In this how to use WordPress tutorial, we’ll
provide an introduction to WordPress for beginners,
to help you get familiar with the fundamentals
of WordPress.
This WordPress tutorial for beginners, will
cover what WordPress is, how it can be used,
the process of installing WordPress, as well
as the practical aspects of installing themes
and plugins, and creating and managing content
(including posts, pages, menus, and widgets).
We’ve created a step by step post that accompanies
this video, that you can follow along with
on the OHKLYN website at OHKLYN o-h-k-l-y-n.com
(there will be a direct link in the description
below).
In that post, you’ll find the written instructions,
as well as any links mentioned in this video.
So I would recommend opening the post up in
a new tab, and following along.
We’ve broken this tutorial down into eight
sections, these include:
What is WordPress?
How to install WordPress, an
Overview of the WordPress dashboard
Understanding the WordPress settings
How to create and manage users in WordPress
How to amend the appearance of a WordPress
website or blog
How to add additional functionality, and
How to create and manage content in WordPress
The various sections will be timestamped in
the description below to make it easy to navigate
through this tutorial.
For a step by step tutorial on how to create
a WordPress website or blog, check out one
of our free tutorials on the OHKLYN website,
or on our YouTube channel.
We’ll also add any related videos in the
description below.
You will be able to follow along with this
tutorial and setup your own WordPress website
or blog.
We’ve added some discount links for hosting
and themes, that you can access in the description
below or on the OHKLYN website here.
So, let’s get to it!
Firstly, What is WordPress?
WordPress is what’s referred to as a Content
Management System, or CMS for short.
The objective of a CMS, is to take care of
the technical aspects of web publishing, allowing
the user to focus on creating great content.
WordPress is open source software, meaning
that it isn’t owned by a specific individual
or organisation, and is free to use, improve,
or extend.
You can use the WordPress software in a number
of ways, however the two most common ways
of creating a publicly available WordPress
website, are via the hosted or SaaS version
(WordPress.com), or the self-hosted version
(WordPress.org).
In addition to the two primary versions for
creating a WordPress website or blog, you
can also install WordPress locally on you
PC or Mac.
Let’s explore the three most common ways
of leveraging the WordPress software.
Firstly, you could install WordPress locally
– To install WordPress locally on your computer,
you will need to download a tool like MAMP.
Once you’ve installed MAMP on your computer,
you’ll download the latest version of WordPress,
from WordPres.org, and install it on your
localhost.
We’ll put together a post and video on this
shortly.
Then there is the hosted version of WordPress
(referred to as WordPress.com) – The hosted
or SaaS version of WordPress allows you to
leverage the WordPress software, without needing
to concern yourself with domain, and hosting
management.
Your site is hosted by WordPress.com, which
will make getting started a lot easier for
some.
However, the trade-off is that this platform
enforces a number of restrictions that impact
the design, functionality, and flexibility
of your site.
The most popular option though, is the self
hosted version (referred to as WordPress.org)
– the self-hosted version of WordPress,
removes all of these restrictions.
However, you will need to secure your own
domain and hosting, and install WordPress
on your desired domain.
This will be a new experience for a number
of users.
Fortunately, we have created a number of free
WordPress tutorials that walk you through
this process step by step.
And we’ll cover this off quickly for you
now.
To install WordPress, you will need to secure
your domain and set up hosting for that domain.
We’ll go through the steps of how to do
that now, and give you two hosting options
as well as provide discount links for each
option.
Your domain, or url - is the web address for
your website, and is what users will type
into their browsers to access your site.
For OHKLYN it’s ‘OHKLYN o-h-k-l-y-n.com’.
Pick something that’s relevant and memorable.
Hosting, is the process of storing the content
and data for your online store on a web server,
and serving it to users.
For this tutorial, there’s two options to
choose from, and we’ll quickly walk you
through getting started with each.
The first is the cheaper shared hosting option
through Bluehost, and the second is the premium
option through WP Engine.
We use both providers, OHKLYN is hosted on
WP Engine, and our demo sites are hosted on
bluehost.
There are discount links to each option below,
and on the OHKLYN website.
Firstly, for those who want to go with the
cheaper option let’s register your free
domain and set up hosting with Bluehost.
For those that want to go with WP Engine skip
ahead to the next section, and follow the
instructions.
There’s a link in the description below
that gives you access to discount hosting
through bluehost, as well as a free domain
name.
If you’re following along on the OHKLYN
website, you can click on this button here
to get access.
Here is a list of the types of domains that
are included for free, some of which include
a:
.com
.online
.store
.net
.org
.co
.club
Now, if you’ve already purchased your domain,
or you want to purchase an alternative top
level domain (such as .shop, or you want a
country specific domain such as .co.uk, or
.com.au), you can purchase that domain through
a registrar like GoDaddy, Crazy domains or
any other domain registrar (I’ll add some
links below).
If you go with that option, or as I mentioned
- if you’ve already secured your domain
name, all you’ll need to do then is change
what’s called the Domain nameservers to
point at bluehost (which will be your hosting
provider).
Fortunately, we’ve written an article, and
a step by step guide on how to do this (I’ll
add the links to these guides in the description
box).
