of Practice Gathering was held on September 23rd, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Commons 221. Description This Gathering will start with an introduction to web analytics: What they are, how we can access them, and how they provide insights on visitors’ behavior. No prior experience with web analytics is needed. Keynote WP CoP…
Our third WordPress Community of Practice Gathering was held Tuesday, August 26th, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Commons 221. Description This Gathering aims to provide insight on many of the fundamental WordPress tasks related to the start of the semester. No task is too basic for this Gathering, so feel free to ask questions, or to suggest a specific topic anonymously online.
Thanks to everyone who attended July’s WordPress Community of Practice Gathering, held in Commons. For those unable to attend, here’s what was covered: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – View the keynote PDF Sneak peek of the new frontpage sliders/carousel design Open forum Customizing the WP dashboard’s meta boxes, and Screen options Setting featured images on…
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…
We will be upgrading WordPress from version 3.7.3 to version 3.9.1 in the near future WP version 3.7 was released on October 24, 2013 and version 3.9.1 was released May 8, 2014. Here are some of the key changes and improvements: The admin menu and admin bar are dark gray instead of light gray. This…
“If you’ve been around WordPress a while, the most dramatic new change you’ll notice is a completely re-imagined flow for uploading photos and creating galleries. Media has long been a friction point and we’ve listened hard and given a lot of thought into crafting this new system. ” Keep reading about WP 3.5 at WordPress.org…
Emergency Example Our Emergency Banner is the one banner option that defaults to presenting open (it can be minimized by clicking the X). The status and content of the banner itself are driven by our cloud-based Emergency website, emergency.bates.edu. The text elements, timestamp, and click-through link of this banner can all be customized, with the…
Dear WordPress Community, We are excited to share with you the recent changes and updates that WordPress has made to their interface as part of WordPress Version 6.2 These changes are relatively minor but they do improve the overall user experience and it’s always helpful to stay up to date with the most recent version…
The Faculty Expertise website — bates.edu/faculty-expertise — features profiles for members of the Bates faculty that are easily searchable by the college’s many audiences, including prospective students, parents and families, journalists, and prospective faculty. Each faculty profile includes academic titles, department/program associations, relevant expertise, and contact information. Many faculty members have also chosen to include photos, biographical information, and professional links. The profile information in Faculty Expertise — whether drawing from Banner or user-provided information— will automatically flow into two places: The Faculty Expertise website, and all associated departmental/programatic websites.
The Faculty Expertise website — bates.edu/faculty-expertise — features profiles for members of the Bates faculty that are easily searchable by the college’s many audiences, including prospective students, parents and families, journalists, and prospective faculty. Each faculty profile includes academic titles, department/program associations, relevant expertise, and contact information. Many faculty members have also chosen to include photos, biographical information, and professional links. The profile information in Faculty Expertise — whether drawing from Banner or user-provided information— will automatically flow into two places: The Faculty Expertise website, and all associated departmental/programatic websites.
Question I published a new post to appear on my Latest Updates page, but I’m not seeing it appear on that page. How long before the public can view this new post? It seems to be taking a long time, and maybe I missed a step. Answer This is a common question. Maybe you’ve found…
Hi all, We’ve just finished up some updates to the “featurettes” (the three large colorful panels that can show on your site’s landing page to feature content). Specifically there are two new enhancements that we hope will make featuring content easier and more intuitive. Enhancement #1 – optional start/end dates You can set a “start”…
Dear Bates WordPress Community, In an ongoing effort to keep our website up to date, safe, and easy to manage, this past Wednesday we upgraded WordPress to the latest version, 5.8. Thanks to Jake and SDI for keeping us on the cutting edge. Here are the key changes to look out for: Widgets/Sidebars can now use…
Special thanks to Digital Communications Assistant Mei Kane ‘23 for researching and creating these new tutorials and best practices.
