News stories on CHS website
Preparing to enter the story
Before you add a news story (or after you add content but before making it live), you need to know the
placement of the story and the photos or videos available for it—they impact each other.
Do you want the story to appear in the Front Page news or the Home Page Media Block? If so, you will
need a horizontally-oriented, good quality photo that’s 482 pixels wide by 345 pixels high or larger. The
photo is automatically cropped by WordPress. In the story, itself, the photo appears with its original
proportions. If you use a square or vertically oriented photo, the crop may not be so good.
Do you have a good vertical photo to use or a head shot? You can insert both of these in the story
content. You can do that in addition to the main story photo, but you can’t use these as the main story
photo.
Are there no photos available? This is okay, except you won’t be able to feature the story on the front
page or in the Home Page Media Block. Also, there will be no thumbnail for it on the news index page
(http://www.hs.iastate.edu/news/).
Do you want to promote something on the Front Page for which there is no photo? You can place a
graphic in that spot as long as the size is 482 wide or greater (ideally 482 x 345).
Do you have a video associated with the story? You can add that in the content with special code. You
can also do a separate photo for the home page media block and add special code that makes the video
play from the home page, as opposed to just having a link in the story.
Once you have determined the photos you will use, upload them using the instructions on page 4.
Story content
1. Starting at the left column of the Dashboard, click Post > Add New.
2. Enter the title in the top field. This is what will appear in the story,
in the news index page, and also on the front page, so it can’t be
longer than about 88 characters, including spaces.
3. Choose the date to publish under Publish in the right column. If it’s
not “Publish immediately,” click on Edit and choose the date. (You
can also save the story as a draft at any time.)
4. Click Publish or Save Draft.
5. Edit the permalink so it’s not so long. (Never edit a permalink after
the story has been published—if someone bookmarks or links to it,
the link will be broken.)
6. Make sure you’re in the Visual tab mode. Click in the content
Editing CHS web pages, 8.21.2012
Front page news
If you want a story to show up
on the front page news:
1. Make sure the story has a
photo. (If it’s an
announcement or story with
no photo, use the no-photo
image.)
2. Check Front Page as an
additional category.
3. Insert the photo as in Story
Main Photo.
4. Add an excerpt summary
under the Excerpt (approx.
160 characters, depending
on the length of the title. )
5. Make sure the story is dated
as one of the 3 most current
1
window, click the Paste as Word icon
from your Word document.
, and paste the content
7. After your lead sentence or summary, click on the Insert More icon.
The text above the break is what will appear on
the index page (but NOT the home page news block). Now is a good
time to Save Draft.
8. Check each of the categories you want the story to show as. (If you
choose Front Page and Media Block, you must have a 482 x 345
main photo.)
9. Skip the Quick Page/Post Redirect section.
10. Enter the under Meta SEO tab enter the Meta Description (140
character description of the story) and the Meta Keywords (a few
key words separated by commas). This is for search engines.
11. Put the byline name in the Byline field.
12. Put the Contact information in the Contact field. Enter a line of
space in-between each contact (it will be maintained).
13. Under the Sidebar Customization > Overall tab:
 Show Student Profile: No
 Show Drop-Down Jump: No
 Show Poll: No
 Show HR Break Line: Yes (if Quick Look and Quote)
14. The other tabs under Sidebar Customization that you use for stories
are Quick Look and Pull Quote:
 Under Quick Look, put a summary of the story.
 Under Pull Quote, add a quote, type in the quote marks (do not
paste!), add a line of space, and enter the name (no title).
15. Under Excerpt, add a summary of the story. This shows up for Front
Page news and remote sites. It can be up to 160 characters long,
depending on the length of the story title. When you’ve published
the story. Look at the home page to see if your new excerpt is the
same length as the other two. Edit for length, if necessary.
front page stories or it is one
of only 3 with Front Page
checked. (To see this, on the
Dashboard you can click on
the Front Page category to
have all of the Front Page
stories sort to the top.)
Categories
The checkbox list is not fixed.
When you choose categories,
they will move to the top of the
list. Weird.
 To put the story on the News
(index) page, select any
category.
 To put the story on the front
page, select Front Page.
 To put the story in the home
page media block, choose
Media Block.
Meta Data
Under the Meta SEO Pack there
are 2 fields to complete:
 Meta Description: You can
paste the summary from the
Quick Look or the Excerpt.
The first 140-150 characters
(including spaces) are what a
Google search will show.
 Meta Keywords: Add a few
words separated by commas
(no spaces) that people might
search on.
Excerpt
This shows up on front page
news stories and must also be
entered for remote site
(department) stories (when a
story is pulled into a remote site
because of the category).
Now, you’re done with the sections you need to fill out, and you need
to add the photos.
Editing CHS web pages, 8.21.2012
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Front Page Announcement
These instructions assume that you don’t have a full story and you have a photo suitable for the
announcement. If you don’t have a photo, use the no_photo graphic.
1. Complete steps 1 through 6 of Story content instructions for a
regular story
2. Check Front Page as the category.
3. Under the Sidebar Customization > Overall tab:
 Show Student Profile: No
 Show Drop-Down Jump: No
 Show Poll: No
 Show HR Break Line: No
4. Under Excerpt, add a summary of the story. The excerpt can be up
to 160 characters long, depending on the length of the story title.
When you’ve published the story. Look at the home page to see if
your new excerpt is the same length as the other two. Make
adjustments, if necessary.
Glitch
The front page announcement
does not allow for HTML code
right now. This means:
 Any links you put in excerpt
will not work.
 You can’t have any special
formatting, such as bold.
Photo
You need to have a horizontallyoriented photo of at least 482
pixels wide. If you don’t, use the
no_photo graphic in the news
gallery (or create an appropriate
graphic in the 482 by 345 size).
5. Add the photo using the instructions below.
6. View the announcement on the home page.
7. Delete the announcement after the event is done.
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Photos
The main story photo is horizontally-oriented and can potentially show up in four places:




