Polls

Contents

• Creating a New Poll
• Inserting an Existing Poll
• Adding a Poll to your Sidebar
• Video
• Comment Embeds

Related

• Accepted Filetypes
• Audio
• Deleting Files
• Digg
• Google Maps
• Guestbook
• Images
• LaTeX
• Media Library
• Scribd
• Shortcodes
• Slideshows
• Technorati
• Twitter
• Uploading Documents
• Videos

Polls are another great way to enhance your blog with an interactive element or feature. WordPress.com is directly integrated with PollDaddy, a popular online poll creation service, so adding them to your blog is very easy.

You can access all poll functions/options from your dashboard menu:

Creating a New Poll

To add a PollDaddy poll, just click on the Add Poll icon above the editor.

If you are using polls for the first time on WordPress.com you will be prompted to create or import an account. Choose either option and follow the instructions presented to you.

After your account has been setup, you can create a new poll.

Configure the poll options to suit your needs. After you have configured the poll, click the Save Poll button.

A message will appear at the top letting you know the poll has been created. Click the Send to Editor button to insert the poll into your post or page.

After publishing the post, the poll will appear on your blog. Here is an example poll.

Note: Each poll can only be displayed once on a page. So, if you have a poll in a post and in the sidebar, only the first instance of the poll will show. You can show 2 or more different polls on one page, however.

↑ Table of Contents ↑

Inserting an Existing Poll

When clicking on the Add Poll icon in your visual editor while creating/editing a post or page on your blog, you will see a list of any polls you have created.

Click on the Send to Editor link to add the poll to your post/page. You can then publish or update the post/page.

↑ Table of Contents ↑

Adding a Poll to your Sidebar

You can add a PollDaddy poll to your sidebar using a Text Widget. When clicking on the Add Poll icon in your visual editor while creating/editing a post or page on your blog, you will see a list of any polls you have created. Under the appropriate poll, click on the HTML code link.

Copy the code which appears in the Shortcode field. You can then paste this code into a new Text Widget in your sidebar from Appearance -> Widgets.

Important: When adding a poll to your sidebar, you may need to update its design to use the Narrow style to ensure that it properly fits.

↑ Table of Contents ↑

Video

Watch the “Creating a PollDaddy Poll” video from WordPress.tv.
done

↑ Table of Contents ↑

Comment Embeds

You are able to embed actual YouTube videos into comments that you leave on any WordPress.com blog.

To embed a PollDaddy poll into a comment, simply grab the URL/permalink of any poll found on PollDaddy Answers and paste it directly into your comment text:

To obtain the URL/permalink of a poll you created on your own WordPress.com blog, go to Polls -> Edit in your blog’s dashboard and click on the HTML code link attached to any of your polls. You can then copy the URL found within the section, as highlighted below:

Once posted/approved, you will see your comment with the active poll. Other readers can then vote on the poll as they like.

Last modified: December 30, 2009