Website Documentation

General Information

Website Style Guide

The following documents comprise the MLC Web Style Guide for writers. Basically, MLC uses the Northwestern Publishing House Style Guide and Dictionary with additions specific to MLC.

The recommended way to use these guides is this way:

  1. look to the MLC House Style Guide
  2. look to the Northwestern Publishing House Dictionary for quick-look items
  3. look to the Northwestern Publishing House Style Guide for additional items
  4. use your judgement/look at other parts of the website/ask the MLC editor

MLC Specific Files

Northwestern Publishing House Style Guide

Subsites

Subsites are the individual areas of the website that web editors have control over. The easiest way to think of a subsite is that it is a small, autonomous website that lives on top of the create WordPress installation. Most often, a subsite will be specific to one part of the college's work.

So http://mlc-wels.edu/library will be a subsite. So is http://mlc-wels.edu/network-serivces or http://mlc-wels.edu/graduate-studies. Someone who has editing privileges for the Library subsite does not necessarily have privileges for the Graduate Studies subsite.

They help us logically separate areas of the website along with providing a framework for permissions.

Styling

When creating your subsite, start with the least amount of design and then work forward. This means start with:

WordPress is really great at those two things. From there, work on the text and images you are using. After that is complete, continue to work on the text. When you are finally really REALLY happy with your text, have someone else take a look at it. When that is all said and done, it might be time to look at adding some visually-interesting widgets or color.

Remember, less is almost always more. Doing the least amount of work is preferable than starting with too much. Look for ways to clearly communicate using text and images first and only after that has failed (or you are EXTREMELY happy with what you have) is it time to look into what you might be able to do with the Advanced Editor.

Subsite Standard Layout

For most other pages within a subsite (besides the initial landing page), you must follow the standard layout.

The Standard Layout

The standard layout is made up of the following:

  • Page title above the content (pulled from the name of the page within WordPress)
  • Content area below the page title (on the left-hand side)
  • Navigation area for the subsite at the top of the right-hand column
  • Contact Us and Directory will be the final two links in your sub-navigation menu (if applicable)
  • No full-width widgets from the Advanced Editor

Subsite Navigation

Along with that, the navigation will be handled in the following way:

  • Name of the subsite will be on the top of the navigation (e.g. Library for the Library's subsite)
  • Navigation items can be no more than three deep (otherwise it starts to look very messy)
  • You can choose to have the navigation created automatically or to create custom menus (recommendation is for custom menus)
  • The first link in the navigation will be Home and will link back to the landing page for the subsite
  • The last two links will be Directory and/or Contact Us (if appropriate)

A Directory and Contact Us link will only be provided if it is meaningful for the area of the website. Contact Us is meant mainly for contact information specific to a department/office and not to individuals within that office.

Customization Opportunities

Besides having complete control over the content within your subsite, you can also add widgets below the mandated navigation for the subsite.

Subsite Landing Pages

As a web editor you have the ability to create a landing page for each subsite. A landing page is nothing more than a page with a simplified styling using widgets to create a unique layout for that specific subsite. Here are some guidelines for creating your landing page.

Creating A Landing Page

  1. Create a new Page (name it something that you will remember)
  2. Go into the Enfold Theme settings
  3. Choose your newly created page under Frontpage Settings (and click Save All Settings)
  4. Edit the page you created at the start
  5. Change Sidebar Settings to No Sidebar
  6. Change Title Bar Settings to Hide both
  7. Save your page

Now you are free to use the Advanced Layout Editor to setup your landing page the way you like.

Items Each Landing Page Needs

Everything else is up to you but you will need a title and some sort of navigation so that visitors are able to get to the information they need. There are a number of options for navigation, so you are free to play around with those. Remember, pages in your subsite besides the landing page will be required to follow the standard layout.

Helpful Hints

Setting Up A New Subsite

This includes naming conventions, setting up ACLs, applying theme, and setting up menus.

