Before contacting the Help Desk, please check the list of frequently asked questions below to see if your issue has been addressed. If you do not find the solution you are looking for, please contact the Help Desk.
Questions
The following is a list of commonly asked questions and their answers. You can use the search function for this table to search keywords relating to the problem you are having.
Can I integrate Facebook, YouTube or other social media feeds?
You can add a link to your Facebook page, but the school sites are not set up to have Facebook feeds integrated.
You can embed video using the instructions on the images and media page of the guide.
Can I change the title or position of the top-level menus?
No, the top-level drop down menus must stay the same for all schools within your category (secondary, middle, elementary or alternative). We have implemented standard top-level menus in order to help various users of the site (students, parents, staff, admin) to be able to move from one school site to another and quickly know where to find information.
You can add and remove pages that fall lower in the navigation. See the Organizing Pages section of this guide.
Where is the ‘Home’/’Back’ button?
The logo on the top left of the screen acts as a home button. Click it and you will be redirected to the homepage.
You can use your internet browser’s back button to go to a previous page.
What are the differences between the ‘News’, ‘Events’, ‘Announcement’, ‘Spotlight’, and ‘Newsletter’ content types?
Each of these content types have their specific uses and are separate from each other. Please refer to this page to learn more about the available content types, and what they are used for.
Where can I learn more about using WordPress?
There are endless resources for learning how to use WordPress as it is the most common content management system on the Internet. The best place to start is the official WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress and a living repository for WordPress information and documentation.
I made a change to the site that created problems on the live site. What do I do?
First try to retrace your steps and undo what you did. If this doesn’t work, look for answers in the Questions and Answers section of the Guide. If you need further assistance contact the Help Desk.
I have accidentally deleted a page, how do I get it back?
All content types have a ‘Trash’ that you can retrieve your deleted items from. On the Content Type Page (e.g. clicking ‘Pages’ on the left sidebar on the Dashboard) underneath the title of the content type, click on ‘Trash’, mouse over the item you want to retrieve and click on ‘Restore’. It is important to note that only the Media Library does not have a trash. Once an item has been deleted from the Media Library, it is permanent and you cannot retrieve the deleted item.
How do I change the colours and other template settings of our site?
Click on ‘GVSD Settings’ on the left sidebar of the Dashboard. ‘GVSD Settings’ contains the following options that are available you: Colours, top-level menu edge treatment, and background image.
Please refer to this page to learn more about the GVSD Settings page.
What is a widget?
WordPress Widgets add content and features to your Sidebars and Content Areas. Examples are the Spotlight widget, Quicklinks widget, Rotating banner widget. For more information on all the Widgets that are available for use, please refer to this page.
Only the Help Desk has access to Widgets, so if you wish to add/remove/re-position a widget, please contact us.
How do I edit the text that is displayed underneath ‘Welcome to (yourschoolname)’ on the homepage, right sidebar?
The text displayed in this box is from a page simply named ‘Home’. Edit that page to change the displayed content.
Why does our school website look different/wrong/broken?
This is most likely an issue with your internet browser. While we do our best to support all browsers, we cannot support some of the more old and outdated versions. For the best results, we recommend using the latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Internet Explorer. If you have updated your browser—or believe the browser is not the problem—please contact the Help Desk for assistance.
How do I edit the information contained in the ‘Contact / Directions’ page?
Only Help Desk staff can edit this information. Please contact us if you require assistance.
How do I update our site’s logo/mascot image?
Only Help Desk staff can edit this information. Please contact us if you require assistance.
When I click on a link that is in our website, it opens in a new window. How do I change this?
When adding links, you have the option of making the link open in a new window. This is preferred when linking to sites that are external to your school site.
To make a link open in the same window, edit the page that contains the link, select the link and click on the ‘Link’ icon contained in the WISIWYG text editor, then un-check the box next to ‘Open link in a new window/tab.
For more information on adding/editing links, please refer to this page.
For the ‘Online Contact Form’ on the ‘Contact / Directions’ page, why do I have to decipher and enter random words before submitting my feedback?
This is a spam counter-measure called a ‘Captcha’. It is used to prove that the individual submitting the feedback is actually human, and not a spambot.
I have uploaded a banner slide for the ‘Rotating Banner’ widget on the homepage, and now it changes sizes when switching between images. How can I fix this?
The size of the banner slide image that you uploaded was not correct. The Rotating Banner requires it’s slides to be exactly 850px by 450px. Crop/resize the image and then re-upload it. Please refer to this section of the guide for more information.
