GeneaBlogs

WordPress for Beginners

What is Blogging?

See also:

• Introduction to Blogging
• WordPress Semantics – Learning the Jargon

I need step-by-step instructions

See also:

• First Steps With WordPress
• WordPress Semantics – Learning the Jargon
• New To WordPress – Where to Start

Where do I start?

See also:

• First Steps With WordPress
• New To WordPress – Where to Start

Design and Layout

How do I design my WordPress site?

See also:

• WordPress Blog Design and Layout
• Using WordPress Themes
• WordPress CSS Information and Techniques
• Finding Your CSS Styles
• Creating Individual Pages
• Stepping Into Template Tags
• Finding WordPress Help
• I Make Changes and Nothing Happens

How do I change my header?

See also:

• Designing Headers
• Designing Headings

How do I change the look of different parts of my page?

See also:

• To change the colors: Developing a Colour Scheme
• To change the fonts:Playing With Fonts
• To change the headings or titles:Designing Headings
• To change the Read More: Customizing the Read More
• To change the way images look: Wrapping Text Around Images

How do I use smilies/smileys in my posts?

See also:

• Smilies

How do I change the “read more” link?

See also:

• Customizing the Read More
• the_content() Template Tag

How do I make the text wrap about the pictures?

See also:

• Wrapping Text Around Images

How do I make my web pages print pretty?

See also:

• Styling for Print

How do I change the sidebar?

See also:

• Customizing Your Sidebar
• Good Navigation Links
• Next and Previous Links
• Dynamic Menu Highlighting
• Creating Horizontal Menus
• Styling Lists with CSS

How do I change the box with information about my post?

See also:

• Post Meta Data Section
• Separating Categories

How do I change the navigation links and areas?

See also:

• Good Navigation Links
• Next and Previous Links
• Styling Page-Links
• Dynamic Menu Highlighting
• CSS Horizontal menus

How do I learn more about styles and CSS?

See also:

• CSS Techniques and Resources
• CSS Shorthand
• Finding Your CSS Styles

How do I find my styles?

See also:

• Finding Your CSS Styles

How do I make notes or comments in my files?

See also:

• Commenting Code

How do I change the time and dates on my posts?

See also:

• Formatting Date and Time

Customizing WordPress

What are template files?

See also:

• Template Files
• Stepping Into Template Tags

What are template tags?

See also:

• Stepping Into Template Tags
• Template Tags

How do I create an archive index?

See also:

• Creating an Archive Index

How do I get my category pages to look different on each category?

See also:

• Creating Category Pages

How do I get a custom 404 Error Page?

See also:

• Creating an Error 404 Page

What is The WordPress Loop?

See also:

• Understanding The Loop
• The Loop in Action

Can I hide or disguise my email address?

See also:

• Protection From Harvesters

Can I set my “moods” or add lists to my posts?

See also:

• Using Custom Fields with Post-Meta

How do I link to posts, pages, and categories?

See also:

• Linking to Posts, Pages, and Categories

What are Feeds?

See also:

• WordPress Feeds
• Customizing Feeds

Administering Your WordPress Site

How do I validate my website?

See also:

• Validating a Website

I want to know more about PHP, MySQL, HTML, and CSS

See also:

• Know Your Sources

How do I maintain my WordPress site?

See also:

• WordPress Housekeeping
• WordPress Site Maintenance

How do I find information about my server and site?

See also:

• Finding Server Info

Where are the meta tags in my WordPress site?

See also:

• Meta Tags in WordPress

Problems and Trouble

What do I do if I have problems?

See also:

• Finding WordPress Help
• Troubleshooting
• I Make Changes and Nothing Happens

I make changes and nothing happens

See also:

• I Make Changes and Nothing Happens

Blog About Something You’re Passionate About - If you are not passionate about your topic, you are not going to stick to it. The best way to decide what to blog about is to ask yourself, “Would I do this for free?” If the answer is yes, then you have found your topic. People who blog only for money seldom succeed. Suggestions: genealogy or scrapbooking!

Define Your Purpose – What do you hope to achieve? Is it to present data on a particular individual, an entire family, or a particular region? Do you want a vehicle for family members to participate – enabling them to contribute information and upload photos? Do you want to attract potential cousins searching for the same surnames in your database?

Update The Blog Often – A non-updated blog is a dead blog. If you cannot commit to a consistent blogging schedule, then it’s best not to blog until you can. This is where blogging about your passion comes in. If you’re passionate about the topic, then chances are you’ll keep blogging about it. Ideally, you should update the blog everyday.

