Documentation:WordPress Basics/Basics 1 Guide
Workshop Overview
This hands-on workshop is an opportunity for your learn and experiment with the basic features available on WordPress using UBC Blogs. We will learn how to change themes and widgets in your sidebar, create posts and static pages as on a normal web page, upload photos to your posts and pages, understand the difference between categories and tags, change your personal settings, allow or disallow comments, add users, and adjust privacy settings.
Everybody is welcome to join, especially those who are new to WordPress. What we discuss during the workshop can be used to create your course, group, department or company webspace or perhaps a private site depending on what you need.
Training Guide: http://wiki.ubc.ca/Documentation:WordPress_Basics/Basics_1_Guide
Contents
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Workshop Agenda (5 mins.)
- Introduction: You, Us
- lucas.wright@ubc.ca - Learning Technology Specialist, CTLT
- zack.lee@ubc.ca - Educational Resources Developer, CTLT
- emily.renoe@ubc.ca - Learning Technology Specialist, CTLT
- Session Objectives
- Participants will:
- Create and add content to their own webspace
- Organize their site according to their goals and audience needs
- Participants will:
Agenda
- Burning Questions: What burning questions do you have about WordPress that you would like to learn the answer to during this session.
- Activity I: Defining the Purpose of Your Site
- Activity II: Hands-on WP
- Wrap-up, Questions
- Where to get support
- Copyright
- Feedback
Introduction: WordPress and UBC (10 mins.)
What’s a blog?
A weblog, or "blog", is really a webspace on the Web. Weblogs cover as many different topics, and express as many opinions, as there are people writing them. Some blogs are highly influential, some have enormous readership, some are university course websites, while others are mainly intended for a close circle of family and friends.
A WordPress webspace is made up of basic elements: pages, posts, categories, and tags. Understanding the difference between a page and a post is core to understanding WordPress. A page and a post are both a collection of paragraphs and look almost identical. Pages form the basic information about a site, such as “About the Author” or “Contact Information.”
A page is on a topic and there is one page on that topic. A user views pages one at a time. A post is like a collection of pages. A post belongs to a category. A site has multiple posts about each category. In my site, I have a category called “Articles.” As I post an article, I categorize it under Articles. This enables a viewer to see my articles by clicking on the category “Articles.” A user can view a single or multiple posts at a time. A post is time sensitive, reflecting when it was written with the most recent shown first. The more website-like a blog is, the more posts it will have. Pages are website-like, posts are blog-like.
Where Can I get a Blog or Webspace?
- UBC blogs http://blogs.ubc.ca
- Wordpress http://www.wordpress.com
- Blogger http://www.blogger.com/
- MySpace http://myspace.com
- LiveJournal http://www.livejournal.com/
UBC's WordPress Service
Examples
- UBC Examples:
- Course Sites
- ePortfolios
- Student Groups
- Departmental Websites
Activity 1 - Define the Purpose of Your Site (10 mins.)
Although WordPress started out as blog, the amount of flexibility and customization available enables you to use the platform for a diverse range of purposes. You can create a portfolio, a course, a departmental website or a space for your own thoughts. Good web spaces use the tools to their advantage by focusing on their primary goals and audiences in mind. This exercise will ask you three questions:
- Why are you creating your site? or What do you want your site to accomplish?
- What will visitors do when they are on your site?
- What kinds of content and activity do you want to have on your site?
These 3 questions are intended to help focus your ideas for your own site as well as make connections on how you will use the different features available on WordPress.
Write down some of the possible reasons why you want a WordPress site and ultimately what you hope to accomplish with your site. Discuss your strategy with your colleague and share your ideas with the class.
Activity 2: Hands-On
Sign-up and Login
UBC Blogs is integrated with the Campus-Wide Login (CWL) system. You don't need to create a new ID, just sign-up with your CWL. This also means that UBC Blogs is available to any member of the UBC community.
Get a UBC Blogs Account
- Go to https://blogs.ubc.ca/ (bookmark this for the future!) >> click on the LOGIN button and enter your CWL information.
- The “Get your own UBC Blogs account” screen appears
- Enter a Username (only the lowercase letters a-z and numbers allowed), Email address, and Display Name
- Agree to to the terms: "I have read and agree to the terms of service"
- Select "Gimme a Site" and click the NEXT button
Create a Blog!
