Updating the Sakai/OIRT Slideshow and My Workspace Messages

Updating the Sakai/OIRT Slideshow and My
Workspace Messages (MOTD)
The slideshows on the front pages of Sakai and OIRT are maintained through the OIRT
WordPress backend. They are the same show, so updating one updates the other.
Table of Contents
Gaining access to the WordPress backend!
Creating good slides!
Slide dimensions and file size!
Adding a slide to the slideshow!
Editing a title, description, and link for a slide!
Making a slide shadeless!
Making slide information appear in users' My Workspace information areas!
Repurposing old slides!
Removing slides!
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Gaining access to the WordPress backend
If you've never logged into the WordPress backend, you might need someone to grant
you administrator access. Ask someone from around the office to add you as a
"Directory Authenticated User." Once that's done, you can log in.
Creating good slides
The slideshow is designed to utilize text for all textual information. Slide images should
never contain important text, since this is not accessible. Images should always be
used to complement the text and provide non-essential supplementary imagery.
Slide dimensions and file size
The slideshow works best with slides that are sized exactly
1600x670. Slide images that are larger are scaled down, and
images that are smaller are scaled up to fit the size of the slide
box. This means that if you use a square image at any size, it
will either be shrunk or stretched to fit the width of the show,
and the top and bottom will be cut off (see right).
To achieve a reasonable file size for images of that resolution,
save images as JPG—not PNG, TIF, or GIF. JPGs can be saved
at different quality levels. Saving them around ~85% quality
usually results in a negligible amount of deterioration, but it
depends on the image. For images with few colors, like logos,
saving as a PNG may result in a smaller file size.
Adding a slide to the slideshow
Visit http://oirt.rutgers.edu/wp-login and log in with your NetID credentials.
From the menu on the left, click the Pages link. The first page in the listing
should be About OIRT. Hover over that link and a set of action links will
appear beneath it. Click the Edit link.
On the following page, there is a content editor that contains a
big, blue box with an image icon in the center. This is the
slideshow. Hover the blue box and click the Edit Gallery icon
that appears in the top left. This will bring up the gallery editor
pane.
The gallery editor pane shows all of the slides that are
currently playing in the slideshow. To add a new slide, click the Add to Gallery link on
the left, then the Upload Files tab from the top. Upload your slide image, and the
gallery pane will show the Attachment Details on the righthand side. This is where you
enter the information that you want to appear on the slide. The Title field will appear as
the title of the slide, Caption as the description beneath the title (optional), and Alt Text
as the URL that the slide links to (optional).
Hit the Add to Gallery button in the bottom right. Then hit the Update Gallery button
in the same area. Then hit the Update button in the Publish pane on the right. The
slide will now appear in the show.
Editing a title, description, and link for a slide
Edit the About OIRT page, and click the Edit Gallery icon on the
slideshow box in the content editor. Choose the slide that you want
to edit by clicking it in the Edit Gallery pane.
When a slide is selected, its details will appear in the Attachment
Details on the right of the pane. The Title field contains the main
title for the slide. The Caption field contains the description. To
make a slide link to another webpage, enter the full URL including
http:// in the Alt Text box. (This does not interfere with
accessibility, as this will not actually be used as Alt Text for the
slide.)
Making a slide shadeless
By default, all slides are given a shade, a translucent layer of gray between the
background image and the text. This ensures that the white text is legible over any
image, even one that is mostly white. If the image that you are using does not look
good with the shade, and the white text does not clash with the bare image, then you
can make the slide shadeless by adding "###" to the Title of the slide. The hashes
won't appear in the actual title. They are removed in processing.
Normal slide:
Shadeless slide:
Can Dogs Learn?
Can Dogs Learn?### OR ###Can Dogs Learn?
Making slide information appear in users' My Workspace information areas
To make the title and description of a slide appear in users' My Workspace tabs on
Sakai, add "!!!" to the Title of the slide. The exclamation marks won't appear in the
actual title. They are removed in processing.
Normal slide:
Urgent slide: Dogs Can't Learn
Dogs Can't Learn!!! OR !!!Dogs Can't Learn
Repurposing old slides
If you just need to post a message quickly and need a generic slide, you can choose
any old slide from the media library and change its information to suit your purpose. Do
not choose a slide that is currently running unless you want to remove that slide from
the rotation. Making changes to a slide's information in tone
place will change it everywhere.
Removing slides
Edit the About OIRT page, and click the Edit Gallery icon
on the slideshow box in the content editor. Choose the slide
that you want to edit by clicking it in the Edit Gallery pane.
The current slides will appear in the pane that pops up.
Hover over the one that you want to remove, then click the
X that appears in the top-right. Hit the Update Gallery
button, then the Update button to save the changes.