Get To Know Your Readers – Blogging is a two-way street. You cannot exist without readers (well you can, but what’s the point?), and readers don’t exist unless they have something to read. Blogging is about forming relationships. There’s the relationship between you and the readers and relationship between you and other blogs in your niche. It is up to you to get to know them and form this relationship. Many readers have stated that when they’re reading my blog, it’s like a one-on-one conversion. That was not done by accident. It’s all part of relationship blogging.

Posts are the entries that display in reverse chronological order on your home page. In contrast to pages, posts usually have comments fields beneath them and are included in your site’s RSS feed.

To write a post:

1. Log in to your WordPress Administration Panel.
2. Click the Posts tab.
3. Click the Add New Sub Tab
4. Start filling in the blanks.
5. As needed, select a category, add tags, and make other selections from the sections below the post. Each of these sections is explained below.
6. When you are ready, click Publish.

For further please see “Pages” under FAQ

In WordPress, you can write either posts or pages. When you’re writing a regular blog entry, you write a post. Posts automatically appear in reverse chronological order on your blog’s home page. Pages, on the other hand, are for content such as “About Me,” “Contact Me,” etc. Pages live outside of the normal blog chronology, and are often used to present information about yourself or your site that is somehow timeless — information that is always applicable. You can use Pages to organize and manage any amount of content.

Other examples of common pages include Copyright, Legal Information, Reprint Permissions, Company Information, and Accessibility Statement. (By the way, it’s a good idea to always have an about page and a contact page — see this advice from Lorelle.)

In general, Pages are very similar to Posts in that they both have Titles and Content and can use your site’s Presentation Templates to maintain a consistent look throughout your site. Pages, though, have several key distinctions that make them quite different from Posts.

What Pages Are:

• Pages are for content that is less time-dependent than Posts.
• Pages can be organized into pages and SubPages.
• Pages can use different Page Templates which can include Template Files, Template Tags and other PHP code.

What Pages are Not:

• Pages are not Posts, nor are they excerpted from larger works of fiction. They do not cycle through your blog’s main page.
• Pages cannot be associated with Categories and cannot be assigned Tags. The organizational structure for Pages comes only from their hierarchical interrelationships, and not from Tags or Categories.
• Pages are not files. They are stored in your database just like Posts are.

Creating Pages

To create a new Page, log in to your WordPress installation with sufficient admin privileges to create new articles. Select the Administration > Pages > Add New option to begin writing a new Page.

GeneaBlogs is responsibile for maintaining and backing up the WordPress database as well as managing the WordPress repository of files (programs, scripts, plugins, themes, images, uploads). Ultimately, the smooth operation of a blog depends on the website owner fulfilling this ‘ultimate role’.

Summary of Roles

• Administrator and personal blog owner – Somebody who has access to all the administration feature
• Editor – Somebody who can publish posts, manage posts as well as manage other people’s posts, etc.
• Author – Somebody who can publish and manage their own posts
• Contributor – Somebody who can write and manage their posts but not publish posts
• Subscriber – Somebody who can read comments/comment/receive news letters, etc.

The default role for a new user can be set using the Settings General SubPanel. Each blog owner can add users to their blog and assign them the above Roles.

GeneaBlogs suggests that you limit your users to either “subscriber” or as a “contributor” only.

Roles

The identity a particular user assumes in a blog is called their Role. A Role essentially describes the set of tasks, called Capabilities, a person is allowed to perform. For instance, the role of Administrator encompasses every possible task that can be performed within a WordPress blog. On the other hand, the Author role allows the execution of just a small subset of tasks.

The Administration Panel provides access to the control features of your WordPress installation. Each Administration Panel is presented in sections, the header, the main navigation, the work area, and the footer. The top portion of all Panels, the header, is featured in dark shading. The header shows the name of your blog and a visit site link to your blog’s main page, a favorites menu, and links to your profile (shown as your user name), Turbo, and Log Out. Just below the top shaded area are two hanging tabs, Screen Options and contextual Help, that can be clicked to expand them.

On the left side of the screen is the main navigation menu detailing each of the administrative functions you can perform. Two expand/collapse arrows just below Dashbord and Comments allow the navigation menu to collapse to a set of icons, or expand (fly-out) to show an icon and description for each major administrative function. Within each major function, such as Posts, a pull-down arrow is presented upon hovering mouse hovers over the title area. A click of that arrow expands the menu to display each of the sub-menu choices. Clicking that arrow again collapses the sub-menu.

The large area in the middle of the screen is the work area. It is here the specific information relating to a the particular navigation choice, such as adding a new post, is presented and collected.

