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Tuesday, February 7th, 2023Blogs Upgrade
Sunday, January 18th, 2015Blogs have been updated to WordPress 4.1.
New features:
- Twentyfifteen theme
- Distraction-free writing mode
- Vine embeds
New Plugins:
- Disqus comment system – Use the disqus.com system for comments
- Printfriendly – Creates a printer friendly version of your blog contents as well as creating a PDF of the page.
New Plugins!
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014Central Web Services has updated some existing themes and plugins as well as added several new plugins.
- Slideshows – slideshow-jquery-image-gallery
Slideshows allows for adding multiple slide shows to a post or as a widget to the side bar, contact info section or in the main post itself. - Instagram – simply-instagram
Instagram pictures and slide show emables embedding Instagram pictures as a widget in the various parts of a blog page. - Prezi – prezi-embedded
Prezi online presentation creation is simple with free accounts to students and educators. This plugin allows for embedding a prezi presentation into a post or page. Very simple and straightforward. We have added instructions for embedding a prezi in a blog at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/osucws/ - MailChimp – mailchimp-for-wp
MailChimp allows tying mailing lists to your blog. Add a newsletter for people who want updates on what you are going. Mailchimp-for-wp allows for creating custom signup forms for a given mail list created on your MailChimp account.
Other updates:
Themes
- TwentyTen
- TwentyEleven
- TwentyTwelve
- TwentyThirteen
- TwentyFourteen
Plugins
- wordpress-seo
- wp-polls
- wp-postratings
Upgraded to 3.9.2 and new infrastructure
Monday, September 15th, 2014An upgrade to WordPress 3.9.2 has been completed. New WordPress and new infrastructure! This upgrade is a significant jump. Below is a list of the version that we skipped over and the improvements that have been incorporated. The two most noticeable areas are the Admin menu has been revised and the Media experience has been enhanced.
An event a long time in the making, we have completed moving blogs.oregonstate.edu to a new set of servers. This upgrade will result in a more responsive upgrade path for themes, plugins and WordPress itself. Newer machines, new PHP and newer database system has resulted in better responsiveness. Wordpress’ underlying structure has at times lead to issues with other Web sites being affected leading to slowness and sluggish response times.
In the near future, we will be adding new plugins with additional capabilities – Instagram, slideshows and more. If you have suggestions, let us know and we will be happy to evaluate them for general use for everyone.
OSU Blogs are Responsive
Wednesday, October 31st, 2012
We have rolled out a new blog theme which is named OSU Responsive. Why Responsive?
Responsive really means responsive web design. The goal behind responsive web design is to have the design of a given web page be adjusted dependent on the size of the screen. So on a phone, the look and feel changes to be more of a mobile experience where reading a full web page doesn’t necessarily make sense.
The theme is a two column theme, with only a main sidebar, and the bottom contact area as available areas to put widgets in. Remember, not all widgets will look good in different areas so you will have to see what works and doesn’t.
Who can use OSU Responsive? Responsive is available for everyone, however, there are some things to note. The use of the OSU logo or tag is restricted to certain use. The theme will display the tag or not based on the Organization Type as specified by the table below.
| Organization Type | Can Use Branded Theme? |
|---|---|
| Student | No |
| Staff | No |
| Faculty | Yes |
| Department | Yes |
| Sponsored Student Organization (SSO) | Yes |
| Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) | No |
| Non-Affiliated Student Organization (NSO) | No |
Student Organizations are governed by the policies of Student Leadership and Involvement. If you are a student group and do not know which type of organization you are, please visit the Student Leadership and Involvement site.
What do you need to do to use it?
1. If you are switching over from an existing theme, and you switch it immediately, it might seem that your site is broken in layout. It isn’t. It is simply that the widgets need to be removed and put back into the areas available for it. So we recommend first removing all the widgets in use from the sidebars.
2. Go to Appearance -> Themes in your WordPress dashboard, and select the OSU Responsive theme.
3. Put your widgets back into the sidebar.
4. Deactivate the Sociable Skyscraper plugin if you are using it. Use of this inserts a thin horizontal line and makes the theme look broken. Go to Skyscraper Options in the Select Sociable Plugin expanded menu to deactivate.
And that’s it. Good blogging to you all.
Accessibility and Brand Guidelines
As part of the OSU Responsive use, the use of a different background image or color must adhere to OSU’s policies regarding Accessibility and Brand. Any failure to do so may cause your blog to be disabled. The net takeaway here is don’t change it if you don’t understand the policies, which is why we at Central Web Services, take care of these things for you in creating the default theme. However, do remember within your articles, accessibility policies still apply if this is used in any official capacity for students, staff, or faculty or OSU.