For the bluehost option, we’ll take care
of both registering your domain, and setting
up hosting, as well as installing WordPress
together.
So, to do this follow the bluehost link in
the description below, or if you’re on the
OHKLYN website, follow this button here.
Bluehost is an affiliate partner of OHKLYN,
so by using those links, not only do you get
access to discount hosting and a free domain,
but they’ll set aside a few dollars from
their marketing budget to help fund future
free videos like this one.
So we appreciate you using the link provided.
If you plan on creating an eCommerce website
and want to process credit card payments on
your site, you will need an SSL certificate.
Alternatively, if you just want to process
payments externally via PayPal, you won’t
need an SSL certificate.
If you’re going to use PayPal as your sole
payment gateway, you can go with the the standard
shared hosting plan, and click the ‘Get
Started Now’ button to select your hosting
plan and register your free domain.
If you want to accept credit card payments
on your site, then under the ’Hosting’
option in the menu, click on WooCommerce hosting,
and then ‘Get started now’.
Check out our tutorial on How to Create an
eCommerce Website if that’s what you wanna
do, as it will take you through the steps
of how to do it.
The link will be in the description below,
on the OHKLYN website, and on our YouTube
channel.
Regardless of which option you went with,
you’ll then select the plan that’s right
for you.
If you intend to have just the one domain,
then the first option we’ll be fine, alternatively
if you want to have multiple domains on the
one hosting account, then you’ll need to
select one of the other plans.
You can always amend this down the track.
And the great thing is that you get a 30 day
money back guarantee on either plan, so you
can get started risk-free.
For this example though, I’ll go with the
middle option.
To get your free domain name, you’ll enter
the desired domain name for your website,
blog, or online store into the ‘new domain’
field, select the domain extension (for example
.store), and hit next.
If the domain name isn’t available, you’ll
get an error message and will need to either
select an alternate domain name, try to contact
the owner of the domain to purchase it from
them, or select another top level domain extension.
If you’ve already purchased your domain
name, enter your domain in the ‘transfer
domain’ field and select ‘Next’ (remember
to review the article on how to change the
DNS records to point at Bluehost).
To set up your hosting account enter in the
required account information here.
In the package information section, choose
your desired hosting term and domain add-on
preferences.
I recommend selecting ‘domain privacy protection’
so that your personal information that’s
associated to your domain, isn’t publicly
available (this is optional of course).
Once you’ve entered in the required information,
add your payment details, review the terms,
and select ‘Submit’.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll be taken
to this page here.
You will have been sent a confirmation email
to the designated email address on the account.
You will need to create a password for your
hosting account.
To do that, click on ‘create your password’.
Make sure to pick a secure password, you could
use the suggest password tool to help you
with this.
Once you’ve entered in your password, review
the terms of use, and select ‘Next’.
You will then be able to login to your Bluehost
dashboard.
As part of the new Bluehost offering, WordPress
will automatically be installed on your new
domain.
If you’ve registered your domain elsewhere,
you’ll need to amend the DNS records to
point at Bluehost and install WordPress using
the Bluehost one-click WordPress install.
For the steps on how to do this, review our
article on the OHKLYN blog (the direct link
will be in the description below).
You can choose to install one of the free
pre-selected WordPress themes on your domain.
For this tutorial, we’ll use a premium WordPress
theme, so in this case we’ll just select
‘skip this step’,
WordPress will now be installed on your domain.
To access the back-end of your WordPress website,
click ‘start building’.
This will prompt a guided tour, which you
can choose to run through or not.
We’ll go through this in our tutorial, so
i’ll click on ‘I don’t need help’.
This will take you to the Bluehost tab within
the back-end of your WordPress site.
To access your WordPress dashboard, click
on ‘dashboard’ in the menu on the left.
There will be a number of notifications, that
you can action, or dismiss by clicking on
the ‘x’ in the top right corner.
You can amend what’s visible on your dashboard
by clicking on the ‘screen options’ dropdown
in the top right, and checking or unchecking
the boxes.
A number of additional plugins will be installed.
You can view these by hovering over ‘plugins’
in the admin menu on the left, and selecting
‘installed plugins’.
In addition to the standard WordPress plugins,
Bluehost will install, JetPack, Mojo Marketplace,
OptinMonster, and WPForms.
You can leave these active, or choose to deactivate
and delete these plugins.
I’ll leave this up to you.
I’ll delete mine, as I like to use as few
plugins as possible.
This can be done in bulk, by selecting the
checkbox next to the plugins, choosing deactivate
from the bulk actions dropdown and then clicking
apply.
I’ll then delete all of the selected plugins.
Then return back to my WordPress dashboard.
If I enter in my domain name, I’ll see that
WordPress is now installed.
Congratulations!
You officially have a new website!
For those that have gone through registering
your domain and setting up hosting with bluehost,
you can move on to the next step which will
be an overview of the WordPress dashboard..
Click on the timestamp in the description
below to skip ahead.
For those who want faster hosting, or more
consistent hosting, and wanna go with a premium
hosting solution, we’ll go through the steps
of setting up hosting with WP Engine.
