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Introduction to WordPress
A University of Michigan Library Instructional Technology Workshop

Table of Contents
Help ................................................................................................................................ 1
What is Wordpress? ....................................................................................................... 2
Setting Up an Account ................................................................................................. 2
Logging In and Navigating To your Blog .................................................................... 2
The Dashboard .............................................................................................................. 3
Creating a Page ............................................................................................................ 3
Adding A Link ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Adding Images ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Adding a Gallery or Slideshow .................................................................................................................... 5
Publishing ....................................................................................................................... 5
Changing the Theme .................................................................................................... 6
Changing the Background Color ................................................................................................................ 6
Changing the Page Order............................................................................................ 7
Changing the “Home Page” ........................................................................................................................ 7
Changing Other Pages .................................................................................................................................. 7
Widgets .......................................................................................................................... 8
Privacy ........................................................................................................................... 8
Deleting Blog ................................................................................................................. 8

HELP
If you need more help than this handout can provide, here are a few places where you can find help
for WordPress.
1. Knowledge Navigation Center on the second floor of the Hatcher Graduate Library or
TechDeck on the first floor of the Undergraduate Library.
2. Wordpress.com Support (http://en.support.wordpress.com)
3. Wordpress.com Support Contact (http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact)
4. Wordpress.com Forums (http://en.forums.wordpress.com)

Need help? Visit the Faculty Exploratory or Knowledge Navigation Center on the 2nd floor of the Graduate Library.
exploratory@umich.edu | http://guides.lib.umich.edu | knc-info@umich.edu
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WHAT IS WORDPRESS?
WordPress is a popular open source webpage publishing tool that can also be used to for basic
website creation. It comes in two forms - a downloadable and hostable version from
WordPress.org, and a hosted version from WordPress.com. The WordPress.com version will be
covered in this guide.

SETTING UP AN ACCOUNT
If you already have an account, please skip to the next section – you only have to do this part once.
1. Go to http://www.wordpress.com in your web browser.
2. Click on the orange Get started here button located on the left side of the
main page to begin.
3. On the first form you must fill in a blog address (it will default to your username), user
name, password, and email address.
4. The final form allows you to choose a title, language, and privacy settings.
5. Once everything is filled out, you can create your site!

LOGGING IN AND NAVIGATING TO YOUR BLOG
Once you’ve created a site, you can get back to it by going to http://www.wordpress.com and
entering your username and password in the top left corner.
Once logged in select the My Blog tab, find the blog or page name you wish to edit and click the
Dashboard link that appears below the blog or page name. You can also click Create Another
Blog.

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THE DASHBOARD
The Dashboard is the first screen you see after logging into the administration area of your website.
As you click on the various tabs
– for example, Media, Pages,
Appearance – you will get
different options.

CREATING A PAGE
Hover over the Pages tab in the left-hand sidebar – the word will turn
red.
You will see a pop out option to view All Pages or Add New – click
on Add New.

In the space at the top where it says, “Enter title here,” type in the title of
the page – this will display as the navigational link to this page.
In the bigger editing box below the title, type in the text you’d like to
have on your page.
If you copy from
Microsoft Word, be
sure to use the Paste
from Word icon.
Use the icons in the
toolbar to change the
formatting and
alignment of your text.

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ADDING A LINK
1. Highlight the text or select the picture where you want to make a link.
2. Click the Link icon on the toolbar.
3. Type/paste in address; set target (e. g., to open in a new window) if desired.

ADDING IMAGES
Make sure you are in the Visual tab, not the HTML tab.
Place your cursor where you want the image to appear and click on the
Add Media icon found in the Upload/Insert icon group directly above
your editor.
Click on the Select Files button and choose
the image file from your computer or drag
and drop files into the box. You can also
choose to add picture files from your
Wordpress Media Library using the Media
Library Tab or from a website using the From
URL Tab.

Once you have chosen your photo, fill in the
following information:
Title – Text displayed as a tooltip (when a mouse is hovered over the image).
Alternate Text – Text read by screen reading software for those with visual disabilities.
Caption – Image caption displayed directly underneath the image.
Description – Text displayed with the image in your dashboard
and attachment pages on your webpage.
Link URL / Link Image to – The URL/web address to which
the image will be linked.
Click the File URL button to link the image to its original,
full-size version.
Click the Post URL button to have the image linked to its
attachment page.
Alignment – The position of the image within your post or page.
You can align a picture left, right, or center.
Size – The size of the image.
When finished choosing your image settings, click on the Insert into
Post button.

