IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi! My name is Morten Rand-Hendriksen, and
welcome to WordPress Essential Training.
| | 00:09 | In this course, we will look at how
you can set up your own Web site using
| | 00:13 | WordPress installed on a Web
host, or on your own server.
| | 00:17 | We will dive headfirst into the
many settings and configuration
| | 00:21 | options available to you.
| | 00:23 | Then I'll show you how to create posts and
pages with images, videos, and other content.
| | 00:29 | We will install plug-ins, and themes, add
functionality, and change the look of the site.
| | 00:35 | Next, we'll take a look at the inner
workings of WordPress, and pick up some
| | 00:39 | important troubleshooting tips along
the way, and we will look at the advanced
| | 00:43 | settings of WordPress, so you can
use the application to its fullest.
| | 00:47 | If you want to create a Web site you
have complete control over -- where it's
| | 00:50 | hosted, how it behaves, and how it looks --
WordPress as a self-hosted solution is
| | 00:56 | the perfect option for you.
| | 00:58 | Let's get cracking with
WordPress Essential Training.
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| What is new in the December 2012 update?| 00:00 | In December 2012
version 3.5 of WordPress was released.
| | 00:05 | Behind the scenes, the new version has
some significant changes, but for the
| | 00:09 | typical user there are four
changes worth addressing in particular.
| | 00:13 | When you access WordPress for the
first time after installing WordPress
| | 00:16 | 3.5--either by installing WordPress
from scratch or by updating WordPress from
| | 00:21 | a previous version--you're taken to this
welcome page that explains the new changes.
| | 00:27 | Off the top, one of the major
changes is a new Media Manager.
| | 00:31 | This means the way WordPress handles
media content like images and other
| | 00:35 | elements has completely
changed with this new version.
| | 00:38 | And there is also a big change in how
you handle media when you upload it to
| | 00:43 | WordPress, and we'll look at that
in an update later in this course.
| | 00:47 | There is also a new
default theme in WordPress 3.5.
| | 00:49 | It's called Twenty Twelve
because it was released in 2012.
| | 00:54 | The older default themes--Twenty Ten
and Twenty Eleven--are still bundled, but
| | 00:58 | the new Twenty Twelve theme is the
most up-to-date theme, and it has the most
| | 01:03 | recent features in accordance with
what's going on on the web right now.
| | 01:06 | Feel free to play around with it if you want.
| | 01:09 | Twenty Twelve will not be covered in
this course because it was recorded when
| | 01:13 | Twenty Eleven was still the major default theme.
| | 01:15 | But, Twenty Twelve is easy to work with, and
you should be able to figure it out on your own.
| | 01:21 | Another interesting development is
that a lot of computers and tablets in
| | 01:25 | particular come shipped with what's
called bigh-resolution, or retina, displays
| | 01:29 | these days, and WordPress 3.5 supports
these high-resolution displays with more
| | 01:36 | intricate graphics, so that if you have
one of these high-resolution displays,
| | 01:39 | all your little icons and logos will
appear crisp and clear on these displays.
| | 01:45 | A final change that you may or may not
see is that WordPress 3.5 no longer ships
| | 01:51 | with the Links Manager.
| | 01:53 | That's because the Links Manager is
a feature that very few people use;
| | 01:56 | however, as you can see in my
installation, you can still see the Links
| | 02:00 | Manager right here.
| | 02:02 | That's because I upgraded this
installation of WordPress from an earlier version
| | 02:06 | and I had Links installed.
| | 02:08 | If you didn't have Links installed and
you installed WordPress from scratch, you
| | 02:13 | wouldn't see this Links Manager.
| | 02:14 | You can still add the Links Manager
feature, if you want to, by adding a plugin.
| | 02:19 | But like I said, very few people use this
feature, and it's not really worth mentioning.
| | 02:23 | So if you don't see it
in your menu, that's fine.
| | 02:26 | That's the way it's supposed to be.
| | 02:28 | I've updated this course where
necessary to reflect these changes.
| | 02:32 | Throughout most of WordPress,
the changes in 3.5 are largely cosmetic.
| | 02:37 | In other words, the appearance of
things like buttons may have changed ever so
| | 02:41 | slightly, but they work the same way.
| | 02:44 | Now let's get cracking.
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1. Getting to Know WordPressWhat is WordPress?| 00:00 | When I start something new, like trying
to learn a new skill -- let's say, I want
| | 00:04 | to pick up a new dance, or I want to
learn a new photography technique, or I
| | 00:08 | want to start using a new application --
I find that it's always best to start
| | 00:12 | with a clean slate.
| | 00:13 | Throw away all my preconceptions,
and start from the ground up.
| | 00:16 | That way, I can go in, and figure out
what this is all about, how it works, and
| | 00:21 | how it can work for me, and figure out
all the small little details that will
| | 00:25 | help me use whatever it is I
want to do to its full capacity.
| | 00:30 | A good place to start, therefore, is
to ask a simple question, and in our case,
| | 00:35 | that question is, what is WordPress?
| | 00:37 | It's actually a very complicated
question to answer, but I can start by
| | 00:41 | answering it in a very simple way.