- Choose a Site Name and Site Title
- The Site Name will become part of your URL and cannot be changed
- Select the Privacy option you are comfortable with
- Click the SIGNUP button at the bottom of the page
A Tour of the WordPress Dashboard
The Dashboard is the "nerve" centre of your blog spaces. This is where you can create posts and pages, upload files, manage comments, and change the settings of your blog. Familiarize yourself with the Dashboard as you will be spending lots of time on it.
Accessing Your Dashboard
Accessing your blog's dashboard is very easy:
- If you're not logged in, login with your CWL
- Hover over My Blogs on the top toolbar
- Move your cursor to your blog
- Click on Dashboard
WordPress Dashboard
Some important areas are:
- My Sites - lists the blogs you have access and Create a New Site feature
- Visit your webspace by clicking on the underlined title
- Right Now column gives a quick snapshot of how many pages, posts, categories and tags exist
- The Screen Options button allow you to rearrange your Dashboard page
Pages & Posts
WordPress employs two fundamental content types: pages and posts. These content types behave quite differently and therefore it is important to understand when to create a page or a post.
Pages are static. They are a good way to publish information that doesn’t change much, like an "About" or "Contact Us" page. Pages are usually linked from the main navigation bar on the Homepage.
Posts are dynamic. Posts are always associated with a date and are meant to update your audience.
Some key differences:
- Posts are:
- dynamic (you may create a couple of Posts a day!)
- displayed in reverse chronological order (placing the most recent content at the top of the page)
- can be assigned tags and categories (helps with search engines!)
- meant for updating your audience
- syndicated via RSS
- Pages are:
- static content that will not change - or very, rarely anyways (Examples are 'About Me', 'Contact Me', 'Services', etc.)
- not related to categories or tags
- do not appear in RSS feeds
- may have sub-pages (this gives the appearance of a more traditional website)
Creating Pages
Pages are used for static information in WordPress. To access all of your site's pages click on All Pages. From this list you can edit and delete any of your pages. The following steps will guide you through adding pages to your site.
- On the left-hand menu bar, under Pages, click Add New
- The Add New Page screen appears. Give the page a title and enter text in the text box
- Click the Kitchen Sink icon to expand the toolbar and format the text
- Click Publish
Changing Your Front Page
The Reading Settings control how a webspace is displayed to visitors. Front page displays allows you to choose what appears on the blog’s front: the latest posts or a static page that you have created in the Pages section of your blog.
Hands-on Activity - Creating Pages
Using the examples of sites consider how you could set up pages on your own site. How many pages would you create? What content would they hold? How would they be organized? What would you like the front page of your site to look like?
- Create at least three pages for your site. Include headings, text and formatting.
- At least one of the pages should be a sub-page.
Add New Post
Posts are designed for more dynamic content such as news and updates.
- From the Dashboard, click Posts on the left-hand menu bar
- Click the Add New button
- Enter a new short title in the New Post and enter text in the text box below
- On the far right, in the Publish settings, click Preview to see if everything looks fine
- Click Publish (Note: the yellow confirmation at the top of the page)
- At the top of your Post, click View Post
Categories and Tags
Categories and tags are indexing systems for your site. Categories are typically used to index your posts often using general taxonomies. Tags are typically more granular than categories and are often used to link to keywords or details within a posts.
Creating and linking a post to a category
- While writing or editing a post, under the Categories section on the right-hand sidebar, click Add New Category
- Enter the category in the form that appears and click Add
- Once you have published your posts it will be linked to this category.
Linking a Tag to your Post
- From the post form enter tag(s) separated by commas. Click Add to add the tag to your post
Hands-on Activity - Creating & Formatting a Post
- From the Dashboard, create a new Post and add a title
- Format your post using the Kitchen Sink
- Add or select a category and add a tag
- Publish your Page
- Click Visit Site and see what your site looks like now
- Try creating at least three posts for your site
Adding Media to Pages and Posts
A number of different media formats can be uploaded to WordPress MU including PDFs, Docs, PPTs, and images. This media can be inserted into pages and posts in your site. The following guide will assist you in adding content to your site.
