Tekpals

It’s ironic – I spend many hours during my days in the WordPress admin app. Almost daily I’m entering text or html into pages or posts for myself or clients.

I find the default size for text entry area to be a bit small. In the past, I’ve used the full screen option to make the box bigger, but many times that was overkill. Also, I use custom fields often the the default entry area for custom fields is really small. One of the things I use custom fields for is to enter customized text in a sidebar on a specific page.

Spending so much time in WordPress you would think that I’d know all the little secrets. Well, today I found a new feature that I’ve been really needing. These text entry areas are resizeable!!! Just look for the resize thingie (that’s a very technical term!) in the lower right corner and drag it to resize the area. Simple huh?

I guess I should keep my eyes open more!

Imagine having a website that’s so popular that people subscribe to it. They get automatically notified when there’s a new update. This, in essence, is a blog feed. Blog feeds, often called RSS feeds, allow any web owner to regularly publish updates by text, graphics, audio or video.

RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication) is a solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows readers to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites they are interested in. You can save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site’s email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly. The good news for site owners is that WordPress, because of its blog background, is easy to start an RSS feed. All you pretty much need to do is create a new post and it’s included in your feed.
We like RSS feeds used along with newsletters and social networking to make it simple to get your message out to many!

One important area for new WordPress site owners is the difference between pages and posts. Let’s try to clear that up.

Posts

Posts are entries usually listed in reverse chronological order on your site. There are some ordering exceptions, but the common element of posts is that they appear in some predefined order. Think of posts like posts in a journal or diary. They are not necessarily related but tell a story (sometimes) over time. Generally posts are categorized and tagged so that they may be found easily. It would be very unusual for individual posts to appear on your menus.

Posts are most often associated with a blog. Readers can subscribe to your blog and any new or changed pages will be pushed out to them. These subscription feeds make it really easy for others to keep up on your content without having to visit your site for any updates. Rather than coming to your site for updates, the updates are automatically pushed to them!

Pages

Pages are static (they stand by themselves and don’t change much) and are not listed by date. Pages do not use tags or categories. Pages are usually linked to your menu. When a reader clicks on a menu they are taken to a page. An About page is the classic example of a page.

Pages and posts cannot be interchanged. In other words you can’t transform a post into a page or vice versa. Of course, you can cut and past content between a page and a post to move content from one type to the other.

Uploading and inserting images and other files

Go to the page creation/editing screen of the page in which you want to add an image or file. Above the toolbar you’ll see a few icons next to “Upload/Insert.”

The icons are used to upload an image, video, audio, and media. To add a file, click on the appropriate icon and you’ll see this window popup:

You can add the file from three locations: your computer, a url (an existing web location), or from the media library (more about that later.)

If you want to add a file from your computer, click on the Select Files button and a window will popup allowing you to select the file from your computer. You can select multiple files by holding down the control key while clicking on the file names. Once you select the files, click on Save and the files will be uploaded and saved to your website.

At this point you have several options. You may give the file a name that allows you to find it easily in the “Title” field. This text will also pop up when the image is hovered on. It’s a good practice to enter in some text in the “Alternate Text” field. This is important for accessibility. (For example, there are special browsers for the blind and these systems use to alternative text to describe the image.) If the image contains text, the “Alternate Text” should certainly include that text. You may enter a caption, which will appear below the image when inserted into the content. You may also enter a description if you wish.

If you would like to insert a small image or thumbnail that links to the larger version, click “File URL” (which just links to the larger version) or “Post URL” (which links to the larger version embedded into the framework of the website) next to “Link URL.” You can also manually enter or copy and paste a link into the “Link URL” field to make the image link anywhere. If you do not want the image to be a link, click “None.”

Select how the image should be aligned and finally select a size of the image to show on your page. When you’re done save all your changes and your image is ready.

Inserting Links to Other File Types

This options is often used to link to PDF’s and it works with any file type. Enter the text you would like to be the link to the file in the “Title” field. Then enter a “Caption” or “Description” if you wish. Finally, select “File URL” under “Link URL.” Finally, click “Insert into Post.”

Inserting a File From a URL

This option inserts a file that is already on another web page. Usually the web page is already on your site. You can link to a file on another site, but that file can be unexpectedly moved or deleted and then your link will no longer work. This window is very similar to the previous example.

Media Library

Media is the images, video, recordings, and files, you upload and use in your site. Media is typically uploaded and inserted into the content when writing a Post or writing a Page. Note that the Uploading Setting in the Settings Media SubPanel describes the location and structure of the upload directory (where your media files are stored). If you do need to upload Media, even if that Media is not related to a Post or Page, then you need to use the Media Add New SubPanel.

The Media Library SubPanel allows you to edit, view, and delete Media previously uploaded to your blog. Multiple Media objects can be selected for deletion. Search and filtering ability is also provided to allow you to find the desired Media.