As part of the OHKLYN community, you’re
entitled to a discount by following the link
provided, which is either in the description
box below, or if you’re following along
on the OHKLYN website, you can click on this
link here.
That will take us to the WP engine site, we’ll
scroll down until we see the different plans.
If you just want to set up a single website,
the personal plan will be fine, you can always
add additional domains at any stage; however
if you going to manage multiple websites,
then you may want to look at the other plans.
For this example, we’ll go with the personal
option, that will take us through to this
page here.
By selecting the annual option we get two
months free, and in addition to that, through
being part of OHKLYN community, you get access
to a 20% off coupon on top of that.
To get access to that, click the link provided,
or enter OHKLYN o-h-k-l-y-n.com/go/wp-engine
which will take you through to the WP Engine
site, and include the discount.
If for whatever reason, the discount code
doesn’t carry across, then signup to our
newsletter and you’ll be sent a welcome
email with the WP-Engine discount code included.
To create your account, enter your email,
account name, select which Data Center you
want to use.
There are a number of options to choose from,
pick the location that’s closest to you,
or your intended audience.
Then, input your name, scroll down to the
billing information, and add your billing
info.
Review the terms and conditions, and then
click on Create My Site.
Once you’ve done that, your WP engine portal
will be in the process of being built.
You can confirm the details here, the Plan
Details are on the left hand side, and your
Billing Information is on the right.
If we scroll down, we’ll see the details
of our account and username, your password
will be sent to your email account, and then
below that we’ve got the details of our
URL.
On the OHKLYN website, there’s a link to
a video that goes through how you complete
your set up process, so I’d recommend clicking
on that to finalize your account set up.
The cool thing about WP engine is you won’t
need to install WordPress, they do that for
you.
There are some tools to help with getting
started, so if you need to migrate an existing
site then there’s a tool to help you with
that.
The best thing about managed hosting is that
you’ve got full support, so if there’s
anything that’s unique, or you’re struggling
with anything in particular, you can contact
them directly and they’ll be able to help
you through the process.
You will have received an email from WP engine,
follow that link through to enter your password,
and that will take you to your WP engine portal
which looks like this.
Pause this video, and once you’ve pointed
your domain’s A record at WP Engine, and
WordPress is installed for you, we can continue
on to the next section
Once again, follow the link on the OHKLYN
post here to the video on how to point your
domain’s A record at WP Engine, and finalize
your hosting setup.
I’ve installed WordPress in a development
environment.
It’s a clean WordPress install so it should
look the same, if it’s slightly different
don’t worry - the fundamentals will all
be the same.
I do a lot of WordPress website and blog development
for clients and prefer to work in a staging
or development environment before pushing
a site live, however, it isn’t always necessary.
Ok, so the WordPress dashboard or admin panel
is broken down into 3 main sections: at the
top we have the WordPress toolbar, the menu
or admin menu is located on the left-hand
side, and the main admin area is in the middle,
where we'll do most of our work.
I’ll give you a brief overview of each section
now - if you want to take a deeper look then
check out our Introduction to WordPress for
Beginners guide and video.
The WordPress toolbar at the top is dynamic
and adjusts the available options depending
on which page you’re on, and if you’re
viewing the page from the front or the backend.
From the left, you have the WordPress logo
that acts as a dropdown to provide information
about WordPress and some useful links.
Next is the site name, when clicked, this
will navigate you to the front-end of your
website.
If a newer version of WordPress is available
or any plugins on your site need updating,
a conditional button will appear here next
to your site name.
You then have a count of the comments held
for moderation.
Next is the New button, hovering over this
gives you the option to create a new post,
new media item, new page, or a new user.
On the right hand side, you have "Howdy,"
and your name followed by a dummy avatar,
which can be updated via Gravitar.com (which
stands for globally recognized avatar) - we’ll
update this later when we customize your website.
By hovering over your name you can access
your profile information and settings, as
well as the logout button for your website.
If we click on the site name that will take
us to the front of your website (yes it’s
uninspiring at the moment, but that will soon
change).
You’ll see that the toolbar options have
changed.
From the left we still have our WordPress
logo as before, however if we hover over the
site name, you have more navigation options.
You can head back to the dashboard, manage
your theme, widgets, and site menus.
Next to the site name, is the customize option
which takes you to your theme customizer settings.
We’ll go through this in more detail later.
If we click into a post or page, you’ll
see we now have the option to edit the post
or page.
By clicking on edit post (or page), you will
be taken directly to the backend of that post
or page to make edits - this is a powerful
feature and one that will save you a lot of
time.
When you add additional plugins, and with
some WordPress themes you will also have additional
features within the toolbar.
Ok so back to our main dashboard.
The Admin menu located to the left of your
dashboard is separated into 3 main sections,
those are: The Dashboard section, the Content
Management section, and the Site Administration
section.
The Dashboard section provides easy access
to the Dashboard, updates, and additional
plugin features.
The Content Management section is where you
create and manage Posts, Pages, Media items,
Comments and additional plugin features.
The Site Administration section is where you
configure the design and appearance settings
for your website (including selecting the
active theme for your website, creating and
managing menus, widgets, and customizing your
website’s theme).
