welcome [wordpress-training.nz] · web viewwelcome to wordpress – the basics. this is a one day...

WordPress the BasicsTraining Guide

Saturday, 25 August 2018Wellington High School CEC

of 14 25 August 2018

Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to WordPress – the Basics.

This is a one day course designed to introduce the fundamentals of WordPress.

TutorYour tutor today is David Archibald.

David can be contacted:

E [email protected]

M 021 794 120

About DavidDavid has been working with the web since the late 1990s. As you can imagine, there’s been a lot of changes in that time. And the web has changed a lot also!

David was previously the Web Manager at Victoria University. Victoria has one of the largest web channels in Wellington with over 150 distinct sites.

He is now working as a digital consultant and currently working on a pilot programme with the NZ Racing Board.

Outside of work, David has more than just an interest in racing, loves gigs, plays the bass guitar when no one is looking and has learned social dancing. He has 1 ½ daughters – he can explain.

Teaching ApproachWhile the course starts off with a fair bit of instruction and information, the course has been designed to be hands-on.

You will spend the entire day working on your own WordPress site and will have the opportunity to continue to work on the site after the course ends.

The focus is very much on learning by doing. Because any platform like WordPress changes and often changes rapidly, it’s best to learn how and where to find out updated information rather that rely on printed material that dates as soon as it is printed.

Course ObjectivesBy the end of the course, you'll be able to:

describe content management systems (CMS) and identify the key features of a CMS describe the basics of WordPress and the modular WordPress platform explain the differences between posts and pages in WordPress create, edit, and manage posts and pages including adding formatting, links, and media customise a WordPress site by making changes to the settings, homepage, and menus describe the main functions of WordPress widgets, plugins and themes


mailto:[email protected]

Today’s Schedule

We have a busy day ahead of us!

9.00-9.30 Overview and Introductions

It wouldn’t be a training course without an overview and painful introductions!

We’ll start with Content Management Systems (CMS) and then introduce your new best friend, WordPress. We’ll also find out what each individual wants to get out of the course and see if we can cover these points by the end of the day.

9.30-10.00 Getting Started with Wordpress

Logging on General settings – title, admin email address, date & time settings Adding a user & user roles Changing & retrieving passwords Introducing the WordPress Dashboard

10.00-12.30 Wordpress – the Core

Pages & Posts Permalinks Categories Menus Comments

12.30-1.00 Lunch

1.00-2.30 Changing the Appearance

Customising the default theme Media – images, video Widgets, sidebars and footers Configuring the home page

2.30-3.00 Extending Wordpress

Themes Plugins

3.00-4.00 Individual learning

Extending your knowledge of WordPress

4.00-4.30 Summary, Backups

Backing up your site (allows for future development of your day’s work) Course summary & evaluation


About WordPressWordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world with over 25% of web sites using WordPress.

There are many content management systems on offer, most of which are “free”, but WordPress is the most popular by some distance.

There are a number of reasons for this:

WordPress is designed to be easy to install and easy to use There are many themes and plugins that extend WordPress’s core functionality Because of its popularity there are many designers, developers and hosting companies that

provide WordPress Services.

WordPress – the World’s Most Popular CMS


Comparing WordPress and other popular CMS


Content Management Systems

A content management system or CMS is a software that allows for easy creation, editing, organizing, and publishing content.

In the earlier days of the World Wide Web (WWW), an average user or a small company had to rely on static HTML sites because they could not afford a content management system which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There are now many CMS that provide a wide range of web solutions such as WordPress. Other popular CMS include

Drupal Blogger and in New Zealand SilverStripe.

There are also many popular web site building platforms such as Wix and Weebly.

Elements of a CMSMost content management systems share the same features:

A database that stores the information (including content) A repository for files, images, videos etc Core functionality that provides the means to manage and edit the site Additional tools that extend the site – themes (appearance) and plugins (additional

functionality)

During this one day introduction, we will learn the basics of working with WordPress as a CMS.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.orgUnlike some other CMS, you can use WordPress in a number of different ways.

WordPress.orgAnyone can download and install WordPress on a web server by downloading the files from wordpress.org. While the core WordPress installation is free, you will still need to have a domain name and a web host.

This is generally referred to as “wordpress.org” model – that’s the site where you can download WordPress resources for free.

WordPress.com WordPress.com provides an integrated WordPress platform so you don’t need to worry about hosting, maintenance and security. There is also a free plan but it comes with advertising. There are a range of paid plans which provide different levels of services.

WordPress hostingMany hosting companies provide a built in WordPress package so that you don’t need to worry about the installation of WordPress and can focus on managing your site.


Demo Site

As part of the course, you will build a demo site based on a simple WordPress site for a primary school.

This will allow us to apply different aspects of WordPress to a practical example.

