wordpress: building a "topics" site

This section is intended for fellows in KDMC training programs that utilize our WordPress-based Topics CMS. If you are a WordPress developer trying to build a Topics CMS, skip to Building a Topics CMS.

Getting Started

KDMC trainers will have provided a login and URL for the CMS in advance. Once logged in, you'll need to change your password and tweak your profile immediately.

Click on your name at the top right of the screen:

This will take you to your profile page. If we created your account, the first thing you should do is change your password. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter a new password twice. Your password must contain at least seven characters, including at least one digit and one punctuation mark. Click the Update Profile button.

In the "Name" section, make sure your first and last name are correct. Then, from the "Display name publicly as" picklist, select the format you want your byline to appear in (most likely FirstName LastName).

A little farther down the page, find the "Jabber / Google Talk" field. WordPress doesn't have a Twitter field, but we're going to include your recent tweets in the sidebar of stories you write. Those tweets will be obtained by looking up the Twitter account listed in this field, so please enter your Twitter username here.

Finally, scroll down to the "Biographical Info" field. Each author in the system will get a page of their own, displaying their bio and a list of stories they've written. This field does not have a rich text editor, but feel free to format your bio with simple HTML, if you know how (or ask us for a hand).

When a user clicks a byline link, your bio  will appear on the site like this:

A list of stories written by the author will appear directly beneath the bio.

Content Widths and Image Preparation

Our Topics system uses the following dimensions, which you'll want to keep in mind when preparing media content:

    Content area: 640px
    Optional full-width content area: 900px
    Banner image: 900 x 140px

You'll need to prepare a banner image for your topic in Photoshop at 900x140px.