| | 00:43 | WordPress is a publishing platform
that makes it easy for you to create a
| | 00:46 | Web site that you can publish
your content to the Internet.
| | 00:50 | WordPress comes in two varieties;
| | 00:52 | you have WordPress.com, which is the cloud
holsted -- which means that it lives on the Internet --
| | 00:56 | service, where you can set up your own
Web site for free, and you can create it
| | 01:01 | within the WordPress ecosystem.
| | 01:03 | You also have a self-hosted
variety of WordPress.
| | 01:06 | This is the same application as what
you see on WordPress.com, but it's hosted
| | 01:10 | on your own Web server.
| | 01:12 | That way, you have complete
control over it. Whether you want to use
| | 01:15 | WordPress.com, or if you want to use
WordPress as a self-hosted application
| | 01:20 | depends both on your skill set,
and also on what you want to do.
| | 01:24 | If you are watching this course, which
is about WordPress self-hosting, but what
| | 01:28 | you're interested in is WordPress.com
hosting, with a free blog on WordPress.com,
| | 01:33 | you should go check out my other
course: WordPress.com Essential Training.
| | 01:38 | WordPress was created by
this guy: Matt Mullenweg.
| | 01:41 | You see him down here, and this is
his blog, which is a WordPress blog.
| | 01:44 | Matt wanted a simple way of publishing
content on the Internet, so he started
| | 01:49 | working with some other people, and
created WordPress, and now it's become one of
| | 01:52 | the most important, and most popular
Web publishing applications out there.
| | 01:56 | If you want to get a good idea of what
WordPress is, you should actually just
| | 02:00 | go the Matt's Web site, because here
you see exactly what WordPress was
| | 02:04 | originally meant to be;
| | 02:05 | a simple bloging tool where he can just
muse about whatever he wants, and post
| | 02:09 | content all the time.
| | 02:10 | It's actually kind of funny to read
what Matt has to say, because he travels the
| | 02:14 | world, he meets a lot of interesting
people, and he has thoughts on pretty much
| | 02:17 | everything, and he puts it all
out there, so you can read it.
| | 02:19 | But WordPress is so much more
than just a bloging platform.
| | 02:24 | If you go to the Notable WordPress
Users page on WordPress.com, you get an idea
| | 02:28 | of just how important WordPress is.
| | 02:30 | You can see that it's used by some
really heavy hitters, from famous blogs, to
| | 02:35 | news organizations, like CNN, to music
stars, fashion stars, technology firms,
| | 02:41 | politics, and even Fortune 500 companies.
| | 02:44 | Pretty much everyone uses WordPress
these days for all sorts of things, and
| | 02:48 | that's kind of the point.
| | 02:49 | WordPress isn't a one size fit all type thing.
| | 02:53 | WordPress can be whatever you want it to be.
| | 02:55 | You just have to grab it, put your
own ideas into it, and then twist it into
| | 02:59 | whatever you want it to be.
| | 03:01 | If you go around the Internet, and you
look at what WordPress is being used for,
| | 03:05 | you have everything from magazines
that use it to publish simple content, to
| | 03:10 | people who use WordPress to track their
own exercises, and you have people like
| | 03:14 | me, who use WordPress to build advanced
Web sites for companies, like Microsoft, or
| | 03:19 | Frugalbits, or they run events through WordPress.
| | 03:22 | This is an event I created in Vancouver
called the 12 by 12 Vancouver Photo Marathon.
| | 03:26 | The Web site is also run through WordPress.
| | 03:29 | And these examples show
something else that's important:
| | 03:32 | WordPress isn't just one look, or one
thing. People use WordPress for all sorts
| | 03:37 | of things, and WordPress Web sites
can look like pretty much anything.
| | 03:41 | In fact, often it's so hard to recognize
a WordPress Web site from something else,
| | 03:46 | that you have to actually go into the
back end to find out what application is
| | 03:50 | running behind it, because
WordPress doesn't really have a look to it.
| | 03:53 | There's no such thing as
that's what WordPress looks like,
| | 03:57 | and that's because WordPress is open source.
| | 03:59 | There are millions of developers out
there that are constantly adding to
| | 04:03 | WordPress to add new functionality,
add new looks, and add new behaviors.
| | 04:07 | So WordPress is in constant motion,
constantly improving, and constantly shaping
| | 04:12 | itself to fit with the people who use it.
| | 04:15 | So let's get back to that key
question: what is WordPress?
| | 04:19 | If you ask me, my answer is, WordPress is
whatever you want it to be, and I think
| | 04:24 | that's a good place to start.
| | 04:25 | WordPress is a simple and easy to use
publishing platform for the Web, and you
| | 04:30 | can use it to create anything from an
advanced Web site, to a basic blog, and
| | 04:34 | anything in between.
| | 04:35 | And you can even make sites that can
switch between being blogs and non-blogs at
| | 04:39 | the touch of a button.
| | 04:40 | The possibilities when using
WordPress are pretty much endless.
