AND THE 2015 EDUBLOG AWARD WINNERS ARE…
Year: 2015
Announcing Loads Of New Themes!
Personalizing your blog is, for most of us, a fun and rewarding endeavor.
And we just made that experience even better by adding dozens of new themes to Edublogs and CampusPress.
That brings the total number of new themes so far this year to nearly 100!
You can see the most recently added themes by visiting the Appearance > Themes menu item in your dashboard. There’s a filter there to sort by just the newest themes.
Mobile Friendly Theme Info
All of our themes are now mobile friendly and responsive, meaning they will look great no matter the size of the device visitors are using.
This does take a bit of getting used to, as menus and sidebars might get hidden or moved around on smaller screen sizes. This is by design and worth it, for sure!
If you’d like to learn more about using mobile friendly themes, check out our post on TheEdublogger here.
Have A Favorite?
Give your blog a makeover and leave a link in the comments below.
We can’t wait to see all of the new looks and designs you all will come up with.
Happy blogging!
New Plugin! Add Buttons, Tabs, Feeds, And Sidebars Anywhere!
The new ‘Live Shortcodes‘ plugin makes it easy to add buttons, tabs, sidebars, accordions, and much more to your blog.
You can now take control over the content you publish like never before.
What Does It Do?
This plugin gives you the ability to easily add many new elements to your pages and posts.
Here is a quick overview of the available elements:
1. Accordions
Break content into sections that visitors can open and close.
2. Toggles
Just like accordions, but more than one section can be open at a time.
3. Tabs
Like an accordion too, but with the sections across the top.
4. Dividers
Break up paragraphs with one of several different divider styles.
5. Buttons
Customize the color, shape, and style of buttons that can be links to anywhere on the web.
6. Latest Posts
Show a list of latest posts from your blog. Customize the details that are shown.
7. RSS
Display content from any RSS feed on any page or post.
8. Reader Content
Show latest posts from your reader – blogs you follow or all posts you’ve written on the network.
9. My Class Blogs
Add a list of all student blogs in a class using the ‘My Class’ tool. Determine if the list is alphabetical, random, or most recently updated.
10. My Class Recent Posts
Place a list of all posts from student blogs that belong to a class.
And we plan on adding more to this list soon!
How To Activate
The Live Shortcodes plugin is available to all Edublogs Pro and CampusPress customers.
Just go to your Plugins menu and click Activate to enable.
Then, whenever you add a new page or post, you’ll see a new “Add Shortcodes” button above your editor.
It is super easy to use and to customize each element, but if you’d like any additional help, please see the full plugin help guide here.
What’s Next?
Let us know in the comments below if you have any ideas or requests for items we can add to the shortcodes plugin. We’ll do our best to build them in!
In the meantime, we have more new exciting features and news coming later this week.
And don’t forget, time is running out on winning a FREE EDUBLOGS PRO in celebration of our 10th birthday!
Happy blogging!
New! Join Codes and Invites Make Life Easier
We’ve solved a huge piece of the puzzle when it comes to managing class blogs and sites with many users. We think you are going to love it!
As of today, Edublogs Pro users can invite users to join their blogs by simply sending them a join code. This means there is no more creating student or user accounts manually! This should really simplify the “getting started” process when managing large groups of users.
This feature integrates perfectly with our My Class tool, and it allows you to keep total control over who is added to your blog and what permissions they have once they join.
Here’s a small preview:
What’s This For?
- Teachers wanting to add students to a class blog
- Giving access to parents or guests on private sites
- Inviting only those you wish to be able to leave comments on posts
- Quickly adding a colleague as a co-administrator to a site
- Creating a community blog where you can make it easy to add contributors or authors
How Does It Work?
It’s easy!
Get started by visiting Users > Invite Users in your dashboard.
There is a new step in our signup process for adding in a join code. And existing users will find a join code field in their profile pages too.
If you’d like more detailed information on how it all works, visit our help site here.
There’s More!
This is just the beginning of the new features we’ll be adding through out the month of August.
And don’t forget, to celebrate 10 years, we’re giving away $10,000 in services too!
Learn more and enter to win here.
Happy blogging!
An All New Edublogs Home Page Is Here
As part of our month long celebration of 10 years of Edublogs, we’re excited to roll out a new look and feel to our home page!
This is only the beginning and in the coming weeks and months, we’ll add to this site and give a similar coat of paint to some of our other sites too, like TheEdublogger.com and our Help & Support site.
So What’s New?
Beyond just an overall update, there are a few new gems and additions to the site worth noting, including:
New Sign-Up Form
The account creation process has been streamlined to make it easier for students and it now works better on mobile devices too. It is now possible for new users to create a username only (so no blog) if you’d like.
The Trending Section
Scroll down the home page a little, and there’s a new ‘Community’ section that showcases some of the latest posts from across Edublogs. Perhaps your blog’s posts will be featured on our home page soon!
The Features Page
We’ve created a new and improved features comparison chart that will make it easier to see the differences between our free, Pro, and CampusPress services. Check it out here.
Don’t Forget!
During the month of August, we’re giving away over $10,000 of our services in celebration of our 10 year blogiversary. Learn more and enter to win here.
This re-design lays the groundwork for a huge new feature we’re excited to release in the very near future. So stay tuned!
