WordPress Blog Set-Up (a primer)
SETUP
- Go to blogs.uoregon.edu and sign in with your Duck Id and passcode
- Click on “All other sites”
- Read and scroll through information and click on “agree and continue”
- Sign in using Duck id and passcode to set-up and visibility
NOTE: WHENEVER YOU MAKE CHANGES ON YOUR SITE (no matter how small) YOU MUST HIT “SAVE AND PUBLISH” OR “UPDATE” FOR THE CHANGE TO STAND. IF YOU DON’T HIT “SAVE” YOUR WORK WILL BE LOST.
On future visits, once your blog is set up you can simply go to blogs.uoregon.edu and click on the tab “Log-In” which will prompt you to sign in to your site.
THEMES
- Go to “my sites” and click on your site’s “visit site” page. From this view you should see the outer face of your site.
- Next, go to the “inner face” which gives you access to the dashboard. To do this click on “customize”
- Change the theme; pick one (any will do); click on “live preview”
- Change the theme again, trying something new
- And again, change the theme
- Pick the theme you like best.
DASHBOARD
You can change your theme at any time; and change back again or keep making new changes. Every theme is set up a little differently. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with the dashboard of your particular theme.
- Create a site identity by creating a title for your blog
- If you like, select a Tagline
- Pick out a color for your website; Do this three times; Select the color you like best
- Find an image for your homepage. Ideally you’ll want to use a personal image or something in the public domain. To find a free image in the public domain follow these simple steps:
Go To Google Images: https://images.google.com/
- Type in a topic and search
- Click on “Tools” under the search box; a row of tabs will appear
- Click on “usage rights”
- Click on “Labeled for Non-Commercial Reuse”
- Select an image from your choices; or re-search if you don’t like the options
WIDGETS
You might try adding a widget. Widget options will vary from one theme to the next. Experiment with your theme’s widget options.
- Go to your dashboard
- Click on Plugins and/or Widgets
- Select a few to populate your site
If you’re using UO blogs you’ll learn quickly that we have a limited number of widgets. The advantage to using a public WordPress blog is that you have full access to every widget on the planet. The problem, however, is that some widgets are fussy. Others are broken and unsupported. Still others will break in the months to come. UOBlogs has fewer widget options but it supports those that are available. Public WordPress sites have great widgets, but buyer beware. Be sure to research a widget before spending hours and hours on one that’s destined to break.
Sometimes you can achieve a widget effect by using WP’s other features, such as embed. For example, UO does not have a mapping widget, but it’s easy to embed pre-made maps into a web page. See DIY Frankenstein for details: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/frankenstein/
PUBLISH YOUR FIRST BLOG POST
- Go to the ribbon bar at the top of the page and click on “+new”
- Copy/paste your blog into the space
- Pat yourself on the back for your hard work; you’re now a published author!
On many themes blogposts appear on the homepage. Hence you don’t need to create a page (a building block of a website); rather, you simply “post” a new entry and it appears on the homepage.
CREATE PAGES
A website needs pages to organize content. From the dashboard follow these steps:
- Hover over “Pages” and you’ll see a pop-up: “all pages” or “add new”
- Click on “add new” to create a new page
- Give your page a title and some content. Remember, WP is multi-media ready!
- Don’t forget: You need to save your page by hitting the “Save draft” or “Publish” buttons on the right side of your page. If you leave the page without saving you’ll lose your work.
CREATE A NEW MENU
Let’s say you’re writing a book on 19c gothic novels. Many of your sources appear in the book, but you have content that didn’t make it into the book—content someone might use to teach these novels or as supplementary research. And let’s say you’re interested in sharing that content with readers of your book. Using WP’s “Menu” feature allows you to organize the content so it’s easy to find.
From the dashboard click on “Appearances” and “Menus.” From there follow the guide to set up a new menu and to create divisions/tabs
Once you create the Menu/Tab structure you’ll need to think about pages. Let’s say each chapter of your book focuses on a different gothic novel. You’ll want Frankenstein content to be clustered together under the “Frankenstein” tab. If Frankenstein materials appear on the page for Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, visitors to your site will be very confused.
Once you’ve set up a Menu structure you can focus on creating pages for each of the novels you discuss in your book. Now, let’s say you have three pages on Frankenstein:
Page With Map of Frankenstein
Page with Youtube Video of Frankenstein
Page with a reading of Frankenstein by Bill Clinton
How do you make sure they show up under the right tab in your site’s Menu?
Open each page (hover over the page and click “Edit”)—one at a time.
In the Page Attributes Box (right side of screen) click on “parent”—which would be the tab “Frankenstein.” Essentially you’ve just told WP to unite the page with the map of Frankenstein (the child) with its parent (the tab you created to hold materials on Frankenstein). Under the Attribute box you can also order the pages if you want them to appear in a particular way.
**I feel compelled to observe that Victor Frankenstein would hated this parent/child feature given his repulsion for his own child!
USING WP’S EMBED FEATURE
Embedding Instructions can be found on the page titled “Embedding Maps” on this site:
https://blogs.uoregon.edu/frankenstein/embedding-maps-on-a-wp-page/