By the time you finish this course, you'll be able to do all this and more with WordPress, the world's most popular Web publishing software!

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1 Lesson 1: Getting Started With WordPress Chapter 1: Introduction How would you like to create an attractive, powerful, interactive website or blog without any special technical know-how? Better yet, how would you like to build that site at virtually no cost and with the support of a large community of experts? By the time you finish this course, you'll be able to do all this and more with WordPress, the world's most popular Web publishing software! Welcome to Creating WordPress Websites, a course that will make you familiar with one of the world's most popular Web page creators. No matter what your goal is building anything from a blog about your pet rabbit to a full-blown business website WordPress can help you, with a minimum of fuss. My name's Richard Mansfield, and I'll be your instructor for the next six weeks. If the idea of creating a website or blog makes you nervous, trust me when I tell you that it's going to be easier than you might imagine. More than a decade ago, when I began my first site, I felt the same way. But everything worked out, and eventually I turned website building into a second career. The problem was that I was more of a designer than a developer. While I could put together a reasonably attractive Web page, I lacked the technical ability to work with a database, an element that changes a website from being simply a one-way presentation into a dynamic, back-and-forth exchange with online visitors. Luckily, I found WordPress, which makes it easy for nonprogrammers to take advantage of database features without the trouble of installing and maintaining them. Here s an example of a site created before WordPress existed. It was slow going for someone with no coding experience:

2 Circa 1998 Fast-forward 20 years. With WordPress, you can create a more sophisticated website in far less time: A more recent WordPress site Throughout this course, I'll draw on my experience with WordPress to give you information and support every step along the way. Let me take a moment to explain the difference between a blog and a website. You probably already know that a website is a group of pages that a person, group, or business has made

3 available online. These pages usually have hyperlinks often called just links so you can jump back and forth between the pages and go to other websites. A blog is a type of website. Many blogs are online personal journals that reflect the opinions of an individual or organization. They let readers post comments and links related to the blog posts, so they allow more two-way communication than websites do. Also, blogs often have a simpler and more streamlined design. In this course, you'll build a hybrid site that combines elements of a blog and a website. So you'll get the best of both worlds! As you work on this class project, ask yourself: Would a website, a blog, or a hybrid site work best for me? As we get started, here's a suggestion: You'll get more out of this course if you print each lesson and save it, perhaps in a loose-leaf notebook. Having a hardcopy will make it easier to follow my step-by-step directions while you're online and will also provide a handy reference when you've finished the course. Let's get started by finding out how WordPress works. Chapter 2: What Is WordPress, and Why Is It So Popular? What Is WordPress, and Why Is It So Popular?

4 WordPress was developed in 2003 to make it easy for nontechnical people to publish blogs online. It's a software application that lets you create Web pages simply by typing into a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, the same way as you'd compose an or a Microsoft Word document. Behind the scenes, WordPress translates your text and images to a format that browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer can read. And with the click of a mouse, your new pages will be available to everyone who's plugged into the World Wide Web. WordPress lowers the barrier that once prevented nontechnical people from producing blogs and websites at a reasonable cost. Before WordPress, if you wanted an online presence, you had to plunk down a few hundred dollars for software like Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver or learn the markup code known as HTML to develop a marginally effective website. Or you could pay a designer or developer even more to build a site for you. Now, thanks to WordPress, an attractive, dynamic blog or website is within your reach for a rather small investment of time and money. The "Flavors" of WordPress The people who created WordPress offer two options: WordPress.com: This is the version that's hosted by the WordPress organization at no charge. It's used primarily by bloggers and lacks much of the flexibility and many of the features of the better-known WordPress.org. For example, you can't display ads or set up an online store on a WP.com site. And unless you purchase an upgrade, you can't change fonts or other design elements. WordPress.org: This is the software that most people use to create WordPress websites and blogs. And the version we ll use, too. WordPress.org lets you use any of thousands of free add-on features and themes. While the actual program is free, it must be installed on a hosting company server I'll

