Introduction to WordPress

Chapter 1. Introduction

Section 1: What is wordpress

What is WordPress?
WordPress is a completely free tool used to create dynamic websites. Originally, WordPress was developed as blogging software. In recent times, since WordPress is so robust everyone from web developers to average computer users have used it to build beautiful websites. With WordPress there really are no limits!

What is a blog?

A blog is a type of website or part of a website that is maintained on a regular basis by it's owner with entries regarding commentary, reviews, opinions, and other media such as video. The term blog is actually short for "web log" but can also be used as a verb. In the verb form, "blogging" means to post to your blog.

WordPress, it's completely free?

WordPress is completely free. There is no trial version to "test" or no "free" version that lacks all the full features. WordPress is a free and open source software. Open source software typically relies on the community of developers to develope and test the software, provide support via forums, and . Without the "community" WordPress would cease to exist and would not be as robust as it is.

How does WordPress work?

WordPress is dynamically driven through the use of a database. You must have the ability to create and utilize a database to use WordPress. WordPress stores all of the information such as posts, articles, and pages in the database. Installing WordPress on your hosting account is easy. WordPress has touted itself as having a "5-minute" install, and it's true. Even a novice can install WordPress in five minutes!

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Section 2: Types of websites that can be built using wordpress

WordPress was originally developed as a blogging platform in 2003. However, it was quickly realized by the community that WordPress could be used to create just about any type of website you can think of! With thousands of templates available WordPress can be used to meet other needs as well:

Business Website:  WordPress is great to launch a business website, build your brand, promote your business, or sell your merchandise online.
Informative Website:  WordPress is easy to use to create a website to offer instructions or anything you can think of.
Review Website: If you want to build a website to review various products, even other websites WordPress is easily organized with various options and categories.
Personal Website: Creating a family website, or a website to promote yourself such as a blog is simple with WordPress.
Photo Gallery: WordPress has hundreds, if not thousands of plugins designed to cusotmize your installation of WordPress. Many of the plugins are designed to convert your installation to a photo gallery or portfolio.

Since WordPress is extremely customizable, there really is no limit to what type of website you can build using it. With hundreds of free templates and themes, as well as hundreds of free plugins it's never been easier to build a custom website using WordPress.

Section 3: Structure of a Wordpress Website

Now that WordPress is successfully installed on your hosting account, you will be able to see the default template displayed. WordPress refers to certain aspects of the website by very specific terms. When digging deeper into WordPress, especially when searching for and using plugins, it will be imperative that you understand the terminology used to identify various parts of the website.

1. This is referred to as the "header" and will display the titles of your website.
2. The "menu bar" of your website will contain links to pages you have created.
3. This is a "post". Posts are displayed in chronological order with the most recent post displayed first. 
4. This right hand column is referred to as the sidebar. Widgets are displayed here.
5. This is the footer and is located at the bottom of each page.  

Each template may be structured or "laid out" differently. If you decide to use a different template other than the "default" your page may look different.

Chapter 2. How to Install Wordpress

Section 1: Getting Started

WordPress is a free open source software that can be installed on your server. Installing WordPress is not a terribly difficult task. This article will explain the basics in installing WordPress on your server. Learn more about WordPress Hosting here.

What's the difference between Installing WordPress and WordPress.com

You can set up your blog at WordPress.com and have your site online. This is different than installing WordPress on your server. WordPress.com stores all the files on their server and you need to get an account with them to set it up. When you install WordPress on your server, you are bypassing WordPress.com and using your Hosting server to store the blog data. This allows you to manage the WordPress site your self without having to go through WordPress.com.



Methods to install WordPress on your server

WordPress is a free program that you can get online. There are 2 ways you can install WordPress on your server.

• Install using Softaculous
• Manually Installing the Software

Installing WordPress with Softaculous

For servers that have Softaculous installed in the cPanel, you can install WordPress with only a couple clicks. Softaculous will upload the files, configure the database, and set up the installation all for you without having to download any files or configure anything.