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| Exploring the difference between cloud hosting and self-hosting| 00:00 | WordPress comes in two varieties;
| | 00:02 | free cloud hosting via WordPress.com,
and a self-hosted option that you can
| | 00:07 | download from WordPress.org.
| | 00:09 | Both run the same program, and have the
same basic features, but each have their
| | 00:14 | advantages and disadvantages.
| | 00:16 | Choosing what option is right for you
is a matter of mapping out the needs of
| | 00:20 | your site, and where you
want to take it in the future.
| | 00:23 | The good thing is, whichever option you
go for now does not have to be final.
| | 00:27 | You can build a site on WordPress.com,
and then move it to a self-hosted solution
| | 00:32 | down the road if need be, or you can
build a site on a self-hosted solution
| | 00:36 | now, and move it to WordPress.com later.
| | 00:39 | WordPress is incredibly flexible in all
aspects, even when it comes to how it's hosted.
| | 00:44 | So let's take a look at the
features of WordPress.com, and WordPress
| | 00:47 | self-hosting, side by side.
| | 00:49 | WordPress.com is managed by a company
called Automattic, which is owned by the
| | 00:54 | guys that created WordPress to begin with.
| | 00:56 | That means anything that happens on
WordPress.com is managed by them, and any
| | 01:00 | updates come from Automattic.
| | 01:03 | WordPress.com lives in the cloud.
| | 01:05 | Now, the cloud is this
trend word that everyone uses.
| | 01:08 | Basically, the cloud means that it
just lives on the Internet, usually on a
| | 01:12 | distributed network of multiple
servers. And for you, as a user, that means
| | 01:17 | that it's pretty fast, pretty
secure, and if a server goes down for some
| | 01:22 | reason, it doesn't mean that your
Web site is just going to disappear off the
| | 01:25 | Internet in the process.
| | 01:26 | Because WordPress.com is managed by
Automattic, you have automatic maintenance.
| | 01:31 | You don't have to worry about
anything that happens there.
| | 01:33 | All you have to worry about is your own content.
| | 01:36 | However, because WordPress is
owned by Automattic, there are
| | 01:40 | content restrictions.
| | 01:41 | Automattic won't let you publish
anything you want, and of course, most of the
| | 01:45 | stuff they don't allow you to publish
really shouldn't be published anyway.
| | 01:48 | But there are cases where you may want
to do something on your Web site -- like for
| | 01:52 | instance, add Google ads --
that you just can't do.
| | 01:55 | WordPress.com comes with a
preconfigured theme library.
| | 01:59 | In WordPress, a theme is what decides what
your Web site looks like, and how it behaves.
| | 02:04 | In WordPress.com, you can only use
the themes that come with WordPress.com.
| | 02:09 | It's a large library, but it's limited,
and you can't really make your own
| | 02:12 | themes, and redesign the
Web site exactly to your liking.
| | 02:16 | WordPress.com also has predefined functionality.
| | 02:19 | When you hear people talk about
WordPress, you hear a lot of talk about
| | 02:22 | something called plugins.
| | 02:24 | Well, in WordPress.com,
there's no such thing as plugins.
| | 02:27 | Plugins are small applications that you can add
to WordPress self-hosting to add functionality.
| | 02:33 | But in WordPress.com, you have the
functionality that's available in the
| | 02:36 | system, and that's it.
| | 02:37 | They add on new functionality all the time,
but you can't add them on your own.
| | 02:42 | WordPress.com is pretty much a zero
hassle environment, which means all you have
| | 02:46 | to care about is publishing your content.
| | 02:48 | Automattic will do the rest of the hard
work. And finally, WordPress.com allows
| | 02:53 | you to import content from self-
hosting, and from other services.
| | 02:57 | In fact, a lot of big blogging services
have gone belly up as of late, and many
| | 03:01 | of them have moved all their
blogs over to WordPress.com.
| | 03:04 | So it's a very rapidly growing platform,
and there's a lot of good import/export
| | 03:09 | functionality in there.
| | 03:10 | So if you already own a blog
somewhere else, and you want to move to
| | 03:13 | WordPress, it's easy to do.
| | 03:16 | Now let's look at WordPress
self-hosting for a comparison.
| | 03:19 | A self-hosted WordPress site is managed by you.
| | 03:22 | That means that you're responsible for
buying a hosting package, or having a server
| | 03:26 | up and running, and you have to keep up
the maintenance of that server, and pay
| | 03:30 | whatever bills come with it.
| | 03:31 | A WordPress self-hosted site is,
therefore, also maintained by you.
| | 03:35 | So if anything goes wrong, you're on
the hook for it, and you have to fix it
| | 03:38 | yourself, or you have to
hire someone else to do it.
| | 03:41 | However, it's not all bad.
| | 03:42 | Because it's managed by you, there
are no content restrictions, and you can
| | 03:46 | do whatever you want.
| | 03:47 | You can post any kind of content you
want, and it won't cost anything extra, and
| | 03:51 | you can add features like
Google AdSense with no problems.
| | 03:54 | WordPress self-hosting also allows
you to install and use any theme.
