WordPress Questions and Answers (CMA) - Getting Started - Free Version Guide

Free Version Guide

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Table of Contents

1. Differences Between Free and Pro
2. How to Utilize The Plugin
   1. Overview
   2. Plugin Installation
3. Quick Start
   1. How Can Users Add a Question (frontend) 
   2. How Can Users Add an Answer (frontend)
   3. Managing questions and answers in the backend
      1. How Can Admins Add a Question (backend)
      2. How Can Admins Edit Questions/Answers (backend)
4. Plugin Overview

Differences Between Free and Pro

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How to Utilize The Plugin

Overview

The WordPress Questions and Answers allows the admin and customers to ask questions, add answers and comments to each question. Both admin and users can rate answers by voting for the posted questions and answers.

The admin can easily moderate or add questions and answers and send email notifications. Users can subscribe to their questions and get notifications once new answers are submitted.

The admin can easily customize the template if necessary. 

The plugin also includes the views and answers count available for each question.

Plugin Installation

If you are unfamiliar with the plugin installation process, follow the instructions below:

1. To manually install the free version of the plugin, download it from WordPress.org to your computer. 
2. Then go to the Plugins tab in the WordPress admin area to install the plugin. 
3. Hover over the Plugins tab and click Add New:

1. Click the button Upload Plugin and find the downloaded file.
2. Activate the plugin.

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Quick Start

When the WordPress forum plugin is activated, it automatically creates a page at your.domain/answers/ where your users can add questions and answers, along with sample content.

How Can Users Add a Question (Front-end)

To submit a question on the front-end, do the following:

1. Go to your.domain/answers
2. Fill in the Ask a Question form.
3. Click on the Add button to submit a question.

Example

How Can Users Add an Answer (Front-end)

To add an answer to the question, do the following:

1. Open the submitted question and fill in the Post your Answer form.
2. Click the button Post your Answer.

Example

Managing questions and answers in the back-end

In the forum plugin settings, you can edit the questions and answers, filter any unwanted content, add answers, and easily keep track of the user's actions in the discussion forum. 

To see a list of all questions, go to CM Answers → Questions. To see the list of answers, select CM Answers → Answers.

How Can Admin Add a Question (Back-end)

To add a question in the back-end, do the following:

1. Go to CM Answers → Questions.
2. Click on button Add Question.
3. Fill in the fields and click on button Publish. 

How Can Admin Edit Questions/Answers (Backend)

You can also edit both questions and answers. To edit answers in the backend, do the following:

1. Go to CM Answers → Answers.
2. Hover over any answer and click link Edit.
3. After you make all the changes, click on button Update Comment.

Plugin Overview

Installation Guide - shows you an initial installation guide and video tutorial.

General Settings - allows configuring the main settings of the Q and A plugin.

• Link to questions frontend list - shows a link redirecting you to the front-end page with the questions section.
• Questions listing title - allows entering the questions listing title.
• Enable ratings for answers - allows or disallows rating answers.
• Enable negative ratings - enables or disables negative ratings.
• On questions list in "votes" box show - if the ratings are enabled, the plugin will provide two options:
  • The total number of votes of its answers.
  • Rating of the best answer.
• Auto-approve new questions - approves new questions automatically.
• Auto-approve answers - approves answers automatically.

• Enable sidebar - enables or disables a separate sidebar for WordPress forum plugin pages.

  To configure the sidebar navigate to Admin Dashboard → Appearance → Widgets and find CM Answers Sidebar. You can add there available widgets that will be displayed on the Questions and Answers index and thread pages.

  

• Set sidebar max-width (in px) - specify the maximum width of sidebar. If 0 is entered, the sidebar will be auto-adjust.
• Add "Answers" to WP Nav Menu - to add “Answers” to WP Nav Menu, you need to have "wp_nav_menu" in your theme.
• Show markup box - shows or hides a markup information box next to the question and answer forms.
• Show login form - shows or hides the login form on the index and thread pages.

Notifications - allows configuring the notifications.

• Notify about new questions - sends notifications to entered emails, once new questions are submitted. Enter separate email addresses by commas or leave empty to disable.
• New question notification title - allows entering a new question notification title. The following title is entered by default - [[blogname]] A new question has been asked by [author].
• New question notification content - allows specifying a new question notification content. You can add the following values to your content:
  • [blogname] - Name of the site
  • [author] - Author of the question
  • [question_title] - Title of the question
  • [question_status] - Approval status of the question (pending, approved)
  • [question_link] - Link to the new question
• New answer notification title - allows entering a new answer notification title. The following title is entered by default - [[blogname]] Someone has posted a new answer on the topic you subscribed to.
• New answer notification content - allows entering a new answer notification content. You can add the following values to your content:
  • [blogname] - Name of the site
  • [question_title] - Title of the question
  • [comment_link] - Link to the new answer

Upgrade - shows a video tutorial on how to use the questions and answers plugin and allows updating the plugin to the Pro version.

Example

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