While the demo site is designed to highlight features of WordPress, keep in mind the following points:

The demo site uses the most up-to-date default theme (currently Twenty Seventeen) While the site uses a number of plugins that are not standard, all the plugins that extend the

demo site are free and easily downloaded

Advanced WordPressSome of the more advanced elements we will explore are:

Using WordPress posts as a way to provide news Setting up and configuring a plugin to use as a contact form

DisclaimerWhile the demo site uses content from Mt Cook’s Primary School, the site in no way claims to be an official web site representing the School.

Content is used for teaching purposes only.

Demo site urlThe demo site can be seen at:

http://demo.wordpress-training.nz/

Teaching MaterialsDuring today’s session, you will manage your own web site.

You will be provided with a number of tools to assist your learning:

A Word document with the content for all the pages you will create Images and files in your Media library Links to plugins to download

The training materials can be found at

http://wordpress-training.nz/


http://wordpress-training.nz/

http://demo.wordpress-training.nz/

Getting Started

In addition to the demo site and the site containing the links to the training materials, each student has their own WordPress site.

Continued Use of Your Training SiteAt the completion of today’s training, you will still be able to use your training site from any location with internet access.

This allows you to continue to develop, test and learn.

You will have access until a couple of days prior to the next course.

Logon DetailsThe logon details are contained in a separate handout.

You should fill in the details on the handout to help you remember your site’s details.


Exploring the Dashboard

Like most things, WordPress has developed its own language and terms that have specific meaning. We will explore some of the following:

The Dashboard is the main admin display. By default, when you log on as an administrator the

The Ribbon is the row of links across the top of WordPress. It provides quick access to the main administrative functions.

The Dashboard menu provides quick access to the most important management tools including:

Posts and pages Appearance (themes) Plugins Settings Users

User ManagementWordPress has a basic but useful security model. The golden rule of security is to give users the minimum rights they need to do what they need to do.

The five default user roles are:

Administrator – Has access to all administrative options and features. Editor – Can manage and publish posts. Traditionally, editors review posts submitted by

contributors and then schedule them for review. Author – Can publish their own posts when they wish. Contributor – Can write posts but cannot publish them. Instead, they need to submit

their posts for review. Subscriber – Basic functionality such as changing their profile and leaving comments.

This manual assumes you have administrator rights for the site you are managing.

PermalinksThe URLs of the content you publish on your WordPress website are known as permalinks. Permalinks are what people enter into their browser address bar to view one of your pages. They are also what search engines and other websites use to link to your website. Due to this, they are very important.

A blog page might have a URL like:

http://training.oneredturtle.co.nz/2015/08/27/sample-post/

Or you might want to display URL’s like normal web pages:

http://training.oneredturtle.co.nz/page-name/

You can change the structure of your permalinks at any time, however doing this changes the URL of your pages. This can cause your search engine traffic and referral traffic to drop considerably as visitors are presented with 404 page errors instead of the page they wanted to view.

1.


http://training.oneredturtle.co.nz/page-name/

http://training.oneredturtle.co.nz/2015/08/27/sample-post/

Posts, Pages Categories, and Comments

There are key differences between posts and pages.

PostsPosts are entries listed in reverse chronological order on the blog home page or on the posts page if you have set one in Settings → Reading. If you have created any sticky posts, those will appear before the other posts. Posts must have a category.

The URL for a post includes the date the post was published like this:

http://mywebsitename.com/2008/11/30/post-title/

Typically, you might use posts for “blog” type stories or news articles or events.

PagesPages are static and are not listed by date. Pages do not use tags or categories. An About page is the classic example. Pages can be displayed in the sidebar using the Pages widget, and some themes display pages in tabs at the top of the blog. If you have 50 pages and you use the Pages widget, then all pages will be listed all the time.

The URL for a page looks like this: http://mywebsitename.com/page-title/

CategoriesCategories provide a helpful way to group related posts together, and to quickly tell readers what a post is about. Categories also make it easier for people to find your content.

Depending on the theme and widgets you have activated, categories can be displayed at the top or bottom of posts, on the individual post view, on your menu, and/or in the sidebar. You can assign multiple categories per post (you must assign at least one), and categories can be organized hierarchically.

CommentsWordPress started life as a blogging platform and this can be seen in the way comments are enabled by default. However, you do not have to allow comments and develop a granular comments policy based on content type with the ability to manually override the default.

There are several important settings that you should change depending on your needs:

Allow people to post comments on new articles - this setting handles whether the comments under your new posts are enabled or disabled by default. Note that enabling or disabling comments under a particular post or page will overwrite this setting.

An administrator must always approve the comment - if you want to moderate each comment that enters your site before it goes live, enable this option. If you do so, you'll have to activate new comments from the Comments page.


http://mywebsitename.com/page-title/

http://mywebsitename.com/2008/11/30/post-title/

Theme BehaviourPosts, pages, and categories can be used in different ways by themes. For example, some themes may use categories to display lists of related content on the home page. It’s worth keeping in mind that WordPress is a very flexible platform and you will need to spend time to understand the strengths (and limits) of the theme you use.

Changing the AppearanceAs we progress through the course, there will be opportunity for you to experiment with different parts of WordPress.

