If you have been added to a Bucknell WordPress site as a contributor, author, editor, or administrator, you can create posts for the website.
For a course site, students are typically added as editors, which means that they can create and publish posts.
How do I log in?
- Go to blogs.bucknell.edu
- Click on the "Log in" button and use your Bucknell username and password.
- Once you are logged in, you will see a list of all of the sites you have editing access to. Click on "Dashboard" next to the course site you would like to post to.
If you are logged in, you will see a black toolbar at the top of any site you have editing access to. If you hover over the name of the site, you can access the dashboard.
You can also get to the dashboard by adding "/wp-admin" to the end of your site's URL. For example, if your course site is mide300.courses.bucknell.edu, you could get to the dashboard at mide300.courses.bucknell.edu/wp-admin
How do I create a post?
Start from your site's dashboard:
- Click on the “Posts” tab in the menu on the left.
- Click on “Add New” at the top of the screen to create a new post, or click on the title of an existing post to edit an existing one.
How do I add text and images to a post?
The WordPress editor is made up of individual "blocks" for different elements of your page. For example, you may have a heading block, a paragraph block, two image blocks, and another paragraph block in your post.
To add a new block from the editing view of your page, click on the plus button in the body of your page or in the top left corner.
From there, you can browse different types of blacks and add them to your page. For a general-purpose post, you may want to use:
- Paragraph for text
- Heading for titles and section headers
- List for numbered or bullet-point lists
- Image for any images
To learn more about using the block editor, see these resources:
How do I add categories to a post?
Categories help sort posts into groups and make them more findable in the dashboard. If your course site is set up to use categories to display posts (check with your instructor), you will need to add one or more categories to each of your posts.
To add new or existing categories to a post:
- Click on the “Posts” tab in the menu on the left.
- Click on the title of an existing blog post to open the editing view.
- Click on the gear at the top left of the page to open the left-hand menu (this may already be open).
- In the Post tab, click on the drop-down menu for Categories.
- From this menu, you can select which categories to add to your post.
You can add more than one category to a post. By default, all posts are given the category "Uncategorized" unless you change it.
Learn more about categories and tags in our article, "How do I create categories and tags in WordPress?"
How can I preview what my post will look like?
To see what your post will look like before publishing it, start from your site's dashboard:
- Click on the “Posts” tab in the menu on the left.
- Click on the title of an existing blog post to open the editing view.
- Click on the blue text that says "Preview" in the top right corner.
- Click on "Preview in new tab" and a preview of your post will open in a new browser tab.
Note: this view is a preview and will not publish your post!
The previewed post will likely look slightly different than the version you have been editing because the site's theme formatting has been applied. If you have specific formatting, sizing, or line breaks in mind, be sure to check the preview!
How do I publish a post?
Start from your site's dashboard:
- Click on the “Posts” tab in the menu on the left.
- Click on the title of an existing post to open the editing view.
- Click on the blue "Publish" button at the top right of the screen. If this button says "Update," that means that your post is already published. Clicking "Update" will publish any changes you have made to the post.
Also in the top right corner of the post's editing view is the "Save draft" button. This will save your work, but not publish the post. Once a post is published, this button will change to "Switch to draft," which will turn a published post into an unpublished draft.
How do I get access to post to a course site?
The site's administrator has the ability to manage editing access to the site. For course sites, this is typically the instructor who submitted the course site request form to request the site.
Students
Your instructor likely arranged for all students in the course to have access to the site before the start of the semester. If you have never used Bucknell's WordPress instance, log in to blogs.bucknell.edu once to access the site.
If you are unable to access the site, please reach out to your instructor or email dps@bucknell.edu for help.
Instructors
If you selected the corresponding option in the course site request form, your course can be set up for roster sync. This will automatically pull your course's roster and provide students with the access level you indicated in the form. Any students who add or drop your course until the Add/Drop period is over will be added or removed from the site accordingly.
If you or an individual student in your course is having trouble accessing the site, email dps@bucknell.edu for help.
Where can I get help with WordPress?
If you are looking for help creating or managing a post for your course, start by reaching out to your instructor.
For more general help with WordPress, email techdesk@bucknell.edu or stop by the Tech Desk on the first floor of Bertrand Library.
From there, Digital Pedagogy & Scholarship can help you with your WordPress site. We offer consultations to help you get started with a WordPress site, discuss site structure and usability, offer plugin options, or troubleshoot with the WordPress interface. Contact our department directly using our main email: dps@bucknell.edu
Find more articles about WordPress in our WordPress FAQ.