5 explain how that works very soon. Although hosting accounts generally cost around $100 annually, members of this class will receive three months of free hosting (and a practice location) from SiteGround, one of the top companies in the field. WordPress.com recently replaced its administration area with a new system that's much harder to use. For that reason and because we've eliminated the cost of WordPress.org hosting with a free 90-day plan we'll be using the self-hosted WordPress.org. How Websites Work Before you can start building, you need a place to put your website and a way to identify it. That means finding a hosting company (where your site will be stored in the cloud). And you need to choose a domain name. Websites and blogs are nothing more than a bunch of data files. To be available on the Internet, they're stored on a special kind of computer known as a server that connects to the World Wide Web. If you're not associated with a company or organization that maintains its own servers, you can rent space on a server that a hosting company owns. In some cases, you'd create Web pages on your computer and upload the files to the remote server the hosting company's computer which will display your pages online. But in my opinion, hosting your own site is quite often a poor choice. If you use SiteGround as your host, you will get exceptionally fast and accurate help from their outstanding customer support group. This alone is a great reason to choose SiteGround. In my experience, this group is composed of college-educated people with a firm grasp of the technology. Not only does your WordPress website itself reside on a remote server, so does the WordPress system that you use to build, maintain, and control your site. Instead of working with an application on your hard drive, and producing Web pages stored locally on your computer, you ll go online to create WordPress websites. One major advantage of this system is that since your Web creation tool is in cyberspace, you can work on your site from any computer that has Internet access.

6 Creating Web pages With WordPress In this course we will build a practice website from the ground up. It s helpful if you focus on that site, not simultaneously trying to modify any existing site you might have. The reason is that you ll learn better. Also, I can t provide assistance to individual student site questions that might come up. Questions must be based on the class project we ll create: Pets To Go. In this course, you have a choice for hosting: If you don't have a website or hosting company account, I suggest that you to take advantage of SiteGround's offer of three months of free hosting. You'll receive all the benefits server space for your website and a control panel, where you can manage the site at no cost. When the 90-day period ends, you can either sign up for a paid SiteGround hosting account, open an account with a different host, move to the free WordPress.com platform, or walk away. I'll post a link to the SiteGround offer later in this chapter.

7 If you already have a paid hosting account, you can use it to work on your version of the practice website. (This option is not recommended.) A Hosting Suggestion Even if you do already have a paid Web hosting account, I still recommend taking advantage of SiteGround for the course work, for several reasons: Every hosting company has its own procedures and conventions. If we all use the same host for the class project, we'll all be on the same page, because I'll be using SiteGround as the example host. You won't have to go through the effort and/or expense of creating a new domain or subdomain for the class project. It's also useful to know how different hosts operate, especially if you're helping a friend or client set up a blog or website. And most important, I think once you ve tried SiteGround, you might be inclined to migrate your existing site to SiteGround. If for no other reason than their incredible customer support. (No, I get no compensation of any kind from SiteGround.) It's up to you, but I do urge you to use the free hosting offer for the purposes of this course. To sign up for 90 days of free SiteGround hosting, follow the instructions at the start of Chapter 3. What's in a Domain? Besides hosting, the other requirement for creating a website is an address, an online location where people can access the site. In the digital world, that's known as a domain. A domain distinguishes your website from the millions of others in cyberspace. It's linked to a behind-the-scenes numerical address that directs visitors to your online home. But because it's

8 hard to remember long numbers, the Domain Name System masks the numerical address with the easier-to-recall domain name. Your own blog or website requires a unique domain name, which must be registered through a service that handles this process. When you register a domain name, you don't technically actually own it: You're paying for the right to use the name exclusively for the period of the contract. This can run from one to 10 years and is renewable. Be sure to set up your domain registration for automatic renewal, or find a good way to remind yourself. If you fail to renew within 40 days of expiration, you'll lose your name! When you sign up for a free for 90-day SiteGround account (which we will do in a minute), you'll receive from them via an address (URL) for your practice site. Your site s name (AKA your domain name, the URL address to get to your practice site from your browser) will be automatically assigned to you by SiteGround when you sign up. You do not choose this practice domain name. Your URL will be created by SiteGround and ed to you from SiteGround. Your URL will be based on your name and will look like this: However, that "richardm4" portion represents the URL assigned to me you will have a different name in that location. We ll call this portion of the URL your identifying name. It will be your first name, the initial of your last name, plus a number. IMPORTANT: Do not use my URL (richardm4. sg-host.com). You must use the URL that was ed to you by SiteGround and will contain your name as the identifying name of the URL. (The SiteGround subdomain will work the same as a real domain you'd register for yourself later for your real website.) IMPORTANT: When you use the SiteGround free hosting plan, you ll have access only to the sandbox subdomain assigned to you. Therefore, you ll be able to work only on our class project website, not on any others. So if you want to work on an additional site, you ll need to use a paid hosting account. Please don t try to move an existing domain to

