The Beginners Guide to WordPress Posts, Pages & Images WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems and blogging platforms in the world. It is free, open source software that allows anyone to publish and manage their content and business information. This guide is for business owners who want to manage their own WordPress powered website. In it you will learn the basic skills of managing and editing your site blog posts, pages, and images. So why should you use WordPress for your business website? Because it s free, easy to use, you control it, and Google loves it! Managing Content in WordPress Content is the most important part of any website. Quality content will help customers to find and use your site, and hopefully, buy from you. Because of this, it is necessary to understand the content management system built into WordPress. This section covers basic knowledge of formatting content, creating posts, creating pages and uploading images.
Content Editing Creating a post or page in the WordPress text editor is as simple as typing text. If you can write a document in Microsoft Word or Apple Pages, you can manage and format your content in WordPress. There are two content editing options in WordPress: the Visual editor, and the HTML editor. The Visual editor is similar to any basic word processing software, and the HTML editor is similar to a plain text editor. You can use either one, and jump back and forth between the two if desired. Basic paragraph formatting is automatically generated when you click the return key at the end of each paragraph. There are additional formatting options at the top of the WP text editor. These options cover the most basic features required for editing your content. Advanced functions for editing your text can be added by clicking the advanced toolbar icon on the far right side of options as shown in the picture below: Editing Icons It s very easy to use the editing icons. You simply select a block of text to format, then click the specific editing button to get the desired effect. Inserting a picture is as simple as clicking on an
area where you want the image to go, click the upload image icon, and fill in the correct info in the pop-up. Below is an overview of the visual editor icons: Bold Select the box of your text and click the bold button. Italics Select the box of your text and click the italic button. Strike Through This can be used to add a line through your text: like this. Unordered List Creates bullet points. Ordered Lists Creates numbered text lists. Blockquote Used to create block quotes. Align Left Aligns text to the left. Align Center Aligns text in the center. Align Right Aligns text to the right. Add Hyperlink Used to create a link from selected text to another website, article, post, page, etc.
Remove Hyperlink Used to remove a hyperlink from a selection of text. Split Post Used to split the post into sections. Spell Check Used to check the spelling of your content. Advanced Tool Bar This option adds more paragraph and formatting options to the text editor. Underline Used to underline a selection of text. Font Color You can change the color of your selected text or font to look more attractive Outdent Undo an indent. Indent Used to indent the text.
Creating Content in WordPress Creating content in WordPress is easy. To get started, click the Posts option from within your WP dashboard as shown below: This will take you to the list of options for the blog section of your site. In order to create a new post, you need to click on the Add New button. The blog post text editor will open. You can either use this box for writing content or paste pre-written content into the box. How to Create a Blog Post The blog post title is the first thing a visitor will see, and is a large determining factor if they want to read it or not. Each title should be short, unique, and descriptive, so that site visitors will be enticed to read your post. Since the title will display at the top
of the post and become linked text throughout your site, it should be descriptive of the topic you are writing about. You can use the permalink editor to create a shorter URL file path. For example, if the title of your post is Sample Post, you can simply change it to Sample. If you use Microsoft Word or Apple Pages for writing content and want to copy it over to your WordPress site, there are a couple of things to know. Copying and pasting from a formatted text editor into the WordPress visual editor will transfer the formatting over as well. This will cause serious formatting and display issues. If you want to copy and paste your content, there are two ways to do this. The first option is to click the HTML tab in the WordPress post/page editor and copy your content into the text
editor box. Once it s pasted in the WP editor, you can switch back to the visual editor to format. The second option is to paste your content into a plain text editor such as Microsoft Notepad or Apple Text Edit, then copy and paste it into Wordpress. This will strip the formatting and allow you to format it directly within the WP editor. Options for Posting Content Below the text editor and on the right sidebar of the text box are several options for your blog posts. From these options, you can assign categories, tags, disallow comments and trackbacks, choose the post author, and more.
a) Categories As the name implies, categories are a way to categorize your blog posts. New categories can be added to your post using the Add New Category link at the bottom of the box. You can also manage the categories by using the categories link below the Posts tab on the left side of your WordPress dashboard. If you don t assign a category to your post, it will automatically be assigned to the default category. It s best to only assign one category per post. Categories are essential to your site s architecture and navigation, so make sure each post is assigned to the proper category before publishing your post. It s also best to avoid changing the category after posting because it can effect your search engine ranking and site navigation.
