This is the Wordpress Quick Start Guide for our clients to go through once we’ve completed their website. It serves as an introduction to WordPress and its basic elements like the Media Library, covering uploading images and documents and moving onto Editing Pages/Posts with some additional topics on quick edit, bulk edit, managing comments, post statuses and custom post types.
Although WordPress didn’t initially start off as a CMS but a blog platform, it has evolved over time into a very easy to use CMS system to build stunning websites. There are thousands of professional developers that spend hundreds of hours developing plugins and themes to add functionalities to the basic installation.
WordPress has a very easy to use Media Library. Images can be uploaded to the Media Library directly, attached to posts as Featured Images and uploaded directly into the content area (see instructions below).
Before uploading images, there are a few points to consider.
Most digital or professional cameras take images between 8-20 MegaPixels per image. Websites can only display images up to a maximum of 1-2 Megapixels, some newer Mac displays and TVs capable of displaying 4K (8 Megapixels).
In the table below are some typical sizes you should use when you resize images.
After uploading, you can change the attachment details for each image in a pop-up dialog. You can change the:
You can upload documents, although WordPress doesn’t have a built-in system to manage and download Documents like PDF, Powerpoint, Spreadsheets, etc. We recommend the DOWNLOAD MONITOR Plugin, which manages files like posts, and allows you to have versioning, download tracking and has many extensions.
In WordPress, you can easily edit pages or posts and the interface looks basically the same, so we will cover POSTS below.
We’ve also created a short video to explain WordPress Post and Page Editing.
In the post listing view, you can click the QUICK EDIT link to edit the title, slug, date, author, password, categories and tags and also the post status easily and quickly, without having to load the complete EDIT screen.
Once you are comfortable you can also quick edit multiple items by first selecting all the post checkboxes and then going to the top menu and choosing EDIT from the BULK ACTIONS drop down. In this window you will only be able to edit certain items that you can override, so only things like post status, categories, tags, etc.
Normally on pages, posts and other custom post types, you can access revisions using the link in the publish meta box section. However if you wish to see a more detailed list of revisions, you can enable the revisions metabox using the SCREEN OPTIONS slide down panel at the top of the edit screen. Ensure REVISIONS is checked. Both these links will take you to the a screen where you can view past revisions using a sliders and restore a specific version.
Typically on posts, users can add comments in WordPress. You can manage your comments in the special comments area. There you will find the comments as a list and you can interact with them by clicking on the correct link function that appears when you hover over the comment, e.g.
Once you have deleted a post, it is simply moved to the TRASH folder, e.g. the post status changes. You can also restore deleted posts from the trash folder to recover accidental deletions.
If you are working on a new post, it will be DRAFT status, if you want to make it pending for another person to review (like a colleague) you can change the status to PENDING review. You can also make a post PRIVATE, which only visible to logged in users and PASSWORD PROTECTED, which will require the password you have to enter in the subsequent field below that. Also, you can make a post SCHEDULED for the future so it only becomes published at a certain date.
Reserved for blog posts only, there is an additional status to make a post STICKY so it appears at the top of the list of posts, therefore useful for announcements or specials.
To make it more visible, we also created the Post State Tags plugin installed and use it on all our websites (see screenshot). This allows you to easily spot the various post statuses, with coloured backgrounds and tags + mini-icons.
In every installation of WordPress, we also install the very useful Archived Post Status plugin, for cases when you want to keep a post or page layout for future reference, but not delete it yet, by flagging it with the ARCHIVED status.
Some additional plugins might install custom post types which can manage specific post types like portfolio items, events, download files, or contact forms. Most of these work very similar to posts, so the same or very similar screens will appear for editing and saving.
Thank You. We hope this web guide will assist you in a basic understanding of the WordPress CMS, MEDIA LIBRARY and PAGE/POST editing functions.
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