WordPress is by far one of the easiest website platforms I have ever used. Creating content is as simple as typing a word document. This tutorial will take you through the basics of creating a post like this one, using a few content images, the new WP3 “featured image”, categorizing, and  tag settings for your post. This tutorial assumes that you have at least been introduced to the WordPress Dashboard and will utilize the “visual” tab for content entry, assuming you have little or no HTML coding background.

Once you’ve signed into your wordpress dashboard (www.yoursite.com/wp-admin) you are face-to-face with your dashboard. Your dashboard controls EVERYTHING for your site. Today we will simply concentrate on “adding a new post”.

click on posts, then Add New

This will open the dialogue area to add a new post, make sure you are working in your “visual” mode. Working in Visual mode allows you to physically see how your post “should” appear once you have clicked publish.

OK, Now first things first. One key to creating outstanding content is your post title. It needs to be relevant to your subject, yet at the same time grab your readers attention, after all you want them to click on your post and read it, maybe even comment on it. For the sake of this tutorial we will simply title our post “Adding a new Post in WordPress”.

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Before we start adding the actual content to the post, we want to consider a few things.

• What category do we want this post added to?
• What should our post tags be? (Tags are important for search engine spiders to find relevant content and direct readers to you site. )
• Do you want comments open on this post?

For this particular post I have decided that my category should be “WordPress Tutorials, How to add a WP Post” – so I will place a check box next to the relevent category titles in the categories section on the right side of my “add a new post” screen. (If your category doesn’t exist, you can add a new category by clicking on the + Add New Category below the Categories side bar).

Post tags are up to you, but the more you have the better off you will be when it comes to google searching for content. This post I will tag as (remember to comma separate your tags as seen here)

WordPress, WordPress Tutorials, How to add a WordPress new post, Adding a New Post to WordPress, Tutorials for WordPress, WordPress Tutorials by Karen Burton

Since I like to leave my comments open on all my posts, I will leave the check mark in the box next to comments in the Discussion settings (bottom of the add new post page).

Now lets add our content.

This is really just as simple as typing a word document. You have most of the formatting features you have come to love and cherish while working in Microsoft Word;

• Bold = B
• Itailics = I
• Strikethrough = ABC
• bullets
• ordered (numbered) lists
• Blockquotes
• Alignment (left, center, right)
• Text hyperlinking (once you have typed the line of text you will highlight and click the chain icon to create a hyperlink)
• Spellcheck
• and the lovely kitchen sink (where all the really cool features are)
  • paragraph format options (paragraph, address, preformatted, H1-H6 – these are the all important headings formats -
  • underline options
  • full justify (alignment option)
  • font color
  • paste from text document
  • paste from MS Word document – this does NOT paste images – you still must upload images to (a) your server or (b) photobucket or other image host
  • custom characters (like this ©)
  • indent levels
  • undo
  • redo
  • help

Start with a h2 or h3 level heading

Then add your content, styling just as you would for a document. You can bold and itailicize elements as needed, just highlight the text and click the appropriate icon. To add an image to your document for additional “wow”, click on the upload image icon , you will get a grayed out screen with your upload options, select the appropriate file and click upload. Select your placement options, add a caption and more right from this screen, click “insert into post” and voila your images has been inserted into your post. Repeat this process as necessary to add images to your content.

To add a blockquote, simply type your text to be quoted, highlight the segment and click on the and your blockquote will be formatted automatically.

Now that you have finished entering your content and formatted to your liking, we will add the featured image for the post (featured images can be set to automatically pull into your homepage and as a thumbnail on your blog archive pages. This is one of my favorite features.

On the lower right section of your screen you will see a sidebar called “Featured Image”, click on set featured image and your upload media screen will once again appear, if you need to upload a new image follow the same steps as above BUT don’t click on “insert into post”, if you are using a previously uploaded image click on the tab “Gallery” click “show” next to the image you want to use, then click on “set as featured image”, once you have done that you can simply “x” out of the screen and return to your post.

Depending on your theme of choice, you may have additional options available, if so just play around with your different settings and see what they do. (be sure to back up your site files first).

Click on PUBLISH on the top right of the screen, refresh your home page and viola you have just created a wordpress post.

Please feel free to comment below:)

Karen offers one on one WP training, please contact Karen for details at 615-692-9193

Have a fabulous day!