As the main story photo
As a thumbnail in the news index page (or for scrolling news in remote sites)
As a “front page” news item
In the home page “media block”
Front page news or home page media block. The main story photo should be 482 x 345 pixels and be of
a quality that is up to HS Comm standards if you want it to appear in the front page news and in the
home page media block, where it will have high visibility.
Story photo only. If you don’t plan to feature the photo in the front page news or in the home page
media block, you can use any size of photo for the main story photo, as long as it’s 482 x 345 pixels or
larger. You could also have no main photo at all.
In addition to the photo options above, you have options for additional photos in the story content:



Head shot
Additional story photos of any orientation
A right column photo that’s limited to 215 pixels wide
Upload a photo
No matter how you are using a story photo, they are all uploaded the same way.
It’s best to upload photos before you add the story.
1. Click on Gallery > Add Gallery/Images in the upper-left Dashboard.
2. Click Select Files.
Single upload
Generally, you have to upload
one photo at a time. You can
upload multiples—if they don’t
together exceed the file size
limit of 16 mb.
3. Choose the photo and click Open.
4. Choose the CHS_News_201* gallery in the dropdown list.
5. Click Upload Images. The progress bar appears.
6. Click Manage Gallery, open the the CHS_News_201* gallery, find
your photo, and add:


Photo captions
Photo captions should be 170
characters or less. This limit is
mostly for purposes of the home
page media block.
A title in the Alt & Title field.
A caption in the Caption field (170 characters or less).
Editing CHS web pages, 8.21.2012
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Main story photo
1. Upload the photo using the Upload photo instructions.
2. Return to your news post.
3. Click Set featured image.
4. Click NexGen Gallery.
5. Choose the chs_news_201* gallery and click Select.
Upload the photo
A horizontally oriented photo of
482 x 345 px or larger must have
already been uploaded to the
CHS_News_201* NextGen
gallery.
Remove featured image
Click the Remove featured
image link under Featured
Image on the right.
6. Find your photo and click Show.
7. Click Use as featured image (accepting the default settings). This
both ads the thumbnail and the main photo.
Content Photo
You can put smaller photos of either orientation in the content of the story, including head shots.
1. Upload the photo using the Upload photo instructions.
2. Complete the story using the Story content instructions.
3. Put your cursor in the story where you want the photo to appear. It
must be after the More tag.
4. Click the Upload/Insert icon above the editing tools.
5. Click NextGen Gallery.
6. Select the chs_news_201* gallery and click Select.
7. Find your photo and click Show.
8. Click the Full size radio button and Insert into Post. (You can size it
in the story.)
After “more”
Put the content photos after the
more tag.
Sizing in the story
 When you size the photo in
the image editor in the story,
the editor always starts with
the last size you chose as
100%.
 Use the Advanced Settings
tab to see the pixel
dimensions.
 If you go too small and want
to start over, click on Original
Size.
 OR you can just click on the
photo and use the handles to
size.
9. Click on the photo after it shows up in your story and click the
upper right image icon.
10. Select the alignment in the first tab (automatically opens there).
11. Click the photo and use the handles to size.
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Right Column Photo
The right column photo puts a smaller story photo in the right column of the story. The photo must
already be sized to 215 pixels wide. The height doesn’t matter
1. Upload the photo using the Upload Photo instructions.
2. Complete the story using the Story Content instructions.
3. Format the photo to 215 wide. Note the height.
4. Upload the photo to the News_CHS_201* NexGen gallery.
5. While in the News_CHS_201* category, locate the photo.
6. Right click on the photo and select Properties. Copy the URL that
appears under Image Properties > Location.
7. Go to the post you’re working in.
8. In the Sidebar Customization tabs click Image.
9. Click Yes for Show.
10. Paste the following in the text box:
<img src="YOURURL" width="215” height="HEIGHT" /> and add the
URL and the height.
Editing CHS web pages, 8.21.2012
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