User Manual & Style Guide
This is a private, password-protected WordPress website, a sub-domain of MSHS’s primary WordPress website, mshsvt.org. It is a working tool for use by registered MSHS volunteers customized from training materials developed by Ferguson Caras LLC, our web designers.
This site can be used in two ways as:
- A users’ manual & style guide
- A training tool & practice site
Here , you can:
- Gain a footing in how WordPress websites work
- Learn how to do routine tasks related to editing and administering mshsvt.org
- Find a directory of mshsvt.org style and protocol detail, including global colors, fonts, text sizing, etc.
Playing around on the training manual site is a good first step before trying to do anything on the live mshsvt.org website.
You won’t grasp everything at first glance. Just learn what you need when you need it!
How-to Tip
As a registered user, you can switch between the website manual and its admin area:
On the website, it’s a training manual and tips platform. Use the toggle link in the upper right hand corner and you can go to the admin area.
In the admin area, you can practice creating and editing web pages, and do the same with galleries, menus, etc.
WordPress.org vs WordPress.com
The mshsvt.org website is built on the WordPress platform. When you look for information or resources about WordPress on the Web, it’s important to know the difference between two things:
WordPress.org or WordPress.com?
WordPress.com is a hosting service that hosts WordPress sites. It has free versions and paid versions.
WordPress.org is an open-source software organization responsible for development of the WordPress platform. Anyone can download WordPress software and install it on any server or hosting service they like. Mshsvt.org is this type of installation.
Mshsvt.org is on a shared hosting service called SiteGround. The SiteGround Managed Hosting Plan owned by MSHS offers a great deal of security, speed and a whole lot of flexibility, plus fabulous add-ons and plug-ins.
What do you need to know about WordPress? Actually, not very much. This manual shows you most of what you’ll need to tackle routine updates and maintenance.
If you’d like to know more, read the next section, “How WordPress Works” If not, then skip ahead to WordPress Essentials.
How WordPress Works
Optional—Basic Nitty Gritty. WordPress is a platform that integrates four basic Internet building blocks:
- A Database Language
- A Scripting Language
- HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
The Database uses an open-source relational database language called MySql. This is the most common type of database used on the Web now. Most of the things you do as a site editor or administrator—from building a new page, to editing a word or two on an existing page—actually makes changes to one of the MySql databases that store info for the site. Only you don’t see it happen. WordPress takes care of this and most highly technical things for you—behind the scenes.
The Programming Language is an open-source scripting language called PHP (short for Hypertext PreProcessor). This what’s called a server-side language.
When you create a page on the website, basically you are creating a script for how the page will look and what content it will contain.
When your page is published and a user visits the page, the script you created by building or editing a WordPress page calls up all the necessary structure, style and content from the databases, then builds and displays the page.
PHP combines the ability to call up information from the databases, with the ability to deploy the basic building blocks of any Web page, HTML. We’ll talk about that next.
Again, it’s likely you’ll never have to mess with PHP. WordPress takes care of it for you behind the scenes.
HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is what’s called a client-side language. HTML is the language that Web browsers read. Not all browsers agree 100% on how HTML is rendered. Minor differences crop up between Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc. But all browsers read HTML code—it’s the building block of every website.
If you didn’t have WordPress or MySql or PHP and wanted to build a website from scratch, HTML is the coding language you would use. In the old days, all websites were static pages, built entirely of HTML. Today, most websites have HTML pages created dynamically on the fly. WordPress is that type of platform.
You will encounter HTML when you see things like designating a Headline as an H1 or H2, etc. Inserting blocks such as paragraphs, images and lists. These are all HTML code.
The good news is WordPress takes care of most of the coding behind the scenes. You just need to make sure you get the page to look the way you want, while remembering to follow accessibility guidelines.
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets determines how your HTML elements look. It controls things like font size, bolded text and, most importantly, page layout. When you create blocks and grids and put in parameters for the distance between things you are creating CSS elements.
The good news again, WordPress and especially the WordPress premium theme and plugins we use tackle most of the hard stuff behind the scenes.
You just need to learn to use the tools. That’s what we’ll look at next.
Note: To learn more about WordPress, you’ll find vast online resources including forums and YouTube how-to videos, many free.
Essential WordPress for mshsvt.org
WordPress sites use sets of tools that allow users to build sites. For the most part these are:
- Themes
- Plugins
Themes. Every WordPress site incorporates a theme. A theme is an overlay of code and commands that gives you all the control you need to make a site look and work the way you want. There are thousands of themes.
GeneratePress is the theme used on both MSHS sites (main site and manual). We think it’s one of the best, leanest and most powerful themes available for WordPress today. We use two other GeneratePress plugins that augment the theme’s power and utility: GeneratePress Premium (GP Premium) and GenerateBlocks.
GeneratePress provides most of the tools you’ll use to build pages. For Admin Level, Generate tools control many aspects of how the site looks and works (for example Global Colors, Typography).
These tools are the basic building blocks that unlock the magic of WordPress. Editors can learn how to use GeneratePress tools in the Page Building tutorials. Admins will also learn Appearance and Customize.
Plugins are individual apps that you install on WordPress to give you functions that go beyond the basics. There are thousands of plugins available for WordPress, most from third-party developers. Many are free. Many have both free and paid versions. You can find a list of all the plugins currently used on the site.
In addition to the GeneratePress related plugins, the site uses three other paid plugins.
Envira Gallery is the plugin we use to create photo albums. It’s a very powerful and versatile program that can be used for everything from a full-sized album of images, to just a short three-pack or six-pack of images inserted to spice-up a page. You can learn how to use the Envira Gallery plugin here.
Folders Pro is a plugin that helps organize files by creating storage folders. We use these in the Pages, Media Library, and Envira Gallery areas. This is a plugin with a one domain license. Luckily our Web developers Ferguson Caras LLC own an extra license and have installed it here.
Folders are very useful for keeping things organized. You can create as many folders as you need, nest sub folders in other folders and even create a few dynamic folders that will automatically gather newly created items. You can drag pages, media files and galleries into folders. Keeping these areas organized increases in importance as the site grows.
FluentForms (Admin Level Only) is the plugin that allows us to build interactive forms and manage user responses to those forms. The site currently has 11 forms built including many functions from a simple Contact Forms to forms that allow people to donate money directly to the Society.
FluentForms is also one of the few plugins you cannot practice with on the manual training site. The license limits its use to one domain at a time. Even though manual.mshsvt.org is a sub-domain of the main site, it is viewed as a separate domain by this plugin.
Not to worry, there is a FluentForms training tutorial here. We created a practice form on the main site. You can play around with it freely. It does not exist on any page or in the navigation. Until a form is placed on a page and linked in the navigation, no one but admins can see it.
Admin Housekeeping Note: Currently, MSHS has no annual plugin renewals pending. All installed plugins hold prepaid lifetime licenses or were a version offered free. Please amend this section if plugins with annual renewal fees are added to the site after July 1, 2023.