30Mar, 2023
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Signing Up On Sites@UMW
What is Sites@UMW?
Sites@UMW is free to every member of the UMW community. It provides users with a quick way to craft a website without worrying about performing maintenance but provides limited options for customization.
How to Sign Up?
Step 1: Visit UMW Domains
The first step to gaining your own Sites@UMW account is to visit UMW Domains. Once there, you’ll be on a landing page detailing some differences between Sites@UMW and Domain of One’s Own. Once you are sure that Sites@UMW is the one you want, scroll down and click on the button that says “Sign Up for Sites@UMW” (Fig. 1).
Step 2: Type of Account
After you click the button, you will be taken to a page that will give you more information about Sites@UMW. At the bottom of the page you will be asked whether you want to create a user account or a user account and a site (Fig. 2). Creating just a user account will allow you to join a professor’s website and creating a user account with a site will allow you to create your own website.
Depending on which one you select, there will be slightly different steps for you to follow.
User Account
If you picked a user account, the steps below are for you.
Step 1: Dashboard
Once you click this option, you will be taken to this dashboard after signing in with your Net ID and password (Fig. 3).
In this dashboard, there are a couple of things you can do.
My Sites
My Sites is one of the things you can click on your dashboard (Fig. 4).
When you click on it, you will be given a list of all the UMW sites you’ve made. At the top corner, you’ll also have the option to create a new site (Fig. 5).
Get Support
On your dashboard, you will also have a button for getting support if you need help (Fig. 6).
Profile
One important thing to set up is your profile. You get to your profile by going to the sidebar and clicking the profile button (Fig. 7).
If you join a class website and want your name to appear on your posts and comments, this is where you would go to accomplish this. You can also do things like set a profile image here.
Step 2: Creation
Now with all the details and the set up complete, you can create your own website.
Create an Account & Site
If you picked a user account & site, the steps below are for you after you log in with you’re UMW ID.
Creating Your Site
If you are building your site, the next step will include picking your Site Domain, Site Title, and Privacy settings (Fig. 3).
Your site domain comes first in the URL, in front of umw.sites.net. There is no way to remove umw.sites.net from the end of your site URL. If you want a more personal URL and more creative freedom, you should create a Domain of One’s Own account.
The site title is what you want your website to be called. You can always change this later.
The last thing is selecting your privacy settings. Here you can choose whether or not you want your site to be visible to search engines.
When you finish selecting your answers for these options, you can hit the button to create your site and start building your site out.
7Feb, 2023
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Fig. 12- Lines of code to be removed 
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Troubleshooting Omeka
How to make an Image Appear on a Record
Go to your settings (Fig. 1) and select general (Fig. 2).
Scroll down until you see the ImageMagick Directory Path, and make sure it’s set for /usr/bin (Fig. 3).
You can run a test by clicking the test button to make sure the directory path works. Once you do this, make sure you hit the save changes button (Fig. 4)
To add an image, you can navigate to items (Fig. 5).
There you can select to add a new item (Fig. 6).
After clicking on add an item, you’ll want to navigate to files (Fig. 7)
Under files, you can click on browse to select an image downloaded on your computer. If you want to add more than one, you would also click add another file before selecting that photo.
How to Hide the Citation Field
In Omeka, to change or edit the citation field, you have to create a custom plugin, meaning that hiding the citation field is much easier than trying to change it.
The first step is finding the File Manager on your cPanel (Fig. 8)
Once inside your File Manager, you’ll want to find the folder labeled with your blog’s domain name. Then you want to open the theme portion of that folder (Fig. 9).
Once inside your themes folder, you want to find your current theme, whatever that may be. Then you want to find the items folder (Fig. 10)
Inside the items folder, there should be an item called show.php, which you can click on and then use the edit button to adjust the code (Fig. 11).
You’ll want to remove the following lines of code from that file (Fig. 12).
<div id=”item-citation” class=”element”>
<h3><?php echo __(‘Citation’); ?></h3>
<div class=”element-text”><?php echo metadata(‘item’,’citation’,array(‘no_escape’=>true)); ?></div>
Remember to hit the save changes button at the top right when that is done.
How to add an input with two fields
When using the input box, you can only add one value per box. To add multiple values, you will have to use the Add Input button to create a box for each value (Fig. 13). If you fail to do this step, multiple inputs will simply be treated as one input.
Search Bar Questions
How to search
To search your Omeka website, you can use a search bar that is always present in the upper right corner of the admin side (Fig. 14).
The search bar on the front end of your website may be a little harder to find as it will vary by them.
You will want to type in a keyword when using the search bar. Based on your search settings, this search might lead to this keyword pulling up items, files, collections, and pages.
How to Change Search Settings
To change your search settings, click on settings in the upper right corner (Fig. 15).
Next, you want to navigate to Search.
Listed below are the different settings for your Omeka search bar (Fig. 17). You can make it look for a Keyword, Boolean, or an Exact Match. You can have it pull Items, Files, Collections, or all three.
You can also use the Hide Elements plugin, which will allow you to hide elements from the search bar.
Other Resources
The Omeka Classic Getting Started User Manual includes a large variety of information when it comes to setting up Omeka, installing themes, and troubleshooting information.
Much like the User Manual, Omeka.net has a lot of great guides showing you a wide variety of things you can do with Omeka.
If you are confused about a term, there is a Dublin Core guide that will assist you with learning what they mean.
1Feb, 2023
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Omeka Guide
Installation
Step 1: Launch the Installer
Head to your Domain of One’s Own’s cPanel. Once you have logged in and reached your cPanel, under featured applications, you need to find Omeka (Fig. 1)
This will take you to a page telling you a little bit about the application you intend to install- in this case, Omeka. When you are ready you can click install this application, which will be located to the right of the screen (Fig. 2).