- Create a new page by clicking on Pages in the sidebar
- To add media to a page, scroll to the area above the Formatting Menu and select the Add Media icon
- From the Add Media Window, click on Select Files
- Choose the image, document or audio file to upload and click Open
- Once the upload is complete, give the media a title, a caption and description (optional), alternative text (accessibility) and click Insert Into Post. If the file is an image it will appear in their post. If the file is a PowerPoint, PDF or Document it will appear as a hyperlink
- Click Update on the right-hand sidebar to publish your revised page
- Click on View Page to return to the site and view the changes
Hands-on Actvity
- Select one of your posts or pages by browsing through All Pages or All Posts
- Add and title a PDF file to your site from the WordPress Media folder on the desktop
- Add an image to a page or a post on your site from the WordPress Media folder. Give the image alt text and attribute the image using the Caption form
- Using the media folder add images and media to your site
Changing the Look of Your WebSpace
Wordpress Themes
WordPress Themes can provide control over the look and presentation of the material on your webspace. Changing your WordPress Theme does not impact the content of your site only the header image and widgets.
- From the Dashboard, under the Appearance drop-down menu, click Themes.
- Manage Themes screen appears, displaying your current theme. Browse through the many different themes and select one by clicking on the thumbnail image.
- Wordpress displays a quick view of the selected theme.
- Click Activate at the top right of the screen. Visit your site to see the changes!
Customizing Headers
Some themes enable you to add customizable headers for greater personalization of your webspace. Remember that all themes are different; some might not even have headers.
- From the Dashboard, under the Appearance drop-down menu, click Header
- Click on Choose File, select an image (jpg, gif, png) from your computer and click Upload
- Adjust the slide ruler to crop the header image
- Click Crop and Publish
- Click Visit Your Site on the yellow notification at the top of your screen
Hands-on Activity: Themes and Headers
- Select a theme for your site from the list keeping in mind the different column configurations (one, two or three) and the functionality of the theme (customized image header, custom menus)
- Customize your theme header
Privacy Settings
The Privacy Settings control your webspace visibility to search engines like Google. You can decide if you would like your blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines or not. If you don't want your blog available to the search engines you can block search engines, but allow normal visitors to see your site.
- From the Dashboard, under the Settings drop-down menu, click Privacy.
- Browse through the Site Visibility settings and select the most appropriate settings for your webspace.
- Click Save Changes. (Note: If you have selected “I would like my blog to be visible only to registered members of the blog”, refer to Adding Specific Users section below)
Blog Visibility has 5 options - the top three of importance are:
- I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Bing, Technorati (Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs) and archivers – This is the setting used by most blogs. It lets everyone read your blog and allows your blog to be included in search engines and other content sites.
- I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors – If you want all human visitors to be able to read your blog, but want to block web crawlers for search engines, this is the setting for you.
- I would like my site to be visible only to Registered network users – You would use this setting to create a private blog. If selected, another area will appear where you can control which WordPress.com users will be able to log into your blog to read it (those users will only be able to read your blog, they will not get access to your dashboard to edit your blog, please see this section if you want to give people edit access)
Adding Specific Users
The WordPress Users feature is designed to give the blog owner the ability to control and assign what users can and cannot do in the blog. A blog owner must manage and allow access to such functions as writing and editing Posts, creating Pages, defining Links, creating Categories, moderating Comments, managing Plugins, managing Themes, and managing other users. You can add as many administrators, subscribers, editors, authors, and contributors to your blog as your like.
- From the Dashboard, click the drop-down menu on Users and select Add User
- Enter an Email, select a Role from the drop-down menu, and click Add User
- The user you have added will appear in the invitation box below
Creating Another Blog
You have the option of creating a second (even third!) webspace for yourself/department/faculty.
- From the My Blogs drop down menu at the top of the screen, click Create a Blog.
- The "Get another UBC Blogs site in seconds"" appears. Complete the required fields and click the Create Site button at the bottom of the page.
Resources
License
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- http://www.democracy.arts.ubc.ca
- http://case3.sites.olt.ubc.ca
- http://niousha.sites.olt.ubc.ca
- http://slc.ubc.ca
- http://lc.landfood.ubc.ca
- See Embed Stats for more and up-to-date information
