Making an SYR Expressions SiteA Guide for WRT 105 Students

Step 1: Visit http:expressions.syr.eduand click the button to “Sign Up!”

Step 2: Enter your SYR netID and password, then click “LOGIN.”

Step 3: Enter a name for your site, and tagline if you choose. Click “Make My Site” to continue.

Step 4: Choose the link “Click here to view your new site.”

Step 5: Click “Visit Site”

You have arrived at your new site’s Dashboard. The rest of the tutorial will explore some of your options.

Themes

To personalize the look and feel of your site, hover over “Appearance” in the left hand nav bar and choose “Themes.”

Here you will see the default themes that are already installed. Hover over the installed themes and choose “Preview” or “Activate” to check out how your site looks with those themes applied.

Or, you can click the “Add New” button to search for new themes.

Now, you can use any of the listed filters, enter a search term, choose “Featured” or similar options, or just click “Search” to sort through available themes.

When you find a theme you like, you can preview it, or click “Install Now” to add it to your theme gallery.

About installed themes… New themes will appear in your themes gallery with

the default themes. Choose AppearanceThemes in the left hand nav bar to view all installed themes.

To apply a theme, hover over it in the themes gallery and choose “activate.”

Themes will need to be updated from time to time for security and functionality of your site. You will be notified that you have updates ready when you log in to your dashboard.

Themes have a variety of different capabilities. Explore them carefully to ensure they are suitable to your needs.

Posts

Posts are equivalent to a blog post or status update—the most recent content appears on top. You can work with posts in several ways.

In the left hand nav bar, you can hover over the “Posts” link and choose “Add New” to make a new post, or choose “All Posts” to view and edit previous posts.

You can also add new posts by clicking “+ New” in the top menu bar.

Be sure to entre a title for your post.

To insert images, video, and more, click the “Add Media” button.

For more formatting options, click the “Show Kitchen Sink” button.

Be sure to click the “Publish” button when you are ready for your content to be public. Drafted posts are automatically saved.

Pages

Pages are like posts, but they feature static content. In other words, you will have to edit the entire page each time you add something new, rather than adding new, discrete units of content like you do with posts.

Select Pages Add New to create new pages. The editor is the same as the editor for posts.

You can also select “All Pages” to view and edit already created pages.

A Few More Advanced Features…

Under Settings General, you can enter a new contact email for yourself, change the time zone, date format, and more.

Under Settings Reading, you can choose a new homepage—this can be your blog page (default), or a new static page you’ve created.

To create a custom menu, choose Appearance Menus

For more Expressions help… Visit the Expressions Answer Space at

https://answers.syr.edu/display/itsservapp011/Expressions

Call ITS at (315) 443-2677 Or, email express@syr.edu