How to use Wordpress

Introduction to Using Wordpress

Now that you have learned how to install wordpress you are ready to start setting up your website. The wordpress dashboard might seem a little confusing at first if you have never used it before so this tutorial will run you through what all the different sections are for and how to use wordpress to make your website.

If you are already comfortable with how wordpress works then you may like to skip to a step further on, choose on of the following to get instructions on how to customize wordpress or how to blog in wordpress.

Using Wordpress Dashboard

Once you have logged into your dashboard you will see the following screen.

The first thing you should check is that your installation is up to date, a new install of wordpress should be, but this is somthing you should look for every time you log in, its at the very top. You should always keep your install up to date to avoid problems.

On the left hand side you will see a menu, below is a brief description of what each menu option is used for.

  • Dashboard and updates - this is the main page of your wordpress control panel and shows you quick stats of recent comments, draft posts etc. Directly underneate is the updates, it will display a number if any updates are available.
  • Posts - this is where you can view a list of posts, add a new post, select and add categories and tags for your posts.
  • Media - the media section shows all the images you have stored in your image library as well as a section to add new images. You can edit your images in the library.
  • Links - This is where you can make a list of links for your blogroll, you can add a new category of links such as friends sites and so on, add edit and delete your link lists here.
  • Pages - wordpress blogs can have posts and pages, they work similary, most people use pages for the about and contact section of their site but you can use them however you wish.
  • Comments section will bring you to all the comments you have on your blog where you can then approve and publish or delete them.
  • Apperance - this is one of the most important sections, the appearance section has all the options for themes, widgets, menus, header etc. You can add new themes, organize your widgets, change the header and so on here. This is also the section where you can edit your files, if you wanted to add custom css you would use the editor.
  • Plugins - plugins add extra funtionality to your site, here you can browse or upload your plugins.
  • Users - Lists all the users of your site, you can edit your profile, add new users etc
  • Tools - This is where you can import blog content from another blog you own or export all of your content and pages. This is good to keep a back up of your site content.
  • Settings - This section is where you can set your options for writing, reading, media and so on, you can change your blog name and description here, set permalinks, allow or disallow search engines, set comment options etc.

    • Rather than going through each section individually the next tutorial will show you the basics of wordpress customization, in this basics tutorial we will go through your settings, how to install a new wordpress theme and header and how to best set up your site using your keywords.

    Customizing Wordpress

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