It’s also where we manage plugins, users,
control global WordPress settings, and activated
theme and plugin extensions like SEO, Social
sharing, theme specific settings, and security.
We’ll go through some practical examples
for each of these in the coming sections once
we upload our theme and start working with
content.
For a more detailed overview see our Introduction
to WordPress for Beginners guide or video.
The menu is fully responsive, meaning that
as the screen size gets smaller, the menu
adjusts to remain accessible on all types
of devices.
Lastly, the main Admin area serves as our
primary workspace, and adjusts depending on
what’s selected from the admin menu.
I’ll draw your attention to the screen options
tab in the top right corner.
When you open this tab you’ll see a list
of options and features that are available
for display depending on which page you’re
on.
Similarly, the help tab to the right, shows
you helpful hints for the page that you’re
on, as well as links to relevant documentation.
The first thing I always do when setting up
a new WordPress website or blog - is adjust
the global WordPress settings - so let’s
do that first.
To do that - from your dashboard, hover over
settings in the admin menu and you’ll see
the six default WordPress settings (with certain
themes, and additional plugins you will have
access to additional options here), however
the default global settings will be: General,
Writing, Reading, Discussions, Media, and
Permalinks
Let’s go into:
General - At the top this is where you manage
your sitename and tagline - you can also manage
this from within your theme customizer which
we’ll cover off in a bit.
The WordPress address and site address are
more advanced options and relate to the location
of the WordPress software.
Changing these can bring your site down if
you don’t know what you’re doing, so we’ll
leave these as is.
Below that is the admin email address, and
by default is the email address you used to
set up WordPress.
This email will be used to notify the admin
user of any changes on your site such as automatic
updates, registration of new users, etc and
can be amended here.
The membership option allows anyone to signup
to your site and while it has very specific
function, is a dangerous option - I would
encourage you to leave this unchecked.
Below that you can choose the default user
role, Choose your site language, timezone,
preferred date and time format, and which
day of the week your week starts on.
If you commit any changes you will need to
hit ‘save changes’ at the bottom.
The next tab is
Writing - The writing settings allows you
to set a default post category and post formatt
for your blog posts.
You can also enable the ability to post to
your blog via email - which is a cool feature,
but not something we’re gonna cover in this
video.
On the Reading tab - you are able to amend
the front page display, or set the homepage
for your website.
For most websites you will want to design
and set a specific page as your homepage,
which you would do by selecting the static
option and choosing the page you want from
the dropdown.
Later we’ll upload demo content to set one
of the homepage layout options, from the demo
site.
Alternatively, you can create a new page,
use the builder and shortcodes to create the
layout you want and set that as your home
page.
We’ll set our ‘Posts page’ as our blog
page, which we’ll do later.
This is the default page where our blog posts
will show up.
You can also manage this from within the theme
customizer.
Next you can amend how many posts are showing
on index pages of your website (which would
include the front page, any category or archive
pages, etc), by default this is set to 10
but you can show as many as you like.
The next option relates to syndication feeds
or RSS feeds and isn’t something you’ll
likely use.
The next option relates to what’s included
in a feed and isn’t overly relevant.
At the bottom however is the ‘Discourage
search engines from indexing this site’
checkbox which prevents your website from
being indexed by search engines like Google
- you’ll leave this checked while you build
out your website, but once you’re ready
to go live, you will want to uncheck this
box so that your website can be found on Google,
etc.
Once again, save any changes.
Discussions - is where you manage how and
when comments are displayed on your site and
how users can interact with comments.
These will change depending on your preferences,
however i’ll walk you through my prefered
options and explain the reasons why.
For more info review the documentation for
each option under the help tab.
Under ‘Default article settings’ I’ll
uncheck the first two options, as these are
legacy options and have been somewhat exploited.
I’ll leave ‘Allow people to post comments
on new articles’ checked - if you want to
disable comments on future posts, you would
uncheck this option.
Next is ‘Other comment settings’, I highly
recommend leaving ‘Comment author must fill
out name and email’ checked, this will help
avoid spam comments and general trolling.
The following option relates to the membership
option we talked about earlier and if the
user needs to be registered to comment.
You can prevent people from commenting on
old content by closing comments on articles
older than a specific number of days.
You can enable nested replies to comments
and set the level of depth.
I typically leave this as is, but check and
see what this looks like on smaller devices
as it can impact the design and user experience
if there’s too many levels of nested comments.
If your site gets lots of comments you will
want to enable the ‘Break comments into
pages’ options so that your page doesn’t
become overrun with comments.
Lastly you can change the order of how comments
appear (with oldest or newest at the top of
the page)
You then have some notification settings which
you can amend to suit you.
Below that, you can choose to either approve
every comment manually - which may be tedious
but will ensure you only post welcomed comments,
and/or the option automatically publish comments,
provided the author has a previously approved
comment.
I would advise against turning both of these
off as your site will likely be inundated
with spam.
I tend to leave the settings as they are.
Next you can automatically hold comments for
moderation if they have greater than x number
of links in the comment.
Links are indicative of spam comments and
I generally set this to 1, however you can
leave this as is or set it to whichever you
want.
