Website Editing Guide

Introduction

This webpage is designed to give a quick introduction to editing the Chichester U3A website…

Overall Design

The website is made up of a series of Pages, Posts, and Events. This design allows easy editing by multiple people of the dynamic parts of the website, while leaving the overall structure constant.

Web Pages

The overall structure is defined by the web pages which will, of course, change over time. But it is not intended to make any significant changes without consultation and discussion. Any changes have implications for search engine results, and links to our site. For this reason access to the page editor is extremely limited. Any proposed changes to the web pages (outside the posts and events described below), should be sent to the webmaster@chichesteru3a.org.uk.

Posts

Posts allow dynamic content to be the website. In particular, this appears in the following places:

1. News Update:
   • Each panel is the ‘Extract’ of a Post – and Read More leads to the full post.
   • Any Post with the Category ‘Recent News’ will appear here.
   • Since this is the News section all Posts should have an Expiration date.
   • The order the Posts appear is determined by the Publish date. If you update a News post you will probably want to change the Publish Date.
   • To publish on a future date, simply select that date and then select Schedule (where the Publish button was)
2. Interest Groups
   Each interest group can provide additional information about their group via a Post. This post is like to the Groups Detail page
   • For example, Cycling for Pleasure listing has a link Read more about the Cycling for Pleasure group here
   • The Post is created and linked to the specific Interest Group by the WebMaster and can then be edited like any other post.
3. Group Notices: Shows you all the Posts associated with Interest Groups (this page is not cuttingly accessible from the current website.
4. Favorite Walks:
   Similar to the News Update, these Posts appear on this page because the they have the Category ‘Walks’.

Events

Our Events Calendar is designed to show all the Social Events and Trips (i.e. everything except Interest Group activities). These Events should also appear in appropriate page under ‘Local Events’ or ‘Trips’, which is determined by the Category Selection. The pages currently with Events listings are:

• Monthly Meetings
• Coffee Mornings
• Quiz Evenings
• Christmas Lunch (This uses Category:Social plus Tag:xmas)
• Events listing can be added for Trips once these are back in fashion.

Editing the Website

The prerequisite is a login to WordPress.

Golden Rule 1 – Don’t change the the Website’s Style.

The website’s Theme ensures that the entire website has the same look and feel, uses the same fonts and formats, styles and sizes. So please don’t change this, by following these rules:

1. Only Paste plain text into WordPress.
2. Do not use any HTML code or css
3. Use the Default Headings (H1-H6) and standard features available in the editor to format your text.
4. Do not include any email addresses. All contact should be using the webforms which protect people’s personal data.
5. Use the colours set up for the Theme. When using the Block Editor (Posts) these will be the 8 default colour choices offered. When creating Events, which uses the Classic Editor, you will need explicitly specify these colours:

Golden Rule 2 – Never display any email addresses

No email addresses should appear on the website – this leads to spam emails. This includes email addresses embedded in a mailto: link. Instead, you should always use the pages already established on the website listed under Contact Us, or the Individual Interest Group pages.

Editing Posts

All posts should be created using the Block Editor This is the default editor used to create the whole website. There are an infinite number of features available but simple headings, paragraphs, and image blocks should meet virtually all needs. (If you are looking for an online tutorial you should search for ‘Gutenberg Editor’.)

Once created it is essential to select the correct Category(s) to ensure that Post appears on the correct place. Most commonly this will be Recent News.

All items in Recent News must have an appropriate Expiration Date set so that the Post disappears automatically.

Event Manager

Any event you create will appear in the calendar on the Local Events page. To ensure that they also appear on the appropriate page you must add the correct Category, as described above.

Note: The information provided with in the Event description should be restricted to the event itself and not generic information about the activity, which should be within the webpage which is permanently displayed.

The text within the Event Description is created using the Classic Editor (i.e. TinxMCE).

Creating Bookings

The Event Manager has a simple booking system. You can choose how many place you make available and the times when they are available. The reservations can be viewed online.

Updates? If there is anything that need changing or adding, just let me know – Peter Newland