Access | ||
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Privacy | Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process. | |
Bandwidth | Low demand on internet connections. |
What will I use it for?
You can use UBC Blogs to create websites for a variety of purposes:
- Author a group website with your peers for a course or a club
- Post individual assignments or projects
- Display portfolios of or reflections on your work
This tool guide was last reviewed in July 2023.
What do I need to use UBC Blogs?
A supported web browser
UBC Blogs runs in your web browser and supports using Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari.
Tips
- There is no limit to the number of UBC Blogs websites that you can have, but please create responsibly. Each website takes up UBC resources.
Log in to UBC Blogs and create an account
- If you don't have a UBC CWL (Campus-Wide Login), first follow the steps from UBC IT to create a UBC CWL account.
- Go to blogs.ubc.ca/wp-admin and log in with your UBC CWL.
- If this is your first time logging in, follow the prompts to complete signing up for your UBC Blogs account.
Create your UBC Blogs website
- Go to the UBC Blogs sign-up page.
- If you get an error in going to this page, follow the steps above to log in to UBC Blogs and create an account.
- Fill in the form:
- Site Name - The site name will form part of the web address of your new website. All UBC Blogs have an address that starts with "blogs.ubc.ca" and then incorporates your site name. Note that the site name cannot be changed after you create it, so make sure you pick something that fits your website's purpose.
- Site Title - The site title visibly adds a title to your website, but it does not affect the web address. You can change your site title at any time.
- Site Language - Choose to display your website in English or French.
- Privacy - You can allow search engines to index this website. Indexing means the website can be searched for and found by anyone on the internet. You can change this setting at any time; however, your website will not be removed from the search results immediately.
- Click Create Site.
Tips
- Even if you make your whole website public, you can fine-tune the privacy of specific content to make it visible only to certain groups of people. This fine-tuning can be done by adding password protection to individual pages or posts, and then sharing the password only with those who should have access.
- You can change the look and feel of your site by changing the theme. From the Dashboard of your UBC Blogs website, hover over "Appearance" in the sidebar and select "Themes". Hover over any theme and click "Activate" to use it.
Add pages and posts to your UBC Blogs website
Pages are useful for displaying content on your site that is best organized in a hierarchical structure, as pages can have sub-pages underneath them.
Posts are useful for displaying date-based content on your site, as posts are organized in chronological order. Posts can also be grouped by categories or tags to make them easier to find at a later time.
- Log in to UBC Blogs with your UBC CWL and navigate to your website.
- From the Dashboard, hover over Pages or Posts (whichever you want to add) in the sidebar, and select Add New.
- Use the text editor to add content to the page or post. You can preview and save a draft of your work as you go.
- In adding content to your pages and posts, be careful if you copy text from a file with formatting, such as a Word or OneDrive document. The file formatting is not always pasted consistently in UBC Blogs. It is best to paste in plain text alone, and add the formatting using the UBC Blogs text editor after.
- Explore different parts of the editing interface to find other customizable options for your page or post. For example, you can choose where it sits in the website hierarchy (for pages) or the category to display it in (for posts).
- When you are ready to put the content on your website, click Publish. Your page or post will be added for others to see.
Tips
- If your website is public, remember to avoid sharing confidential information. Confidential information includes details like your student number, address, or other personal identifying information. The UBC Digital Tattoo site has more about how to protect your privacy online and carefully form your digital identity.
- Pages are good for sharing your main content. For example, you could have pages for information about your background or projects. Underneath each page, you can create sub-pages to further organize your content.
- Posts are good for sharing more time-based content. For example, you could use posts to publish announcements about upcoming events that you will be involved with or to showcase your projects chronologically.
- Posts can be scheduled instead of immediately published. To schedule a post when you are creating it, click "Edit" next to the calendar icon under "Publish", select a date, and click "OK". You will see the button to publish change to say "Schedule".
- For extra editing features, you can enable the Gutenberg editor. This editor adds time-savers like reusable blocks of content. From the Dashboard of your UBC Blogs website, hover over "Settings" in the sidebar, and select "Writing". Check the boxes for enabling Gutenberg features on pages, posts, blocks, and menus, then save your changes.
Add people to your UBC Blogs website
You can use the email or self-signup options below to invite people to your UBC Blogs website. For these options to work, the individuals you invite must already have UBC Blogs accounts. Depending on how people join your website, they can follow the content that you share or even contribute to it.
This method is useful if you want to give access only to certain people.
- Log in to UBC Blogs with your UBC CWL and navigate to your website.
- From the Dashboard, hover over "Users" in the sidebar, and select Invite User.
- Enter the person's email.
- Select a role for the person on your website:
- Administrator - can do anything on the website, including adding and removing users
- Editor - can publish posts and pages and edit others' content
- Author - can publish posts and pages but only edit their own content
- Contributor - can write posts and pages but cannot publish them without approval
- Subscriber - cannot write content but can access it, even if the website is private
- Click Add User(s).
This method is useful if you want people to sign themselves up to join the site.
- Log in to UBC Blogs with your UBC CWL and navigate to your website.
- Click Plugin in the sidebar of the Dashboard, find the "Add Users Sidebar Widget" plugin, and click Activate. This widget will let you add a signup form to your website.
- From the Dashboard, hover over "Appearance" in the sidebar, and select Widgets.
- Click where you would like the widget to appear on the website layout, then click the plus sign on the top left to open the widgets panel.
- Find and click the Add Users widget. Note that you can move the widget by selecting it and using the options presented to change the placement.
- When the "Add Users" widget has been added, enter a title and select the role you would like people who sign up to have:
- Author - can publish posts and pages but only edit their own content
- Contributor - can write posts and pages but cannot publish them without approval
- Subscriber - cannot write content but can access it, even if the website is private
- To block unwanted people from signing up, check Add a password to stop unwanted users from signing up.
- Set the password and click Save. Remember to distribute the password when you invite people to sign up.
- Click Update in the top right corner of your screen to save your changes.
Tips
- Anyone you invite by email or using the self-signup must have a UBC Blogs account first. Ask invitees to create a UBC Blogs account by logging in with their UBC CWL at blogs.ubc.ca/wp-admin.
Where can I get more support with UBC Blogs?
Technical support
If you have trouble with UBC Blogs:
- Contact us at the LT Hub:
604 827 4775 or LT.hub@ubc.ca or visit the LT Hub online.
Online learning support
- Visit UBC’s Keep Learning site and the Chapman Learning Common’s student toolkits.
- Visit the UBC Vancouver’s Centre for Accessibility page or the UBC Okanagan’s Disability Resource Centre page to learn more about available support for students with disabilities and ongoing medical conditions.
Learn more
- Read answers to UBC Blogs frequently asked questions on the UBC Blogs support site.
- One-on-one help with UBC Blogs is available during the weekly WordPress and Wiki Drop-In Clinics, generally held on Thursdays. Register for upcoming WordPress and Wiki clinics on the CTLT events site.