Check out the documentation below to learn how we maintain a clear and consistent workflow for all Bates College YouTube uploads. Upload Workflow to the Bates College YouTube Channel (Google Doc) Upload Workflow to the Bates College YouTube Channel (PDF)
Below are two ways to embed a Google Slideshow/Presentation within the Bates.edu WordPress environment. The “Advanced” way is slightly more lengthy but has the advantage that the slides will automatically resize to the optimum size based on the size of the screen. Open your slide presentation, pull down the File menu and select Publish to…
So what’s the problem? And what’s a block? One of the things you hear a lot about during discussions of Gutenberg are blocks. These blocks are a unified way to style content that currently requires shortcodes, embeds, widgets, post formats, custom post types, theme options, meta-boxes, and other formatting elements. By allowing rich customization without…
I’m pleased to announce that yesterday we upgraded WordPress to its most recent version (5.3). One change you’ll notice immediately is the little blue eye in the password field of the login screen (screenshot below). This new icon allows you to view your password if you want to. It’s a small change and nothing to be leery…
1. Classic Editor vs. Block Editor If you started using WordPress before December 2018, then you’ll recognize the Classic Editor. For years, the Classic Editor was the default content editor in WordPress. It’s similar in appearance and functionality to word processors like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. In December of 2018, WordPress released a new…
1. What are Featurettes? Featurettes are the three pieces of content that appear horizontally across some website homepages between the menu and page content. By prominently featuring three pieces of visual content on your site’s homepage, Featurettes can help your visitors find your site’s most valuable content. 2. How can I add Featurettes to my…
A big thanks to everyone who made it out to our WordPress Community of Practice gathering on August 28th. For the second straight gathering, we fit 29 people into Pettengill’s second floor computer lab. We had great audience engagement, with shared questions and issues that we worked through as a group in realtime. If you…
Changes to WordPress? WordPress is ready with version 5.0: a major upgrade that changes the look and feel of features you’ve become accustomed to. Maybe you can’t wait to play with it. Or maybe, if you’re like most people, the prospect of yet another unsolicited WordPress upgrade is a bit bothersome! In next Thursday’s gathering,…
Hi Everyone, You’re receiving this email because you are able to edit part of Bates’ public website — www.bates.edu. I’m writing to let you know about a resource that can make your work easier. Bates’ public website is powered by a content management system called WordPress. The WordPress Community of Practice is a group of 376 campus web…
Hi All, Happy summer! One-on-one, in person WordPress support Whether you’re new to WordPress, need a refresher, or just want a second opinion on your website’s content, you’re in luck.BCO’s newest Digital Communications Assistant, Ted Burns ’19, can meet with you individually to provide instruction on the nuts and bolts of WordPress. To schedule time…
Parent Sites Included We’ve made an improvement to our site’s breadcrumb structure that allows site managers to articulate their site’s parent site. Previously, our breadcrumbs skipped from the root site (“Bates”) directly to the current site (in this case “African American Studies”). Old The shortcoming of this prior behavior is that parent sites weren’t included…
Today we are releasing two new enhancements to our image galleries as well as a couple of fixes. Optional Thumbnails You can now add clickable thumbnails to the bottom of a gallery by adding the attribute thumbnails=”true” to the gallery shortcode. If you are an advanced user, you can also customize the size of the…
Overview On Thursday, November 9th 2017, Dave Ernst, Bates’ Digital Content Specialist, hosted a Social Media Workshop as part of our Communications Community of Practice. Dave’s workshop was focused on benefits and mechanics of paid content promotions with Facebook and Instagram. Why pay to make content more visible? Dave started by explaining how organic reach…
This morning we upgraded the college’s public WordPress instance from 4.6 to 4.8. We’re now running the most recent version of WordPress, which introduces a few new helpful features. New Features of 4.8 New widgets include Image, Video, Audio, and Rich Text. Embedding images/video/audio files in the sidebar no longer requires knowledge of HTML. Similarly,…