Step 2: Choosing the settings
Now you should be on a settings page where you can select what domain you would like to install Omeka.
Location
Location is where you will choose which domain or subdomain you would like Omeka to install.
Domain
Under Domain (Fig. 4), you can click the arrow to get a drop-down menu listing your main domain and all of your subdomains. There will be two versions of each domain. One will start with http and another will start with https. It is important to select the one with https as it will make your site more secure.
Directory (Optional)
Underneath Domain will be a bar labeled as Directory (Optional). You should delete the cms that is auto-filled to this box. If left in, cms will appear at the end of your website’s URL (Fig. 5).
Version
Below Location is Version. Omeka will automatically be downloaded in the newest version and this should be kept the way it is. Lower down in Version you will have the option to choose whether or not you wish for Omeka to automatically be updated once you download it. We recommend you keep the default settings to ensure your site remains up to date (Fig. 6)
Settings
The next set of options is under Settings (Fig. 7). Here, you will set an administrator username and password. Unlike WordPress, it is important that you can remember these as you will need them to sign into your account and use Omeka. You can also change your password and username here at any point.
You can change your website title now if you would like to, but if you decide to wait or change the title later, that’s fine.
Final Installation Step
The final step in installing Omeka is to hit the install button at the bottom right corner (Fig. 8)
Step 3: Launching Omeka
Now that Omeka has been installed, you can access your Omeka profile at any time by logging into your cPanel through Domain of One’s Own. Your new Omeka site should be underneath Applications (Fig. 9)
You can click on your new Omeka site. You will be taken to a page with information about your Omeka site and three links (Fig. 10).
The first link will take you to what people visiting your website will see. The second ends with /admin/ and is what you will click to access the back end of your website, where you’ll be able to make edits or add to the Omeka site. The third and final link takes you to forums where people post about Omeka. This is a useful place to find information if you are experiencing issues with your website.
Unlike with applications like WordPress, the admin username and password won’t automatically fill in for you. Instead, you will have to log in using the password and username that you set up earlier (Fig. 11).
After these are typed in, you will be in the backend of your Omeka account and can start editing.
Themes and Plugins
Now that your Omeka is up and running, it will probably be helpful to check out the themes and plugins available to you that allow your site to have more capabilities and customization. To do that, you can check out omeka.org and can click on Themes or Plugins on the landing page at the top (Fig. 12).
Themes
Themes affect the layout of your website, and are important when it comes to design. To see the available themes, you click on themes at omeka.org (Fig. 13).
These themes can be sorted either alphabetically or by how recently they were added (Fig. 14).
Once you find a theme you like, you can either click on the theme to receive more information about it or hit the download button (Fig. 15).
After you click the download button, the theme will be downloaded onto your computer. With the theme downloaded, navigate to your cPanel and scroll down until you find your file manager located underneath Files (Fig. 16).
Click on file manager and find your website before clicking on the themes folder (Fig. 17).
Once there, you will want to click on the upload folder at the top (Fig. 18).
You’ll then be prompted to click to select which file to upload (Fig. 19).
Next, you will have to unzip the file that you uploaded. To do that, you will have to click on the zipped file and press extract (Fig. 20).
When you do this, you can add a new name for the unzipped file (Fig. 21).
Sometimes these files will end up in the domain folder instead of the folder for themes, so after completing this step, it’s important to look and see where these files may have ended up. If this happens you can drag your theme back into the theme folder.
With a theme now uploaded into your file manager, you can go to the dashboard of your Omeka site and click on appearance (Fig. 22).
Now, on the themes page, you should see a new theme has appeared (Fig. 23)
To activate your new theme, you can click Use this Theme.
If you want to make more adjustments to the theme, you can hit the Configure button (Fig. 24)
Plugins
You can access plugins the same way as themes. Instead of clicking on themes at the top of omeka.org, you can click plugins (Fig. 25). They will also be sorted in the same way, recently added or alphabetically.
When you find the plugin you want you can click on it for more information and when you are ready you can hit the download button (Fig. 26).
Returning to the File Manager, you’ll want to find the folder underneath your domain labeled Plugins (Fig. 27).
Following the same steps as with a theme, you will upload the plugin in and extract it from the zip file.
To activate your new plugin, head to your website dashboard and click on plugins (Fig. 28).
After you click Plugins, you find the plugin you want and hit install (Fig. 29).
After you complete this step, your plugin should be installed and up and running (Fig. 30).
15Apr, 2022
Made on Canva
Canva and Piktochart
I have used Canva before and felt like I was coming to understand it pretty well, but I had never used Piktochart. This meant I learned a lot when I had to use Piktochart to make an infographic.
Canva
While I had used Canva before, I still learned quite a bit about it.
Presentations
Before a mock consultation with Mandy and Edmund, I had never built a presentation on Canva. When we were doing it, I learned a lot about how building the slides works, the different presentation modes, and what the timer at the top meant (even though I was stuck on it for a while).
Charts
Later, Mandy revealed to me that despite the fact I thought Piktochart was the only one with the charts, Canva will also allow you to make charts. This was a great discovery as it allowed me to make the charts used for this blog on Canva.
Piktochart
Piktochart was completely new to me, so I booked an appointment with Mandy. She explained Piktochart to me and I was delighted to find it functioned a lot like Canva. I was a little less thrilled when I learned I would receive only two downloads and only be able to have 5 designs on my account at once if I was not willing to pay for it.
Difference Between Them
By practicing with both, I learned the pros and cons of Canva and Piktochart.
