S&T Sites runs on a system called WordPress. If you’re new to WordPress but ready to dive into building a new site, don’t worry! WordPress is a powerful tool that’s user-friendly even for beginners. Here’s a quick start guide to help you take your first steps.
Creating a site
To create a new site, visit sites.mst.edu and click the “Create a site” button. You’ll be prompted to log in, then given a range of pre-built template options. If you’re making a faculty site, for example, there’s a pre-built faculty template with starter information for you to edit. You can also choose to create a blank site, build out your content how you like, and pick from hundreds of different themes later.
Logging in
Once you’ve created a site, you’ll want to return to edit it periodically. To log in, go to sites.mst.edu and click the “Sign in” button in the top menu. This will take you to a dashboard; however, you’ll need to choose which site you want to edit before you can begin. You can have up to 10 sites in S&T Sites, so selecting which site you’re editing is an essential step. Look in the upper left-hand corner of the screen and find the “My Sites” dropdown, then select the site you intend to edit.
There’s also a shortcut to get straight into the dashboard of a specific site: Visit the site’s URL followed by /wp-admin. If your site were https://sites.mst.edu/example, you’d visit https://sites.mst.edu/example/wp-admin.
Previewing versus editing
When you’re logged into S&T sites, you’ll always see a black bar along the top of the page. This is your admin bar. It will have the “My Sites” dropdown, the name of the site you’re editing, and a “New” dropdown filled with shortcuts for creating new content.
If you’re seeing your site with the black bar over it, you’re in preview mode. You cannot edit from preview mode, but you can see your site how others see it.
If you’re seeing a dashboard with a left-hand menu containing items like Posts, Media, Links, and Pages, you’re in editing mode and can work on your site.
To switch between the two modes, just click the name of your site in the admin bar—it has more specific dropdown options, but simply clicking it toggles between the two modes.
Exploring the dashboard
Your dashboard has a menu bar along its left side containing all the options you need to edit your site. The ones you’ll be using most are Posts, Pages, and Appearance. You may also occasionally click into Media to manage the images you’ve uploaded, but you’ll mostly manage images in-line as you’re working on posts and pages.
Posts and Pages
In WordPress, content is divided into Posts and Pages. Editing them is identical. Pages are exactly what you’d expect: They’re the pages of your website. If you want a page about your research, you would click into Pages and either edit an existing research page or create a new page called “Research.”
There are two special types of page in WordPress: The Homepage and the Posts page. One of your pages will always be set as your homepage, and this will be the page people arrive at when they visit your site. Your homepage is clearly marked in your Pages listing. You may also have a Posts page, and this is where any posts you publish will show up. If you like, your homepage can be your posts page. Settings for special pages are found under Settings > Reading.
Posts are similar to pages, but are considered timely content that you post periodically, like articles or updates. Posts are not top-level pages on your site; instead, an excerpt of each post will show up in your posts page, and visitors can click into each post to view the full content.
Appearance
The Appearance menu is where you can change your site’s look and feel and adjust its menus. The options you’ll likely use are Theme, Customize, and Menus.
Under Appearance > Theme you can radically change the look of your site by applying one of hundreds of other themes. Note that this does not change the content of your site—all of your content simply flows into the new theme. Your default theme will likely be CampusPress Flex, and you can switch back to it as desired after trying other themes.
Under the Appearance > Customize menu you can fine-tune the visual design of your site by changing colors, spacings, etc. The customizations available in each theme are different, and are not shared between themes. You likely won’t need to use this menu if you stay in your default theme, but if you choose a different one this is a great place to adjust the new theme to your liking. Please note that if you use a different theme and want to use S&T colors and graphics in it, you can find our brand assets at brand.mst.edu.
Changing your menu
The most used option under Appearance will be Appearance > Menus. You use this portion of your dashboard to adjust the menu along the top of your site. You can find in-depth instructions in our other post, How to edit your menu.
Moving your information
Unfortunately, there is no automated import process from web.mst.edu sites or SelectedWorks to websites on S&T Sites. The pages on web.mst.edu use a hosting method and website building techniques that are a couple decades removed from WordPress, and SelectedWorks is a vendor system with a significantly different architecture.
Much of moving your information is a matter of copying and pasting information to the appropriate pages in WordPress.
If you would like assistance moving your information, web support is available to help on a first-come first-serve basis. Please contact websupport@mst.edu with the URL of your original site or SelectedWorks profile and the URL of your new S&T Sites website.