Post To Your
WordPress Blog
1
SET UP BASIC SITE INFO
Log into your WordPress installation and head to “Settings
> General.” Enter your site title and provide a tagline—these
will be displayed on your site [Image A]. You can also change the
administrator email from here if you wish. Once done, scroll
down and click “Save Changes.”
>> Your site’s overall appearance is determined by its theme—
we’ll be looking at this in more detail next issue (including
how to customize it)—but for now if you visit “Appearance >
Themes” you’ll see that several have been preinstalled with your
WordPress install. Select one and click “Live Preview” to see
how it looks, then click “Activate” to switch to that theme if it’s a
better fit for your site’s content.2
YOUR FIRST POST
Click “Posts” in the left-hand menu to access the
“Posts” screen. Here, a list of all posts—published or in
draft form—can be found. You may see a dummy post (“Hello
world!|) that has already been published—roll your mouse over it
to reveal options to edit, quick edit, delete, or view. Click “Trash”
to remove it. Now click “Add New” to start a new post using
WordPress’s Block Editor.
>> A quick orientation guide reveals how the new editor works:
That content is arranged into individual blocks, with different
types (text, image, and video) offering their own set of formatting
controls depending on the type of content you’ve selected.LAST ISSUE WE REVEALED how to set up and secure your new WordPress website. Now it’s
time to start using your new site’s tools to produce the content you’ll be showcasing to others.
Content on WordPress consists of two basic types: Posts and pages.
Posts are primarily the stuff of blog posts: Time-sensitive material like an ongoing diary,
where everything is published in a single feed and is date and time-stamped, with the most
recent post at the top. Posts can be assigned categories and tags, to enable your readers to
create their own filtered feed based on specific topics or areas of interest.
Pages are for static content with no expiry date: There’s no publish date attached, and they’re
useful for providing information, such as an “About” page. You can’t assign tags or categories
to pages; instead, you organize them in a hierarchical fashion, using a parent-child hierarchy.
One page is the parent-for example, “About”—and then you create child pages off this, such
as “Contact,” “Biography,” “FAQ,” and so on. These are then allocated an order in which they
appear in the hierarchy—typically via a drop-down menu that’s always visible. –NICK PEERSYOU’LL NEED THIS
WORDPRESS SERVER
Any reputable web host will do,
or you can host it yourself on
your own server.>> Each post has its own title, so start by clicking inside
the “Add title” box to add it. Next, click inside the “Start
writing or type / to choose a block” box to enter your first
paragraph of text.3
FORMATTING TEXT
Text is entered into “Paragraph” blocks. They’re
called this because each individual paragraph
resides inside its own block—when you hit Return, a
new text block will be created underneath the preceding
one. When these are selected, you will see tools on
the left of the block that enable you to rearrange their
order, either using the up and down arrow keys to move
between adjacent blocks, or by clicking and dragging the
middle button to move to a completely different part of
your post.
>> Formatting controls can be found in two places: A
formatting bar above the current paragraph provides
commonly used tools, while on the right of the page
you’ll see a sidebar with two tabs—”Document” and
“Block.” The “Block” tab provides even more formatting
options, including the ability to vary the size of your text
and to insert a drop cap.BA©^WORDPRESS52 MAXIMUM PC SEP 2020 maximumpc.com
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