Fall 2015 WordPress filing instructions

Your WordPress post must include the following:

Headline

Filed in the Post Title field.  The WP theme will render your headline in all UPPERCASE characters.

Posting Metadata

The WP theme will add the date, the name of the person who posted, and the various categories.

Bylines

Each post must contain your team’s joint byline:  By Susan Zake and Gary Hanson.  The byline should be on the first line of the body.

Photo(s)

Each post must contain a Featured Image, which will be displayed at the top of the post page.   Your featured image should be no wider than 700 px.   The image must be in horizontal orientation and cropped for the shortest logical height.  Featured images are uploaded and managed in a box on the lower-right column of the Post page.

Each post must contain at least one in-line image in the body of the story, which means the text should flow seamlessly around the photo.  Images should be justified to the right side whenever possible for readability — you can accomplish this by using the settings at the lower right when you insert the image into your post.   Images should be no wider than 250 pixels.  These images can be either portrait or landscape oriented.

Head shots must be posted in portrait format.   You are encouraged to use multiple images to illustrate your story.  Each person interviewed in the text should have a photo.  Avoid shots of buildings, unless the story is about a building specifically — try to show people engaged in activities relevant to the issues you raise in your story. Remember, we’re trying to tell stories about real people and how they are affected by these issues.

No in-line image should be centered in the body of the post.

All in-line photos must contain the proper metadata (alt. text, description and captions.)   In-line photos MUST be captioned. Alt text should be a short, general description of the content in the photograph. Alt text is read by web browsers and other Web devices used by disabled readers or viewers who can’t see the images themselves. It makes your website compliant with handicap access laws.

All images are uploaded in the media section of the WP dashboard.  Once uploaded, you’ll be able to search for your images in the list view.  Do not upload camera files directly.  Use Photoshop to optimize your files for size, density and quality.  This step results in smaller, faster-loading image. In Photoshop, use the “save for Web” option in the “File” menu. Jpeg files saved at a compression setting of about 60 are the usually the best choice.

Pull Quotes and Subheads

When appropriate, look for pull quotes from one of the sources quoted in the story.  Use the WP shortcode tag: [pullquote]YOUR TEXT HERE[/pullquote] or use the Simple Pull Quote button on the editor.

Look for opportunities to use Sub Heads to divide the story into sections for readability.  Use the H2 text tag.

Categories and Tags

We use categories for housekeeping in RPP.  You are responsible for assigning the categories correctly.

1. Semester – Fall 2015
2. Story Number.  (Story 1, 2, 3, etc. or Group Project)
3. Team Number.  We’ll assign team numbers before the first story is due.
4. Make sure you UNCHECK the Uncategorized option.

Choose two or three tags that describe your story appropriately.  No need to pick more than five. Make sure the tags are keywords that would likely be used to search for a story like yours on the Web. For example, if you write a Kent City Council story, use that as a tag. If you write a story about the Portage County Jail, use that.

Video Embeds

1.  After you upload your video at video.kent.edu, pick up the iframe embed code from Kaltura

2.  Write a description/intro to the content in your video to guide viewers to what they’ll be seeing

3.  Enclose in <div> tags to justify right or left.   Do not use video full width in the center of the page.

4. If you’d like to put your video in a gray sidebar box like the one below, let us know and we’ll provide the code.

The “iframe” code between the brackets is the where the Kaltura share code goes.

Because the Kaltura defaults are larger than the sidebar box, you have to edit the dimensions in the iframe code from width=”500 height=”315 to width=”350″ height=”220″. That will size your video to fit the box and keep it in the correct proportions.

Be sure you copy and paste both of the closing div tags or the browser won’t know to close the grey box.

Here is the code sample.

<div style=”background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% #dddddd; padding: 5px 8px; text-align: center; width: 350px; float: right; margin: 10px;”>
<div style=”text-align: center;”>
<h3>Headline goes here</h3>
<iframe id=”kmsembed-1_bhbz9w76″ class=”kmsembed” src=”https://video.kent.edu/embed/secure/iframe/entryId/1_bhbz9w76/uiConfId/31244571″ width=”350″ height=”220″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe>
<strong>Video by YOUR NAME HERE</strong>