WordPress basics highlighting some of the most used features with information about WordPress.

1. 101
Jack Davenport
www.mercianlabels.com

2. What is WordPress?
WordPress is a fully fledged Open Source CMS or Content Management System under the
GPLv2 licence.
This bascially means its a back end of a website that makes it easy to create and manage web
content utilising a database to store the information and a basic (or advanced) text editor with
various different tools, most of which you would find in standard office programmes.
Why we use WordPress
For the exact reasons above. To make it easy for non web professionals to create and manage
the data without the need for a professional to aid with content.
Downsides to WordPress?
Security flaws, keeping it up to date with the latest versions of WP, themes, plugins etc helps to
keep WP secure (Always make sure the site and database is backed up BEFORE you update
anything on the site, you WILL regret this at some point)
You can find all of the information on WordPress here: www.wordpress.org

3. To login, just add /wp-admin to the end of the URL.
www.example.com/wp-admin

4. Additional screen options can be found
on most screens inside the dashboard.
Adds or removes items from your view.
View the sites front end. The link
switches when in the front end to get
back to the dashboard.
Update notifications, remember
backing up is essential!
Link to your posts...
Link to your pages...
Add, edit & remove media
Add, edit & remove users

5. What is a WordPress Post?
Posts are most often used as blog posts. They can also be used for ‘custom post types’.
Custom post types are exactly the same as normal posts, the same data, the same screen, the
only difference being that they are categorised differently. So instead on the right hand side
navigation saying ‘Posts’, it might say, Shop or Portfolio, maybe Dogs or Cats, Movies or
Books.
A post is a collection of data held in the database. A list of posts are displayed ready to be
created or edited. Posts are entries listed in reverse chronological order on the blog home page
or on the posts page.
e.g Title, content (text, images, video), meta data (times/dates etc), categories, tags... etc

6. Blog screen, where the list of 10
posts are (as standard)
To add images & videos click into
the content area below where you
want to insert the media
Then click the ‘Add Media’ button
and upload the images as normal
Upload or select media to insert
Align the image and chose the
size you need it to be then click
insert
Revisions if old content is lost
Update or Publish your post

7. What is a WordPress Page?
Pages are static and are not based on the date they were created. An ‘About Us’ page is a
good example of a page.
Pages can be arranged into subpages. They can use different templates for each page. Just
like posts they are a collection of data stored in the database.

8. Structure related pages. Tip: Create subpages
here and select the ‘child lopop template
below to display a list of child pages complete
with featured image
Page templates can alter the look, structure
and pretty much anything on the page or off it
in the background. The best themes will have
multiple templates.
The ‘kitchen sink’ allows you to edit posts &
pages just as you would in an office pro-
gramme like OpenOffice or Word.

9. What is a WordPress Theme?
A theme is a set of files that provide structure and style of the website. They can be 2 or 3 files
or they can be much bigger depending on how much customisation has been made.
WordPress comes complete with themes that are ready to use. There are also free & premium
themes you can download. Some of the premium themes provide high end customisation and
can be well worth the small fee.
WordPress’ free themes functions.php a vital part of
any custom theme

10. What is a WordPress Plugin?
A plugin is a file or a set of files that extends or modifies the core WordPress structure. There
are plugins for almost everything from image galleries to shipping tables and beyond.
Things like custom post types should be defined in plugins as they extend WordPress. If it was
part of a theme, when you switch the theme so your site looks nice and new, if the new theme
does not have the same custom post types you can’t retrieve the data for these.
Just like themes there are many free and premium plugins available.
Comes with WordPress
Free
Premium

11. What is a WordPress Widget?
A widget is a content area where you can add data to your website. The typical locations for
widgets are in the header, sidebar and the footer.
The location of the widgets depends entirely on the theme you use, there could be zero or there
could be many.
Drag and drop the widgets to
add them and reorder them
There are multiple widgets
already available with Word-
Press but there are many
plugins that offer more, most
premium themes will add their
own widgets.

12. What is a WordPress Menu?
A menu is a list of links to internal or external websites. There is no limit to how many links you
can have unless your server limits them. You can have multiple menus and you can use them in
widgets using the ‘Custom Menu’ widget and also in the places designated by your theme.
Add the links you want to the menu.
Tip: If you don’t see all of the options
here open screen options and tick the
checkboxes!
Drag and drop the menu items to
reorder them, indent the menu to
create a sub item.
Save the changes to your menu

13. WordPress Users
WordPress can have multiple users and each user can be set a different level of access to the
website or blog.
Note: I have removed usernames from the list to protect the website the list is from.
username
username
username
username
username
username
Add new users by filling in the form.
You can read about user roles here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities

14. WordPress Settings
The settings menu is where you can alter some of the defaults set in WordPress to suit your
website/blog. You will also find that if a plugin has any options you will find them nested under
the ‘Settings’ tab.
An example of part of the settings menu.
You can, amongst other things, change the
homepage to show a page instead of a list
of posts, alter how the URL looks in the
search bar (permalinks) or change the title
of your website/blog.