WordPress
Welcome to creating a blog using WordPress. Please use the information below to help begin setting up your blog. This is a general overview to acquaint you with one of the two blog software programs discussed in this program, WordPress.
Please note there is a WordPress.com and a WordPress.org. This instructional program will discuss WordPress.com, which will be referred to as WordPress, and is free and much easier to set up! You do not have to download software, pay for hosting, or manage a web server. When you sign up for a WordPress.com blog, you will get a URL like “yourname.wordpress.com." If you would like to compare the two, please visit WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.
Should you need additional assistance with creating and setting up your blog, you can visit WordPress' Support page or contact the author/instructor of this instructional program.
You are able to click on each of the images below. There are some images that will expand in size to give you a better view at what is being discussed, or you will be brought to the respective page with a designated URL link.
A Slight Insight
To learn a little about WordPress before beginning your blog, please watch the video. This will provide you a visual on how to add a new post and to begin customizing your blog! This video is also available on the dashboard when you first sign up for your account. To learn how to set up your WordPress blog in more detail, please see the steps below to help you get started! |
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Step One:
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WordPress can be used by individuals, businesses, and educators alike. Blogs using WordPress can be created by individuals for personal use or professional use. Just like many other sites, a user can select to create a blog for free or one with cost options. In order to join WordPress, you must register. Once you sign up, you will be able to begin creating your blog. First, you must go to the blog homepage, WordPress. Please click "Get started here" to begin the process for creating an account. |
Step Three:
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Once you click "Sign up," you will be prompted to complete your registration. In order to complete your registration, you will need to check your email account in which you registered for the account. Please note that it could take up to 30 minutes to receive the email. If you do no receive an email, you can scroll to the bottom of this page and enter in a new email address under "Activate Your WordPress.com Account." Again, it may take up to 30 minutes to get the email to confirm your account. At this time, you can add in more information for your profile, or if you wish, you could leave it blank. Check your email account in which you registered for WordPress. If the email message is there, open the email message. Click the link to confirm your account. When you click this link, you will be automatically taken to WordPress' homepage. |
Step Four:
The first screen you see after you log onto your newly created account or log on to WordPress, is your dashboard. The first few times you log on, your dashboard has a "Welcome to WordPress.com" message. This message is provided to new users to give you help with using WordPress. There is a video along with links to help you get started. The dashboard is a central location where you can see a birds-eye view of what is going on with your blog. You can see everything at-a-glance from catching up on the news, viewing your draft posts, filling out a quick post, checking and moderating your latest comments, and viewing your site statistics. The dashboard allows you to see an overview of your blog, but select specifics that you wish to focus your attention. In addition to the aforementioned information, you can search for blogs, subscribe to blogs, manage your posts, and add media, links, and new pages to your blog. You can add comments, feedback, and polls, as well as check your ratings. Finally, the dashboard is where you will manage your blogs appearance, users, tools, and settings. This will be discussed in a later step. Use the tabs located on the left in the margin or use the links and tabs on the main page to manage specific aspects of your blog. After you have used WordPress and come back to your blog, you will be brought to the dashboard when you log into the administrative portion of your blog. |
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Step Five:
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There are several ways to add a new post to your WordPress blog. There are also two types of posts that can be added. Depending on the type of post you wish to add will determine which way to add a new post. First, you can add a quick post to your WordPress blog. This type of post will not allow you to edit the color and size of your text, but you can still add pictures, videos, media, audio, polls, and custom forms. You can create tags for your post, so it easily searchable by other bloggers. You can save it for later or publish it to your blog at that very moment. This is great if you want to add a quick post, or if you are posting from your mobile device! To Add a Quick Post:
Second you can add a more detailed and complex post to your WordPress blog. This type of post will allow you to edit the color and size of your text, as well as bold, italicize, underline, or strike through your font! In addition, you can add bulleted lists, add links, and align your text to meet your needs. You can also insert symbols, and indent your text. Just like with the quick post, you can upload and insert pictures, videos, media, audio, polls, and custom forms. Again, you can create tags for your post, so it easily searchable by other bloggers. Finally, you can either save your post for later or publish it to your blog at that very moment. To Add a More Complex/Detailed Post
You can view your post after you publish it, and/or return to your dashboard to continue blogging! Regardless, your post is now uploaded and saved to your blog! |
Step Six
You have now started to set up the main page of your blog. You can add additional pages to your blog for what ever reason you wish. An "About" page is automatically added, and you can update it with information about you.