b) Tags Tags are another way of categorizing your blog posts. Typically, categories are broad and over-arching, while tags are more specific in relation to your post. For example, if your category is events, your tag could be company picnic. You can have multiple tags per post, but it s best to only have one category per post. To add tags to your post, simply type them in the Tags box separated by commas, or you can choose from the most used tags by clicking the link. c) Featured Image
Depending on the WordPress theme you are using, you may have the option to assign a featured image. This image will typically display in your posts archives, and several other places depending on how your WordPress theme is configured. To add a featured image, simply click the featured image button on the right sidebar column, and upload your image via the media uploader. From there, click the Use as featured image link, and it will automatically link it to your post or page. d) Discussion Since WordPress has blogging software built into it s core, it offers a way to interact with site visitors and other blogs linking back to yours through the Discussion setting. You can choose whether or not to allow comments on a per-post/page basis here. You can also choose to disallow trackbacks and pingbacks. (Trackbacks and pingbacks are a way to let other sites know you ve linked to them.) e) Page Author If your site has multiple authors/users, you can assign who is the author of the post. The user who is signed in will be the default post author unless you change it.
f) Password Protection If you want a particular post or page to be viewable only to certain people, you can make it private or password protect it so that visitors will have to enter the password in order to view it. Publishing Posts When composing a blog post or page, WordPress will automatically start saving your content as a draft. When finished writing, you can save the post as a draft for later, publish it to go live now, or publish at a date in the future. The preview option allows you to see how your post or page will look before you actually publish it. You should always open the preview page in a new tab or window so that you can easily jump back to the post/page editor for corrections. If you want to schedule a post for a date in the future, or have it display from a date in the past, you can choose to do so under the publish settings.
Creating Pages Even though the editor looks almost exactly the same, pages are slightly different from blog posts as they are static content and don t typically have a publication date or show comments. Pages are often the primary content for most businesses. They can be your standard About, Products, Services, Portfolio, Contact, etc., or nested/sub pages that go much deeper into your site. Creating a page in WordPress is almost exactly like writing a blog post. After clicking the Add New link, begin writing your content in the visual or HTML editor just as you would a blog post. The title given to the page will appear on the top of your published page, the same as a blog post. The slug or permalink
will be the same as the title, unless you edit it. You can use this editing feature to give a shorter version than the title of the page. Page Options & Attributes There are several options on the right side of the text editor and below the publishing section. a) Page Parent The page parent is used to select the location of your page in relation to other pages on your site. You can create a hierarchy of pages along with subpages for easy site navigation.
b) Page Template Each WordPress theme offers different page template options based upon the look and layout you wish for you site to have. You can experiment with the different template options to see which will work best for each of your pages. c) Page Order This option is used to create a menu of pages in the sidebar of your site. You can order the pages in a hierarchy, or else the default is displayed alphabetically. Typically this option will not be used, as WordPress has a new menu system that overrides this. d) Discussion Some WordPress themes allow comments on pages, but for most business sites, it s probably best to un-check this option.
e) Page Author Depending on your WordPress theme, pages may or may not list the page author. It s probably best to choose the company name as the page author (if the company name is set as a user account). Saving & Publishing Pages Creating and publishing pages in WordPress is very similar to publishing a blog post. Pages are automatically saved as drafts just like posts. You can also preview the page before publishing to make sure the layout and information is correct. Clicking the publish button will post your page live on your site. You can also set the posting date through the calendar option (the same as a blog post) which is located just above the publish button. How to Add Images to Posts & Pages Adding pictures to your blog posts and pages is very easy. You do this directly through the post/page editor. Before uploading an image, make sure your curser is pointed to the location you want the image to be placed at within the post/ page editor box. Next, you ll need to click on the Upload/Insert button on the left of the text editor options box.
There are three options to choose from when inserting an image: -From Computer -From URL -Media Library When creating content on your site for the first time, you ll most likely use the From Computer option tab. You can either dragand-drop the image directly into the WP uploader, or click the Select Files button to navigate to the image on your machine.
How to Align Images on a Page Once you have uploaded an image, there are a few options to configure before the image is inserted on your post or page. A title and alternate text should always be entered, as this is used by Google and other search engines when images are searched for.
The Caption and Description can be used if desired, but most often they will be left blank. The Link URL should be left blank unless you want the image to link somewhere else. The Alignment sets how the image is to be displayed on your page. None, Left, Center, or Right are the available options. The default image Size options are determined by your theme and the WordPress media setting options. If you need a specific image size for your page, select Full Size and you can adjust it further once placed on the page. You can also set the picture as the Featured Image for the post or page here as well. Once you click Insert into Post, the image will be placed into the WordPress text editor. If you need to make further size adjustments to your photo, click on the image once (if using the visual editor), and two icons will display in the upper left corner of the text editor box. Click on the image icon on the left (the red circle icon to the right will delete the image).
Another image editor will display and give the option to edit the graphic based on percentage; or under Advanced Settings, allow you to choose a custom image size along with additional options. Once you have made your adjustments, click update, and you will be taken back to the WordPress page/post editor. From there you can preview your post, add additional content or images, and publish your post.
And that s it. See how easy it is manage your posts, pages, and images with WordPress? Still have questions? Want more information? Check out these additional resources to help you learn even more about WordPress. -Getting Started with Wordpress -Beginners Guide to the Genesis Framework -WordPress for Dummies -WordPress 101