Posting Tips

Blockquotes • Categories & Tags • Post Breaks/Read More
Post Timer • Reference Links • Videos

Many of the tips here presume you’re using the “Visual” editor. If you’re geekily inclined and prefer the HTML editor, most of this you can dope out for yourself. Or ask Nojo.

Blockquotes

There are two ways to indent text (usually to quote passages), but the “blockquote” is preferred. This displays right now as gray text with a gray bar down the side, but the underlying code allows for Some Geek to change the design later once he decides what he wants. (The “indent” method isn’t as flexible with website stylesheets.)

1. Click inside the text you want to highlight. (For multiple paragraphs, drag your mouse to include them all.)

2. Click the blockquote button. The text should indent in the Visual editor.

3. If you’re still typing and you want to “un-indent” a new line, click the blockquote button again. You’ll get the hang of it.

Categories & Tags

Categories and Tags can be found below the text-entry field. Categories display as “kickers” (or “departments” for Mad magazine readers), and you’re encouraged to be creative with them — you can check an existing category, or click “Add New Category” to add to the list. (Click the Add button when you’re done.)

One catch: If you include a comma, WordPress will break your category in two.

Nojo prefers one category per post for display clarity, but he won’t crack your knuckles if you insist on multiples. If you forget to check a category, “General Disarray” will display as the default.

Tags, well, we’re not using them right now. They’re irrelevant. They won’t display. Maybe some day we’ll work up a whizbang automated “related posts” feature that uses them, but it’s not the first thing on the list.

Post Breaks/Read More

It’s a good idea to “break” a post to its inside page as quickly as your context allows — the homepage stacks ’em seven posts high (equivalent to a busy day), and until Some Geek figures out an “automated feature” display, we want everything to enjoy a decent shot at the reader’s attention.

1. Place your cursor at the start of the line you want to break inside.

2. Click the “split-page” break button.

3. In the Visual editor, you’ll see a thin gray line with a tiny “More” icon at the right. When published, this is presented as “read more” on the homepage, and doesn’t appear inside.

Post Timer

You don’t have to publish now, especially if somebody else beat you to it. Instead, you can use the timer to set your post for an hour or two from now. (Or 7 a.m. the next morning, as you might have noticed.)

1. See that little “Publish Immediately” line above the Save button? Click Edit.

2. Golly! You can set it for Armageddon! Short of that, enter your time in 24-hour terms (6 p.m. = 18:00), and remember that the site runs on Eastern time.

3. “Publish” your post as usual when you’re ready. It won’t show up in public until its appointed hour.

Reference Links

For lack of a better name, “Reference Links” are the lines at the bottom of a post which cite sources, offer further reading, or whatever. They’re not required — your post may have links within its text, or no links at all. But if they fall at the bottom, here’s the House Style:

Link Title [Source]

1. If you don’t see the second row of buttons in your editing window, click the “Kitchen Sink” icon (above).

2. You’ll see the format bar (perhaps called Paragraph or something else) at left. Place the icon in the text you want to highlight, then select “Heading 5” from that menu. This adds the coding that will display the link properly in your post.

Videos

Most videos — YouTube in particular — offer “embed” code for websites. This is the long code with angle brackets, not the simple address links. You can paste that code into your post, but you’ll need to do it in the “HTML” window — the “Visual” window will muck it up, and the “Add media” button is worse than useless.

1. Click the HTML tab.

2. Paste the embed code where you want it in the post.

3. Click the Visual tab again to continue writing. If you’re successful, you should see a Big Orange Box with a little Flash icon in the middle.