Creating a New Subsite

  • tagline needs to be Martin Luther College

Applying the Theme

  • log into the subsite dashboard
  • go to Appearance > Themes and activate the MLC Theme theme
  • click on Customize or select MLC Theme from the sidebar (if you are not taken there already)
  • click on Import/Export within the MLC Theme Theme Options page
  • click on Upload Theme Settings File
  • upload mlc_theme-settings-2016-2-12-v1.txt and click on Insert Settings File
  • click on Theme Options and then choose the correct frontpage within Frontpage Settings
  • click the Save all changes button
  • check the site to see if the theme was successfully applied

After that is complete, note any issues with the styling that will need to be taken care of.

Importing Menus

Importing Menus

  • go to Appearance > Menus
  • delete any menus titled Action Links, Main Menu, Tools, and/or Resources
  • select Tools > Import, then click on WordPress
  • upload menus.wordpress.2016-03-07.xml

That's it! The menus should now be uploaded.

Main Menu

  • set About, Academics, Admissions, Arts, Athletics, and Donate as Mega Menu (check Use as Mega Menu box)
  • check This column should start a new row for About > About, Academics > Academics, Admissions > Admissions, Arts > Arts, and Donate > MLC Day
  • enable as MLC Theme Main Menu at bottom
  • click Save Menu
  • select Action Links menu from Appearance > Menus
  • select MLC Theme Secondary Menu near bottom in Theme locations
  • click Save Menu

Socket Menu

  • select Socket Menu menu from Appearance > Menus
  • select MLC Theme Footer Menu near bottom in Theme locations
  • slick Save Menu

Setting Up the Footer

Footer - column 1

Text - No Title

<div class="noLightbox textaligncenter nomobile">
<a href="http://mlc-wels.edu">
<img src="https://mlc-wels.edu/wp-content/themes/mlc/images/mlc-logo-white.png" alt="Martin Luther College Seal" width="302" height="177" />
</a><br /><br /><br /><br />
 
<a href="http://wels.net/" target="_blank">
<img src="https://mlc-wels.edu/wp-content/themes/mlc/images/wels-logo.png" alt="WELS: Christ's Love, Our Calling" width="150" height="51" />
</a></div>

Footer - column 2

Custom Menu - Resources

Make sure you give it the title of Resources.

Footer - column 3

Custom Menu - Tools

Make sure you give it the title of Tools.

Footer - column 4

Text - Connect

  • check Automatically add paragraphs
<strong>Martin Luther College</strong>
1995 Luther Court
New Ulm, MN 56073
1 (507) 354-8221
 
<strong>Need Help?</strong> <a href="https://mlc-wels.edu/contact" title="Click here to request information">Request Information</a>
 
[av_font_icon icon='ue8f4' font='entypo-fontello' style='' caption='' link='manually,https://www.facebook.com/mlcwels' linktarget='_blank' size='50px' position='left' color='#e1e1e1'][/av_font_icon] [av_font_icon icon='ue8f2' font='entypo-fontello' style='' caption='' link='manually,http://twitter.com/connect2mlc' linktarget='_blank' size='50px' position='left' color='#e1e1e1'][/av_font_icon] [av_font_icon icon='ue8f0' font='entypo-fontello' style='' caption='' link='manually,http://vimeopro.com/martinluthercollege/promotional-videos' linktarget='_blank' size='50px' position='left' color='#e1e1e1'][/av_font_icon] [av_font_icon icon='ue909' font='entypo-fontello' style='' caption='' link='manually,http://instagram.com/martinluthercollege' linktarget='_blank' size='50px' position='left' color='#e1e1e1'][/av_font_icon]

Text - no title

<a href="https://mlc-wels.edu/streams" class="noLightbox">
<img src="https://mlc-wels.edu/wp-content/themes/mlc/images/mlc-tv.jpg" alt="MLC TV Streaming Video" class="border" />
</a>

"Little Things"

Setting Changes

General

  • go to Settings > General
  • change Tagline to Martin Luther College
  • change Timezone to Chicago
  • change Week Starts On to Sunday
  • click Save Changes

Discussion

  • go to Settings > Discussion
  • uncheck Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks) on new articles and Allow people to post comments on new articles in Default article settings
  • select Gravatar Logo as Default Avatar
  • click Save Changes

Post-Launch Tweaks

Website 2016.1


New Enfold Styles

There will be a new style file to upload to each subsite and enable with some style tweaks to make everything a little more readable. This will include removing the strong styling from the quick CSS because it has been moved to the overall CSS file for the entire site.

