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There are a lot of reasons for including more than one author or editor for a site. The bigger your site or business is, the better it is to have more voices who can give credibility and authority to different subject matters (credibility being the key). This post will discuss how you can manage and display multiple users within your blog.

Adding More Users

WordPress makes it simple to have several different users for a site, and you can limit their accessibility to other parts of your site quite easily. To set up a new user, simply go to the User Panel in your dashboard, and click on “Add New User.” You’ll need to have their email address to do this, and you’ll just need to create a simple username for them as well as choose what type of user you’d like them to be (Admin, Editor, Author, Contributor, Subscriber). Admin, of course have complete access to the entire site, so you need to be careful who you grant administrative rights to. Most people would either fit into the author or contributor user type (Those who will just be posting occasionally.) If you are a professional business or organization, I STRONGLY recommend getting a proofreader/editor who can ensure that the grammar, spelling, and wording choices are correct (Something I need for this site). That user should, obviously, have the user type of editor.

Once you have added a user, they will receive an email giving them a link to your dashboard and their temporary login information. They will then be able to update all of their profile information on your site, add a picture, etc. Even though they are able to log in to the dashboard, they only will be able to access the parts of the site that you’ve given them permission to. For example, an author can add a new post, however, they are unable to edit any existing posts (other than their own) and they also have no ability to add to or edit widgets, menu items, the theme, or other site features.

Displaying Authors

If you already have a site using multiple authors, you may want to consider giving viewers more information about the different authors/contributors on your site. I recommend having one page dedicated to giving basics about these individuals. Make sure to have a clearly visible link to that page either within your menu or sidebar. (See example image taken from a Christian resource site in development.) On your Contributors page, you can list as much or as little information as desired keeping in mind privacy of your contributors as well as what viewers would be interested in knowing. Basics would include first name, experience, and their post contribution topics. Viewers don’t need or want to know too much personal info. (besides the fact that it’s unwise to share online). They probably don’t care to know that a contributor has a dog and two cats unless they are writing posts about animal care. Make sure that what is written clearly and concisely states why this person has the authority to be posting on the subject manner that they share their posts on. I also like to include a little thumbnail of the author, but that’s completely optional. Again, keep in mind the privacy of your authors and make sure that they are in full agreement with whatever you decide upon displaying.

Accessing Posts by a Particular Author

Viewers also will probably want to easily access all posts by a specific author. WordPress makes this very simple as it’s already included in the codex for archives. The basic url structure for all posts by author is simply http://yoursite.com/author/author-username. Remember, if you want to list all posts by the admin, you’ll need to use /author/admin as the last part of that url rather than your display name. So, how do you make use of this? I recommend adding this link beneath each contributor’s name or info using the text “Read all posts by (insert author name here.)” Again, the example image above pictures how this will appear. Posts will be displayed as any other archive list is displayed for categories or post tags. The additional elements would include the author’s gravatar if provided along with the author’s display name.

Up for a Challenge?

If you only want a single page that lists all of the authors and includes a listing of their posts on that single page, I’d recommend checking out Scott Bressler’s post on how to create a special author archive template for your site. He’s actually already provided all of the code necessary in a template page. All that you’ll need to do is to adjust the styling of that content. Note: This does work with Artisteer generated sites, however, you’ll need to use some of the styling for posts, headings, sidebars, etc. found in your style sheet to incorporate in the given style. Also, you’ll need to add your specific sidebar php to the file as well (simply use your current archive.php file as a reference for how to go about this.)

If you are not interested in digging into the code that much, I’d recommend simply sticking with the easy steps as listed above. As always, feel free to leave a comment with your questions or suggestions!

© 2011, Sarah. All rights reserved.

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