To use the built-in analytics, log in to your blog’s Dashboard, and under the Settings menu on the right you’ll find a link labeled “Google Analytics (MSU).” Click on this link and enter your Web Property ID. You can now track stats from your blog in your Google Analytics account.

We have previously been using two different third-party plugins called Google Analyticator and Ultimate Google Analytics, which were a stop-gap measure until we could build this functionality into all of our blogs. If you are currently using one of these plugins, we will switch your blog over to the new version and deactivate the old plugin. Once all blogs are switched to this new system, we will be removing both the Google Analyticator and Ultimate Google Analytics plugins from the system.

Add a description

Log in to your blog’s Dashboard, and then click on Users > All Users in the left sidebar. This will show you a list of the users on your blog. Hover over your profile and select the Edit link that appears.

Add your bio to the box labeled Biographical Info; this field must be filled in to have the author box appear on your blog posts. Add information to any other fields you wish, then clcik the blue Update Profile button on the bottom of the page.

Create a profile picture

WordPress uses the Gravatar system to house profile pictures. To have your picture included in the author box on your blog posts:

1. Visit Gravatar
2. Click on the Get your Gravatar today button
3. Follow the instructions on the Gravatar site. You must use your BearPass Email address.
4. Next time you log in to your blog, you should see your picture in your profile.

Here are some of the key features of the new Missouri State Blog theme:

Various color options

There are now seven color options for your blog; these colors coordinate with the new skins in Web Press. You can now choose a color layout of Maroon, Grey, Orange, Blue, Tan, Green or Lime.

Updates to header images

The new header images utilize a larger size of 960×198 pixels. We have also created a set of default header images that blog administrators can choose from, and the option of creating and uploading a custom header image is still in effect. The process for uploading header images has also been updated, and is documented on the Header Images tutorial within our blog support pages.

Now that the process for uploading header images is integrated into your blog Dashboard, we will be phasing out the NextGEN Gallery plugin in the near future. We suggest using either the built-in photo gallery for WordPress or the Inline Media Tool plugin in combination with Flickr for any future slideshows or galleries that need to be embedded in your blog posts.

Drop-down menus

The Missouri State 2010 theme neatly organizes your pages into a menu in your blog’s header, and includes drop-down menus for multiple levels of nested sub-pages.

Author box

An box containing information about a blog post’s author is now default on all blogs (you can see an example at the bottom of this post). To have the box appear on your blog, the author must have some information entered on their profile within WordPress. You can enter this information by visiting your profile page.

Multiple sidebars

The new blog theme supports up to two sidebars on the right side of the blog and up to four sidebars above the footer. The layout of the theme will change dynamically depending on how many sidebars you utilize.

If you are the administrator of one or more blogs, please subscribe to this site, as any news about WordPress blogs will be posted here. Examples of content you can expect are:

• new or updated plugins
• changes or updates to the Missouri State blog themes
• upgrades to our WordPress installation
• server moves, downtime, etc.

This new version of WordPress has some great new features, including better menus and navigation, custom post types and taxonomies and a better back-end interface. We plan on updating the themes available to users during the fall 2010 semester to better take advantage of these new features, so stay tuned. We will also be updating our support pages in the fall to better reflect the changes and updates in 3.0.

If you’re curious about the changes and updates made to WordPress 3.0, please watch the video tour below:

This morning we updated the Missouri State blogs to better work with the WordPress threaded commenting system. We have been using a third-party plugin to allow for threaded comments, but our themes now work with the integrated WordPress threaded comments and thus the plugin is no longer needed.

To turn on threaded comments on your blog:

1. On your blog’s Dashboard, navigate to Settings > Discussion.
2. Under ‘Other Comment Settings,’ check the box labeled ‘Enable threaded (nested) comments.’
3. Select the number of levels deep you would like the threaded comments to go.
4. Click the Save Changes button on the bottom of the page.

We have also integrated a Tiny MCE Comments plugin into all of the blogs, allowing for commenters to add links, format text, etc. This plugin works on both threaded and un-threaded comments.

The MSU Calendar widget allows you to pull in a calendar of your events directly from the Missouri State University Master Calendar. You can see a working example of the new widget to the right on the sidebar of this blog, labeled ‘Web and New Media Events.’ You can add the calendar widget to your blog’s sidebar by going to your blog’s Dashboard, then navigating to the Widgets page under the Appearance tab. Drag the MSU Calendar widget from ‘Available Widgets’ to the sidebar and then fill in the necessary info.

The Inline Media Tool plugin allows you to embed Flickr slideshows, YouTube videos, and video or audio from iTunes U directly into any post or page in your blog. To use the media plugin, click on the button on the top far-right of the editor for any post or page.

There are four tabs within the Inline Media Tool: a Flickr slideshow, YouTube video, iTunes U video file or iTunes U audio file. Follow the directions on each tab to embed that particular media on your blog.

Both of these new tools are now live on all Missouri State University blogs and ready for your use. Below is a video showing you in-depth how to use the new Calendar widget and Media plugin, with step-by-step instructions and examples for all options within these new tools.

We’ve added some new plugins to our WordPress blogging system recently, and I thought I’d share them with everyone in case you’re interested in using them on your blog:

Askimet - another anti-spam plugin. We had a few spam comments sneak through our other anti-spam plugin, so I added Askimet as well for double coverage. This has already been activated on all of the current WordPress blogs, and will be on all future blogs as well.

Co-Authors Plus - allows multiple authors to be assigned to a post. Only the users on your blog can be selected as authors on your posts.

Twitter Tools - integrates your WordPress blog and your Twitter account. You can bring your tweets into your blog (in a sidebar widget) and pass your blog posts to Twitter.

My Link Order - allows you to set the order in which links and link categories will appear in the sidebar. Uses a drag and drop interface for ordering.