I have uploaded multiple banner slides for the ‘Rotating Banner’ widget, but they are not showing up on the homepage. How can I fix this?
The maximum number of rotating banner slides is 20. Your site’s Rotating Banner widget may not be enabled for 20. Please contact the Help Desk so they can enable the maximum amount of banner slides for you.
Why is the ‘Fundraising’ Widget (Dynamic Content Widget) on the homepage blank?
This is because the page that contains the content that the widget displays has been deleted, removed from the ‘Parent Info’ top-level menu item, or all of it’s text has been removed.
Retrieve the ‘Fundraising’ page from the trash, change the page’s ‘Parent’ back to ‘Parent Info’, or enter some content for the widget to display.
This Widget is the “Dynamic Content Widget”. It can display an excerpt of any page you choose. This must be enabled by the Help Desk. The Fundraising page is displayed by this Widget by default.
What file types are supported?
Please refer to this page for more info on supported file types.
When I upload an image, WordPress automatically fills out the ‘Attachment Details’ with information. What is this?
This is caused by an image containing EXIF Data. To learn more about EXIF data and how to fix this, please refer to this section.
There is content in a page that I want to edit, but I cannot see the content in the WYSIWYG editor. All I see is [table “” not found /]
. How do I fix this?
[table “” not found /]
is a TablePress shortcode. This means that the content you are trying to edit is actually contained in a table, and not the page. To change the table’s content, you must use TablePress. To learn more about how to use TablePress, please refer to this page.
How do I edit our ‘Staff Directory’?
The all of the content in the Staff Directory page is contained within tables. You must use TablePress to edit the Staff Directory content. To learn more about how to use TablePress, please refer to this page.
How do I edit the ‘Attendance phone number’ on the ‘Attendance’ page?
This can only be changed by the Help Desk. Please contact us if you require assistance.
When I try to add a Photo Gallery to a page, it does not work/it adds all the images in one long column. How do I fix this?
To add a Photo Gallery to a page, you need to use the Photo Gallery content type. To learn more about how to use the Photo Gallery content type, please refer to this page.
The top-level menu has become mixed-up. How do I fix this?
This has most likely happened because the parent of a ‘Top-Level Menu Item’—Our School, News & Events, Parent Info, etc.—has been altered. This can also happen when a page’s ‘Parent’ has been set to ‘(no parent)’. To fix this, locate the page that has been moved, and put it back in it’s original position by assigning it the correct ‘Parent’ and ‘Order’.
If you require assistance with this process, please contact the Help Desk for support.
I have added content using one of the available content types (e.g. Principal Blog, Events, Spotlight, etc.) but it is not displaying on the home page. How do I fix this?
The content you is probably controlled by a home page Widget, and that widget has not been enabled. Please contact the Help Desk to have them enable it for you.
The order of items in one of my menus seemingly changes at random. How do I fix this?
This happens when multiple pages are set to the same Order. To change a Page’s Order, edit it, and in the Page Attributes section on the left, change the Order number. The smaller the number, the higher it is in the menu. Make sure all your menu items have a different Order number, preferably anything other than 0 or 1.
In TablePress, when I deselect the checkbox next to “Highlight a row while the mouse cursor hovers above it by changing its background color.”, the rows still become highlighted on mouseover. How do I fix this?
Please contact the Help Desk and they will disable the row-highlighting feature for you.
The Dashboard sidebar is only displaying icons, not text. How do I change this?
There is a round button on the bottom of the sidebar that says “Collapse menu” if the menu is expanded, and only displays a circle with a triangle if the sidebar is collapsed.
While editing a Content Type, one of the sections has vanished (e.g. Page Links To, Event Date/Time, etc). How do I fix this?
The section may have been hidden accidentally by another user. While on the page with the missing section, scroll to the very top. In the top right corner, there is a grey tab that says ‘Screen Options’. Click this, and then check the box next to the section that you want to appear.
Important Note: Do not disable or enable any of these screen options. When this is done, anyone who logs into the website after you will also have those sections disabled.
How do I change what page the Top-Level Menu Items link to?
Go to the Pages Listing by clicking the Pages option from the Dashboard Sidebar. Navigate to the Top-Level Menu Item you wish to alter, hover over it and click Edit. Scroll down to the “Page Links To” section at the bottom of the page and click the radio button to the left of “An alternate URL”. Delete any text in the box and paste in the URL of the page you wish this menu item to link to. It is important to note that any page that a Top-Level Menu Item links to must be the first item in it’s menu. Once you are finished making your changes, click Update.