| | 03:58 | So, for instance, my company makes
advanced WordPress setups and Web sites for
| | 04:03 | other companies, and what we do is we
set up a WordPress self-hosted site, and
| | 04:08 | then we create a custom theme just for
that site that no one else has, and that
| | 04:12 | fits exactly what the user wants.
| | 04:15 | Likewise, you can add new functionality
to WordPress self-hosted sites, through
| | 04:19 | plugins, and through functions.
| | 04:21 | That means that, though you don't get all
the advanced features of WordPress.com,
| | 04:25 | you can build even fancier features
yourself, or you can find the same
| | 04:30 | features in one of the millions of
plugins available on the Internet.
| | 04:34 | Because WordPress as a self-hosted
solution is self-hosted, you get all the
| | 04:38 | hassle, and all the control you want.
| | 04:41 | That means things can go wrong, and
you're on the hook for them, but at the same
| | 04:45 | time, you can really control what's
going on on your Web site, and set it up
| | 04:49 | exactly the way you want it
to get the most out of it.
| | 04:52 | And finally, just like with WordPress.com,
WordPress self-hosting allows you to
| | 04:56 | import and export content.
| | 04:58 | So if you have a blog on WordPress.com
already, and you want to move to
| | 05:02 | self-hosting, you can simply grab the
content from WordPress.com site, and move
| | 05:06 | it over to your self-hosted site, and
it'll work fine, and the same goes for
| | 05:10 | Blogger, and Tumblr, and
all these other Web sites too.
| | 05:13 | These are just some of the differences
between WordPress.com, and WordPress as a
| | 05:17 | self-hosted solution.
| | 05:18 | But it should give you a general idea
of the differences, and both the benefits
| | 05:23 | and the drawbacks of each solution.
| | 05:25 | Deciding what option is best for you
boils down to an assessment of what you
| | 05:29 | need, and what is available.
| | 05:30 | But like I said, you can always switch
around if you find that your original
| | 05:34 | choice was not the right one.
| | 05:36 | In this course, we'll be focusing on
creating Web sites using WordPress as a
| | 05:40 | self-hosted solution.
| | 05:41 | If you're interested in using WordPress.com
to create a free Web site or blog,
| | 05:46 | you should go check out my other course,
WordPress.com Essential Training, right
| | 05:51 | here in the Lynda.com Training Library.
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| Using your own asset files | 00:00 | Before we get started, just a quick note
on the content I'll be using, and you'll
| | 00:05 | be using, while following this course.
| | 00:07 | I've designed this course to teach you
how to use WordPress to publish your own
| | 00:12 | content to the Web in the most effective way.
| | 00:14 | Therefore, rather than give you a bunch
of dummy text, and dummy images to work
| | 00:18 | with, I want you to use your own
text, images, and other materials.
| | 00:23 | That way, when you finish the course,
you'll have a site with real content you've
| | 00:27 | created and published.
| | 00:28 | So whenever you see me go to my
Assets folder, or use text, or images, or other
| | 00:34 | material, use your own material.
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2. Getting Started with WordPress Self-HostingGetting the necessary info from your host| 00:00 | To set up a self-hosted WordPress site,
you need the correct access information
| | 00:04 | to the Web host, and also to the MySQL
database we'll be using for WordPress.
| | 00:09 | All of this information should be
made available to you by your hosting
| | 00:12 | provider, usually through a
hosting management panel, like cPanel.
| | 00:17 | These hosting management panels differ
greatly from platform to platform, but
| | 00:21 | the overall principles always stay the same,
no matter where you're hosting your sites.
| | 00:25 | What you're looking for is two main things.
| | 00:28 | First of all, you want an FTP account,
or a File Transfer Protocol account, so
| | 00:33 | you can push files from your computer to
the host, and for the FTP account, you
| | 00:38 | need the Username and the Password of
the account, and you also need to know
| | 00:41 | where you're going to send the files,
| | 00:43 | so have the address.
| | 00:45 | In addition, you need the MySQL
database information, and here you need a
| | 00:50 | database name, a database username for a
database user, and also a password for
| | 00:55 | that user, and finally, you need to
know where the database is hosted.
| | 00:59 | All of this can be configured inside
cPanel, or another hosting management
| | 01:03 | platform, and you can also find all this
information there if it is already set up for you.
| | 01:09 | For this course, I'm going to be
using Bluehost to host the Web site, and
| | 01:13 | Bluehost uses cPanel.
| | 01:14 | So if you're on a host that uses cPanel
as well, you'll see that this experience
| | 01:19 | is very much similar to what yours is.
| | 01:21 | But cPanel is often configured
differently between different hosts, so it won't
| | 01:25 | be exactly the same.
| | 01:27 | If you're on a host that doesn't use cPanel,
but uses something else instead, you'll
| | 01:31 | still find all the same
functionality within that host;
| | 01:34 | it just won't look exactly the same.
| | 01:36 | Before I start configuring anything,
I've created a text file that I'm going to
| | 01:40 | use to save all the information I'm now
going to set up, and I've prepared that
| | 01:44 | text file, so it tells me
what information I'm looking for.
