So here’s your shiny new WordPress blog or site, now what?
A Few Basics to Get Started
WordPress enables you to focus writing your site content, and not having to worry too much about the technical side. Of course you can delve as deeply in as you want, or keep to the default choices out of the box.
When you first log in to your new WordPress site you arrive at the dashboard – here you see an overview of the backend engine that drives your site. Down the left page margin is a list of options for you to use. As the first user, you are most likely signed in as an administrator.
Lets look at some some concepts – but you could start posting right away (see Posts & Pages)
Appearance – Themes
As soon as your WordPress site is created is is ready online with a standard website design. This design is called a theme. Think about it, every website you see has its own look, one you may or may not like! the current default theme (design) that ships with WordPress is called twentyfifteen. It is a simple, modern, mobile platform friendly design well suited to bloggers and the like.
The Appearance > Theme menu lets you change your site’s design. On opening this option you will see the currently available themes, ie. those that have already been installed, perhaps by the host or your website manager.
Add New button lets you search for more themes: click the one you like, press install – your site instantly changes how it looks to match your choice. You can change your theme as many times (or as often) as you like, but dont keep unused themes, delete them.
When changing themes your data (posts, pages, settings) are safe. but you might have to reconfigure an old theme if you return to it. You are only changing the look of your site.
Posts & Pages
A common cause of confusion:
- Posts if you are writing a timeline of articles like on Facebook
- Pages if you writing static content like a tradition website
(eg. About US, Contact, Products, etc)
In reality there is little difference between posts and pages, only what you want to use them for, and how you want them organised and displayed.
Creating a post or page (click on New) is just like using MS Word, libreOffice or even as simple as webmail (Gmail/ Yahoo/ Hotmail/ Outlook etc.) or Facebook. Remember to hit Publish
WordPress will automatically create the post and add it to your timeline – straight out of the box, this will be your homepage. That’s it!