Install WordPress using Softaculous

Installing WordPress manually

Servers that do not have Softaculous installed (VPS and Dedicated servers do not have Softaculous installed. This requires a license.), you can install WordPress by downloading the files and uploading them to your server. You will need to set up a database and database user, upload the files with FTP or the File manager, and configure the config.php file on the server.


Installing WordPress 3.5 manually

Chapter 3. How to Configure Wordpress

Section 1: Logging into wordpress site

Once you have completed the installation of WordPress you can login to your dashboard. The admin section of WordPress, the "WordPress Dashboard", is where you will begin building your WordPress site. Please take note that your login credentials are not the same as your cPanel username and password unless you set them up as the same. You will need some information to login to WordPress.

WordPress Installation URL: if you installed WordPress on the root of your domain your URL to access WordPress would be: yourdomain.com/wp-admin

WordPress Username: This is the username you set up when initially installing WordPress.

WordPress Password: This is the password you set up when installing WordPress. If you emailed the installation details during the installation process it will be in that email as well.

Steps to log into WordPress

1. To access the WordPress dashboard you simply need to add /wp-adminto the end of the URL where you installed WordPress like the below example:
   
   your-domain.com/wp-admin
   

Note! If you installed WordPress to the document root of the url it would be your-domain.com/wp-admin. If you installed WordPress on a folder called "blog" on your domain you would go to your-domain.com/blog/wp-admin

When you visit the login page for WordPress you will see the login screen.

2. Type the username and password you used when you installed your WordPress.

Note! Your WordPress login is a different login than your cPanel and your AMP. If you cannot remember your Username or Password, Please see our article on Resetting your WordPress Admin Password

After you login to the dashboard successfully you will see the WordPress dashboard.

Section 2 Configuring your WordPress Home Page

WordPress allows you to control what appears on the front page of your website. The most common settings changed on the home page is typically how many posts display, and whether your website shows recent posts of static content such as a page you have created. To make changes click "Settings" in the left menu then the "Reading" sub menu.

The "reading" sub menu contains different seettings you can make to your website. "Front page displays" is the option where you decide if your home page is a static or dynamic page. Remember, a dynamic page loads your blog posts and a static page is one of the pages you have created. "Blog pages show at most" is the option that allows the administrator  to choose how many blog posts display on the home page. 

Click on save changes when you are finished and you are done modifying the settings of your home page. 

Chapter 4.Managing WordPress content

Section.1 Wordpress Pages vs Posts

When you begin to create your first website with Wordpress, you may be confused by the different features you find. By far, the most common question is "What is the difference between pages and posts?". Pages and posts are both key components of a WordPress site. Neither are mandatory, meaning your site can consist of either all posts, or all pages. Below are specific explanations of both content types.

Posts:

Posts are treated much like digital entries into a journal. They are listed on either your Home page or another page you specifically dedicate to display them. Posts are also listed starting with the most recent and continuing in reverse order with the oldest post as the last one. They can also be segregated in to categories and use tags for identification. Posts are usually used as a way to add content at intervals, and can be used as simple announcements, chapters of a story, news stories, reviews, etc. Posts are also included in RSS feeds and are broadcast to subscribers when they are added. Posts can include the same type of content that pages can use.

Pages:

Pages are areas of content that, unlike posts, are not listed in any chronological order, nor do they have a specific page that lists them by default. Pages are normally used for creating content that does not decay, or is not time sensitive. Information on pages is often referred to as 'static content'. A simple example of a page would be an About page. An about page has content that does not get old or outdated, and it stays on your site in a 'static' position. Pages can be updated just like posts and can use the same types of content as posts.

Section 2.Writing your first WordPress Blog Post

Once logged into your WordPress dashboard, you can create your very first blog post. A post is a message that you are displaying in the body of your website. Blog posts are displayed in chronilogical order with the most recent post at the top. As you begin to post more often, older posts will be moved down the page. To get started, click "Posts on the left side menu bar:

Once clicked, this will display a list of posts that are currently published on your website. You will see there is already one post on your website titled, "Hello World!". Under posts, click "Add New" to add your own post and start blogging:

This will load the Editor, which is where you can create your own post. The editor functions very closely llike a word processor. You can add formatting to your posts by using the buttons above. The editor allows you to bold, underline, highlight, and much more. Once you are done writing your first post, click "Publish"

Congratulations! You have published your first post and is now live on your website for the world to view!