| | 01:47 | For FTP, I want the username, the
password, and the address. And for MySQL, I
| | 01:52 | want the database name, the database user, the
database user password, and also the database host.
| | 01:57 | I'm going to save all that information
in this file, so that I have it ready for
| | 02:01 | when I'm going to deploy my sites.
| | 02:04 | Now that I have that file ready, I
can go to Bluehost, and begin the setup.
| | 02:07 | First, I am going to create a new FTP account.
| | 02:11 | Now when you set up your account,
you'll always get a master FTP account, but I
| | 02:15 | don't recommend you ever use that
master FTP account, and here's why:
| | 02:19 | for all the benefits of FTP, FTP is an
old protocol, and it is not the safest
| | 02:25 | way of transferring data,
| | 02:26 | but it is the easiest one, and it's the one
that's supported across the most platforms.
| | 02:31 | Therefore, what I recommend doing is
setting up a custom account that you're
| | 02:35 | going to use for transporting files
back and forth between your site, and then,
| | 02:39 | because it's kind of a throwaway
account, if something happens to it, like it
| | 02:44 | gets compromised, you can just go
delete it, and make a new one, whereas if you
| | 02:47 | were using the master account,
it could become a real problem.
| | 02:50 | The other benefit of using a custom FTP
account is that you can target it to a
| | 02:55 | specific folder within your setup,
and that's what I'm going to do.
| | 02:58 | So first, I'll create a new account.
| | 03:00 | So I scroll down here, until I find FTP
Accounts, and from here, I can add a new FTP account.
| | 03:07 | So first I'll give myself a name, mor10,
and then I have to set up a password, and
| | 03:12 | I'm going to use this Password
Generator to create a strong password.
| | 03:15 | So I'll click Password Generator, and here I
get a very strong password that I can copy.
| | 03:21 | Then I'll check I have copied this
password in a safe place, and click
| | 03:24 | Use Password, and now I'm going to go to my
text file, and paste that password in here.
| | 03:30 | I'm also going to grab the Login, or
username, which is mor10@ldcsites.com, and
| | 03:39 | I'll leave the address for now.
| | 03:40 | I'll save this file, and I'll go back here.
| | 03:44 | The next thing I want to do is point
this FTP account to a specific folder in
| | 03:48 | my system, because I've already tied
my domain to a specific folder, and I want
| | 03:54 | it to be so that when I log in with FTP,
I land directly into the folder I want
| | 03:58 | to use for my Web site.
| | 04:00 | In this case, it's not mor10;
| | 04:02 | it's samoca, so I'm changing it.
| | 04:05 | And that way, when I log in, I'll land
right here in the folder I want to use,
| | 04:09 | and then I'll set my Quota to
Unlimited, and click Create FTP Account.
| | 04:15 | Now I have an FTP account, which
means I can log in to the site.
| | 04:19 | The next step is to create a MySQL database.
| | 04:22 | So I'll go back to cPanel, and I'll
scroll further down this time until I find
| | 04:26 | this area that says MySQL Databases,
and here I can either create one manually,
| | 04:31 | or I can use the wizard.
| | 04:32 | I'm going to create one
manually, so you can see how it's done.
| | 04:35 | So I'll click MySQL Databases, and
then under here, where it says Create New
| | 04:40 | Database, I'll create a new database.
So I'll call this one, samocawp, because
| | 04:43 | it's SAMOCA WordPress, and click Create Database.
| | 04:49 | So that'll be the database name.
| | 04:51 | So I can copy this, go back to my file,
and the database name becomes this.
| | 04:58 | I'll save this file,
| | 04:59 | then I can go back, and now I need to
create a database user for my new database.
| | 05:06 | So I'll scroll further down here, and
here it says MySQL Users > Add New User.
| | 05:11 | So here I can create a new
username for that database.
| | 05:15 | So I'll make this name wpinst, or
wpinstall, and then I'll use the Password
| | 05:21 | Generator again to create a strong password.
| | 05:23 | I'll copy this, I have copied this
password in a safe place, save password,
| | 05:30 | switch to my document, save the password
here, save the file, and then I can also
| | 05:35 | punch in the username while I'm at it.
| | 05:38 | So that is ldcsites_wpinst, and save,
and finally, I click Create User.
| | 05:48 | And now I can go to the final step, and
assign the user to the database I created.
| | 05:53 | So I'll scroll down ,and then
I'll say Add User To Database.
| | 05:56 | I'll pick the User, this one, wpinst,
and I'll point that user to the database,
| | 06:03 | samocawp, and when I click Add, I can
now set up user privileges for this user.
| | 06:10 | Now, this means what the user can
and cannot do with the database.
| | 06:14 | The user in this case is WordPress itself,
| | 06:17 | so I'm going to check All Privileges,
because WordPress needs to be able to do
| | 06:21 | everything on the database.
| | 06:23 | I'll click Make Changes, and now
we're finally all set up and ready to go.
| | 06:28 | Going back to my file to check that I
have everything, you'll see I'm missing
| | 06:32 | a couple of things.
| | 06:33 | I'm missing the FTP address, and
I'm also missing the host address.