At the very bottom of the page, you can amend
the comment avatar settings, set the rating
for the avatar and pick the default avatar
that is display whenever someone commenting
doesn’t have an avatar linked to their email.
If you’ve made changes, select ‘save changes’
Media settings are where you can amend the
default image sizes that are created by WordPress
anytime you upload an image.
Generally these settings won’t need to be
amended, and if it’s required your theme
documentation will advise you on the appropriate
settings.
By default WordPress organizes your media
uploads by date, to amend this you can uncheck
this box, otherwise leave this checked.
Finally, permalinks - is a setting we will
adjust as it relates to how permalinks or
urls are created on your website.
By default this is set to day and name to
reflect a journal, however I would recommend
changing this to Post name, as it will clean
up your url string to represent the post,
page or product name, this is the most common
option, and is arguably a preferred option
from an SEO perspective.
Set whichever you want, but try not to change
this later as it will break your urls.
We’ll leave the category and tag base blank.
Remember to save any changes.
Now that we’ve covered of the global WordPress
settings let's quickly look at how you manage
users on your site.
You may want to set up contributors to your
website or bring on an editor or shop manager,
and the users panel is where you do that.
From your dashboard hover over users in the
admin menu.
Your options are to view all users, add a
new users, or view your profile.
Let’s view your profile first, this is the
admin user that was created when you installed
WordPress.
At the top you can disable the visual builder
for posts and pages, when you’re new to
WordPress and don’t have a working knowledge
of HTML, I would keep this unchecked.
Next you can amend the color palette for your
backend dashboard.
You can enable keyboard shortcuts (to learn
more click on the link).
Below that you can disable the toolbar when
viewing your site.
Here you can add your first name, last name
and nickname, and then choose how you want
that name to be displayed publically, as the
author of published posts.
Next is the email address associated to this
user account.
This is also associated to your gravatar (which
we will set up in a moment), you can enter
in an website address associated with this
user account.
Below that you can add an author bio that
will typically show up under the post along
with the user gravatar, and display name chosen
above, to set your gravatar image open the
link here in a new tab, you will need a wordpress.com
account for the email address used for the
user account.
If you have one - login, otherwise, create
a free account.
You’ll be sent a confirmation email, to
activate your account follow the link in the
email and then sign into gravatar.
Click on add a new image and choose the image
source, I’ll choose to upload one, crop
the image if needed, set the rating for your
avatar and you’re all set.
Below that are some general account management
settings related to your password and account
access.
And underneath that, you can add links to
the author's social media profiles, which
will be display under posts with the name,
bio, avatar, entered above.
Lastly, there are the author signature or
sign off options.
Remember to click update profile to save changes.
Under the All user tab you can view and manage
all users of your website, including deleting
users, and amending access levels and user
settings by clicking into the user account.
That will take you to the screen we were just
on for that specific user.
To create new users, click on add new.
Enter the new users information, and set a
password.
You can choose to send an email notifying
the user of their new account.
The most important option though is selecting
the user role.
Subscriber is the lowest level of access and
are created when someone registers to your
website.
With this access level they can only see and
manage their own user profile.
Contributor is the next level of access.
They only have the ability to create, edit
and delete their own unpublished posts.
They are unable to upload or edit media, publish
posts, or edit or delete their posts once
they’ve been published.
Author has the same access as the contributor,
except that they are able to publish edit
and delete published or unpublished posts
as well as upload media items.
Editor has a greater level of access including
all of what an author has, plus the ability
to view, edit, delete and publish other user's
posts, as well as manage categories and comments.
Administrator is the highest level of access
and has full control over your site.
Be careful who you assign this role too, as
they have the ability to change everything,
including user accounts.
When we install the WooCommerce plugin, two
new user types will be created:
Customer - which is created when someone checkouts
on your site.
This allows them to view order details, and
order history.
As well as edit their customer account.
The other user type is
Shop Manager - If you decide to hire someone
to manage your online store, you can assign
this access level.
This will allow them to edit the WooCommerce
settings, products, and view WooCommerce reports.
It has the similar level of access as the
Editor role.
Once you’ve chosen the appropriate level
of access and entered the user's information.
Select, ‘Add new user’.
What will have the biggest impact on the appearance
of your WordPress website or blog, is the
theme you decide to use.
A WordPress theme will take the content that
you create, and represent it in dramatically
different ways.
So What is a WordPress theme?
A WordPress theme is a group of files that
work with the underlying WordPress software
to enhance the design and functionality of
a WordPress website or blog.
To learn more review our what is a WordPress
theme article.
To find the right WordPress theme for your
project, check out the WordPress theme reviews
section of the OHKLYN blog to see the best
rated themes by niche, or view our article
on the best WordPress theme providers & marketplaces.
There are both free themes and premium themes
that you can use for your website.
The main benefits of using a premium theme
is access to support, the inclusion of more
extensive theme documentation or instructions,
extended functionality, and access to demo
content (and often a one-click demo content
importer).
Which for around $50-100 is good value.
Premium support packages can cost $50/mth,
so the fact that this is included in a premium
theme, makes it a smart investment.
Let’s cover off the steps of how to install
a WordPress theme.