New virtual tour of campus Bates has partnered with YouVisit to create a virtual tour of our campus. From YouVisit’s website: “Virtual campus tours include 360° media, layered with interactive elements that put students in control of their journey through your campus. Viewable across desktop, mobile, and VR, tours decrease cost-per-enrollment while increasing physical campus…
In order to combat the scourge of real “fake news,” Facebook is implementing a change to its API (application program interface) where non-publisher pages (publisher = verified news media, sports and entertainment) including Bates will NOT be able to edit the metadata of the links they post to their Facebook page. Article about policy change…
Download the Keynote (PDF)
“Can I have editing access to this site?” The most common question we’ve been receiving about WordPress is, “Can I have editing access to this site?” So far, the answer has always been, “Yes.” Going forward, the answer won’t change, but the person granting access will. Given how popular requests for access are, and how…
Held on Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at 2 p.m. wp-cop-september-2016 (PDF)
Happening on Thursday, May 19, starting at 3 p.m. in Commons 226. Download WP CoP – May 2016 (PDF) Agenda Results of A/B test and Qualaroo survey Managing Widgets Share WordPress help resources Lynda.com WordPress Tutorial Playlist Faculty Expertise and The Quad Open Forum, Office Hours
WP CoP – March 2016 (PDF)
When, where January 28, 2:00-3:00pm, Commons 226 Recap Style Audit The Style Audit is a collection of visual enhancements aimed at 1) Improving the user experience of our website 2) Bringing more consistency across sites to strengthen the brand Launched December 16, 2015 Overall, launch went well Outstanding issues CTA button size in sidebar Larger…
There’s a very strong precedent for effective student web workers at Bates. 12/12 supervisors surveyed reported positive experience, and recommend working with students on the web.
When, where September 29, 10:00am-11:00am, Commons 226 Presentation Download the presentation (PDF) Agenda Recent changes in WordPress New Fonts, server upgrade, Qualaroo survey, columns shortcode, toolbar configuration, WordPress 4.3.1 upgrade, email newsletters and blogs. Looking ahead Style Audit, The Quad. Open Forum Q: Who can we contact when Nick isn’t available? A: Barry Costa, BCO’s Senior…
Our 9th WordPress Community of Practice Gathering was held on March 25th, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. in Commons 226. Description Global Navigation: New vs. Old The current iteration of the global navigation (launched Nov. 3) receives 2.1x more clicks than the past iteration (known as the Ubermenu). Trends in device usage In the past 3 years, desktop…
Our 5th WordPress Community of Practice Gathering was held on October 28rd, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. in Commons 221. Description We all know what our sites look like on a desktop computer, but how do our sites look on a tablet, or smartphone? This Gathering will allow you to see and interact with our remodeled website before it goes…
Our 4th WordPress Community of Practice Gathering was held on September 23rd, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Commons 221. Description This Gathering will start with an introduction to web analytics: What they are, how we can access them, and how they provide insights on visitors’ behavior. No prior experience with web analytics is needed. Keynote WP CoP…
Our third WordPress Community of Practice Gathering was held Tuesday, August 26th, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Commons 221. Description This Gathering aims to provide insight on many of the fundamental WordPress tasks related to the start of the semester. No task is too basic for this Gathering, so feel free to ask questions, or to suggest a specific topic anonymously online.
Thanks to everyone who attended July’s WordPress Community of Practice Gathering, held in Commons. For those unable to attend, here’s what was covered: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – View the keynote PDF Sneak peek of the new frontpage sliders/carousel design Open forum Customizing the WP dashboard’s meta boxes, and Screen options Setting featured images on…
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…
We will be upgrading WordPress from version 3.7.3 to version 3.9.1 in the near future WP version 3.7 was released on October 24, 2013 and version 3.9.1 was released May 8, 2014. Here are some of the key changes and improvements: The admin menu and admin bar are dark gray instead of light gray. This…
“If you’ve been around WordPress a while, the most dramatic new change you’ll notice is a completely re-imagined flow for uploading photos and creating galleries. Media has long been a friction point and we’ve listened hard and given a lot of thought into crafting this new system. ” Keep reading about WP 3.5 at WordPress.org…