| | 06:37 | That's because I already know that
the FTP address is going to be just
| | 06:40 | samoca.org, and I know that for
Bluehost, the hostname is localhost.
| | 06:47 | If you have a host that uses a
different name than localhost, it would've told
| | 06:52 | you by now that it was
going to use something else.
| | 06:54 | So if the management application says
nothing, the database host is usually localhost.
| | 07:00 | Now I can save my file, and we're ready to go.
| | 07:03 | WordPress is very easy to install
on your Web host once you have the
| | 07:06 | correct information.
| | 07:07 | Fortunately, most Web hosts now
understand that people like to install
| | 07:11 | applications like WordPress, so they
make it easy to find info about FTP, and how
| | 07:16 | to set up a MySQL database.
| | 07:18 | And if you can't find it, just give
your Web host a call, or send them an e-mail.
| | 07:22 | More than likely, you're
just looking in the wrong place.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Downloading WordPress| 00:00 | Once you have your host set up and ready,
you have your FTP account information,
| | 00:04 | and you have all your MySQL information
ready to go, it's time to download a new
| | 00:09 | version of WordPress.
| | 00:10 | WordPress can be found on the main
WordPress Web site, WordPress.org, and any
| | 00:15 | time I install WordPress on a new
server, or I do a fresh install, I always go
| | 00:20 | to WordPress.org, and download the
latest version, because I always want to start
| | 00:24 | with a fresh, clean version of
WordPress that I know is the latest one that was
| | 00:28 | released, because WordPress
releases updates quite frequently.
| | 00:32 | On WordPress.org, I can download
WordPress either by clicking the big blue
| | 00:36 | button here, or the red button up in the
corner. Both take me to the same place,
| | 00:41 | and here I get some information about
the current version of WordPress, and I
| | 00:45 | can download the file.
| | 00:46 | So I will click Download, and while
that's happening, I will show you what else
| | 00:49 | is available on WordPress.org.
| | 00:52 | First of all, since you are watching
this course, I know you are going to
| | 00:54 | install WordPress on your own host.
| | 00:57 | If you want to see the official
documentation on how to install WordPress, you
| | 01:00 | can go check out the handy
installation guide that WordPress provides, that
| | 01:05 | runs through every step of the process.
| | 01:06 | This is a great tool, because you can
always go in and check if something
| | 01:09 | odd happens, and you can also share this with
other people who want to install WordPress.
| | 01:14 | But WordPress.org is not just a place
where you can get information about how to
| | 01:18 | install WordPress; you can also
get a lot of other information.
| | 01:22 | WordPress.org has a showcase where
you can see examples of Web sites that
| | 01:26 | are using WordPress;
| | 01:28 | you can also check out, and maybe
download, some of the thousands of really cool
| | 01:32 | themes that are available through the
Free Theme Directory, and you can check out
| | 01:36 | plugins. Plugins are little
applications that you can add to your WordPress
| | 01:40 | installation to add functionality.
| | 01:43 | You also have links directly to
different Mobile apps available for WordPress.
| | 01:47 | These work for Androids, for iOS, for
Blackberry, and Windows Phone, and so on,
| | 01:52 | and they install on your phone, or your tablet,
| | 01:55 | so it's easy to post to your
WordPress site while you are on the go.
| | 01:59 | You can also find documents
under the WordPress Codex.
| | 02:03 | The WordPress Codex is where you have all the
information about the code inside WordPress.
| | 02:08 | So all the developers, like me, they
spend a lot of time on the WordPress Codex,
| | 02:12 | because this is kind of the Bible
of how WordPress works, and all the
| | 02:16 | functionality in it.
| | 02:17 | If you're not quite that advanced, you
can go to the forums, and here you can
| | 02:21 | find help and information
about how to do different things.
| | 02:25 | So if you run into a strange problem, and
you can't figure it out, you can go to
| | 02:28 | the forum, and post a question, and
someone will pick that question up, and answer
| | 02:32 | it, and maybe point you in the right direction.
| | 02:35 | WordPress.org is the go to place for
anyone who's doing WordPress self-hosting,
| | 02:39 | and personally, I am on WordPress.org
pretty much every single day of the year,
| | 02:44 | because it's such a well of information,
and there's always new stuff coming in,
| | 02:48 | because WordPress is open source, and
anyone who works with WordPress will, at
| | 02:52 | some point, contribute something, either
to the Codex, to the forum, to the Themes
| | 02:56 | Directory, or to the Plugins Directory.
| | 02:59 | Once WordPress is downloaded onto my
computer, I can open it, I will unpack the
| | 03:03 | archive, and then I can move the
WordPress folder to my Desktop. And now, when I
| | 03:11 | open it, you see I have a complete
fresh and untouched version of WordPress
| | 03:16 | that is up to date, and ready
to be installed on my host.
| | 03:21 | WordPress.org is the focal point of all
information about WordPress self-hosting,
| | 03:25 | and it's where you should turn
whenever you have a question.
| | 03:28 | It is filled with insightful articles,
useful applications, and helpful forum
| | 03:32 | members, and here's a little tip from me:
| | 03:35 | if you're having trouble finding
information on a specific article using the
| | 03:38 | search function inside WordPress.org,
try using Google instead.