9 SiteGround unless you sign up for a regular hosting plan. And please do things like that after finishing the class. Focus is an important part of this learning process, and modifying two sites at the same time is asking for confusion. If you choose to use your existing paid hosting account for this course, you'll have to create a free subdomain for the class project website, use a domain you've already registered, or register a new standard domain (which costs $10-$15 annually). We'll cover domains in more detail toward the end of the course. For now, let's set up our hosting and install WordPress on it. Chapter 3: Getting Started With SiteGround Important: If you've chosen to use your existing hosting account, please skip down to the section titled Installing WordPress in Your Own Hosting Account. WordPress works equally well on PCs and Macs. You'll be using your browser to work on your website. All browsers are also compatible with WordPress, though I prefer Google Chrome, Firefox, and/or Safari. With Internet Explorer, you might run into an occasional minor problem.

10 1. Open your browser and click the link below: Site Ground Hosting After clicking the signup link in the lesson, you'll see this screen: SiteGround welcome screen 2. Click the orange Sign Up button. You ll see a form like this:

11 Sign-up Form Complete the form. Leave the company field blank and provide your personal address for the confirmation message. Your password should be at least six characters and must contain at least one letter, one number, and an uppercase letter or special character. (Important: write down your password now. You'll need it later to sign in to your account.) Make sure you've checked the Terms of Service box at the bottom.

12 3. Then click Pay Now. Don't worry, you won't be charged anything. SiteGround won't even ask for a credit card number! Instead, you'll see a message that says your account is being created. A confirmation should arrive in your inbox within a minute or two. (If you haven't received it in 10 minutes, please check your junk mail folders.) 4. The confirmation includes your assigned username. Please write this down on a piece of paper or print out this message and write down on paper the password you created during the sign-up. You must save information so you have the usual necessary combination: username and password. Your Log-in Information IMPORTANT: Ignore the text about DNS settings below the red button it doesn t apply! But be sure you have a copy of your username and password.

13 5. Click the red button, and you'll reach the screen to log in to your new SiteGround hosting account. 6. Enter your username and password and click the blue Sign In button. Sign in here The first time you sign in to the customer area, you should see the Setup Wizard. (If you don t see this Setup Wizard, click the My Accounts tab. Click the Manage Account button next to your xxx.sg-host.com. Click the red Go to cpanel button. Click the green Proceed button. Then scroll down to WordPress Tools, and click WordPress Installer. Click the blue Install button. And skip down to Step 7 below.)

14 SiteGround setup options Click Start a new website. A panel will open, displaying several different platforms. Click the WordPress logo. 7. Next, you'll choose your WordPress log-in info. Administrative (Admin) This is where WordPress will send you important information, so please choose your active personal address. Username: (Use a combination of 8-12 letters and numbers) Choose something you'll remember, but avoid using admin. (You created a

15 username and password for your SiteGround account earlier. This is a different username than the one used for your WordPress site. So write this one down on paper, too.) Password: If you can automatically generate a password, use that option. If not, choose a password with a combination of numbers and characters. In either case, I ll harp one more time on this: please write down your username password immediately on a piece of paper or in OneNote or wherever you store important information. This is very important and can save you lots of time later. The final section is titled Enhance Your Account. Please don't check any options here just click the Confirm button. Your confirmation screen should look like this: Account setup completed 8. Click the Complete Setup (or Install) button. The system will take some time to install WordPress. When it s ready, this screen will appear.