Firstly, we’ll cover the steps of how to
install a free WordPress theme
From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to
‘Appearance’ > ‘Themes’.
Select ‘Add new’, and either search or
browse for the theme you want.
Once, you’ve selected the theme you want
to use, select ‘Install’, then ‘Activate’.
Now let’s take a look at the steps to upload
and install a premium WordPress theme
The first step is to purchase and download
your premium WordPress theme, this will be
in the form of a .zip file.
We recommend either Themify, Elegant Themes,
or CSSIgniter (there’s discount links to
each provider in the description below, or
on the OHKLYN post here).
Sign up to our newsletter to get a 30% discount
for Themify and other providers.
Once you’ve downloaded your theme (a .zip
file), from your WordPress dashboard, navigate
to ‘Appearance’ > ‘Themes’, and choose
‘Add new’.
Select ‘Upload theme’, click on ‘Choose
file’, and navigate to the .zip file for
your theme you want to upload.
Hit ‘Open’, then ‘Install Now’.
Once it’s done you’ll get a confirmation
message stating that the theme installed successfully.
Select ‘Activate’, and you’re all set.
Let’s take a look at plugins and how you
can extend the core functionality of your
website.
As we mentioned, a WordPress theme will have
a significant impact on the look and feel
of your website, as well as its core functionality.
However, you are able to add additional functionality
to your WordPress website or blog by installing
plugins.
Ok, so what is a WordPress plugin?
Plugins are used to extend the core functionality
of WordPress, allowing you to customize your
site in a number of unique ways.
The most common plugins include contact forms,
chat, security, eCommerce, SEO, caching, and
performance plugins.
Let’s take a look at how to install a plugin
From your WordPress dashboard, hover over
Plugins in the admin menu, and select ‘Add
new’.
Search for the plugin you want to install,
or upload a plugin, by selecting ‘upload
plugin’ and selecting the plugin file.
Hit ‘Install now’.
Then, ‘Activate’.
With plugins, you always want to check the
number of active installs, the star rating
and # of reviews, when it was last updated,
and if it’s compatible with your version
of WordPress.
Ok, so we’ve covered off on the more technical
aspects of setting up and configuring a WordPress
website or blog, let’s take a look at how
to create and manage content in WordPress.
To do this we’ll explore the content management
section of the admin menu, starting with
Posts
Posts are used to publish any ‘blog content’
and are associated with a category or grouped
within a specific topic.
By default, posts are displayed in reverse
chronological order with the more recent and
relevant content visible immediately for users.
If you hover over posts, you’ll see the
four default WordPress options are All Posts,
Add new, categories and tags.
All posts is where you’ll manage your posts
and we’ll take a good look in there in a
minute.
Add new is how you create a new post.
You can also create a new post by hovering
over new at the top within the WordPress toolbar,
and selecting post.
Categories is where you’ll create and manage
the categories for your blog.
We can also create new categories from within
the post editor which i’ll show you in just
a moment.
Categories can be hierarchical, for example
you might have Fashion as a category and casual
as a sub-category of Fashion.
Tags allow you another way adding commonalities
to posts.
Let’s click on All Posts and dig a little
further into posts.
At the top, you have the option to create
a new post by clicking on Add New.
Below that you have the count of posts by
status - initially you will only see ‘All’,
and ‘Published’ - as you create more content
you will often have posts in other statuses
like ‘Draft’, ‘Pending review’, ‘Sticky’
which means a post that you’ve pinned to
the top of your blog, or ‘trash’.
Below that you can bulk edit or trash multiple
posts.
And next to that, is the option to filter
posts by publish date or category.
Below that is your posts workspace, which
shows all your current posts.
From left to right you will see the post title,
author, category or categories, tags, comments,
and published or last modified date.
Plugins and certain themes will add additional
columns to this section.
With a clean WordPress install there will
be the dummy ‘Hello Word’ post.
To edit a post you can either click on the
post title or the edit button to jump into
the edit post section.
You can also select quick edit, which allows
you to edit certain aspects of the post such
as the title, categories, status, etc.
To delete a post, select ‘trash’.
This doesn’t permanently delete a post,
rather moves it to the ‘Trash’ status
or folder.
If you click on the trash link here, this
will take you to all posts that have been
trashed.
From there, you can either permanently delete
the post or restore the post, which will revert
the post back to it’s previous status.
Let’s jump into the post and run through
the available options.
This is the same view you’ll see when you
create a new post.
On the left hand side of the workspace is
where we manage the post content and the right
hand side is where we manage the post admin
info and post meta.
We’ll start with the left hand side.
At the top of the workspace is where you enter
the post title.
The permalink below that is automatically
created once you enter the post title - this
can be amended by selecting edit.
Below that is the main content panel and looks
very similar to a word processing application,
and functions very similarly.
Some themes will be equipped with a page builder
to help create more diverse layouts.
When it comes to adding blog content, there
are two views the visual editor which tries
to replicate what it will look like on the
front end of your site, and the text editer
which stripes all the formatting and relies
on HTML to markup or format the text.
The visual editor is most common for beginners,
whereas the text editor is preferred by those
with a working knowledge of HTML.
