Word Press Quick Start guide
Using the WordPress Dashboard
Once you’ve created your site, you can administer content changes and more through the WordPress dashboard at:
yoursite.sites.northeastern.edu/wp-admin
The following section describes some of the basic features of the WordPress dashboard.
Pages
Pages are typically static content that gives visitors more information on the site. Pages are different than posts in a few ways. Each page created gets a unique place on your site with a unique URL, whereas posts populate the same area of the site. Pages can not have categories and tags assigned to them. An ‘About’ or ‘Contact’ page is a common Page on many WordPress sites.
To add a new page: Pages > Add New
Posts
Blog posts are time-sensitive, dynamic pieces of content and are used for news articles and updates. Posts are often featured on the homepage of your site, and can be written regularly.
To add a new post: Posts > Add New
From here, you should enter a title, add content, and add a category and/or tags. If you don’t want to publish the page to the live site yet, you can click “Save Draft.” Once you’re ready to publish, click the “Publish” button.
Categories and Tags
One of the many features of a blog is the ability categorize your posts based on the concepts of Categories and Tags. It’s helpful for posts to have a Category assigned for help in organizing and finding content over the long term.
Categories are broad groupings of post types. For example, if you wrote a food blog, your categories might include “breakfast” and “dessert.” Tags are more specific to the content of the post, so if you wrote a recipe for chocolate cake, you might categorize it in “dessert” and tag it “cake” and “chocolate.” Categories are useful on your blog when readers visit and want to view several posts that are similar. Tags are useful to find specific posts. > Add New
Categories and Tags apply to posts, but not pages.
Menu
When you add pages and posts to your site, it’s a good idea for your visitors to have a way to find them. One of the best ways to do this is by adding them to the WordPress menu.
Editing the menu: Appearance > Menus.
In the ‘Select a menu to edit’ dropdown box, select ‘Main Menu’ if it’s not already selected and click Select.
You’ll see two columns with the headings ‘Add Menu Items’ and ‘Menu Structure’. Menu Structure shows you the list of pages and posts that are in your current menu. Each menu item can be dragged and dropped with the mouse in any order you choose. To add a new page or post or category to the menu, select the checkbox for that element under the respective dropdown item under ‘Add Menu.’ If you don’t see your page or post, make sure you click ‘View All.’ Then click the Add to Menu button. When you want to save your changes, click Save Menu.