| | 03:43 | For whatever reason, Google's
indexing of WordPress.org is better than
| | 03:48 | WordPress.org's own indexing of its own site,
| | 03:52 | so when I search for
something, I always use Google.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Uploading WordPress to your host| 00:00 | If you've been following this course from
the start, you should now have two items;
| | 00:04 | the most recent version of
WordPress, downloaded from WordPress.org, and
| | 00:08 | unconfigured, and also a file with all
your access information, both to FTP, and
| | 00:13 | to your MySQL database.
| | 00:15 | If you have all these things, it's time
to publish WordPress to your Web host.
| | 00:20 | To do that, I need an FTP client.
| | 00:21 | I already have one installed, it's
called FileZillla, and FileZillla has FTP
| | 00:27 | clients for all the major platforms,
but there are hundreds of different FTP
| | 00:31 | applications out there, and if you use a
different one, it doesn't really make any
| | 00:35 | difference; they are all pretty much the same.
| | 00:37 | I have installed FileZillla on my
computer, and now I am going to start it, and
| | 00:41 | start configuring my files.
| | 00:43 | So first, I need my files here, and
now I can set up a new account under
| | 00:48 | FileZillla that will talk directly to my host.
| | 00:51 | So I'll click on the Site Manager,
create a New Site, call that SAMOCA, and then
| | 00:57 | I'm going to start entering information.
| | 00:59 | First off, I am going to give it the Host
name. In my case, that is just my domain
| | 01:04 | name, and this depends on your hosting provider.
| | 01:07 | Some hosting providers
require that you say FTP dot
| | 01:10 | in front of your domain name, and other
hosting providers have different ways of
| | 01:13 | targeting your folders.
| | 01:15 | So if you can't find that information
when you're logged in to the hosting
| | 01:18 | management panel, you should call your
host, or e-mail them, and ask them what your
| | 01:23 | FTP access information is.
| | 01:25 | It should be pretty easy to find.
| | 01:26 | Next, I am going to set up the Logon Type.
| | 01:29 | Here I am just going to set it Normal,
because all I need is the User name, and
| | 01:32 | Password, and I will grab
my User name, and my Password.
| | 01:40 | That's all I need to do.
| | 01:42 | So now I can simply click OK, and then
use the dropdown to select SAMOCA, and
| | 01:47 | FileZillla will log me in to my host.
| | 01:50 | Here I can see all the files that are
currently available on my host, and as you
| | 01:54 | can see, there are already some files there.
| | 01:56 | I don't want any of these files;
| | 01:58 | they were put there by the
host when my account was set up.
| | 02:01 | So what I am going to do is create a new
folder, call it OLD, and then dump all
| | 02:07 | these files into that folder.
| | 02:09 | I am also going to move this cgi-bin into OLD.
| | 02:12 | That way, if it turns out
that those files mattered,
| | 02:16 | I can always go back to the OLD
folder, and pull them back out again.
| | 02:19 | So I didn't delete anything;
I just moved it around.
| | 02:21 | Now I am going to do a trick, because I
want my WordPress installation to be a
| | 02:25 | bit more secure, and a simple way of doing
that is putting it into a folder that hides it.
| | 02:30 | So I am going to create another folder
here, and I won't call it WordPress, I'll
| | 02:34 | call it something entirely different,
but it has to be something I can remember.
| | 02:37 | So I'll call this folder here, and click OK.
| | 02:41 | I'm now going to upload
WordPress into this here folder.
| | 02:44 | So I'll go to my Desktop, open
WordPress, grab all the files, and simply drag
| | 02:53 | them over into the here folder.
| | 02:55 | Now FileZillla will take every
single file, and every single folder inside
| | 02:59 | this WordPress installation, and push them up
through my network connection onto my server.
| | 03:05 | I am just going to warn you, this
might take a while, because WordPress is a
| | 03:08 | very large application with a lot of
small files, and depending on your network
| | 03:12 | connection, it just my take
a while to push them all up.
| | 03:15 | Once the upload completes, make sure no
files are listed under Failed transfers,
| | 03:21 | and if no files are listed here,
you can assume that the files inside
| | 03:25 | FileZillla listed on your server, match
the files on your computer exactly. To
| | 03:30 | test that everything works, go to your Web
browser, put in your domain name, and then /here.
| | 03:38 | If everything worked according to plan,
you will now get this page, which looks
| | 03:42 | like something is broken, but in fact,
this is WordPress talking to you.
| | 03:47 | WordPress is telling me that I
haven't put up a wp-config.php file yet, and
| | 03:53 | that's why it's not working.
| | 03:54 | This is exactly what I want to see.
| | 03:56 | This means that everything was uploaded
correctly, and we are now ready to set
| | 04:00 | up WordPress.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Installing WordPress with the 5-Minute Install| 00:00 | To make the installation of WordPress
on your server as easy as possible, the
| | 00:04 | application comes complete with what
is known as the 5-minute install.