16 9. You'll also receive an with the details of the WordPress account that s been created for you. (So you ve now created two accounts: a SiteGround hosting account on which sits your new practice WordPress website.) You will not download WordPress onto your own computer everything will be done in the cloud. Important note: Be sure to write down that Admin URL on a piece of paper, it s important information you ll use later in this lesson and other times in the future!

17 I know all this is a bit complicated, but most students feel that once they re done with these tasks in lesson 1, the rest of the course is smooth sailing! So bear with me, we re almost done. Please note also that this also contains your new WordPress website s user name. Remember that these WordPress login details (username/password) are different from the SiteGround hosting account login details you received in the first . WordPress is the online app that you use to create and maintain your website. SiteGround is the hosting service where your WordPress site s data is stored. So you need to write down the different username/password pair for both SiteGround and WordPress so you can access them. In addition, you need that Admin URL, so write it down too. OK. We have a piece of paper now with five items we ll need: SiteGround username & password, WordPress username & password. Plus the Admin URL. Onward! You might also get a welcoming call from a SiteGround representative, asking if you have any questions. SiteGround is very helpful and easy to contact if you have questions or issues. Their customer service department is well-trained and apparently huge (little wait time). Try their Chat if you get into difficulties. Later when you get into the SiteGround User Area (where you can manage lots of things), you can just click the Support tab in there. Try their FAQ or other features first, but if you re really stumped, scroll down to the zone titled Request Assistance from Our Team and you can phone, chat, or submit a ticket for help.

18 Important: If you're now set up with SiteGround, please skip the section below, which includes instructions for installing WordPress in an existing paid hosting account. Scroll down and rejoin us at the section titled Accessing Your New WordPress Site. Installing WordPress in Your Own Hosting Account Note: This section is for students who aren't using SiteGround. Web hosting is a big business. There are tens of thousands of companies that will provide space on their servers in return for a monthly fee. And each of those companies has its own procedures. So it's important to know that there's no onesizefits-all way to add a subdomain or install the WordPress.org script. Fortunately, most hosting companies offer adequate documentation. If you need to add a subdomain and/or install WordPress on your server, first go to your host's Support area to review the directions. I can give you general instructions, but you must contact the hosting support team with specific questions.

19 Adding a Subdomain (This is not for SiteGround users) A subdomain lets you create an additional website in a subdirectory on your Web server. Most hosting companies allow unlimited subdomains at no extra charge. To add a subdomain, open the hosting control panel, locate the Domains menu, and click Subdomains. Control panel subdomain creation Most subdomain forms look like this one (which is from the BlueHost control panel). Type the name of the subdomain (using a word like class) into the subdomain field. Then click the arrow in the drop-down field after the dot. If you have multiple domains, choose one to be the main domain. Using this option, your URL would be If you prefer, you can create a separate folder for the subdomain files. To do that, add class to the field following /public_html. Your URL would then be Click Create. Now you have a brand-new subdomain! Next step is to add a new instance of WordPress to the subdomain. (Remember, every WordPress website you build must have its own, separate WordPress installation.)

20 Installing WordPress (This is not for SiteGround users) Back in the control panel's main menu, look for the Scripts or Autoinstaller Menu (or something similar). Click the WordPress logo to open the WordPress installer. If you don't see a WordPress installation, look for Softaculous, Fantastico, One Click Installs, or Site Software. If you can't find anything like these, ask the Support team for the name of the auto-installer. I'm going to demonstrate with BlueHost's Mojo Marketplace installer. If you have a different host and one-click installer, use these instructions only as a general guideline. Please check your hosting documentation or contact Support for the specifics on installing WordPress on your host server. 1. Go to the Website Builders menu on BlueHost's main control panel page, and click the WordPress logo. There will be a slight delay while Mojo Marketplace checks your system. When it opens the WordPress installation page, click the Install button. 2. The next screen asks where you'd like to install WordPress. Click the arrow on the right side of the drop-down window, and select the domain or subdomain you want to use. Since the www prefix is no longer necessary, choose the version that doesn't use the prefix. 3. In most cases, you can leave the directory field next to the drop-down blank. 4. Click the Check Domain button. You might get a message that there are already files installed on that domain. As long as you selected the domain or subdomain to use for the practice site, check the box to overwrite the files, and click Check Domain again. 5. Next, check the box next to Show advanced options.