Finally, in the footer, at the bottom of each Administration Panel in dark shading, are links to WordPress, Documentation, and Feedback. In addition, the version of WordPress you have installed is shown. Just below the menu tab section, if your version is NOT the latest version, you will see the message A new version of WordPress is available! Please update now.” Click on the provided link to navigate to the Upgrade SubPanel.

Each Panel, referred to as SubPanel, that is accessed via the main navigation menu, is presented in the boxes below. The links in those boxes will lead you to sections of this article describing those SubPanels. From those sections, you can navigate to articles detailing more information about each SubPanel. Also, WordPress Screenshots shows examples of all the SubPanels:

Dashboard	Posts	Media	Links	Pages	Comments
Appearance Themes Widgets Editor Header Image and Color	Plugins	Users	Tools	Settings General Writing Reading Discussion Media Privacy Permalinks Miscellaneous

WordPress was created by the developers as weblogging or blogging software. A blog, as defined in the Codex Glossary, is an online journal, diary, or serial, published by a person or group of people. Many blogs are personal in nature, reflecting the opinions and interests of the owner. But, blogs are now important tools in the world of business, politics, and entertainment.

Blogs are a form of a Content Management System (CMS) which Wikipedia calls “a system used to organize and facilitate collaborative content creation.” Both blogs and Content Management Systems can perform the role of a website (site for short). A website can be thought of as a collection of articles and information about a specific subject, service, or product, which may not be a personal reflection of the owner.

Terminology Related to Content

WordPress Terminology

Introduction

Developers

Blog

Content Management System

Content

Posts

Dashboard

Media

Categories

Tags

Post Meta Data

Custom Fields

Permalinks

Pages

Design

The Loop

Templates

Template Tags

Template Hierarchy

Headers

Sidebars

Archives

Archives (by Category)

Archives (by Tag)

Database

MySQL

Themes

Theme Development

Plugins

Administration

Administration Panels

Links

Link Categories

Registered Users

Roles and Capabilities

Comments

Comments Comments SubPanel

Comment Moderation

Discussion Settings

Spam

Combating Spam

Help

Finding WordPress Help

Troubleshooting

WordPress FAQ

Troubleshooting

WordPress Lessons

WordPress Support Forum

Help with Codex

The term Word in WordPress refers to the words used to compose posts. Posts are the principal element (or content) of a blog. The posts are the writings, compositions, discussions, discourses, musings, and, yes, the rantings of the blog’s owner and guest authors. Posts, in most cases, are the reason a blog exists; without posts, there is no blog!

To facilitate the post writing process, WordPress provides a full featured authoring tool with modules that can be moved, via drag-and-drop, to fit the needs of all authors. The Dashboard QuickPress module makes it easy to quickly write and publish a post. There’s no excuse for not writing.

Integral to a blog are the pictures, images, sounds, and movies, otherwise know as media. Media enhances, and gives life to a blog’s content. WordPress provides an easy to use method of inserting Media directly into posts, and a method to upload Media that can be later attached to posts, and a Media Manager to manage those various Media.

An important part of the posting process is the act of assigning those posts to categories. Each post in WordPress is filed under one or more categories. Categories can be hierarchical in nature, where one category acts as a parent to several child, or grandchild, categories. Thoughtful categorization allows posts of similar content to be grouped, thereby aiding viewers in the navigation, and use of a site. In addition to categories, terms or keywords called tags can be assigned to each post. Tags act as another navigation tool, but are not hierarchical in nature.

In turn, post categories and tags are two of the elements of what’s called post meta data. Post meta data refers to the information associated with each post and includes the author’s name and the date posted as well as the post categories.

Generally, meta means “information about”; in WordPress, meta usually refers to administrative-type information. So, besides post meta data, Meta is the HTML tag used to describe and define a web page to the outside world, like meta tag keywords for search engines.

After a post is made public, a blog’s readers will respond, via comments, to that post, and in turn, authors will reply. Comments enable the communication process, that give-and-take, between author and reader. Comments are the life-blood of most blogs.

Pages often present static information, such as “About Me”, or “Contact Us”, Pages. Typically “timeless” in nature, Pages should not be confused with the time-oriented objects called posts. Interestingly, a Page is allowed to be commented upon, but a Page cannot be categorized.

Terminology Related to Design

Archives are a dynamically generated list of posts, and are typcially grouped by date, category, tag, or author.

Templates and Template Tags are two of the pieces used in the composition of a WordPress Theme. A Theme is the overall design of a site and encompasses color, graphics, and text. A Theme is sometimes called the skin.

