I am starting to become more comfortable with Wordpress. However, I am still trying to execute ideas that I have to research in order to accomplish. I had to refresh myself on basic html codes such as how to create a table. Fortunately, I have not encountered any real difficulties in trying to display the content. Wordpress will self-code most information if it is put into the "display" section of the page editor correctly. In the book, a lot of the content was not formatted into tables so I had to code a little but it was not a bad experience
When I first added the homepage content it did not appear on the website. I deleted it and retyped it. I wrote it in the "visual" window and deleted the content from the "text" than I tried it in the reverse. I googled "My homepage content will not appear on Wordpress website" in every variation. I read possible solutions that varied from re-creating a homepage to editing the permalink. I even created an account in Wordpress questions and I still could not find an answer. After being flustered and feeling like time was being wasted, I decided to edit the other pages and return to the homepage later. After the other pages' content appeared I went back to the homepage and looked specifically at the "front page" settings under "customize" in the "appearance" tab. I saw that the static front page was on "blog" instead of "page". Finally, WAHLA! The homepage appeared.
My next step was to include an interactive quiz on each of the chapter pages. I did a little research on quiz downloads and learned about Wordpress plugins. Slickquiz had excellent reviews so I installed it onto Wordpress. The installation was a breeze and the plugin is very easy to use. The only difficulty I had was trying to incorporate photos into the quiz. I read about people who had been able to incorporate photos but I was never successful. I tried to copy and past and I tried the < image source... code but it did not work. This is something I would like to go back to as for now, the quizzes are completely functional.
Then, I wanted to add downloadable content to the website. When the files for chapters 9 and 10 would not upload I thought that I had exceeded the amount of permissible, downloadable materials for the website. I contemplated taking the basic downloads off for chapters 1 and 2 and using the space for chapters 9 and 10. As it turns out, the problem was not the number of files I had, just the size of the files. I downloaded the WP-Filebase download manager plugin to upload the files. The files were too large for the plugin as well. Then I just compressed the files using smallpdf.com, a new-found website, and the files uploaded beautifully.
I met with Monica, my capstone advisor, and she gave me a lot of great advice. I have been so focused on the "how to do's" that I have not taken those few steps back to look at the website and think, "now, how can this be better." After meeting with Monica I was able to look at the website a little differently. I am really looking forward to applying the suggestions she had such as adding an audible pronunciation option to each of the English words. Although I do not foresee the implication of all of these ideas immediately put into action I think that within a few weeks the website will be on an entirely new level.
There are also a few details such as adding social media links to the website that I would like to do as well. They will not be difficult its just a matter of time and priorities within the project as a whole.
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| Joyfully sloshing through it! |
In other news, I downloaded the Illustrator 30-day trial to build images for the video. This is not quite in full throttle but I have allotted time specifically to editing these images and finishing the video before Monday.
As far as the book is concerned, I have compared several different self-publishing companies such as Outskirts and Shopmybook.com. Outskirts seemed ideal at first and then I realized that they were way out of my budget so I think I am going to go with Shopmybook.com
All in all, I am pleased with the direction of the project. There is still a lot of work left to be done and even more left to be learned but I am enjoying this project more and more.
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