Section 3.Creating a WordPress Page

What is a WordPress Page?

A WordPress page is a webpage that will show up in your menu bar for your website visitors to access. If you have a business website you may have pages for about us, contact us, or location. Pages are always available in your menu bar and are not stored like posts in chronological order. They will not disappear from a page like posts do either. For more clarification on pages vs. posts, click here.

How do I create a page on my WordPress Website?

First, you will need to login to your WordPress Dashboard and click on the link titled "Pages" on the left hand menu:

Click "add new" on the sub menu that open once you clicked on "pages"

A new window will open. If you notice the window to create a new page closely resembles the page to create a new post. Once you have created your new page, publish the page by clicking "Publish" on the right hand side of the page.

Once the site is published, if you visit the website you will notice that the new page is now listed in the menu bar. You can create as many pages you your website needs, there is no limit to the number of pages your WordPress website can have. 

Section 4.Adding HTML to a Wordpress Page/Post

There may be times when you want to use HTML in your WordPress website. For example you may prefer to code a hyperlink by hand, or adjust the header sizes. In this tutorial we will show you how to view/add HTML code to a Page or Post in WordPress. 

As per WordPress' official Code support page, Javascript, and other embeds such as Flash are not allowed to be added to a Page or Post in WordPress. 

Here is a list of the specific HTML tags that WordPress allows: address, a, abbr, acronym, area, article, aside, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, cite, class, code, col, del, details, dd, div, dl, dt, em, figure, figcaption, footer, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, header, hgroup, hr, i, img, ins, kbd, li, map, ol, p, pre, q, s, section, small, span, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, var

How to Add HTML to a Page/Post:

• Login to the Dashboard for WordPress.
• In the navigation menu click the Pages or Posts link, depending which one you want to add HTML to. In my tests I clicked Posts.
• Now, click the page or post that you want to edit.
  
  
  
• Click the Text tab.
  

You will then see the text of the page or post and you can enter the HTML. In my Tests I am adding a Link to an email address:

• Click the Update button to save your changes.
  
  Here is view of the HTML link I added to a Post:
  

Congratulations, now you know how to add HTML to a WordPress Page or Post!

Section 5.Creating a link in Wordpress

When working with your Wordpress pages and posts, you may want to create a link (also called a hyperlink) to another website, or even another page or post on your site. This is done via the page or post editor. You can do so either with the Text editor or the Visual editor. Below are instructions for creating links for your WordPress content.

How to create a link in your page or post

• Log into your WordPress admin dashboard.
• Using the left-hand side menu, click on the Post or Page menu. In this example, we will click on the Post option.
• Now, select All Posts (or All Pages) to bring up the list of existing posts/pages.
• Hover over the post or page you want to edit and click on the Edit link.
  
• This opens the content editor. First highlight the text you want to create the link with. Our example will make the words 'link to another webpage' into a link.

In Visual mode, click on the link button on the toolbar, it is the one shaped like a small chain.

In Text mode, click on the button simply labeled link.

• A popup will appear where you will want to enter the URL you want to link the text to. There are three fields here to consider.

1. URL:The web address (URL) you are linking to.
2. Title:A text title that will appear when the visitor hovers over the link.
3. Open link in new window/tab :Checking this box will make the link open in a new window or tab instead of navigating away from your  site in the current window.create external link
   

You can also link to another page or post on your site. Click on the Or link to existing content link to open up the lower area of the popup. If needed, you can use the search function to filter the list. In our case, all posts and pages can be listed at once. Click on the page or post you want to link to. This will fill in the URL and Title fields above with the correct information.

• Once you have entered the URL for your link, click on the Add Link button to finalize the link's creation. You can now visit the site to see your link in action.