Written by This article is will be of interest to all of you who are just getting to grips with WordPress and who would like to understand some of the basics before tackling the more detailed stuff. So with that in mind I have put together an easy to understand article on how to publish and edit posts as well as learn about categories and using the WordPress editor for adding images, video etc.
WordPress Admin Panel
First thing of course is to login into your WordPress dashboard where, once in, you will see to the left a column with the title of “Dashboard”. Scroll down this column just a few lines and click “Posts”, then click on “Add New”. Here you will now be confronted with your posting page. This is where all your work will now be done in regards to uploading or editing new or old posts.
Constructing A Post
You will see the first empty box, the title box, and probably where your cursor is flashing , this is the place to put the title of your post. Without going into the science of writing great articles you want to make the title as attention grabbing as possible while staying true to the content of your post.
Next you will see the main empty box below which is where you write your content. As its your site you can pretty much write whatever you like here up to a point as long as your not a gun running, drug dealing slave trader then all should be fine.
As a rule a post should not be too long as you will find the reader will become a bit lost or uninterested. I generally write my posts between 400 and 1000 words long. Some people say that no more than 700 is fine but I tend to like giving as much information as possible. If you do find your writing something that is getting a bit long then why not turn it into 2 articles.
If you want to liven up your articles as you go along then you have quite a few options at hand. You will notice above the main content area is the text editor. Here you can place bullet points in your posts or change the font, add inverted commas etc, all the usual stuff. You can also add images/photos, video or audio. For any of these features just look to the right of “Upload/Insert” (below the title) and follow the instructions.
An interesting feature in the text editor you will notice is a symbol of a chain. This allows you to link any text you write to another page or website. All you do is highlight the words you want to link and then click on the chain icon. You will now be prompted to enter the web address (URL) of the page or website you want those words to link to then just click “add link”.
Another useful one to know is the symbol that looks like a piece of paper with a dotted line going through it. This one allows you to split your posts so that you don’t have to have the whole article on the one page. It keeps your site looking a lot more attractive and easier to use. Meaning people do not have to scroll the whole article just to find the next one.
All you need do is click your cursor where you would like your post to be split in two then click on this symbol. The post will now be split and when you publish it, it will have a “read more” tag at the point where it splits.
Categories
When your post is finished and your happy with the layout and spelling you will want to decide a category for it. This is a good idea because whenever you write similar posts you can always place them under the same category. This means that your reader will only have to click that category to be able to find any relevant posts to the one they are reading without having to search your whole site.
To select a category or create a new one simply go over to the right hand side of the page and a little way down you will see, believe it or not, the title “Categories”. Now as your just starting you probably will not have any to choose from except maybe “uncategorised” . If this was a category you would like to have your post included in then simply tick the box next to it. If as I imagine this is not what you want then we need to make some new categories.
To make a new one just click on the blue link “Add new category” just a little further down the page then type in what you want to call it and click the other “Add new catergory” which is just below. Your done. Now every time you write a post you will be given the option of placing that post in that category or any others you may have created, just make sure you check the box of the catergory you want the post to be in.
NB, If you want to show all your categories in a sidebar you need to have activated the widget “Categories” in order for people to see a list of all your categories you have created.
Publish
Once you are happy with the way your article is looking and you have checked all spelling and given it a category then its time to publish. To the far right of the page in line with the box you wrote the post in is the big blue publish button. Click on this, wait for it to upload then take a look at how it all looks live on your site.
Not only will you see your finished article but you should see a link to the category you created earlier on. Plus you will see just a snippet of your post if you have chosen to split it with the words “read more” or something to that effect at the place where its cut.
Edit Your Post
So what did it look like, did it turn out amazing or was it not quite as planned. Well no worries you can always go back and edit your post. Go to the Dashboard section in your WordPress admin panel, scroll down to posts and click on Edit. Choose the post you want to edit and click that and simply make the alterations you desire then publish(update).
NB: Some admin panels are different when it comes to editing posts. You may not have the “Edit” link under posts. If this is the case to edit your posts just click on the “posts” tab. On this page you will see all posts for your blog. Now hover your cursor over the desired post where you will now see appear the edit link plus links such as trash,delete etc.
Last Words As with anything it takes a little practice to get used to it and publishing posts with WordPress is no exception but having said that after one or two under your belt you should be flying and looking to make your next ones even more attractive.
Congratulations you now know how to publish and edit posts, why not now learn how WordPress plugins can turbo charge your blogging experience
If you liked this article and think it will help others then please use the Twitter or Facebook buttons found on this page to share this article with your friends, thank you,
Nick Squires-The English Entrepreneur
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