Using WordPress Basics
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Logging In
TO LOGIN:
You will need a Username and Password. These are created during installation or manually through the site’s admin area. If your email address was used during the installation, the information should have been automatically emailed to you. If not, whoever installed WordPress will need to provide this for you. Navigate to the login screen. This will be located at the url of your WordPress installation followed by ‘/wp-admin’ A couple examples: WordPress installed as main site at: http://mydomain.com Login: http://mydomain.com/wp-admin WordPress installed in a folder: http://mydomain.com/blog Login: http://mydomain.com/blog/wp-admin You will see:
If you have any trouble, just use the 'Forgot Password' link to reset it. A new, randomly generated password will be sent to the email used during installation. You can change your password once logged in.
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First Steps
The Dashboard
This is the main dashboard:
Before we worry about what it all does, there are a couple things you should do...
Change your Password
Click on ‘Users’ in the menu down the left hand side of the screen.
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You will see a list of all users. To start it most likely just you. There may be a second user for the web designer as well.
Click on the user name. This will bring you to the profile page, where you can edit your email, your name, and your password.
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You will also want to check one more email setting. In the main menu down the left hand side, click on ‘Settings’.
This will let you edit general settings for the site, including the email where notifications will be sent for things like new comments, or any plugins like contact forms that might send emails to the site’s administrator. DO NOT edit the URL settings. You probably don’t need to edit anything in here except the email address.
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The Basics
Pages Vs. Posts
All content added to a WordPress site is either a 'Page' or a 'Post'. Pages are more permanent - 'About Us', 'Contact Us', etc. Posts are used to add fresh content, like news or blog posts. For the most part, all content added to the site will be a 'Post'.
UNDERSTANDING THE MENU:
The main menu is along the left hand side. It is made up of main areas, with subheadings that expand under each area. Here are two images to show the 'Posts' area both expanded and collapsed:
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Creating a New Post:
Navigate to 'Posts->Add New'
You should see a screen that looks like this:
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1. Give your Post a Title 2. Add Content - DO NOT COPY AND PASTE FROM MICROSOFT WORD!!!!! (See note)
Give your post a title.
Add Content.
NOTE: DO NOT PASTE FROM MICROSOFT WORD!!!!! If copying and pasting from Microsoft Word, DO NOT just paste into the 'Visual Editor'. Use the html section to paste, then go back to the visual editor to make everything look okay. Pasting from Microsoft Word into the Visual Editor WILL break the site. To switch between the Visual Editor and HTML, use the tabs at the upper right corner of the text area:
3. Add the post to a category (Along the right hand side of the page) by checking next to the categories that apply.
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Adding New Categories
If you don’t see a category that fits, you can create a new one. Click ‘+Add a New Category’ Type the name of the New Category
Select a Parent Category
The News page only lists categories with News as a ‘Parent Category’ or within other subcategories of News
Click ‘Add’
Your New Category Appears in the list Just Check the box
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Saving / Publishing the New Post
When you are done editing and adding categories, you can: 1. Preview the Post before making it live. 2. Save it as a Draft to come back to later. 3. Protect it with a Password. 4. Schedule it to be published at a later time. 5. Publish it immediately. All of these steps can be dome in the same area of the screen:
1) Preview the Post
2) Save as a Draft
3) Protect With a Password
4) Schedule it for later
5) Publish Now
Adding Pages
Pages work almost exactly like posts. You simply select ‘Pages’ from the menu instead of ‘Posts’. The editor works the same way.
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Editing All Categories / Adding Multiple New Categories
Navigate to 'Posts->Categories'
You will see the Categories Screen:
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Give the category a name as you want it to appear. (example ‘Film Festivals’)
The slug field should be all lower case, with a dash ( use '-' ) between words. (example ‘film-festivals’)
Categories can have sub-categories. For example you could have ‘Cars’ and within that category have ‘Sedans’, ‘SUVS’, etc. To do this, you need to give the sub-categories a ‘Category Parent’. In the ‘Cars’ example, you would first create ‘Cars’, then create a category called ‘SUVS’ and make its ‘Category Parent’ be ‘Cars’.
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You can add A Description to remind yourself what this category is. The Description does not show up on the site.
Finally, press ‘Add Category’
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Editing Older Existing Posts
Navigate to 'Posts->Edit'
You will see the list of all posts.
Click on the title to go to the edit page.
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Once there are lots of posts you may want to sort them to find an old post easier. You can filter the posts in a few ways: Select a Category and hit ‘Filter’, or click on a Category to display only posts in that Category.
Click on an Author to display only posts by a specific Author.
Editing Old Pages
Pages work almost exactly like posts. You simply select ‘Pages’ from the menu instead of ‘Posts’. The editor works the same way.
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All WordPress Tutorials:
Up to date list of all Tutorials & Resources: http://martythornley.com/downloads WordPress Basics - Editing Your New WordPress Site ( The latest version of this document: ) http://martythornley.com/downloads/wordpress-basics-edit-your-new-site Optimizing WordPress http://martythornley.com/downloads/optimize-wordpress Recommended WordPress Plugins. http://martythornley.com/downloads/recommended-wordpress-plugins WordPress Theme Developer’s Resources http://martythornley.com/downloads/wordpress-developers-resources
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