New Procedure for Creating Personal Blogs

Posted on April 27, 2012 by VCU Webmaster

We recently changed the way that personal blogs are created. Before this week, a user’s personal blog would automatically be created the first time the user logged in; the new blog’s URL would be created by appending the user’s VCU eID to http://wp.vcu.edu/.

Personal blogs are no longer created automatically. Instead, we have added a widget (shown below) to the dashboard from which a user can create his or her personal blog at any point in the future. The URL structure for personal blogs remains the same, and each user’s eID is reserved for that user’s blog.

Create my Personal Blog

Some users may have no intention of maintaining a personal blog on wp.vcu.edu and log in solely to manage a departmental or group blog or site. Now, such users have control over whether to create a personal blog or not.

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New Plugin: VCU Dates

Posted on April 24, 2012 by VCU Webmaster

There’s a new plugin available for activation on your blog — it’s called VCU Dates, and it lets you easily create and publish content that you wanted sorted by a date other than the date of publication. It’s ideal for date-specific content geared towards a small audience, such as an internal departmental event or a course assignment with a due date. You can read more about it and its features — such as a feed you can use on your departmental website, custom widget and more — on the VCU Dates overview page.

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Embedding Video in Posts

Posted on January 30, 2012 by VCU Webmaster

There are two options for including videos and other media inside a post or page.

The first option requires you to enable auto-embeds on the Media Settings page as described in our Basic Blog Set-Up » Advanced Settings overview. With this option you only need to include, on its own line, a link to the media you want to embed.

The second option allows you a little more control over your embed. This involves wrapping the link in an embed shortcode — use this option when you want to retain control of the dimensions of the embed by declaring height and width properties, like so:

[embed height="180" width="320"]. . .[/embed]

Of course, be sure to replace the ellipsis with an actual link.

Bear in mind that this only works with sites that have been whitelisted by WordPress, but this list includes all the usual suspects, like

  • YouTube (only public videos – “unlisted” and “private” videos will not embed)
  • Vimeo
  • Flickr (both videos and images)
  • Hulu
  • FunnyOrDie.com

For the most recent list, please visit http://codex.wordpress.org/Embeds.

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WordPress Downtime: Tuesday, Jan. 17, 5:30 – 7 a.m.

Posted on January 12, 2012 by VCU Webmaster

VCU Technology Services has scheduled maintenance for the WordPress-based VCU Blog platform beginning at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 17, 2012. This work is expected to be completed by 7 a.m. During this work all websites maintained through VCU’s WordPress installation will be unavailable for viewing and editing. Please contact the VCU helpIT Center (828-2227, helpIT@vcu.edu) with any questions.

We appreciate your understanding.

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WordPress Downtime: Friday, Dec. 9, 6-7 a.m.

Posted on December 7, 2011 by VCU Webmaster

At 6 a.m. on Friday, December 9, the University Computer Center will be performing maintenance that will require WordPress (wp.vcu.edu) to be unavailable for about an hour. During this time, users will not be able to view blog entries or access the administrative back-end. The site and all blogs should be available again by 7 a.m.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

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40 New Themes Added

Posted on September 29, 2011 by VCU Webmaster

4o new themes from WooThemes, a premier provider of themes for WordPress and other platforms, have been added to the VCU Blog. Users now can now customize the look and feel of their blogs to an even greater extent, pretty much ensuring that no two blogs will look alike.

When you activate a WooTheme, a menu will be added to the left sidebar on your dashboard from which you can access your theme options. The actual options will vary by theme, so try a number of themes and options before settling on one that’s right for you.

WooTheme Options Screen

Note: Always click the ‘Save All Changes’ button on the ‘Theme Options’ screen if you switch back and forth between themes, even if you have not actually made any changes. These themes use a common framework, and this will flush all of the options that were set for the last theme you activated.

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