21 6. Site Name or Title: Pets To Go 7. Admin Username: This is the username for the WP administrative area login. Use an address or a combination of letters and numbers that no one can figure out. Don't use the word admin by itself that's the username all hackers try first! 8. Admin Password: You'll also need this password to log in, so choose one that's tough for would-be hackers to guess. 9. Admin Address: Use the address where you want to receive messages from WordPress or the script loader. 10. Check the box next to Automatically create a new database for this installation. This will save you the time and trouble of setting up the required MySQL database yourself. 11. Finally, check the box indicating you've read the terms and conditions, and then click Install Now. The button label will change to Loading... While BlueHost loads WordPress, it will display ads for premium themes and templates on the main page. Please ignore these. The next screen tells you the installation is complete and gives you links to the home page URL and the administrative area log-in URL, along with your WordPress username and password. Copy and paste this information into a Word document or text editor and save it. 12. Click the Admin URL link.

22 You should see the WordPress log-in page. Accessing Your New WordPress Site Please read this next section carefully: It will save you loads of time opening your new website. WordPress websites have two sections: All The front end is the public part of the site and contains the Web pages. This is what visitors to your site will see. And what you look at after you ve made some changes to your site and want to see the results--how your modifications look. The back end is the administration area, where you build, modify, and maintain the site. This is the engine room where you design and otherwise manage your site. And it s where you will always go first when working on your site. Remember that previously in this lesson you wrote down your URL on a piece of paper. (If you didn t write it down, you can look in your inbox for the Hosting Account Setup Confirmation you received from SiteGround. And now write down the admin URL.) OK, you ve got your URL, right? It looks something like this: (your identifying name).sghost.com You have to add something to this to access the back end of your new site (AKA its admin area or dashboard). You simply add this suffix: /wp-admin to your URL. For example if you're taking part in the free SiteGround program, your URL looks like this now: (your identifying name).sg-host.com So just add /wp-admin, making your full URL to the back end look like this:

23 (your identifying name).sg-host.com/wp-admin My final result might look like this: Your richardm72 part will be uniquely yours, based on your name + a number. From now on, that's the address you'll want to go to. (You'll be able to switch back and forth between your site's back end and the front end by just clicking the Pets To Go link up top next to the WordPress logo. We ll add this title to our site in ) But rather than typing this back end address into your browser's address bar every time, speed up the process by adding the address as a bookmark (or favorite, depending on your browser). Type the address into the address bar, then click the bookmark/favorite link. In Chrome it s this star here: Or if you wish you can also create a desktop shortcut that you can click to open your browser to your site: 1. Resize your Web browser so you can see the browser and the desktop in the same screen.

24 2. Click the icon located on the left side of the address bar (circled in red above). 3. Continue to hold down the mouse button and drag the icon to your desktop. This creates the shortcut on your desktop. 4. Now right-click the icon and select Rename to edit the text description. OK, you now have a Web hosting account, a subdomain to create website, and WordPress is installed. Congratulations you've made it through what well might be the hardest part of the course! Any questions or problems? Visit the Lesson 1 Discussion Area, introduce yourself, and ask away. If you want, take a break... and join me in Chapter 4, where we'll begin our tour of WordPress. Chapter 4: Touring the Dashboard If you closed your browser at the end of Chapter 3, please re-open it now. We're about to visit the WordPress administration area (back end), where you'll set up, create, and maintain your website. To visit the back end, just click the bookmark or desktop icon you created in the previous chapter. If this is your first time opening WordPress, you'll see a log-in screen.

25 Enter your WordPress Username and Password that you wrote down in Chapter 3. Welcome to the WordPress administrative area (back end or admin area), where you'll configure and maintain your Website! We'll be spending most of our time in the back end, where we'll create your new site--adding content and configuring pages and posts. Touring the Dashboard The Dashboard is the home page of the WordPress administration area. It displays at a glance information about your website, along with links to all the features you'll use to build and maintain your site. The black column along the left margin is the WordPress Menu.

