Guest lecture at Northwest University, Kirkland WA, 16 September 2014. Overview of blogging, web design, typography and creating a WordPress account and post.

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Date : 16 Sept 2014
Digital Publishing Tools:
WordPress

2. This afternoon
Quick: design concepts
WordPress overview
Lab

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Grids /
Typeface /
Visuals Text

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Grids /
Typeface /
Visuals Text
SanSerif v Serif
Points v Pixels
Best practices

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Grids /
Typeface /
Visuals Text
Images should convey info
(not just be pretty)
Writing style for screens:
Chunk
Bullets
Active tense
Short graphs
Optimal text for
hyperlinks (no “click
here”)

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What Is A
Blog?
 A blog is a website with certain
characteristics (n);
To blog is a verb
 It is characterized by a reverse
chronological ordering of entries,
which we call posts. We do not call
them blogs!
 Posts are grouped into categories for
ease of finding like posts
 Posts may also have tags. Think of
categories like nouns and tags like
adjectives. (Blue socks)
 Posts are linked to RSS, a form of
subscription/alerts.
 You can also create pages (about-me
is standard) which are stand-alone and
do not show up on the blog home page

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What Is
WordPress?
 WordPress is a content management
system
 WordPress is a blogging platform
 WordPress is an identity system
 WordPress flavors
 .com
 .org

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Lab
 Setting up a WordPress blog
 Creating an account
 Your first post
 Using categories
 Managing your user profile

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1a. Set up account
 Go to WordPress.com
 Type your firstNamelastName in the box
 Prepare to use an email address you can access from your lab
computer

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1b. Set up account
 It may be a challenge
to pick a unique
username
 You want the FREE
version (scroll)

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1c. Set up account
 Pick a name

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1d. Set up theme
 Use Twenty Thirteen – you can change it later

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1e. Set up theme
 Skip – you can customize it later

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1f. Set up sharing
 Skip – you can figure out sharing later

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1g. Confirm

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1h. Confirm

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1i. Confirm

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2a. Your first post categories
 Title: Hello,
world!
 Body:
something
about the lab
 New category:
Class posts
 Publish

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2b. Your first post categories

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2c. Your first post categories

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3a. Manage personal profile

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3b. Manage personal profile
Gravatar.com

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Resources
 10 resources for beginning WordPress
bloggers
 Blogging glossary
 Creating links (hypertext) in
WordPress (YouTube)
 Creating links (hypertext) in
WordPress editor
 Other WordPress and blogging
resources

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Contact
 Kathy E Gill
 kegill at uw dot edu or gmail or @kegill (fastest!)
 http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill
 Presentation permalink: wp.me/p3eg9d-2kV
Licensing:
Creative Commons attribution (link to this Slideshare or
WiredPen), non-commercial, share-and-share alike