Instead of set exercises, you will be introduced to different features of WordPress and you will have some time to test drive each feature.

Home PageBy default, WordPress displays a list of your posts on the home page. While this works well for blog type sites, frequently you will want to use a static page as the home page.

Many themes, particularly the professional variety, will take care of this for you. However, with the default WordPress themes, you will need to customise WordPress to use a static home page.

The header, which is normally displayed across all pages, can also be easily customised.

Media LibraryThe Media menu can be used to manage your existing media files, such as images, audio, videos, and documents. You can also upload new files to your Media Library using Media → Add New.

The default screen for the Media menu is the Media Library. By default, the Media Library will display images in a Grid View.

MenusCustom Menus are a list of common links that are usually displayed as the main navigation for your site. The menu location can vary depending on your theme, and some themes offer additional menus such as social links menus.

WidgetsWidget is a fancy word for tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from the sidebar(s) of your blog. Widgets make it easy to customize the content of your sidebar(s) and/or footers (depending on the theme).

Managing Your SiteThe appearance of WordPress can be managed in a number of ways:

Adding images Adding videos Configuring the header Configuring the sidebar Configuring footers Managing menus Configuring a static home page


Customising WordPress

We mentioned countless times throughout that WordPress is a flexible, modular content management system. In this session, we will learn how to customise WordPress.

ThemesA theme controls the general look and feel of your site including things like page layout, widget locations, and default font and color choices. WordPress.com has a wide range of themes for you to choose from in the Theme Showcase where each theme has an about page that includes features and instructions. New themes are always being added, so click on the Trending view in the Theme Showcase to see what’s new and popular. You can change your theme as often as you like.

PluginsPlugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress.

The core of WordPress is designed to be lean and lightweight, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins then offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.

Mastering WordPressDuring the course we will spend limited time working with themes and plugins. However, learning how to use themes and plugins is one of the key steps to mastering WordPress.

As with most disciplines, the more time you spend learning something, the more proficient you will become.

And, likewise, you often learn more from your mistakes! Perhaps the best single piece of advice is to learn how to take regular backups so that any stage you can roll back to a previous version of your site that was fully operational. Backups is one of the focus topics of the Advanced WordPress course.


Appendix 1: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

Since the dawn of time, there’s been confusion regarding the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

This confusion is well-warranted because, well, the names are almost exactly the same.

What’s the difference between the two? If you want to take things much more in-depth, check out the post linked below. But let’s start with the big reveal:

WordPress.org, AKA self-hosted WordPress, is the actual open source WordPress software that anyone can download and use however they want. You need to purchase your own web host, domain name, and have full control over everything.

WordPress.com is one specific “website as a service” implementation built on the WordPress.org software. WordPress.com hosts your site and handles everything for you, but at the expense of some flexibility.

Recent changes made by WordPress.com have served to only blur the lines more – but that’s still what the core difference between the two comes down to. In the following post, we’ll dig deeper into the two options and show you how this core difference actually plays out when it comes to creating a site.

Which option is right for me? The answer of course is … it depends.

If you want a simple site which is largely content (text, images etc) then WordPress.com provides a packaged solution that makes it easy to get up and running. The downside is that you don’t have the flexibility or range of tools you have with your own custom solution.

If you want the ability to control the look, feel, and functionality of your site, then WordPress.org is definitely the better option. With WordPress.org, you can install any theme or plugin that you want. Or you can develop your own theme or plugin. The downside is that you need to learn the fundamentals of web hosting or find someone who can do that on your behalf.

Reference

https://wordpress.com

https://wordpress.org

https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-com-vs-wordpress-org/


https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-com-vs-wordpress-org/

https://wordpress.org/

https://wordpress.com/

Appendix 2: Hosting Your Own WordPress site

The idea of messing with computer code, databases, or software sounds a bit daunting.

The good news is that doing self-hosted WordPress website setup is straightforward. While there is definitely a learning curve, running it afterward is straightforward. Unlike website builders, you own your site and it can grow as your site grows.

To get your own WordPress.org site up and running, you need three things

DomainYou will need a something for people to type into their browser to get to your website.

Hosting You will need somewhere for your website to live. This is literally your part of the internet where people can access your website.

Many hosts provide the option to install WordPress automatically.

If you don’t use this option, then you will need to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to move your files on to your host.

WordPressYour website needs software to “power” it. And nothing beats WordPress nowadays. Remember, that WordPress.org provides the core WordPress code and thousands of free or “freemium” plugins and themes.

As you will have discovered, WordPress.org requires a database eg MySQL. In most cases, you won’t need to work directly with the database although you may need to learn how to create a database and a database user account.

But don’t panic – because of WordPress’s popularity, there are endless host companies competing to host WordPress sites including many cheap but full featured solutions. Look for a host that provides good support – most will also have online documentation that will help you through the process of setting up your WordPress site.


welcome [wordpress-training.nz] · web viewwelcome to wordpress – the basics. this is a one day...

Documents