Publishing Guidelines

These are the guidelines for publishing interviews and Book Club reflections on this site, created by Vika Zafrin, Digital Scholarship Librarian. The guidelines assume that you’re working in the wp-admin / editing area of the site (see Technical Setup Assignments, link below).

Publishing Interviews

To publish and interview, you will need your compressed interview file (audio or video, see Technical Guidelines), a transcription of your interview, and a PDF file of your interview questions. The PDF file should be named according to the conventions outlined in the Technical Guidelines. If your interview media file is mgorbachev_jsmith_20190101.m4v, then your interview questions should be named mgorbachev_jsmith_20190101.pdf.

  1. Upload both your interview and the PDF file of of your interview questions to the Media Library (See Technical Setup Assignments).
  2. First you will copy and paste the interview template into a new page.
    1. In the left sidebar, click on Pages. Find and click on Interview Template.
    2. Make sure you’re in the Text editing tab, and not the Visual editing tab (see top right corner of the main content editing area).
    3. Copy everything in the main content area between the rows of asterisks.
    4. In the left sidebar, go to Pages -> Add New.
    5. Make sure you’re in the Text editing tab, and paste what you just copied into the main content area.
  3. Next, you will give your page a title and move it to the correct place in the site navigation scheme.
    1. Give your page a name up top. The name should be “Interview with [interviewee name]” (without quotation marks)
    2. In the right sidebar, under Placement in Navigation, click on “Move page.”
      1. Expand the Interviews section by clicking on the little arrow next to it.
      2. Drag your current page, which will be at the top of the list and will say “(no name)” even if you just gave it a name, inside the Interviews section.
      3. Click “Update location.”
    3. Again under Placement in Navigation, click the “Display in navigation” checkmark.
  4. Now, you will edit the content of the page itself. Switch to the Visual editing tab.
    1. Add the media file of the interview.
      1. Delete the words INSERT INTERVIEW MEDIA FILE HERE, leave the cursor on that line, and click the “Add Media” button immediately above the content area.
      2. Make sure you’re looking at the Media Library tab, click on your interview media file, and then click “Insert into page” on the bottom right.
    2. Add the PDF file link.
      1. Right-click on Media in the left sidebar, and open that link in a new tab. Click on the file you want, and copy its File URL from the right-hand sidebar. Make sure you copy the whole thing.
      2. Select the line “Customized questionnaire for this interview (PDF)” and click on the chain link button at the top of the main content area.
      3. Paste in the link you just copied and press Enter/Return.
    3. Add the transcript.
      1. Delete the words PASTE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT HERE
      2. Open your interview transcript and copy and paste its contents into the box.
  5. Preview your new page by clicking on Preview Changes at the top of the right-hand sidebar. Fix anything that needs fixing.
  6. Once you’re satisfied, click Publish. View the page on the site and make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be, the PDF file downloads, etc.

Posting Book Club Reflections

  1. In the left-hand sidebar, click Posts -> Add New.
  2. Give your post a short but evocative title.
  3. Check the appropriate category in the Categories section of the right-hand sidebar. Remember to uncheck Uncategorized.
  4. Write or paste the reflection itself in the main content area. If you’re pasting in pre-formatted text, remember to work in the Visual editing tab and not the Text one.
    1. You may add media and/or links if you wish — follow roughly the same procedure as in Publishing Interviews above. If you want to play around with the placement of an image, first insert it and then click on it. You should see a box around it and a little pencil icon. Click on the pencil icon and experiment with the settings. Contact Dr. Zafrin with any significant questions (see below), but do try to resolve things yourself first.
  5. Click Publish. You’re done.

Questions?

If you have trouble with publishing, please first consult the How To section of the IS&T help site on WordPress. If that doesn’t help enough, you might try calling the IT Help Center at 353-HELP. Please be sure to do your first interview publishing and Book Club assignments with plenty of time to address any issues that may arise. When contacting me for a help, give a detailed description of the problem and of what you’ve already tried to resolve it.

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