WordPress 101: Beginners Guide to WordPress

WordPress is a free blogging tool and vibrant content management system which is based on PHP and MySQL. This article is focused on providing unique kind of information for the people who want to manage the Word Press powered site. You will get to learn the basic and technical skills of managing and customizing word press.

Content writing is a central part of any website. A good content can attract lot of readers to your website which can surely help to increase the traffic on your blog. It is necessary to understand the content management system on WordPress.

NOTE: Following guide is written for WordPress version 3.4.1

Handling content in WP

This section of article can be called as the central and key part. Basic knowledge of formatting contents, writing posts, writing pages and uploading images would be covered in this section.

Editing content

Writing a post or page in the text editor demands you to simply type a text. Basic paragraph formatting option will automatically generate when you hit the enter key at the end of each paragraph. You can found more formatting options at the top of text editor. These options can cover the most basic features required for editing a text. You can get the more functions for editing by clicking the advanced toolbar icon on the far right side of options as shown in the picture:

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor

Use of Editing Icons

Use of editing icons is simple and easy. You need to select the block of your text and hit the desired editing button for getting the effect. Inserting picture option is also simple as you need to simply click on the area where you want to paste image, click the icon of posting image and fill information in pop-up.

Below is a little info of icons along with their function:

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option BoldBold – select the box of your text and click bold button.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option ItalicsItalics – select the box of your text and click italic button.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Strike ThroughStrike Through – This can be used to add a line over your text like: like this.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Unordered ListUnordered List – helps to create bullet points.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Ordered ListsOrdered Lists – This can help you to auto number your text.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option BlockquoteBlockquote – This is used to create the block quotes.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Align LefAlign Left – aligns text to the left.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Align CenterAlign Center – makes your text in the centre.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Align RightAlign Right – makes your text to the right position.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Adds HyperlinkAdds Hyperlink – This is the option which can be used to create the links of any website on your text. Click the word at which you want to create a hyperlink, add link of that website/blog and press enter.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Remove HyperlinkRemove Hyperlink – This button can be used to remove hyperlink

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Split PostSplit Post – It is use to split the post written by you.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Spell CheckSpell Check – This is a kind of option which is used for checking the spellings of the text in your text box.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Advanced Tool BarAdvanced Tool Bar – This option is for the more detailed editing of your text.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option UnderlineUnderline – This will underline the text given by you.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option Font ColorFont Color – You can change the color of your font to look it more attractive

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option OutdentOutdent – Undo an indent.

instantShift - WordPress Text Editor Option IndentIndent – This is used to indent the text.

Writing content in the WP

You need to enter in admin panel of WP and hit Post option

instantShift - Writing Post

This will take you to the list of options and for writing a new post you need to click on the Add new button. A writing box will get opened. You can either use this box for writing content or paste the written content in the box. If you want to write a page instead of post then you should click on the page tab instead of post. Before publishing your content, you should be aware of the basic principles that are required for content writing.

Writing Post in WP

Title is a central point of attraction for any post. It should be unique, catchy and attractive so that people could get attracted to read all the post. Title should be descriptive as it will be visible on the top of your post and will become a linked text that links to this post in other pages.

instantShift - Writing New Post

You can use the permalink editor to give a shorter file name to URL path. For example, if the title of your post is “This is the best post ever”, you can simply change it to best-blog-post. If you have used Microsoft word for writing your content then it could create a little hassle. Copying and pasting from a Microsoft profile will transfer lots of formatting in the text editor of WP. This will generate an uneasy code saying “click to have an HTML view”. You can make this process simple by copy pasting content in note pad first; it will change all the format of content. After that, you can easily post data in word press. Now you can easily use the text editor for doing good editing for your webpage.

Options for posting content

Below the text editor and on the right side bar of text box, there are several advanced options for your posts. From these options, you can assign keywords, tags, disallow comments etc.

a) Categories

This help to give a category for your post. New categories can be added to your link using “Add new category link” at the bottom of your box.

instantShift - WordPress Post Categories

You can also manage the categories by using the categories link below post tab. If you don’t assign a category, it will automatically get shifted to default. Categories are really essential so you should make sure that proper category has been assigned to the content before posting. Try to avoid changing the category after posting because web spiders take long time to locate such edited posts.

b) Tags

instantShift - WordPress Post Tags

Tags are another form of categorizing your post. You can use keywords or select the tags provided by WP. For adding keywords, post them in tags box separate by commas to get the work done.

c) Encrypt

You can use encryption option for giving a little detail of your post. Some of the blogs display encrypt instead of displaying full post on the main blog page. Link to the post will take visitor to the full content.

d) Comments and Pings

On a blog, you may get many spam comments which could disturb your website. You can filter the comments by selecting or unselecting the check box of option. The ping feature of can help you to display that had linked to your posts.

e) Password protection

You can also use the method of password protection for your posts using this option.

f) Trackbacks

This option is used for the old blog systems which are not able to detect pings automatically.

Publishing Post

When you are writing posts, WP will automatically start saving your post as a draft. You can use the save or publish options when you are ready.

instantShift - WordPress Post Publishing

The preview option can help you to check that how the post will look after getting published. You should open the preview page in a new tab so that you can easily jump back to the write post page. When you click the publish button, you will directed to write post page. The calendar option just above the publish button can help you to have a knowledge of the things. Your posts will not be published on the web until you click the publish button. You can also select a specific date for publishing of your post. Lists of all the posts will show the published and unpublished data of your contents.