26 WordPress menu (This image above may contain menu items that you won t see on yours until later.) The menu gives you access to the back end of every other page in the site, and special tools as well. We'll visit this area often, so there's no need to go over all the submenus now. The only thing you need to know is that you can reveal submenus under these main menu items by hovering--moving your mouse cursor so it s on top of a menu title. This differs from the familiar mouse clicking. You move the mouse, but don t click it, to see the submenus.

27 The WordPress back end uses this hovering technique in several contexts as you ll learn. Try it now. Open the list of submenus under Appearance by hovering: Setting Up the Basic Functions Now it's time to set some options that will control your website's appearance and basic functions. We'll do this in the Settings menu. 1. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu bar, and click Settings to open that menu. Notice that if you click a menu item, the default first submenu opens automatically. With Settings, as with the other main menu items, hovering reveals the submenu, like this:

28 So you could now click any of these submenu items. However, since we clicked Settings itself, the General (default) top submenu will open automatically. 2. When the Settings menu opens, you see the General page. It looks like this.

29 WordPress General Settings Here's where we'll configure some of the basic settings. As you know, WordPress will not remember any changes you make to your site unless you click a blue button. In the Settings page it s named Save Changes. In other back end areas the button will be named Update or Publish or just Save. (But the button is always blue.) Just remember

30 that saving isn t automatic you must click a button after you modify something in the back end. Remembering to set your changes via these buttons will save you the heartache of losing your work. Fortunately, WordPress notices when you ve modified something and if you do try to leave a page without setting the changes, you ll usually (not always) be warned with this message: OK, let s start: Site Title: Enter Pets to Go. (Because you specified this during setup it s probably already filled in for you.) This will be the title of your practice site. A title is not the same as a domain, which is your site's official address. The site title appears in the header of your Web pages and in a browser tab. While domain names must be unique, you can choose any site title you want, even if it's already in use on other websites. For example, I registered the domain PetsToGo.org, so no one else can use that URL. But the entire class and anyone else, for that matter can give their site the title of Pets to Go. Tagline: Here's where you add a slogan for the blog or website. To make sure visitors realize this site isn't a real pet shelter, type in: Fictitious website for a class project. WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL): IMPORTANT--Don't change these fields! address: Make sure this is where you get your , in case WordPress needs to reach you.

31 Membership and New User Default: Leave these unchanged, for now. Timezone: This will determine the time stamp that accompanies blog posts and comments. Use your local time by selecting a city within your time zone from the drop-down list that will appear. For example, if you live in the U.S. Central Standard Time Zone, click Chicago. You might have to do a lot of scrolling to find the setting you want. Or you can just use a number, the offset from UTC in hours of your location. Date Format: This will format the date at the top of blog posts and comments. I've found that selecting the first option (Month, Day, Year) is the least confusing. Time Format: If your blog is geared toward an audience in the United States, pick the first or second option. For an international or military focus, use the third option (the 24-hour clock). Week Starts On: Select Sunday. Language: Choose English for our project. If you prefer to use a different language in the administrative back end, click Modify the interface language. It will take you to your Personal Settings page, where you can reset the interface language.

32 Second Warning! We re finished now with the General Settings page, so be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. Okay, there are a few more tasks I'd like you to take care of, in the Settings submenus. Blocking Search Engines Since our class project is a fictitious practice website, we don't want anyone else to stumble onto it from the wilds of the Internet. So you'll need to block search engines from indexing the site. You can do that on the Settings menu's Reading page. 1. Over in the menu area on the left, go to Settings > Reading, and look for the Search Engine Visibility section. 2. Check the box next to Discourage search engines from indexing this site. 3. Click Save Changes. Changing Permalinks You should also change the default permalinks settings before we start adding pages or posts or any content. A permalink is the URL the specific online address of a single page or post within a site. A permalink includes your URL plus it appends data about the specific page.

