Below are some features that UMB Blogs support. To learn how to work the features, visit the Getting Started page.
Design Themes
Every theme provides a unique combination of options. Some themes such as Vanilla are more customizable than others. Some, such as UMB Default, are not customizable at all. Here are five themes to select from:
|
Theme
|
Preview
|
Features
|
|
UMass Boston Blogs Default Theme
A customized WordPress theme. |
 |
-2 column layout-No customizable header (solid or gradient color only)-No top navigation tabs |
|
MistyLook
A real clean WordPress Theme by Sadish Bala , influenced by ReOrganize. Support is available at Forums. |
|
-2 column layout-Customizable header-Top navigation tabs |
|
Vanilla
A Customizable, Pro theme for TCW Clients. |
|
-2 column layout-Customizable Header-Top navigation tabs |
|
Cutline
A squeaky clean, feature-rich theme for WordPress designed and coded by Chris Pearson. |
|
-2 column layout-Customizable header-Top navigation tabs |
|
WP-Multiflex-3
Theme based on Multiflex-3, designed by Wolfgang. |
|
-3 column layout-No customizable header-Top navigation tabs |
Wordpress Widgets
Widgets are gadgets that you can use on your blog, which include:
- Links - Adds a Box on the page where you can put links.
- About - Add a Box on page to write text.
- Pages - Your blog’s WordPress Pages.
- Calendar - A calendar of your blog’s posts.
- Archives - A monthly archive of your blog’s posts.
- Meta - Log in/out, admin, feed and WordPress links.
- Search - A search form for your blog.
- Recent Posts - The most recent posts on your blog.
- Tag Cloud - Your most used tags in cloud format.
- Categories - A list or dropdown of categories.
- Text - Arbitrary text or HTML.
- RSS - Entries from any RSS or Atom feed.
- Recent Comments - The most recent comments.
- Vodpod videos - Add your favorite videos from hundreds of sites to your blog with the Vodpod widget.
Import and Export Blogs
WordPress can import the entries from selected personal blogs into your UMass Boston blog, or export your UMB blog entries to your personal blog. This can be done under the "Manage" tab. WordPress supports the following blog services:
- Blogger
- Blogware
- Bunny’s Technorati Tags
- Categories to Tags Converter
- DotClear
- GreyMatter
- Jerome’s Keywords
- LiveJournal
- Movable Type and TypePad
- RSS
- Simple Tagging
- Textpattern
- Ultimate Tag Warrior
- WordPress
Create More Blogs
UMB blog users may create up to 8 blogs on their account. This allows users to express their many unique personalities.
Posts
You can change the settings of your posts to the following:
- Moderated - This allows viewers not affiliated with UMass Boston to leave comments.
- Unmoderated - This allows you to prevent non-UMB viewers from posting comments.
- Private - Only you will be able to view this post when you log in.
- Password Protected - You can create passwords for individual posts so that only people you share the password with can view your post.
Comments
You can leave comments on fellow UMB blogs, and visitors can leave comments on your posts too. You can enable or disable comments on a per-post basis. Before comments made to your posts are visible to the public, you can approve, unapprove, mark as spam, or delete them.
Open ID
UMB Blogs supports OpenID, which allows users outside UMB to be able to contribute to UMB Blogs by logging in with Open ID. OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.
RSS feeds
Visitors who want to keep track of your blog can subscribe to your RSS feed. An RSS feed is a notification of new posts and new comments to your blog or your friends’.
Media Library
Any pictures you upload to your UMB Blog will be saved in the Media Library if you ever need to easily view or use them again.
Social Bookmarks/Privacy
Visitors who want to find your blog easily can bookmark it. A bookmark saves the web page to your browser so you can easily open it again. You can allow normal visitors to view your page and block search engines, vice versa, or allow both.
Meta Tags
If you allow search engines, you can add meta tags to trace down your blog more accurately. A meta tag is information/words that help search engines find your site more efficiently.
Shared Blog
If you are part of a team and share a group email, you have a group blog as well. Just login the blog with your group email username and password.
Intelligent Text Formatting
Have you dealt with systems that convert new lines to line breaks? Or any sort of HTML will butcher your context by putting tags after every new line indiscriminately, breaking your formatting and validation? Our function for this intelligently avoids places where you already have breaks and block-level HTML tags, so you can leave it on without worrying about it breaking your code
No Rebuilding
Changes you make to your templates or entries are reflected immediately on your site, with no need for regenerating static pages.