News

As common and frequently asked questions arise, I’ll be addressing them in posts on this website, conveniently collected at this link: Quick References for Parish Website Admins. As always, if you have additional questions, please do call or email me; “Better Together” doesn’t just mean being on the same page, but sharing struggles and triumphs in an effort to build the capacity of each of our parishes to minister to our communities more fully.

Major Takeaways from Onboarding

If we’ve met for onboarding, it might have felt a bit overwhelming; with every new project comes a learning curve, and website development shouldn’t be underestimated! This is no small task, and I am continually grateful for your willingness to learn, invest in this and continue with your charitable patience as we walk forward together.

Here, I’d like to break down a few key takeaways from our onboarding session that you can keep as a reference!

WordPress Training Videos from Blackbaud

The WordPress training videos that I delivered to you via email are stored on your WordPress dashboard. Once you are logged in to your dashboard you can find them in two places:

1. In the black bar at the top, hover over “Help” at the very left, which will open a drop-down list. Training Videos is at the top of the list.
2. On the dashboard “Home”, in the second column (“Can we help?”), You’ll see the third option is “Watch training videos”.

Of course, perhaps the easiest way to find these videos is to bookmark them on your browser. Use this direct link, and save the page to your bookmarks if that helps:

www.blackbaud.com/training-support/support/howto/blackbaud-website-package#bbwp-training-videos

Logging In

Please remember, you will always use your parish website with “/wp-admin” behind it to log in. For example:

yourparishname.diojeffcity.org/wp-admin

This screen will always prompt you to type your username and password in. You can set the system to “keep” you logged in for your convenience. How do you know if you’re already logged in? You’ll see a black bar at the top of every page that has the Blackbaud logo on the left, and it will say “Howdy, (your name)” on the right.

If you have trouble logging in, please notify me by email or call my office. A few users have experienced an error that displays a page with a logo for a security program called “Wordfence”; this is a known error that Blackbaud is now working to correct. I might be able to help you find a workaround if needed until this is resolved.

If you forgot your password, the log-in page should have a button or link that says “I forgot my password”, which will prompt you to reset it via email. If you are able to log in but need to change your password, you can do so on the dashboard by navigating to the “Users” tab, finding your account and clicking “edit”. If you scroll to the bottom you can “Generate a New Password” and either let WordPress generate a secure password, or put your own in. WordPress will not accept a “weak” or “medium” password, so be sure to use upper and lowercase letters, special characters, numbers and the correct number of characters as prompted by WordPress.

If you are adding/editing staff members and need help understanding User Roles, and levels of access please visit this post.

Workflow

WordPress is very user-friendly and includes many customization options. This allows your website development and management to be as simple or complex as you desire. We’re working with a pre-set template that includes many branded elements already, but you might decide to create a version of a particular element or module that you’d like to customize further.

So, my rule of thumb for this is to go from “top to bottom” and then “left to right.” I try to do this with you while we onboard, but want to reiterate: each module, post, feature, page, etc. will have many settings. You can ensure that you’ve done everything you need to if you scan the page from top to bottom and left to right.

For example, when creating a new post, you’ll want to make sure it has the Title, subtitle, body, etc. (Top to bottom). Then you’ll want to find that sidebar on the right side of the page (left to right) and go down the list there, that prompts you for Status, Categories, Tags, Excerpts, Featured Image, etc.

I’ll be writing on many more topics pertaining to WordPress sites, and you’ll be able to find those posts easily organized in a category at this link:

diojeffcity.org/blog/category/communications/parish-website-admins/

Until next time,

Ashley Wiskirchen
Director of Parish Communications
Diocese of Jefferson City
Office: 573.635.9127
Email: communication@diojeffcity.org