Entering Events in Calendar

You have received an email requesting inclusion in the District calendar. Here’s what you do.

Step #1: Determine if it's eligible

It’s eligible if both criteria are true:

  1. The event is located in Northeast Minneapolis, or if the artist lives or works in Northeast.
  2. It is an art event. All discipline are included. 

Discretionary Note: if one or two people are in a group show outside of Northeast, the event would NOT be eligible.

However, if a Northeast artist is in a MAJOR group show, like the Whitney Biennial, the event would be included.

Step #2: Determine if you have everything you need

You will need:

  1. Event title
  2. Date & time 
  3. Location name and complete address
  4. Contact Info: (some optional)
    1. Contact name
    2. Phone (optional)
    3. Email address
    4. Web URL or Facebook URL (include http…)
  5. Event description (at least one paragraph or more)
  6. Image (mandatory)

Important: Copy the contents of the email, and just leave it on your clipboard to be pasted later.

If some info is missing,  you have two choices:

  • Email them back requesting the missing info.
  • Or find a way to get the missing info yourself if it will not take much time.
If they do not attach an image, you might find one on their website or facebook page.
 
TIP: Sometimes a screenshot can work as the image.
 

Note: You need not hold up the event if the contact info has no phone or web URL. 

 

Step #3: Download & Prepare Image

Normally an image or two will be attached to the email request. If it is under 300kb in size all you need to do is download it to your desktop. Ideal file size is between 10 and 20kb. PNG, JPEG, GIF are recommended file types.

If the image is too large:

  1. Download it to your desktop.
  2. Open it in Photoshop or an image editor of your choosing.
  3. Resize it to approximately 500px x 400px, resolution 72px.
  4. Save it to your desktop with a new name.

Note: Horizontal images work best.

When all done you should see how the image works on the main calendar page in posterboard view. If it makes no sense then you may have to re-work it yourself by cropping or request a different image.

Step #4: Access the District website

https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/wp-admin

To access the admin website:

  1.  Click the URL above.
  2.  Enter your username and password and click the Log In button.
  3. You can check the Remember Me option (your choice).
  4.  Once in, you will be at the WordPress Dashboard.
  5. Mouseover Events and choose Add New.
You should now be in the event calendar editor.

Note: Bookmark the URL above. You should bookmark the opening page as well:

northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/programs

Note: As editor, you have access to much of the content on the site. Please only edit Events for now.

TIP: If you use two computers, use one to edit and the second to view the event or page.

Step #5: Prepare to work

At this point you should still have most of the information copied to your clipboard, ready to paste.

 Paste all content:

  1. Locate the main text-area entry box (you may need to scroll down a little).
  2. Paste everything into this field.

Note: Don’t bother yet with cleaning up this block of text. The idea is to use this area to copy/paste information into other areas of this form.

Step #6: Enter event date and time

To enter date and time:

  1. Mentally note the date and time.
  2. Move up to the EVENT DATE AND TIME box and make sure it’s open. If not click it.
  3. Enter the start date & time.
  4. If the event is over a number of days, enter the end date and time.
  5. If the time is not relevant check the All-day event box.

Note: This system is not ideal for art events. I plan to customize it later to work better for our needs. But for now we will make do.

Caution: If the date and time does not tell the complete story, make sure the event description does.

Step #8: Enter Location

To enter location details:

  1. Back in the text area box, copy the location name and full address.
  2. Click EVENT LOCATION DETAILS to open the box.
  3. Paste into Venue name.
  4. Remove the address.
  5. Paste again into the Address and remove the venue name.

Note: The location displays at the bottom left of the posterboard view. It’s important to get this right.

Note: At this point we do not use the Google calendar. We will later when I get a chance to set it up.

Caution: Make sure you Copy/Paste, not Cut/Paste. You may need that info in the event description.

Step #7: Enter Cost and Ticketing

If there is a cost:

  1. Open this box and enter the cost.
  2. If the event has a ticketing URL, choose the External Tickets radio button and paste in the URL.