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ADDING A GALLERY OR SLIDESHOW
Adding a slideshow or photo gallery is similar to adding an individual picture.
1. To add a Gallery or Slide Show to your site, follow the steps above for adding a picture, but
select all the pictures you want to add to the slideshow or gallery.
2. Use the Show link next to the file names to
access the information listed above, and
then click on the Save all changes button
when you are ready.
3. You will now see a dialog box that lists all
your pictures and then has a Gallery
Settings section below – at the bottom of
it, you will choose to Insert gallery or Insert
slideshow.
For additional information, go to the WordPress
Help page at http://www.wordpress.com and
search for “gallery” or “slideshow.” You will find
a step-by-step guide on how to upload pictures,
add them to your site, and display them the way
you want.

PUBLISHING
1. To save a draft of the page, click the Save Draft button to the right of the
screen. The page will not be visible on the site.
2. Click the Preview button to see what the page will look like.
3. When you’re ready for the world to see your page, click the Publish button.
Make sure the visibility is set to Public; otherwise it will not be viewable to
everyone.

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CHANGING THE THEME
A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with
an underlying, unifying design for a webpage. WordPress.com currently has a very diverse collection
of over 140 themes that you can easily preview and activate for your site.
To select a theme,
1. Go to the left navigation bar click on the arrow to the right of Appearance and then click
on Themes.
2. Browse through the various themes or search for something specific using the Search box.
3. Once you find one you like, click the Activate link underneath the name of the theme. That
theme has now been applied to your site!

CHANGING THE BACKGROUND COLOR
While you might like a particular theme, you might
want to change the background color or image. This
is also done in Appearance; click on the arrow to the
right of Appearance and then click on
Background.

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CHANGING THE PAGE ORDER

CHANGING THE “HOME PAGE”
Often you won’t create pages in the order in which you’d like them to display. You can change the
“home page” to be anything you’d like.
1. In the left navigation bar, click on the arrow to the right
of Settings and then choose Reading.
2. Under Front page displays choose A Static Page and
then select a page from the Front page: pulldown menu.
3. If you’d like, choose a different page as your Posts page.

CHANGING OTHER PAGES
Pages are normally displayed in alphabetical order. To change the page order:
1. In the left navigation bar click on Pages.
2. As you hover over the different pages, you will see links pop up for Edit, Quick Edit, Trash,
and View. Choose Quick Edit for the page you want to move.
3. In the box next to Order, type in a number (numbering starts at 1). If you change the order
for one page, you must change it for all the pages. Pages cannot have the same number.
4. Remember: the “Home Page” is set in the Reading Settings (see above) and is defaulted to
page 0. You cannot change the order of this page in the Pages section; you can only change
it in the Reading Settings.
5. If you want your pages to be in a hierarchy, such as an “About” page with a “Resume” page
under it, from the Resume page, you would choose the About page in the Parent pulldown
menu.

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WIDGETS
A Widget is a fancy word for tools or content that you can add, arrange, and
remove from the sidebars of your webpage. Widgets make it easy to customize the
content of your webpage sidebar – the part of your webpage to the left, right or
sometimes top or bottom of your main content. As long as you’re running a widget-
enabled theme, you can customize what goes into those sidebars. To add a widget:
1. Go to the left navigation bar click on the arrow to the right of Appearance
and then click on Widgets.
2. Drag the widget bar you want to add from the Available Widgets or Inactive
Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right.
3. You will see a dashed outline appear, this shows the placement of the widget without
actually placing it. When the widget is in the correct spot, you can then drop it into place.
4. Open the configuration options for a widget by clicking on the arrow to the right of the
widget’s name. Options depend on the widget. Some may have none.
a. To delete a widget, click on Delete, once the configuration options are open.

PRIVACY
In the same Settings area you used to change your homepage, if you click on Privacy, you have
three choices:
1. Allow search engines to index this site. – This is the setting used by most webpages. It
lets everyone read your webpage and allows your webpage to be included in search engines
and other content sites.
2. Ask search engines not to index this site. – If you want all human visitors to be able to
read your webpage, but want to block web crawlers for search engines, this is the setting for
you.
*WordPress Note: Neither of these (above) options blocks access to your site — it is up to search engines
to honor your request.
3. I would like my site to be private, visible only to users I choose. – You would use this
setting to create a private webpage. If selected, another area will appear where you can
control the WordPress.com usernames with access to the webpage.

DELETING BLOG
To delete a blog/site go to Tools and then Delete Site.
NOTE: YOU CANNOT DELETE AN ACCOUNT.

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