Support Documentation

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Sites at Penn State and WordPress, from basic WordPress features to theme and plugin set-up instructions.

Users

Learn to manage users and your profile information.

Add Users

To add a user(s) to your site:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboard of the Site to which you want to add the user(s)
  2. Select Users→Add Users. Alternatively, you can click the Add Existing button when viewing All Users
  3. Input userID(s) separating them with commas, spaces, or new lines into the text field
  4. Set the role for the user(s) to be added
  5. Click the Add User button

Note: If more than one user is specified, all users in the list will be assigned the role chosen. You may also copy and paste a class list into the text field to add all members of a class at once.

From Canvas

Follow the instructions on how to Export your gradebook and copy the row of your student’s email addresses. You can then add them into the “Users” tool on Sites.

From Angel

Follow the instruction on how to Export Gradebook Grades. Please Note: This exports to a .tsv file, but this opens in Excel. Under “Source ID”, you will find your student’s access IDs. You can then add them into the “Users” tool on Sites.

Remove Users

To remove a user(s) from your site:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboard of the Site from which you want to remove the user(s)
  2. Select Users→All Users
  3. Search for and select the user(s) to remove by clicking the checkbox next to his or her name
  4. Select remove from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu
  5. Click the Apply button to remove

User Roles

Roles give site administrators control of what users can and can’t do within a site. Here is a summary of those roles:

  • Administrator – has access to all the administrative features for the site
  • Editor – can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users
  • Author – can publish and manage his or her own posts
  • Contributor – can write and manage his or her own posts but cannot publish them
  • Subscriber – can only manage his or her profile

Note: The roles above are core roles provided to sites. Some plugins can introduce additional user roles which can be assigned to users. For more information on these roles, please see the plugin documentation.

User Profile

Personalize your Sites experience.

To access your profile via your Dashboard goto Users→Your Profile. Alternatively, you can access it by clicking on your name link in the Admin Bar→Edit My Profile.

Here is a non-comprehensive list of how to set some of the more common profile options:

  • Email – will be used to notify you for site administrative purposes
  • Display Name (external link)- how your name is publicly displayed on posts and comments you write
  • Avatar – picture used when you create posts or leave comments
  • Admin Color Scheme (external link)- set the colors for the Dashboard

Note: Activating various plugins can introduce new options in the profiles menu. In these instances please refer to the plugin documentation for more information on these options.