wordpress basics: create your own website. today’s session defining terms setting up your site ...

WordPress Basics:Create Your Own Website

Today’s Session1. Defining terms

2. Setting up your site

3. Creating your first post

4. Creating your first page

5. Questions

Why WordPress?You’re in good company:

Blogs that use WordPress: The New York Times, CNNMusicians who use WordPress: The Rolling Stones,

Katy PerryFortune 500 companies that use WP: GM, UPS

It’s free, easy to use, and easy to learn.

So let’s get started!

Important Terms to KnowDashboard

Pages

Posts

Themes

Widgets

Media

What is your Dashboard?Your dashboard is your main administration

page

From your dashboard, you can: Create pagesCreate postsChange the appearance of your siteDo any other administrative tasks

What are Pages? Menu-driven divisions of your website

Unlike posts, which are displayed on your blog’s front page in the order they’re published, pages are better suited for more timeless content.

Common Pages: AboutContact me

What are Posts? Posts are your main content and are ideal for

blogs

Posts are arranged in reverse chronological order

This means that the newest posts appear at the top of the page, and each new post pushes down the older posts

Other Terms to KnowThemes – the appearance of your page, with

colors, sidebars, and text boxes formatted for youMany free themes are availableTry Twenty-ten, Twenty-fourteen, (2012, 2013)

Other Terms to KnowMedia – photos, videos, or other types of non-

text items for your site

Widgets – pre-formatted items to add to your site, for example: Links to social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)Blog statsPages menu

Let’s get started!Any questions so far?

Go to wordpress.com

What’s next? After activating your blog, it’s time to become

familiar with your dashboard

Left sidebar: The most common tabs you’ll use on the left are: PostsMediaPages

Hover over your blog name: This will give you a drop-down menu

Hover over your blog name and this drop-down menu will appear

What’s next? After becoming familiar with your dashboard, it’s

time to choose your theme

Remember – many themes are available for free

Ones to look for: Twenty-fourteen (2013, 2012, 2011, etc.) These are all good to begin with

Select one and realize you can always change it later

What’s next? After choosing your theme, decide how you’ll

share your blog

Lots of options here:You could add a “follow” widget so people can get

your new posts delivered to their email inboxYou could link to social media

Go to “Settings” on the left, and then “Sharing”Here you will see many of your options for

publicizing your blog

Now it’s time to create your first post:

What’s next? You’ve created a text post;

now try posting a photo

Now create PagesStart with two pages:

Contact meAbout me

Go back to your DashboardHover over “Pages” and then choose “Add New”

Questions?

Find this presentation online at elmlib.org/wordpress

Information from class:

Deleting your site: http://en.support.wordpress.com/delete-site/

Deleting your account: http://en.support.wordpress.com/deleting-accounts/

Password HIDE button not working: This is due to those who were using an IE browser. Using a different browser (such as Mozilla Firefox) will fix this issue.

Maximum website size: All wordpress.com blogs/websites come with 3000 megabytes (~3 GBs) of space for storing uploaded files and images.

Email Notifications: http://en.support.wordpress.com/email-notifications/

How to make entire site private (good when creating site): http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/

Linking an Access database with Wordpress: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/ms-access-database-to-work-with-wordpress

Have follow-up questions? Direct them to our Technical Assistants at reference@elmhurst.org with “Wordpress” in the subject line.