Plugins are custom functions created to extend the core functionality of WordPress.

Terminology for the Administrator

Another set of terms to examine are those involving the Administration of a WordPress site. A comprehensive set of Administration Panels enables users to easily administer and monitor their blog. A WordPress administrator has a number of powers which include requiring a visitor to register in order to participate in the blog, who can create new posts, whether comments can be left, and if files can be uploaded to the blog. An Administrator also defines Links and the associated Link Categories which are an important part of a blog’s connection to the outside world.

Some of the main administrative responsibilities of a WordPress blog involve adding, deleting, and managing Registered Users. Administering users means controlling Roles and Capabilities, or permissions. Roles control what functions a registered user can perform as those functions can range from just being able to login at a blog to performing the role administrator.

Another chief concern for the blog administrator is Comment Moderation. Comments, also called discussions, are responses to posts left for the post author by the visitor and represent an important part of “the give and take” of a blog. But Comments must be patrolled for Spam and other malicious intentions. The WordPress Administration Comments SubPanel simplifies that process with easy-to-use screens which add, change, and delete Comments.

The only pieces of information WordPress requires you to include in your Profile are your e-mail address and a nickname. It should be noted that WordPress requires your email address only for your blog’s administration purposes. The email address is never sent to any other site (not even to the people at WordPress headquarters), and it is never displayed on your site (unless you put it there manually). Only the other registered users of your blog have access to the e-mail address you provide. Also, beginning with Version 2.8, each user’s email address must be unique.

All of the other personal information asked for here is optional, and, again, it is never sent to any other site or person. It may be displayed on your site, however, depending on the theme you use, so you should test things out with your particular theme if you’re at all paranoid (and a bit of paranoia regarding your personal information is healthy).

Personal Options

• Visual Editor – Checking this box Disables the visual editor when writing, and uses the plain HTML editor.. Note that this checkbox changed at Version 2.7, as before you checked the box to enable the visual (WYSYWIG) editor.
• Admin Color Scheme – Check this radio button next to the color scheme desired for the admininstrative panels.

• Keyboard Shortcuts – Checking this box Enables keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation. Keyboard shortcuts are designed to allow you to rapidly navigate and perform actions on comments. The Keyboard Shortcuts article describes the various shortcuts in detail.

Name

• Username – You cannot edit your Username because it is used as your Username during the login process. Even an Administrator cannot change your Username. Usually, no one else ever needs to see your Username.
• First name – Enter your first name in this text box.
• Last name – Enter your last name in this text box.
• Nickname – Enter the nickname as it is a required for every user. It may be the same as your User Name or it can be different. If you don’t supply a Nickname, then the User Name will be placed in this field.
• Display name publicly as – Select, from the drop-down, how your name is cited on your blog. You can choose from several of the above pieces of information: Nickname, Login name, First Name, Last Name, “First Last“, or “Last First“. If you prefer “Last, First“, insert a comma after your last name in the Last Name text box above and choose the last option from this dropdown.

Contact Info

• E-mail – All users are required to list an e-mail address in their respective Profiles. The E-mail address must be unique for each user. Your blog will use this address to notify you of new comments to your posts and for other administrative purposes. To reiterate what was said above, only other registered users of your blog will have access to this e-mail address. It is never sent anywhere.
• Website – Enter your website address.
• AIM – Enter your AIM screen name here. For information on how to display this on your site, see the the_author_aim template tag.
• Yahoo IM – Enter your Yahoo Messenger ID here. For information on how to display this on your site, see the the_author_yim template tag.

• Jabber / Google Talk – Enter your Jabber / Google Talk name here. For information on how to display this on your site, see the example in the Author Templates article.

About Yourself

• Biographical Info – Enter a short description or profile of yourself here. This optional information is not displayed by either the default (Kubrick) Theme or the classic Theme included with WordPress. However, these themes could be customized to display this description. Also, other themes available for download may automatically display this information. See the_author_description template tag.
• New Password – Enter your password twice, once in each of the two text boxes. Leaving these text boxes blank will keep the password you are currently using.

Strength Indicator This indicates if the password you entered is Very Weak, Weak, Medium, or Strong (displayed in green). The stronger the password the more secure your login. Hint: The password should be at least seven characters long. To make it stronger, use upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols like !”?$%^&).

Update Profile

Remember to click this button to save the changes you have made to your Profile and Personal Options. After clicking this button you should see a splash message at the top of the screen saying User Updated. If you don’t see that message, then your changes are not saved!