In the visual editor you have a row of formatting
options, similar to what you'll find in a
word processing application - you can expand
the options available by clicking this toggle
here.
You can either create and format your content
directly within the post editor or copy in
content from an external document like Google
docs.
If you copy and paste content in you will
need to paste the content in as unformatted
text.
To do this, either select the ‘paste as
text’ option from the formatting bar, or
paste it directly into the text editor tab.
If you prefer to write your posts from within
WordPress, you can leverage the distraction
free writing tool by clicking this button
here to help keep you focused.
Let’s quickly run through your options for
formatting your text.
To add headings or titles to your post you’ll
highlight the text and select which level
of heading it is.
Typically there should only be 1 heading One
or H1 per page which should be reserved for
your main blog title.
Headings should be used to specific hierarchy,
and not as formatting.
You can Bold and italicise text which in HTML
is referred to as strongly emphasising, and
emphasising the text.
You can add bullet or numbered points to text,
in HTML this is referred to as adding an unordered
or ordered list.
For an unordered list the shortcut is to type
a ‘-’ followed by the text.
Similarly the shortcut for an ordered list
is to type ‘1.
Space’ followed by the text.
To add another level of lists within a list,
you can use the increase indent and decrease
indent buttons on the bottom row.
To add a blockquote or pull a quote out of
an article, you can click on the paragraph
you want to wrap in a blockquote and select
the block quote option.
You have your alignment options here and next
to that is the link options.
To add a link to some text, simply select
the text you want to make clickable (this
is referred to as the anchor text), and select
the insert/edit link button.
You can then type or paste in the destination
url or link address and hit apply.
Or click on the settings icon for more options.
If you want the link to open in a new tab,
check the ‘open link in a new tab box’.
To remove a link, click on the link and hit
the remove link button.
You can truncate posts by including a ‘read
more’ tag at any given point within the
article, this will control how much of the
post is show on index pages and adds a read
more button.
This can also be controlled globally by your
WordPress theme or via the post extract within
the post editor.
On the bottom line, you can add a strikethrough
your text which edits out the text but doesn’t
delete it.
You can add a horizontal line to a post to
break up the content before the line from
that which follows.
You can also amend the text color (although
I wouldn’t recommend doing it here for an
entire post).
You then have paste as text, which we’ve
talked about, Clear formatting, add special
characters, indent content, and undo and redo
your edits.
To add images to your posts, click or move
your cursor to where you want to insert the
image and select, ‘Add media’, upload
or select the image you want to insert.
You can add a title, caption, alternative
text, and a description to your image (different
themes will treat this information differently),
and select ‘Insert into post’.
If you click on the image, you can change
the alignment, or click on the ‘edit’
icon to access more options.
Within the display settings, you can select
the image size and amend the link attributes
of the image.
Under the advanced options, you can add a
CSS class, have the link open in a new tab,
and amend other attributes.
To add an image gallery, click or move your
cursor to where you want to insert the gallery
and select, ‘Add media’, Then choose ‘create
gallery’.
Upload or select the images you want to include
in your gallery, and click ‘create a new
gallery’.
To amend the order of the images in your gallery,
simply click and drag and drop them in your
prefered order.
In the gallery settings on the right, ‘link
to’ media file, and choose your desired
image size.
Once you’ve done that, select ‘update
gallery’ - with the theme that we’ll upload
next, that will mean that when you click on
an image within an image gallery, it will
open in a navigable lightbox.
Ok, so that’s how you’ll add and format
content
Below the content editor there are currently
no more fields, however under screen options
at the top right, you can amend the visibility
of addition fields that are used to control
things such as the post excerpt, author, etc.
On the right hand side, you have your
Publishing panel - Here is where you manage
the status and visibility of a post.
When you create a new post, the default status
will be set to draft.
Once you’ve added content to a new post,
or made edits to an existing post, you can
either save the post as a draft (if it hasn’t
been published already), or preview the post
to see what your post would look like from
the front end.
The visibility options allow you to set a
post to private, password protected, or public.
You can also choose to make a specific post
sticky, meaning it get’s pinned to the frontpage
of your blog.
When you're happy with the post, you can select
Publish to enable to post to be visible on
your site.
You can also schedule a post to be published
at a specific future date and time.
The timezone is based on the time and date
settings configured in your general settings
tab.
The next panel is the
Post format panel - This allows you to specify
which type of post it is and style it differently.
This isn’t supported across all themes and
can be confusing, but when used effectively,
is a nice feature.
The Categories panel - allows you to assign
a post to a category or categories.
You can also create new categories from within
this section by clicking on ‘add new category’,
entering in the new category, selecting whether
or not it has a parent category, and selecting
‘Add new category’.
In the tags panel below - you can add as many
comma-separated tags to your post as you like,
by entering them in and selecting ‘Add’,
to remove tags, simply click on the ‘x’
next to the tag you want to remove.
Lastly is the Feature image - To add a feature
image select ‘Set feature image’ and either
choose an image from the media library or
upload a new image.
When you’ve chosen the image you want select,
‘set feature image’.
To remove the feature image click remove feature
image, and to change the feature image, click
on the feature image and upload or select
a new feature image from the media library.