Welcome to your new website. I hope you enjoy using it. Your website was designed with WordPress. WordPress started in 2003 and has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. (More than most commercial platforms.) It also means you are free to use it for anything without paying anyone a license fee.

Tekpals took care of installing WordPress for you and all the other technical details of getting it set up on your web server. Now you’re able to add your content and get your website started.

Your Administration Site

In addition to your main website, you’ll be using the administration site quite a bit. Your main website is public – anyone in the world can go to and view your site. Your administrative site is private – you must log on with an id and password to access the administrative site. Only Tekpals and you can log on to the administrative site.

Your administrative site is located at ____________________________________________. Your id is ________________________ and your password is _______________________. When you go to your administrative site you’ll see this logon screen:

Enter your id and password here and click the log in button. If you forget your password, click on the “Lost your password?” link and a new password will be emailed to you.

Once you login you’ll see this site dashboard (yours may look slightly different):

Don’t be overwhelmed by this screen. You’ll be spending most of your time is just a few areas. This guide will show you how to get started. If you want to know more take a look at http://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Panels.

Let’s take a look at a few areas:

The At a Glance screen shows you an overview of your site. We’ll need to introduce a few definitions here:

It’s important for a beginning WordPress author to understand the difference between posts and pages.

Posts are the principal element (or content) of a blog. The Posts are the writings, compositions, discussions, discourses, musings, and, yes, the rantings, of a blog owner and contributors. Posts, in most cases, are the reason a blog exists; without Posts, there is no blog!

Pages are the “static” information on your site. Static means it doesn’t change. A good example of a Page is information you would place on an About Page. A Page should not be confused with the time-oriented objects called posts. Pages are typically “timeless” in nature and live “outside” your blog.

Categories allow the classification of your Posts into groups and subgroups, thereby aiding viewers in the navigation and use of your site. Each Category may be assigned to a Category Parent so that you may set up a hierarchy within the category structure. Using automobiles as an example, a hierarchy might be Car->Ford->Mustang. In creating categories, recognize that each category name must be unique, regardless of hierarchy.

Tags are the keywords you might assign to each post. Not to be confused with Categories, Tags have no hierarchy, meaning there’s no relationship from one Tag to another. But like Categories, Tags provide another means to aid your readers in accessing information on your blog.

Adding a Page

Click on Pages then click on Add New.

Editing a Page

To edit a page, click on Pages then Edit. Then select the page you would like to edit.

Composition/Editing Screen

Whether you’re adding or editing a page, you’ll then notice the composition/editing screen on the right side of the screen.

Give the page a title in the first field. Each page you enter will appear in your menu and this name will be the name that appears in your menu navigation. You’ll then enter your content is the large box. Above this box there’s an icon bar:

These icons above the editing window can be used to add formatting to the text. These icons work just like most word processors. Highlight the text to be formatted, then use the buttons. When the buttons are hovered over, a description of the button will pop up.

The last two buttons are particularly handy. The second to last button toggles full screen mode. This makes entering large amounts of text much easier. The last button toggles a bunch of additional buttons. If you click this button you’ll see:

Notice the button with the clipboard and the “W” icon. This is “Paste from Word” and it’s really handy to paste contents from Microsoft Word. The formatting will be more predictable this way.

If you’re comfortable with HTML, you can use the HTML tab to edit the HTML source of the content, if needed. Use the visual tab to switch back to the normal view. It’s best not to edit HTML directly unless you’re pretty comfortable with the language. It is possible to break functionality by directly editing HTML and your site may not work the way you want.

If there’s something that you want to do and can’t make that happen by editing in the visual tab, just give us a call or send an email.

Click the blue “Publish” button in the right column to make the page go live on your site. Once a page is published, the “Publish” button becomes an “Update” button which you can use to save changes. Other options include “Save Draft” for saving the page to work on later and “Preview” to see how the page will look before publishing. You can also choose to publish you content immediately or at a future date and time.

Creating and Editing Posts

A post is a time oriented object that you add to your site. The more obvious example is a blog. Your blog is made up of many posts that the author(s) writes. Writing and editing posts is very easy in WordPress. Start by selecting the Posts option.

From here you can select to edit an existing post or create a new post. Let’s create a new post. This window works just like the window we used to create or edit pages.

Each post in WordPress is filed under a category. Thoughtful categorization allows posts to be grouped with others of similar content and aids in the navigation of a site.

You can also use tags to describe posts. A tag is a keyword which describes all or part of a Post. Think of it like a Category, but smaller in scope. A post may have several tags, many of which relate to it only peripherally. Like Categories, Tags are usually linked to a page which shows all posts having the same tag. Unlike Categories, Tags can be created on-the-fly, by simply typing them into the tag field.

Tags can also be displayed in “clouds” which show large numbers of Tags in various sizes, colors, etc. This allows for a sort of total perspective on the blog, allowing people to see the sort of things your blog is about most.

Many people confuse Tags and Categories, but the difference is easy: Categories generally don’t change often, while your Tags usually change with every Post.