Writing Pages

Pages are different from the blog posts as they are static pages without the flow of chronologically organized posts. These kinds of pages are often the main navigation centers of blog that don’t tend to change. They can be the basic pages such as about us or Contact page. This can also be a whole series of article and sub pages that reside off the higher rank page.

instantShift - WordPress Pages

Writing a page on WP is similar to writing a post. After clicking the Add new link, begin writing a new page or all pages option to see and manage your current list of pages. You write the page inside text editor. The graphic editing icons can be used for editing the page. Like writing post, you will give a good title to your page.

instantShift - WordPress Add New Page

The title given by you will appear on the top of your published page. It will become a default name for your page until you get an option permalink editing feature just below the title box of a specific file name in the URL box.

instantShift - WordPress Pages Change Title

You can use this editing feature for giving a shorter version than the title of page. This can also be given a shorter name keeping in mind the variations of keywords on your page. You can use this step for search engine optimization of your page.

Options for a page

You can find a number of options on right side of the text editor below the publishing section. There is a little description of some main options:

instantShift - WordPress Page Options

a) Page parent

This helps you to select the location of page with respect to other pages in blog. You can create a hierarchy of the page along with subpages for easy navigation on your blog.

b) Page template

The page template should be different from the blog posts. You can select from a range of different templates that are available from the WP to choose.

c) Page order

This option is used to create a menu of the pages in the sidebar of your blog. You can set the order of pages on the basis of hierarchy or otherwise they would be stored alphabetically.

d) Filtration of comments

instantShift - WordPress Discussion Filter

You can control the comments on your pages. Most of the people do commenting on any page of your blog for spamming. You can manage these spams by selecting or deselecting the option of allows comments on the side bar of page options.

e) Page Author

If your site has multiple users, you can assign one of them as the author of the page. User who will initiate writing the page would automatically become the author of page as WP knows them on the basis of their login.

Saving and Publishing the page

Writing and publishing of the page on WP is similar as publishing a post. Page will get automatically saved in drafts. You can also use the preview option to check the published versions of page before posting it. This preview option should open in the new tab so that you can get back to the original post after having a look on the preview. Clicking on the publish button will post your page on the web. You can also set the date of post by calendar option which is just above the publish button.

Image posting workout in WP

The workout of images on a post in WP is simple and easy process. You can easily manage the image upload feature in post or page editor. Make sure to have a look on the “Note on the image sizes” at the bottom of page.

Toting up images for posts or pages

You need to point the cursor in post or page where you want the image to appear. You can do the following steps to post the image in your post or page.

Uploading image files on server

You need to click on the upload image button in the text editor options.

instantShift - WordPress Uploading Image

You will get the two basic options for uploading the image. Either you can browse from your system memory or paste the link of any posted image from the web. The folder on your WP uploading the images should have permission to allow remote uploads. If you gets problem uploading the image, content your web designer or any other person who wants to set up WordPress for you.

Positioning of images in post

You will be presented with number of options before you post the image. You can add a caption or title to the image by using options from the box as shown in figure.

instantShift - WordPress Image Positioning

You can select the position of image along with size. This all depends on your choice and the place where you want to post the image. Uploading image is a key part of any post as it will make your post attractive for the users to read.

The images on your system are in pixels. Image you paste on WP is based on the width in pixels. If size of your image exceeds the size limit of post, it may create a mess for your page. It is better to upload the small size images. You should also make sure that image is related to the post and can help the user to understand and correlate it with the post.

Above all, the content posted in the WP should be unique because it is the backbone of every blog. You can also install various paid comment filtering applications on your blog which could help in saving your blog from lots of spam comments. Follow all the tips stated in the article and soon you will become a WP expert.

WordPress 102: Easily Setup Your Website Using WordPress

Image Credits

Like the article? Share it.

LinkedIn Pinterest

17 Comments

  1. Thanks for this post. I began blogging a year ago and wish I had this information.

    Re-tweeted already.

    Can you say more about the Pages area? Is this my About page?

    I also enjoy all of your other tips and tricks!

  2. Very basic yet effective guide. I’m using WordPress from last 3 years an it seems there is much more I need to learn… Possibilities of working with WordPress are endless.

  3. This is the content that foul because WordPress is for the end user (not devs) Very good! I can translate into portuguese?

    • Hi Carolina, You can translate it into Portuguese but don’t forget to put the original source credits.

  4. Wow, best guiding post especially for new starters however i also learn some new things. thanks a ton for sharing this beauty for easy use of WordPress.

  5. Useful information.. thanks…

  6. Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
    Good write-up, I’m regular visitor of one’s website, maintain up the excellent operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a lengthy time.

    I am really glad I’ve found this info. Today bloggers publish just about gossips and web and this is actually frustrating. A good site with interesting content, this is what I need. Thank you for keeping this web site, I’ll be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Cant find it.

  7. Hey there, nice content! i really like the guide and it actually helped me out a bit. Anyway, do you think you could check out my wordpress review? or better yet, let me do a quality guest blog for you in exchange for a backlink? Thanks

  8. Great tips! I’ve found the following other blogs part to be really difficult as a mother. I usually only have time to quickly read them but very rarely comment. I love the idea of making some blog friends though.

  9. Thanks for the great post! Very helpful and relevant

  10. Thanks for writing which helps the beginners who wanted to learn himself.

Leave a Comment Yourself

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *