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Requesting a Word Press Site

To request a site, send an email to beth.cozzi@wsu.edu with “labs.wsu.edu site request” in the subject line and include this information:

a) Your name.
b) The name of your site. If it is for a research lab, this would be the name of that lab, for example “Plant-Microbe Symbiosis Lab”. If it’s for a person rather than a lab, it could be something like “Jane Smith’s Research Site”.
c) The web address you’d like your site to have. For example, https://labs.wsu.edu/plant-microbe-symbiosis or https://labs.wsu.edu/jane-smith

Beth Cozzi will notify you when the site is available.

Logging Into Your Site

Once the site has been created, you will be set up as an admin on the site. To log in, go to:  https://labs.wsu.edu/(name of your lab or research)/ and use your network ID and password.  Your site opens on the Dashboard.

To return to the Dashboard at any time, click on the “(your lab name) lab site” dropdown menu and choose Dashboard.

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To logout, clicking on “Howdy (your network ID) in the top-right corner of the page.

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Editing Pages & Creating New Pages

To add a new page:
• click on Pages > Add New (in the Dashboard)
• Enter a page title
• Under “page builder”, choose page style. “Single” is a good place to start
• Add content. If you’re pasting from word, it often helps to click the “paste as text” button and paste into that window instead.
• Click “publish” – the button on the right side

To edit an existing page:
• go to the page and click the Edit Page link at the top
• you may also go to the Dashboard > Pages > All Pages and find the page there

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• Make your changes
• Click on “Update” – the button on the right side.

Setting up your Front Page

You can choose whether the front page of your site displays a specific page or your latest posts.

To set a page as the front page:
• go to Settings > Reading
• choose “Front page displays A static page”,
• then select the page.
• Or you can change this by going to Appearance > Customize > Front Page

Editing Posts & Creating New Posts

To add a new post:
• Click on Posts > Add New (in the Dashboard)
• Enter a title
• Add content. If you’re pasting from word, it often helps to click the “paste as text” button and paste into that window instead.
• Click “publish” – the button on the right side.
• You can schedule when the post will be published by choosing the “Edit” link next to Publish immediately

To edit an existing Post:
• Go to the Post and click the Edit Post link at the top
• Or go to the Dashboard > Posts > All Posts and find the post there
• Make your changes
• Click on “Update” – the button on the right side.

Menus

New pages automatically show up in the left-hand main menu.
If you want to have more control over the menu, make a new one!

To create a new Menu:
• Go to Appearance > Menus
• Give your menu a name in Menu Name and click Create Menu
• You’ll probably want to have it “Auto add pages”
• Click the checkboxes next to pages you’ve already created and want to appear in the menu
• Click Add To Menu
• Change the order of menu items by dragging them up and down
• Save the menu, then click on Manage Locations
• Next to Site, choose your new menu
• Click Save Changes

Adding Users to your Site

• To add/modify users, click on Users (in the Dashboard) and Add New
• Add the user’s network ID (for Username) and email address
• Give that person the appropriate permissions in the Role dropdown
• click Add New User

Things you might want to Customize

You will likely want to customize some things on your site.

There are two ways to get to these options.
• If you are on your site, there is a “Customize” link in the top-left corner.
• If you are already on the Dashboard, go to Appearance and choose Customize.

Once you choose Customize, you may want to change the following:

Spine Options:
There are many options here you might want to work with, but the following are most useful to customize:
• Contact Information: This information is shown on the “contact” section of your site — the little gray envelop in the navigation area.

• Social Channels: Customize and/or remove the social media icons that display in the bottom of the navigation area.

• Signature: Choosing Vancouver here displays the WSU Vancouver logo on your pages. You can also change the background color for the left navigation in the “Spine Column Color” menu.

• Style Options: Controls the display of the main title/header area of your page.
o Additional styling: Choose whether the header is in the center (skeletal) or in the top right corner (bookmark)
o Secondary color: If the header is in the top right corner (bookmark) you can choose the background color here.
o Sitewide spacing: choose how much space there is between sections of your site

• Menus: This is one way to customize menus. More information about menus is included elsewhere in this document.

Choose “Save & Publish” to save any changes.

Dashboard Information

Customizing your site through the Dashboard will be easier with a brief understanding of what different things mean. There are more options in the Dashboard, but the following areas will get encompass the bulk of what you might want to do.
(Note: If you have worked with WordPress before, this will all be somewhat familiar.)

• Pages: As the name indicates, these are static webpages that you can add content and media too. You can add, edit, delete and see a list of all your pages here.

• Posts: like a blog. Entries are time-stamped and can be commented on by readers. You can add, edit, delete and see a list of all your posts here.

• Media: An area where you can upload files to use on your site. These can be images, video and audio files. Note: pdfs can also be loaded in this area.

• Documents: An area where you can upload documents and share them with others. Includes the ability to password protect, make private, or make public. Also tracks revisions and has a “check out” system to allow for group editing of documents.

• Appearance: This is where you can make changes to the look and feel of your site, including customization and menus.

• Settings: Use this area to adjust general details about your site, including site name, time zone, how many posts to display, what displays on your front page, how comments are handled, etc.

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