Ok, so that’s pretty much what you need
to know about creating and managing posts,
let’s take a quick look at pages.
Pages in WordPress are used for more permanent
and timeless content that is likely to remain
relevant for a longer period of time – For
example, a homepage, about, or contact page.
To create or manage pages, from your WordPress
dashboard, hover over ‘Pages’ in the admin
menu > From here you can either view all pages,
or add a new page.
For now we’ll click on view all pages.
The workspace will look similar to the posts
section we just covered.
Let’s take a look at the sample page that’s
been created.
You will use the title, permalink and content
panel on the left the same way as you will
for posts.
Or you’ll use one of the page builders that’s
compatible with your WordPress theme.
On the right hand side, the publish panel
and feature image panel are also very similar.
The page attributes panel, however is unique
to pages.
Parent allows you to select a parent page
to establish site hierarchy.
Depending on which theme you have activated
you may or may not see the page templates
drop down.
Page templates alter the appearance of pages
such as including or removing sidebars, etc.
I would recommend going through the various
page templates within your theme to understand
what each template is doing.
The order box allows you to set the order
of how pages appear on the ‘All pages’
tab.
The media section of WordPress is where you
upload all your images and other assets.
It is recommended that you avoid uploading
videos to your WordPress media library.
Instead, use a video hosting service like
YouTube or Wistia, as hosting videos on your
WordPress host will drain your resources.
We’ve already covered how to add media items
directly to your post and pages, however you
can also upload media by hovering over
‘Media’ > and selecting ‘Add new’.
From there you can either select the files
from your computer or simply drag and drop
them into the media library.
Try to keep image files as small as possible
(typically no larger than 500kb) as larger
files will slow down your sites page load
speed.
If you want to upload a pdf document or something
similar for users to download from your website,
you can also add it in here.
Once you’ve uploaded the document select
the url and use that as the link destination
when you insert a link to text or an image
from within your posts or pages.
Let’s go and take a look at Menus, which
are the primary vehicle for users to navigate
through your WordPress website.
By default every theme will have a primary
navigation menu, however, many themes will
provide you with the option to have multiple
menus, as well as mega-menus which are very
popular in certain types of blogs, websites,
and online stores.
To create and manage menus, from your WordPress
dashboard, navigate to ‘Appearance’ > ‘Menus’,
alternatively you can also do this via the
theme customizer, by navigating to the menus
tab under ‘Appearance’ > ‘Customize’.
The menus page is broken down into two tabs,
edit menus, which is where you manage the
content within your menus, and manage locations,
which is where you can assign a menu to a
specific menu location.
To create a new menu, click on ‘create a
new menu’, give it a name (pick something
that makes sense to you), below that you’ll
have your menu structure.
You will first need to set a menu location
for the newly created menu, which is down
the bottom, depending on the theme you’re
using, you may have various options.
If you’re creating a new menu, or managing
an existing menu, you’ll need to add menu
items from the available options on the left.
To add pages to your menu, check the boxes
next to the pages you want to add, and select
‘add to menu’.
You can do the same thing to add posts, custom
links, and categories.
Under the screen options panel at the top,
you are able to add more options, like products,
tags, product categories, and product tags
(if WooCommerce is enabled).
You also have the ability to add CSS classes
to individual menu items, as well as set the
link target, which allows menu items to be
opened in a new tab.
Once you’ve added your menu items, select
create menu, or save menu to amend an existing
menu.
To learn more check out the WordPress codex
on menus.
We’ll look at Widgets.
Widgets are components designed to serve a
specific purpose that you can add to any widget
enabled area on your website (such as the
sidebar or footer).
Common widgets include the search widget,
recent posts widget, categories widget, text
widget (that enables you to add text, images,
links, and certain code snippets).
There are often also theme and plugin specific
widgets which bring in additional functionality.
You can access the widgets panel by navigating
to ‘Appearance’ > ‘Widgets’, or via
the theme customizer which can be located
in the menu under ‘Appearance’ > ‘Customize’
and by navigating to ‘Widgets’.
To edit the widgets, click on the dropdown
arrow, update the widget information, and
click save.
Unlike the customizer, any changes you make
will automatically be live on your website.
To change the order of the widgets, drag and
drop them into place.
To remove a widget simply click on delete.
And to add a new widget, drag the widget from
the left and drop it into the widget area
on the right.
The last thing I’ll show you is the theme
customizer, which you can access by hovering
over ‘Appearance’ in the admin menu, and
selecting ‘customize’.
This will always be different depending on
the theme you have installed, but is where
you will amend the global theme settings,
like your website header, colors, and various
other layout and appearance settings.
Many premium themes will also have a custom
tab where you will be able to manage the theme
settings with greater control, and more available
options.
And that completes our WordPress tutorial
for beginners, to learn more about WordPress,
or how to set up a WordPress website or blog,
check out one of our free WordPress tutorials.
For more information about anything we’ve
covered in this post, review the WordPress
documentation, or the help tab from within
WordPress.
Depending on which theme you’re using, the
options will vary greatly, so remember to
review the theme specific documentation, for
the theme you’re using.
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