If you have a specific focus that you wish to include, you can create a page designed for just that. For example, an educator who uses a blog may want to have a section for discussion questions. The educator can create a page designated for discussion questions where their learners can respond to the weekly discussion question! There are two ways to add a new page to your WordPress blog. To Add a New Page
You can then view your new page, or click on your user name in the top left margin of your screen to view your entire blog, specifically the homepage. You, your users, and your readers can use the toolbar to navigate through the different pages. You can go back to your dashboard to edit the content in each of your pages, add additional pages and posts, and so forth! The design and content is all up to you! To view some of the elements and what they can do, please visit http://meross19.wordpress.com/ |
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Step Seven:
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One critical feature of WordPress includes the ability to manage your blog. You can manage its appearance, users, tools, and settings. The appearance of your blog includes themes, widgets, menus, theme options, backgrounds, headers, custom design, iPad, and extras. You can change the theme, or the look, of your blog. To change the theme of your blog, click the down arrow on "Appearance" and click "Themes." Search for a theme of your liking. You can preview the theme before selecting it, but if you like it, you can select it. You have now changed the theme of your blog! Please note that when you change the theme of your blog, the toolbar(s) may be located elsewhere on your page than originally. Some items may be displayed differently - i.e. the bullets or headers of your blogs. In the "Users" section, you can invite others to join WordPress, update your public profile, manage your administrative page, and manage your overall WordPress account. The "Tools" section allows you to import information from other blogs you may have or if you have added comments to another blog. You can also export information to add to another blog, or delete your WordPress blog should you choose to do so. To manage your blog when it comes to your reading and writing your posts, along with other aspects, you will seek out the "Settings" tab located on the left margin. In the Settings tab, you can manage the general settings of your blog, such as your email address, the date format, the time format, what day you would like the week to start, and your time zone. You can also manage the writing settings and reading settings of your blog. This includes the number of lines that show, whether or not you want the most recent post to show first, and how many posts you want your site to display at once. In addition, you can manage your discussion settings, media settings, privacy settings, and sharing settings. You can also manage the polls and ratings of your blog, your domain name, email post changes, and text messaging where you can interact with your website via text messages. There are additional aspects associated with managing the settings of your blog. There are a variety of settings in which you can employ to your WordPress blog. Please view each individual setting one to learn more about what it has to offer your blog! |
Step Eight:
After becoming familiar with managing your blog, you can add additional content to your blog to make it more beneficial. You can add links, files, media, and polls aside from text in a single post. In addition, you can add widgets. When managing your blog, use the left margin toolbar to locate items you wish to add to your blog. For this tutorial, we will take a look at adding widgets.
A widget can be defined as a small application that can be installed and utilized within a web page by a user. While there are many definitions to define widget, this is the one selected for this program. WordPress offers many widgets, which can be displayed on your page if added to the primary widget area. See how to manage your blog including widgets in then next step. Some widgets that can be added to your blog include, but are not limited to:
After you drag a widget to the Primary Widget Area, fill in the requested information and click "Save!" You can check your blog's homepage to see if your widget has been added and shows up. To do this, click your user name located in the top left corner. You will then automatically be brought to your homepage. Search your blog for your newly added widget. If at any time you need assistance with managing your site or adding content other than your thoughts, you can visit the Learn WordPress.com site, the Support page, or search the Forums site. |
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Now that you have completed how to begin creating a blog using WordPress, please participate in the "How to Create Blogs" Evaluation survey on the next page to provide comments on how this site can better meet your needs. Click the button below to go directly to the evaluation.