Getting Started #3- Get to know your Dashboard
Your Dashboard is where everything you need to do to write a post is located. A couple of things I want to mention:Underneath Title, where it says Post, are two tabs, Visual, and Code. You are mostly going to want to use Visual, which is also known as WYSIWYG, or What You See Is What You Get. What you put in the post area is exactly what will show up on your blog. You will only occasionally need to use the Code tab if there is a specific piece of code you want in the post.
Underneath that are your formatting tools-bold, italics, strikethrough, links for creating a bulleted or numbered list, and then a really important one, a small symbol that looks like a piece of chain link. It will look greyed out until you highlight a piece of text, then it will appear more bold. Click it, and a box pops up to put in the HTML for the link. There’s also a broken link for undoing the link.
Next to that is a small graphic of a tree, that is your insert image link. Click that to insert a photo into your post.
Now let’s look along the right side of the page. Categories-you can name your categories anything you want. Type in the name and click add, then make sure the box next to the category name is checked. Discussion-if you want to turn off the comments, uncheck Allow Comments.
Post Password, for if you want to password-protect a very private post.
Post Slug-An interesting feature. You might have a really long title for your post, but you don’t need the whole title to be part of the permanent post link, so you can “nickname” the post. If you use more than one word, separate the words with dashes, like-this.
Post Status, for if you want to save a post as a draft or make it private.
Post Timestamp-this can be useful if you want to write a post but not have it publish right away. Just change the date and time on it.
WordPress Bookmarklet-Puts a small link on your browser toolbar, click it when you are reading a blog that you want to add to your blogroll.
Part Two: The Tabs across the Top
I’ve already explained the Dashboard and Write tabs, the Manage tab is where you can make changes to posts, pages, uploads, and categories, and where you can import in data or export it out.
Comments is handy if you know someone left you a comment but you can’t remember which post it is on. Blogroll is where you add in all the URLs that will show up once you drag the Links widget into your sidebar.
The Presentation tab is one you should get to know right away, because it has all of your options for easy customization of your blog. The first thing you should do is pick a new theme. Why? Because the default theme is boring!
Go to the Presentation tab and you will see another row of tabs, one of them is called Themes. Your current theme will be showing, and under that is all the available themes. I recommend using one of these to start, because they have already been tested as compatible with WordPress. Switching your theme is as easy as clicking the one that you like!
The Users tab- if you write a community blog, you’ll manage the users of your blog here, also, there is a Your Profile section for your photo and personal information.
Options- Your blog’s title and tagline, your email address, and your choice for the date format.
Upgrades- Custom CSS, unlimited Users, and extra directory space, for sale.
So that’s your Dashboard!
Getting Started #1- Getting your blog out there
So, you’ve decided to start a blog! Now what? Well, you want people to read your blog, right? The first thing you should do is make sure you are publishing your blog’s feed. Simply put, your feed is the text of your posts, and readers can subscribe to your feed so that they know every time you publish a post. Every blog has a feed, and the URL for it is usually (the address of your blog)/feed. For example, the URL of this blog is http://askelizabeth.wordpress.com, and my feed address is http://askelizabeth.wordpress.com/feed.
To make it easier for your readers to subscribe to your feed, I recommend going to Feedburner and “burning” your feed. These are the steps to take:
- Go to www.feedburner.com
- Right in the middle of the page it says “Start Feedburning Now. Type your feed or blog URL below.” Type in your blog’s URL and click the Next>> button.
- On the next page, give your feed a title, usually the title of your blog, and what you want the feed address to be, again, usually the title of your blog.
- Excellent! Now you will create your feedburner account by putting in a username, password and email.
- Almost done! The next two pages are for your info if you checked the “I am a podcaster” box on the first page, and also for selecting whether you want the basic service or Feedburner PRO. Keep clicking Next>>, until you get to Feed Management.
- There are a row of tabs at the top, click Publicize. Find the link to the Chicklet Chooser. This is that orange button you have probably seen on other sites, it is a link that goes to the Bloglines site to let people subscribe to your blog’s feed!
- Once you have selected which size button you want, put the cursor in the little circle next to it and click to fill in the circle. Then scroll all way way down to the bottom of the page, and you will see a box of code. Copy the code, then open a new window, sign in to your blog, and go to your Presentation tab.
- There is a widget marked RSS. This is NOT the widget you use for your own feed. It is for pulling in the feed from another site, say from a different blog. What you want is a text widget. Pull it up to the panel, and click the little lines on the side of the widget to open it up. Paste in your code, close the widget, and click Save Changes. There you go!
Now you are publishing a feed for your blog! Next post-getting familiar with your WordPress Admin Panel and Dashboard. So stop by again soon!
What is the difference between a Post and a Page?
On your Dashboard if you click the “Write” tab, you have two choices- Write Post, and Write Page. A post is your main content. If you want to write about something funny your kids did or a trip you just took, that goes into a Post.
A Page is for information that you want readers to have that is generally not going to change. You should already have your first Page which WordPress creates for you, called “About”. I recommend using the page for your contact email address as well.
What is the difference between “save” and “publish”?
A new reader asks:
>Hi! I was just wondering… When I wrote my last blog entry, I noticed at the end, there were different buttons you could push to save it. What is the difference between “Save” and “Publish” ??
Great question! At the bottom of the Write Post box, you will see three buttons-Save and Continue Editing, Save, and Publish. These buttons are your friends when you are writing a post, and they each have a specific use.
- Save and Continue Editing- Let’s say you are in the middle of writing a post, and you have to get up to pee, or change a baby’s diaper, or answer the phone. Even though WordPress is automatically saving a draft of your post as you write, I recommend clicking the Save and Continue Editing button just to be safe. If you lose power or someone else wants to use the computer, your post is saved just where you left it, right there on the screen. Even if you have to sign out of WordPress, just sign back in, go to My Dashboard, click on Write Post, and you will see your post there as a draft. Click edit, and there is your post, ready for you to keep working on.
- Save- If your post is done, but you don’t want to to show up on your main page yet, click Save. Your whole post will be right there in your Dashboard waiting for you to Publish it.
- Publish-You’ve written your whole post, and it’s ready to go. Click Publish, and your post will appear on your main page.
One more tip- let’s say you have Published your post, and you are reading through it on your main page, and you see something you want to change. Depending on which theme you are using, you will see an “edit” button either at the top or bottom of your Published post. Click edit, and you will go back to the Write Post page. This time, you WON’T see a “Publish” button, but don’t worry! Just make your changes and click Save. Your post will be republished automatically, with your changes.
Thanks for the great question!
So, anyone want to ask me something?!?
I’ve been happy to see that the new bloggers that I’ve asked to create new WordPress blogs have been finding it very easy to get started! My Maya’s Mom friend MamaMcMann set up this cute blog Living, Loving, Learning and it looks great!
I’m looking for questions regarding adding things to the sidebar, or anything else you would like to do to make your blog more personal and functional. Leave me your questions in the comments!
