Creating and Managinga WordPress Blog

To create an account at WordPress, go to the WordPress home page, and click on the green rectangle that says “Sign Up Now!”

Fill in the information on the account creation page. Click on the "legal flotsam" checkbox to accept WordPress's terms of service. Make sure the circle next to "Gimme a Blog" is checked. Click "Next."

On the next page, choose a blog title.

Choose the language for your blog.

Choose your privacy settings.

Click "Create Blog."

Within a few seconds of creating your blog, you should get an email confirming your login info.

When you are ready to use your blog, go to the WordPress home page, type your username and password in the login boxes and click Login.

The title of your blog will be on the right side of the page. Click on your blog title to go to your blog's Dashboard page.

The Dashboard is like a control panel, with a tabbed navigation bar at the top.

To post an entry to your blog, click on Write. Then click on Write Post. Type a title in the title box. Type your blog entry into the post box and then click Publish. If you want to change what you’ve written, you can edit your entry later.

To see all of your blog entries, click on Manage. Then click on Posts. To change an entry, click on Edit to the right of the entry you want to change.

To add a link to your blogroll, click on the Blogroll tab and then click on the Add Link tab. Type the name and URL of the link you want to add. Then click the Add Link button.

To change the appearance of your blog, click on Presentation, and select one of the templates. With some templates, you can add features called Widgets. To add widgets, click on the Widgets tab after you choose a theme.

On the Widgets page, drag and drop the widgets you want to the sidebar. Then click Save Changes. (For your blogroll to appear on your front page, you will need to add the Links widget to the sidebar.)

Open Source Widgets

For some widgets to work, you need to have an account with the open source program that supports them. Here are a few of the programs:

Del.icio.us link sharingFlickr photo sharing

Platial map kitSonific SongspotVodpod Videos

RSS Feeds

RSS widgets allow you to automatically show content headlines from other blogs and web sites in your sidebar.

Drop an RSS widget into your sidebar, open its settings, and paste in the feed address of any site that you would like to display in your sidebar.

You can have multiple RSS widgets by adjusting the number of “RSS Feed Widgets” at the bottom of your Presentation->Widgets page.

To change your profile, click on Users, and then click on Your Profile. On the Profile page, you can change your nickname and your password.

Your nickname is the name that your comments are tagged with. Type your new nickname in the nickname box. Then click Update Profile.

After you update your nickname, choose your nickname as the display name and click Update Profile again.

You can also change your password on the Profile page.

On the Options page, you can change your blog title and tagline.

To post a comment to someone else’s blog, click on Add a Comment beneath the entry’s title.

Scroll down to the end of the blog entry until you see the comment box. Type your comment and click on the Say It button.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Any Questions?