Please make certain to set the following:

Take note of what they were set to before you apply the styling.

Main Menu Changes

Will be uploading a new main menu structure, there are many changes to make.

Directory Subsite

Pictures

  • Should be a headshot of only the individual
  • The head of the individual should be centered (as much as possible)
  • Image size should be (in pixels) 255×300 or 510×600 to match the rest of the images
  • All images should be saved as JPEGs (*.jpg or *.jpeg)

Working with Documents

Working with WordPress and document files (think PDFs, Word documents, etc.) can be little disconcerting. You will find some simple instructions on this page to keep in mind when you want to load files for users to download.

What Format

Basically, it comes down to this:

  • Can the information be easily put into a webpage? If so, make it a webpage.
  • If it is a document that is not meant to be changed by the user, then use PDF.
  • If it is a document that is meant to be changed by the user, then use a Word document or appropriate editable format.

Those are simplistic terms, but you get the idea. Start by deciding if it could be a webpage, then if it should, and if it falls through … then choose your document format.

Where Does It Live?

In Plone it was easy to link directly to a document and just replace it in the future, preserving the URL so that anyone can have access to the latest document in the future just by virtue of changing the underlying file. However, WordPress does not have an easy or preferred way to do this, so a person needs to think about where the document needs to live and how it will be presented.

Documents should be linked to from a page that contains information about the document (context around why it is important, what a person can do with it, etc.), and then anytime someone needs to link to a specific document, they should be linking to that page with the context.

Example

You want to link to the Single Major Early Childhood Education program plan. It might be tempting to link to the PDF directly, but the next time that program plan changes and a new one is uploaded, that link will be bad and your user will get a 404 error message.

The better option is to use some verbiage similar to “You can find the single major Early Childhood Education program plan on the Program Plans page” and link the words “Program Plans page” directly to the Program Plans page. That way when a new program plan is uploaded, that link will still be accurate.

Uploading Documents

There are two options for uploading media (the end result is the same):

  • Through the WordPress Media Library (found under Media on the sidebar of your dashboard).
  • Through the Add Media button within the editing interface.

In each case, the object is to upload the file(s) you want to use and then link them within a page or post.

Upload Using Media Library

  • Log into the dashboard of your WordPress subsite
  • Click on Media on the sidebar
  • Click Add New on the resulting page
  • Drag-and-drop files into the area where indicated or click Select Files and find the documents you want to upload

Now your files are uploaded into the Media Library of your WordPress subsite.

Upload Using Editing Interface

  • Log into the dashboard of your WordPress subsite
  • Edit a page or post (either an existing page/post or a new one)
  • Click the Add Media button on the editing toolbar
  • Select the Upload Files tab on the resulting popup
  • Drap-and-drop files into the area where indicated or click Select Files and find the documents you want to upload

Now your files are uploaded into the Media Library of your WordPress subsite.

Inserting Documents

Now that the files are uploaded, here are the basic steps to inserting links to documents within a page or post.

  • Edit a page or post (either an existing page/post or a new one)
  • Click the Add Media button on the editing toolbar
  • From the Media Library tab, choose the document you want to link to (which should already be uploaded, for follow steps above)
  • When the item is selected, give it a Title (which will end up being the words that are linked in the end)
  • Click Insert Into Page to have it added to the page/post you were working on
  • Do it over again for each of the other documents

That's it! Now when you publish your page/post, you will find that there is link and that clicking it will open/download your document.

Potential Problems

  • The Title attribute of a document is important because it directly controls what words will be linked within the page/post you are working on. Always check to make sure the title is meaningful and will help the user understand what they are clicking.
  • Every time you upload a document, it is stored in a folder that is tied to the date it is uploaded. There is no way to overwrite a file, you will need to upload a new file and link to that instead. You can always go through the Media Library and delete old files that are no longer useful.

Linking to Other Subsites

A current list of subsites for the campus website are available in two different areas:

Adding Events to the Homepage

This documentation will help you add events to the feed on the homepage and the calendar of events found at http://mlc-wels.edu/calendar as well.

From the Events section of the dashboard your can also add information about different Venues, Organizers, and Event Categories that are used often.