Here’s what an article looks like when the author does not have their biographical data filled in . . .

and here’s with biographical data filled in . . .

To add a link, highlight the text you want to be click-able and then click the link button — circled:

A screen will pop up like this:

Type or copy and paste the URL that you want to link to.  If you would like the link to open in a new window, choose that option from the dropdown.  If you want the page to open in the same window, you may choose that option or make no choice – it will default to the same window.  Click “Insert”.  The highlighted text will now be click-able.  (If you want to remove a hyperlink, highlight the text and click the broken link button directly to the right of the link button.)

Adding An Image

Adding images is a great way to improve your post and it’s not difficult with Word Press.  Position your cursor on the line that you want the image to appear and click the image button:

When you click the button a window will pop up.  There’s a lot going on in this window, so I’ll break it down as much as possible.

Click the select button to choose an image that you have saved to your PC.  A window will pop up to allow you to navigate to the image and upload it.  Word Press will then upload the image and allow you to add titles, description and alignment within the post.  That screen will look like this:

If you would like the image to be click-able, you can enter the URL you would like the image to link to in the “Link URL” field.  After you are satisfied with the settings, click “Insert into Post”.  Your image will appear in the post.  What you’ve actually done is 2 steps in one screen.  The first step uploaded the image to the media library and the second inserted it in the post.  This means that you  can also insert images that are already in the media library.

You can also use a URL to point to the image you would like to use, but this is risky as the site that hosts the image may remove it, leaving you with a broken image.

]]> http://learning.gazlab.com/2010/01/part-3-adding-links-and-images-to-posts/feed/ 0 http://learning.gazlab.com/2009/11/part-2-editing-a-post/ http://learning.gazlab.com/2009/11/part-2-editing-a-post/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:30:21 +0000 corridorlist http://learning.gazlab.com/?p=275 Continue reading →]]> For this installment, I’m going to assume you’ve read Part 1 of this series.  If you haven’t, and you have questions about logging in or text formatting options, go check out Just Beginning with WordPress Part 1.

After you’ve signed in and arrived at the WordPress Dashboard, click the downward facing arrow next to “Posts” on the left side of the screen.  A submenu will appear.  Click “Edit”.  You’ll see this:

If the post you need to edit is at the top of the list, congratulations!  If it isn’t on the first page, though and there are many pages of posts, you ‘ll want to use the “Search Posts” feature that’s circled in red in the image above.  The search will look for whatever you type in the box next to it in post titles and the content of the post, so try to look for a “unique” word.

You can also filter the list by month/year of published posts and/or by category of the posts.  These 2 dropdown boxes are located directly above the list of posts next to the “Bulk Actions” dropdown.  Just choose the month and year the post was published and/or the category of the post and click the “Filter” button.  If you know the post you will edit has or hasn’t been published, you can click the “Drafts” link or the “Published” link directly above the “Bulk Actions” dropdown box.

Once you’ve found the post you want to edit in the list, click the headline.  This will take you to the “Edit Post” page.

As you can see, it looks alot like the “Add New Post” page.  From this screen, you can change or format the text in the content window, add or remove categories and publish the post.  Once you’ve made the edits, you can click the “Preview Changes” button above the “Publish” button.  When you are satisfied, click the “Update Post” button and then you can safely navigate away from the page without losing your changes.

Have another post to edit?  Lather, rinse and repeat.

With this post I will provide you with the information you need to add a new post.  First things first, though.  To access your site, go to “www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin”.   The page you see will look like this:

You will have received an email that contain your username and password.  Enter these in their fields and click “Log In”.  If, at any time, you cannot remember your username or password click “Lost your password?” below the sign in box.  This will take you to a screen that will allow you to reset your password with your email address.

Once you’ve signed in successfully you will see the WordPress Dashboard.  It looks like this:

From here, and most all pages, you can access the menu on the left side.  At or near the top, you can see “Posts”.  If you click on it, a page with all the posts will be displayed.  If you click the arrow next to the word “Posts” a submenu will appear.  From there you can click “Add New” and go to the screen to enter your new post.  It will look like this:

Now we’ll break it down a little to help you understand all the pieces that you’ll want to pay attention to.

First your title – By default, what you type here will be the headline for your post.  It will also be part of the URL.

Below the title field is the content box.

The red box is around the formatting options for what you type in the box.  The options are pretty standard.  You can highlight the text you want to format and make it bold, italic or struckthrough.  You can also make a bulleted or numbered list.  You can also left, center or right align the text.   If you would like more formatting options click the last button – “Show/Hide the kitchen sink”.  Another level of formatting options will appear.   (If you find that the area is too small for you to see comfortably, you can click, hold and drag down as much as you like, the red circled area to expand the box.  This just affects the editor and will not impact the post at all.)

In the right side menu toward the bottom, there is a box labeled “Categories”.  If you don’t choose a category, by default, WordPress will assign “Uncategorized” as the category.  If you are unsure of the category to assign, you should check with the owner of the website.  If you are the owner of the website, consider creating categories for the types of content you will be typically be entering.  To add a category, click  the “+Add New Category” at the bottom of the category box.

To Create a New Post:
1.) Type the title of the post.
2.) Enter the text you would like and format it.
3.) Choose the category for the post.
4.) Click the blue “Publish” button in the upper right side.

Some tips:
– If you are cutting and pasting from MS Word or Outlook, make sure to paste the text into Notepad or Wordpad first.  This will remove all the current formatting, but also all the extra code that can sometimes cause display errors.
– You do not have to publish a post to save it.  Above the “Publish” button is a “Save Draft” button.  This will save the post until you decide to publish it.
– There is a “Preview” button as well, so you can see what the post will look like before you decide to publish it.

If you have any questions about this tutorial please leave a comment.  I’d like to make this as clear and simple to understand as possible, so the more feedback, the better!

WordPress-Cheat-Sheet

We’ll all trying to cross train at Gazette Communications.  WebDev is no exception.  Our compadres in AppDev were looking to learn a bit more about WordPress – so we put together an informal training slide deck.

Let me know if you know of any other good examples.

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