Getting Started With WordPress

By: Marc Gratch | https://marcgratch.com | @mgratch

What is WordPress?

• Free Open Source Software
• Powers more than 30% of the web
• Used for: Anything
• CMS: Content Management System
• Customizable, extensible, easy-to-use*
• Search Engine Friendly “out of the box”
• Lots of Support!
• You own your content.

WordPress.com or WordPress.org

Easy to Install and Setup

• Buy a domain
• Buy Hosting
• Click “install WordPress”
• Start Pressin’ Words

Getting to Know the Dashboard

• Toolbar
• Main Nav on the Left
• Main Work Area
  • Screen Options
  • Help
  • Dashboard Widgets

Posts vs. Pages

Getting to Know the Editor

Creating a New Post

• Add a title (a slug/permalink is automatically created)
• Choose a Post Format (if supported by the theme)
• Assign your post into a category
• Add a few tags, tags are like keywords
• Add a featured image
• Save a draft/publish or Preview
• Set/change visibility

How to Edit an Existing Post

• All Posts
• Search
• Screen Options
• Excerpt/List View
• Hover over each post for Action Links
• Quick Edit
• Bulk Edit
• Edit
• Delete/Trash

All About Categories and Tags

AKA Taxonomy

Creating and Editing Pages

• Static content that doesn’t change often, like “Contact” or “About” Pages
• Pages aren’t assigned to taxonomies
• They can be hierarchal with sub-pages.
• The order can be modified based on the list it is a part of.

How to Add Photos and Images

• Insert an image at the cursor
• Upload from your computer (browse or drag and drop)
• Add Title
• Add Caption
• Add Alt Text for screen readers**
• Change the Alignment
• Change the link
• Change the Size
• Or Insert a Gallery (drag and drop multiple images)
• Edit the image, aspect ratio, crop, rotate, etc.

How to Embed Video & Audio

• Upload to a service like Youtube or Vimeo
• Paste the embed code into a new post or just the URL!
• You get a real time preview
• Published videos should fill the content area perfectly
• https://codex.wordpress.org/Embeds
• Drag and Drop Audio Files and click “Create Playlist” then you can choose what to display and reorganize the list.

Using the Media Library

• You can upload images, videos, audio, pdfs and many other types of media
• List View/Grid View
• Filter by Type or Date
• Upload media now to use later
• Drag/Drop or Browse
• Attached/Unattached
• Access Image Editing (Covered Earlier)

Managing Comments

• Comments can be engaging
• Cued for Approval
• Activity Module on the Dashboard highlights comments awaiting moderation
• Approve/Reply/Mark as Spam/Unapprove/Edit a comment
• Bulk edit from the comments panel.
• Pingbacks and Trackbacks are mentions/links on other sites.
• More settings under “Discussion” Panel
• Look out for Spam!
• If you don’t want comments, turn them off

How to Create Links

• Copy URL
• Highlight Words you want to convert into a link
• Select the link button or paste over the highlighted word
• Or you can search for links inside your own site
• Open in a new tab?
• Should search engine bot follow this?

Changing the Theme

• There are thousands of Free Themes
• Change them via the Customizer to preview changes in Real Time
• Customizer Panels change based on the theme
• Add a logo
• Choose color schemes, headers, background image
• Hide customizer controls for easy previews
• Change CSS
• Publish Changes later
• Manage Themes in the Theme Subpanel on the Dashboard

Adding Widgets to Your Site

• Widget areas must be included in your theme.
• Widget areas may be different from theme to theme.
• Widgets can be modified/activated/deactivated through its subpanel or the customizer.
• Widgets can be deactivated but saved through the subpanel.
• Real Time preview of widget changes via the customizer.
• Drag and Drop to rearrange
• All hail the power of the text widget 🙂

Creating Custom Menus

• Menu areas must be included in your theme.
• Menu areas may be different from theme to theme.
• Menu can be modified/activated/deactivated through its subpanel or the customizer.
• Real Time preview of menu changes via the customizer.
• Include links to any post/page type or custom links
• Drag and Drop to rearrange menu items.
• Social Link Menus may be available in your theme
• Each menu item attributes can be modified by access the hidden options in the “Screen Options” tab.

New Functionality by Installing Plugins

• Over 50,000 Plugins Available
• Installed Plugins subpanel is where you can Activate/Deactivate/Delete Plugins installed on your site.
• Add new subpanel allows you to find and install plugins through the WordPress Directory.
• You can also upload plugin ZIP files as well.
• Plugins must be installed and activated to make use of their functionality.
• Many plugins have settings, be sure to look for those.
• Typically plugins should do 1 thing, and it should do it well.

Adding New Users

• Invite users to your site
• Manage users via the Users subpanel
• Be Sure to Understand the User Permissions

Some Useful Tools

• Press this
• Category to Tag Converter
• Import posts/content from other systems
• Export
• Plugins can add other great tools, like backups and migration.

Settings & Configuration

• General: Title, Tagline and Address, membership, language
• Writing: Controls the Edit interface, default category/format, post via email, update services
• Reading: Front page content, how many posts to show, full text or excerpt, Search Engine Visibility
• Discussion: Manage comments
• Media: Standard Upload Sizes, Organization method vs 1 large library
• Permalinks:  Format of the URL (web address) for your pages/posts, category bases

Any Questions?

STILL NEED HELP? ASK ME!

me@marcgratch.com
https://marcgratch.com
@mgratch You can find me most often in the WordPress DFW & Post Status Slack!