Member Articles

Working with the new IPA.Org Website

If you have read all three of the articles about publishing on IMPress, you are ready to see some of the differences in working on our new site.  The basics are the same, but each theme and or plug-ins we have added to this site require a slightly different way for you to publish your articles. You will notice that the formatting menu on the new site is quite different then the one we pictured on the IMPress Authors Guide, yet the both work the same in many respects.

Since WordPress is constantly updating its core functions and our theme for this site and also the many plug-ins we have installed are also updated, you may notice that some of our instructions or screen shots may no longer match what you are seeing when you are posting on the site.  We try to update these articles as well, but alas, it is a fools mission of sorts since the changes occur so frequently and information is available by doing a simple Google search or visiting the WordPress site for information.

Creating a New Post

It is easy to create a new post. On WordPress a post is what we refer to as an article. A page is a static page that stays on the site, like our member registration page or payment page.  So you will be creating posts.

Follow the information in our videos and other articles it will take you trough the steps.  As I said there will be a few things different here. Once you select New Post, you will be presented with a blank post to work on.

Remember to upload your  featured image.  In this site it should be approximately 540 pixels by 220 pixels to fit the member site to frame it properly.  See some of our posts to get an idea of how they will look.  They must be horizontal images to work properly on this theme, so you may have to crop a vertical if that is all you have.

If you are publishing a post on IMPress, you won’t need to be too concerned with the Featured Image size, because it will take the standard horizontal image (or vertical) and resize it to fit.  I like to upload an image that is about 700-800 pixels wide, if it is a vertical image, I would not upload anything with a height larger then 600 pixels. When uploading images to the media gallery, be sure they are edited, color is perfect, brightness and contrast is right and of course you crop the image properly.

With the newest version of WP, 3.9 you will find adding images is easier then ever before.  You can simply drag the image from your desktop or file directly into the post.  Of course you can also use the conventional method, click on the Add Media button and then drag the file from your desktop or files directly into the files window or upload it from the computer by searching for the image on your hard drive and uploading it from there.

Now you can also add audio and video files as well.  Many new features in WP 3.9.

Watch this video that will show you how to add media to your post.

If you are not getting the proper text wrap for the image, try reducing the size until it wraps properly. You can only determine this in the View Post mode to see how it actually will look. In the edit mode you will get an idea, but it will not show how it will actually appear in the post. You may have to play with it until you get it to where you want it.

Inserting a Video Into Your Article

It is also quite easy to include a video you have uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo by simply clicking on the videos Share tab, copy the url and insert it into your post. I prefer to do it another way so I can control the size of the video displayed.

How to Embed your video files

In the Text Mode it becomes a bit of a problem trying to locate the exact spot you want the video to appear because it has a lot of code there.  I usually skip a few lines and put in this text so I can find it in the Text Mode….INSERT VIDEO HERE.  A little trick to help me locate the exact spot I want to insert the video code. Remember, if you don’t have the ability to do your own video and can locate one on YouTube or Vimeo you can use those to illustrate your articles.

You can use them without any copyright issues because the copyright owner has set it for sharing and will receive the views on his video through the video in your post.  This is a great way to add some excitement to your articles as well. So even if you didn’t get any good photos for your article or you want to do a How To article, grab a video from YouTube or Vimeo and place it into your article.

Photo Galleries – Justified Image Grid

We have a video on how to create a photo gallery in your post. With our new feature we suggest you put up your best shots for the article, no matter how many…even 20 would be OK or more if you really have exceptional shots that are not similar to each other.

Our new featured plug in is called Justified Image Grid and you can see how you can take the default gallery that is built into the WP system and covert it to a beautiful new gallery that loads very fast as your reader scrolls down the page and opens into the full size image when clicked on and offers the viewer a slide show option or then can view them one at a time.

Justified Image Grid Display

When Image Is Clicked

See Video on How To Create Justified Image Grid Gallery

How the code looks

Justified Image Grid has a number of presets and short codes you can use and by changing the number in the Shortcode, you can select which style you want to use.  You can see the selection and now they look on this page.

Watch this video tutorial that will explain how to insert and use the short codes.  To simplify this, once you have created a gallery in WP and inserted it into your article, you have now duplicated the Gallery and included the JIG code, justified_image_grid.  But now you want to take it one step further and change the preset style. Your code with the style you want to use will now begin with There are no photos with those IDs or post attachment_16516 does not have any attached images! Various Presets for JIG[/caption]

Writing Your Article

Now some like to write their article in a note pad or word app and then copy and paste it into the post. With the latest version of WP 3.9 you can do this and WP will strip all the formatting from the Word doc so that our theme will display it properly.

I like to work directly in the post, so I can add images as I go along. This way I know how to position my images in the text. Centered, Left, Right alignments and also the size I need. The image you will upload will be too large to have text wrap around it but you can easily adjust that once it is in the article.  I won’t cover that here because it is in our Beginner Guide and in the video showing how easy it is to add media files in WP 3.9.

Remember to save your draft and don’t publish it until you have checked it, added the categories and tags and included your own handwritten description of the article. This is called the Excerpt and you will see it below the post as you scroll down the page. This is actually what the search engines will display when they show the search results for your post.  So make it descriptive and compelling so people will click on it to see your article.

This is going to be it for now. You have enough to play with for now. I would suggest opening one browser window with the Authors Guide articles open, then the other window on the side of that one to follow the steps one at a time. Once you understand how the WordPress Blog works, I can then begin to show you how to work with some of the Plug-Ins we have. Most are for the Admin to use, but some offer you some additional options.

Watch Our Videos For Instructions

We have created select instructional videos that will help you post your articles, images and photo galleries on our international press .org website.  Many of these videos will also help you post to IMPress as well. Staff member at IMPress should know how to do this because we have selected only those members that have successfully posted quality articles and images on our member site.

Click here to see all of our instructional videos