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WEB170 » Creating Content with WordPress

Content is the key to any good website. It’s what your users are coming to see, right?

Without good and relevant content everything else is merely a placeholder.

— Web Redesign: Workflow that Works 2.0, by Kelly Gato & Emily Cotler

Therefore, let’s see how we can easily create, update and manage content using WordPress, shall we?

The good thing about a Content Management System is that your Client can create, update and maintain content. The bad thing about a Content Management System is that your Client can create, update and maintain content.

— Mike Sinkula, Professional Twelve Year Old

Step One: Create a New Posting

Posts are the principal element (or content) of a blog. The Posts are the writings, compositions, discussions, discourses, musings, and, yes, the rantings, of a blog owner and contributors. Posts, in most cases, are the reason a blog exists; without Posts, there is no blog!

See Also: http://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Panels#Posts_-_Make_some_content

Once logged in to the administration panel, you will see a link for “Posts” in your main navigation.

Once you click the “Posts” link you will be taken to the Posts Edit SubPanel:

The Posts Sub-Panel

The Posts Edit SubPanel allows you to select the Post or Posts you wish to edit, delete, or view.

You may have noticed that there is already a “Hello World!” Post in your list. The “Hello World!” posting is an example posting that WordPress gives you so you can see how a posting is written.

If you click the “Hello World!” post, you will be taken to the Write Post SubPanel:

Edit Your Posting

The Write Post SubPanel is used to write new posts and edit existing ones.

To create a new post you will need to click Posts > Add New  in your main menu. Once you click the “Add New” link, you will be taken to a blank Write Post SubPanel where you can create your very first post.

We can now write a title for our posting and create the content that goes with it:

Creating a New Posting

The content for our new posting will be written inside the Rich Text Editor that WordPress provides us.

You can see that the Rich Text Editor has quite a few buttons that look similar to the options you might find in various pieces of software. We will taking a look at these options and Editing & Formatting Your Text in WordPress in the next lecture. For now, let’s publish what we have so far.

To publish your post, go ahead and click on the big blue “Publish” button.

Once you click on the big blue “Publish” button, WordPress will notify you that your post has indeed been published and will ask you if you’d like to view your posting. Click on the “View Post” link.

When you click on the “View Post” link you will be taken to the permalink for that posting:

View Your New Posting

Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your individual weblog posts, as well as categories and other lists of weblog postings. A permalink is what another weblogger will use to link to your article (or section), or how you might send a link to your story in an e-mail message. The URL to each post should be permanent, and never change — hence permalink.

See Also:  http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

If we go back to the home page of our site, we will see the posting in our blog.

Step Two: Create a New Page

A Page is often used to present “static” information about yourself or your site. A good example of a Page is information you would place on an About Page. A Page should not be confused with the time-oriented objects called posts. Pages are typically “timeless” in nature and live “outside” your blog.

See Also: http://codex.wordpress.org/Glossary#Page

Once logged in to the administration panel, you will see a link for “Pages” in your main navigation.

Once you click the “Pages” link you will be taken to the

The Pages Sub-Panel

To create a new page you will need to click Pages > Add New  in your main menu. Once you click the “Add New” link, you will be taken to a blank Write Page SubPanel where you can create your very first page.

We can now write a title for our page and create the content that goes with it:

Creating a New Page

The content for our new page will be written inside the Rich Text Editor that WordPress provides us.

You can see that the Rich Text Editor has quite a few buttons that look similar to the options you might find in various pieces of software. We will taking a look at these options and Formatting Your Text in WordPress in the next lecture. For now, let’s publish what we have so far.

To publish your page, go ahead and click on the big blue “Publish” button.

Once you click on the big blue “Publish” button, WordPress will notify you that your page has indeed been published and will ask you if you’d like to view your posting. Click on the “View Page” link.

When you click on the “View Page” link you will be taken to the permalink for that page:

View Your New Page

Let’s now make a sub-page to our new page. But, this time, lets take a differnt route.

From our Toolbar, we can create a new page:

Create a New Page From the Toolbar

We can then add our content and choose a parent page for this sub page:

Choose a Parent Page for Your Sub-Page

Once we publish our sub-page, we can see the hierarchy of the pages by going back to Pages > All Pages:

View All Pages

Congratulations! You have now created some content in WordPress!

But, Where’s the Navigation Menu for the Pages when we visit our site? Hint, we haven’t created it yet. Let’s go to Creating Navigation & Menus in WordPress.