Note: Most of the time we ignore this box because most of the events we post are free. And we don’t use Time.ly Tickets, at least not yet.

Step #9: Enter Contact Info

To enter contact info:

  1. Copy the appropriate info from the event text area box.
  2. Open the ORGANIZER CONTACT INFO box.
  3. Enter all this info if you have it. 
  4. Only enter the phone number if they give it to you in the press release.

Note: Most of this information displays as links on the full events page.

IMPORTANT: when entering URLs always start them with http… otherwise the link will not work.

Step #10: Clean up the text-area box

Now that all the specific info is entered, we need to make the event description readable. This is where you need to use some discretion. 

Consider the following when formatting this area:

  1. Read everything at least once.
  2. Edit to make the text easily readable on the full page view.
  3. Paragraph spaces are good.
  4. There is nothing wrong with repeating info that is entered above.

Note: In main calendar posterboard view, the text under the image is displayed when moused-over. Notice, this removes the paragraph returns. This is good.

IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that we use other display views (see URLs below when checking).

Main Calendar: Posterboard View
https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/calendar/

Opening Page: Stream View
https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/programs/

Visit ART365: Stream View
https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/visit/visit-art365

ART365 Registration: Month View
https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/programs/art365-register

Programs>PechaKucha: Posterboard View
https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/programs/pechakucha-nights

Step #11: Images

There are different ways to put in images. We use one specific way that needs to be adhered to.

When the event discription is as you like it, it’s time to get and insert images:

  1. Place your cursor at the very beginning of the text-area box.
    Note: There should be no lines above or space to the left of your content.
  2. Click the Add Media button.
  3. Choose the Upload Files tab.
  4. Click the Select Files button.
  5. Locate the image that you downloaded to your desktop and select it.
  6. Click Open.
  7. Make sure it is selected, then click the Insert Into Post button.
  8. Select the image and choose Left Justify icon (it is the first in the popup list).
    Note: the text should wrap to the right.

Note: This may seem like a long process and it is. However, you will be doing this many times so it will become second nature to you.

Also, you may choose to do things in a different order than described here. 

For instance, you may choose to unload your images all at once, even before you get to the Event Editor.

Step #12: Selecting Categories

Categories are how we tell the calendar system where to put each event. Until a category is chosen your event will not display anywhere.

The categories list is in the right column. You can choose more that one category. The list below will give you some idea of what each category does and where it displays:

  1. Any one categories will make the event display on the main calendar page. 
  2. ART365 will display on the Visit ART365 pages, and on the District Program Page, and the ART365 registration page, in addition to the main calendar page.
  3. PechaKucha will display on the PechaKucha program page in addition to the main program page.

Note: I will be making this clearer later when structural changes to this website settle down.

For now, make sure the event is displaying on the main calendar page, and not where is does not belong.

Step #13: Updating & Saving Drafts

When you click the green UPDATE button, the event will be live, assuming you selected a category. So you might want to Save a draft instead while getting it all together.

To save a draft:

  1. Click the Save Draft button (top right)
  2. You can preview your changes with the Preview button.

To make your event live:

  1. Click the blue UPDATE button.
  2. To view the updated click the View Event link just above the title.

Note: At this point you need to look for problems and fix them if possible. Check in different views if applicable.

 

Step #14: Send email to contact

When you are satisfied that the event is as you want it, reply back to the person requesting event inclusion with the following text.

Hello Xxxxx,

Your event has been posted to the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District web calendar. Thank you for contributing to the vibrancy of our Northeast Arts community.

The full calendar is here: https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/calendar/

Please locate your event, click it to open and let me know if anything needs to be changed.

If you have any thoughts on how to improve on this calendar we are open to suggestions: website@northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org

If you know anyone that might like to volunteer to help with the administering of this website please send them our way. volunteer@northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org

In exchange we will teach them WordPress and give them a temporary WordPress site to learn on.