33 By default, WordPress automatically assigns permalinks like this: or While that's technically okay, it s not what we want. These defaults are also a no-no if you want good search engine page rankings. Google and the other search engines want to see URLs that are related to a page's content So you ll want to create what what s called "pretty permalinks," descriptive URLs. Here's an example: So follow these steps to tell WordPress how you want your pages permalinks to be constructed: Click Permalinks in the Settings menu, and look for the section titled Common Settings. As you can see, there are a number of permalink options. I'll give you one that works well for most blogs and websites. 1. Click the button next to Custom Structure, and copy and paste this code to replace the default: /%category%/%postname%/ (IMPORTANT - Don't fill out fields in the Optional area below this.) TIP: As here with this permalink, you re going to want to copy and paste text from the lessons now and then. If your PDF viewer permits you to select (drag your mouse over some text) and then copy it (press CTL+C), all s well. You can then go to the form you re filling in in WordPress, click the field where you want to paste, and press CTL+V to paste.

34 If you open a PDF in a browser like Chrome, you can also copy text. But if your PDF viewer app won t let you select and copy, I d suggest you download then read our PDF lesson files in Microsoft Word or a similar program. They can transform the PDF into a format that you ll be able to copy. Another alternative would be to just briefly visit the online ed2go lesson and copy from there, but that s a bit cumbersome. 2. As always set this new permalink style by clicking the blue Save Changes button. Now your permalinks will be named after your page titles. The URLs of posts (blog-style pages) will also include the post's category and title. Note: Some students like to print out a map of the WordPress back end while they are still finding their way around. Here s the map: That's it for now! In Chapter 5, I'll discuss our class project, summarize what we've done and look ahead to our next steps. Chapter 5: Our Class Project Throughout the course, each of you will practice by creating your own version of website that also includes a blog component as well. The site will be the home of a fictitious nonprofit pet adoption service that we re calling Pets to Go. By working on your own version of the same project, class members will all be on the same page, learning the same WordPress skills at the same pace in the same way. Remember that I suggest avoiding the confusion of simultaneously trying to work on your own project at the same time, or, worse, to the exclusion of the class project site. Please keep in mind that this course isn't set up to be a personal tutorial on how to create or improve your own website or blog it's designed to show you how to use WordPress to build and maintain

35 the class example site. And the techniques you ll learn there you can carry to your own site later on. I m always happy to respond to questions or comments you post in the Discussion Area, as long as they relate to general website topics, WordPress, SiteGround, or the site we ll build together for practice. And don't worry you won't be bogged down creating original content. I'll provide all the text (you can just copy and paste it) and the media you'll need for the project website. We've covered a lot in this lesson! You learned that WordPress is an online application that lets you turn your ideas into Web pages. Then most of you signed up for the free SiteGround hosting service. Others used their existing paid hosting accounts to install WordPress. In Lesson 2, we'll head back into the WordPress administrative area to put our plans into practice. Do you have any questions, comments, or concerns? Be sure to visit the Discussion Area. I'll be stopping by after each lesson, as will many of your classmates. The Discussion Area is a great place to review what we've been doing, and it's an informal, relaxed setting. I hope you'll join us. See you there... and in the next lesson. Next Steps To finish this lesson and the other lessons in this course, you ll need to complete the steps outlined below. Simply click Next Up in the lower right corner of the online version of the course to access the next activity. Or, if you wish to skip around, click the Book Icon in the topright corner to see this menu:

36 There you ll find links to all the activities in this lesson. Here are your remaining activities: Check out the FAQs. Since learning something new usually raises questions, every lesson in this course comes with an FAQs section. Browse the Supplementary Material section. Here you ll find links to helpful online resources relating to the lesson. Do the assignment. Get some hands-on practice applying what you've just learned. Take the quiz. Reinforce what you learned with a short five-question quiz.

37 Participate in the Discussion Area. Ask questions about anything that came up in the lesson, and share your insights. This is where we'll create a learning community. Additional Resources I ve listed some additional resources you may find helpful throughout the course, and beyond. Access these resources by clicking the link for Resources listed after Lesson 12. There you ll find: The Course Index. If you need to find a topic, the index is the place to go. Recommended books and resources. A list of books and other resources that you can consult to extend your learning.