| | 00:08 | This first run service helps you
configure WordPress to talk to your database,
| | 00:13 | and run on your server, and usually it
doesn't take more than five minutes to
| | 00:16 | complete, thus the name: the 5-minute install.
| | 00:19 | The 5-minute install works on
most servers, but not all servers.
| | 00:24 | It's pretty obvious when it doesn't
work, and if it doesn't work, there are
| | 00:27 | other options, but for now, let's
take a look at the 5-minute install.
| | 00:31 | What I've done so far is upload
WordPress onto my server under the domain name
| | 00:36 | samoca.org, and the folder here.
| | 00:39 | What you see now is the
beginning of the 5-minute install.
| | 00:42 | What's happened is I have uploaded
WordPress to the server, but I didn't give
| | 00:46 | WordPress any configuration information,
so WordPress doesn't know how to talk
| | 00:50 | to the database I have set up for it.
| | 00:52 | Therefore, I have to set up a file
called wp-config.php that will tell WordPress
| | 00:59 | how to talk to the database.
| | 01:00 | But I don't have to set up that file myself.
| | 01:03 | I can get WordPress to do it for
me, using the 5-minute install.
| | 01:06 | First, though, I need to access information.
| | 01:08 | So I am going to pull this window to
side, and I am going to open my SiteInfo
| | 01:13 | file, and put it to the other side, and
here I have all that MySQL information I
| | 01:20 | need to get WordPress to talk to the database.
| | 01:23 | So now I can start by
creating a configuration file.
| | 01:26 | I'll click Create a Configuration File,
and I'll be taken to this next page.
| | 01:31 | From here, I need to have the database
name, the database username, the password,
| | 01:36 | and the host, and over here I have database name,
username, password, and host, so I am set to go.
| | 01:43 | I also need to decide on a table prefix,
and it's a good idea to change to table
| | 01:48 | prefix into something other than the
default, which is wp, underscore, because if the prefix
| | 01:54 | is something else, then hackers will
have a harder time hacking your site.
| | 01:58 | This page also says that if for some
reason this automatic file creation
| | 02:02 | doesn't work, don't worry, because if
it doesn't work automatically, you can do
| | 02:06 | the same configuration manually, but we
are going to try the automatic option,
| | 02:09 | so I'll click Let's go!
| | 02:11 | Now I get to a page where I
have to enter all my information.
| | 02:14 | So I'll go ahead and grab the
database name, copy it; paste it in. Then my
| | 02:20 | database user name, copy, paste,
then my password, copy, paste, and then
| | 02:27 | finally, my database host. And you see
that WordPress is assuming that localhost
| | 02:32 | is the correct one, because it usually is.
| | 02:34 | Finally, I have to set a Table Prefix.
| | 02:36 | And the table prefix is basically the
beginning of every entry in the table,
| | 02:41 | so I can set that to whatever I want.
| | 02:43 | I am going to set it to sm instead of wp,
for SAMOCA, and then I click Submit.
| | 02:51 | And if it goes right, I get to this page.
Here it just says that WordPress can
| | 02:55 | now communicate with my database,
which means I can run the install.
| | 02:58 | So I'll click Run the Install, and
I now get to the WordPress install.
| | 03:02 | If something went wrong, you would
have gotten to a different page that said
| | 03:06 | something went wrong; I can't write to
the wp-config file, or something like that,
| | 03:11 | and then you would have to go to the
manual installation process instead.
| | 03:15 | If everything works, and it usually does,
installing WordPress with the 5-minute
| | 03:20 | install is by far the quickest and
easiest way to get up and running.
| | 03:24 | And fortunately, even if it doesn't
work, it's not hard to set up the
| | 03:28 | application manually.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Installing WordPress manually| 00:00 | Most of the time, when you run the
WordPress 5-minute install process,
| | 00:04 | everything works just fine, but there
are certain situations where it doesn't
| | 00:08 | work, and if it doesn't work, you
have to do the core setup manually.
| | 00:11 | So if what you're seeing on the screen
now is what you're looking at, you are
| | 00:15 | fine; you don't need to watch this movie.
| | 00:17 | However, if what you got when you tried
to do the 5-minute install was a warning
| | 00:22 | saying it didn't work, then you have
to follow the next couple of steps.
| | 00:25 | I am going to minimize my window here,
and then I'll go to my downloaded version
| | 00:29 | of WordPress on my computer.
| | 00:31 | Inside WordPress, I have this
file called wp-config-sample.
| | 00:36 | This is the file I am going to use to
create the wp-config file that's going to
| | 00:41 | tell my site how to talk to my database.
| | 00:43 | So I am going to open this file in
a text editor, and I am going to use
| | 00:47 | Notepad++, but you can use whatever
text editor you want; it doesn't really
| | 00:51 | matter. And then I am going to
do the configuration from here.
| | 00:53 | So first, I need to get my configuration
information from my file. So I'll open
| | 00:58 | the file, and then I am going to
configure WordPress using this text file. And I
| | 01:04 | know it looks intimidating, but if you
ignore all the green stuff, and you just
| | 01:09 | look for the right items,
it's actually very easy to do.
| | 01:11 | What we are looking for here is a
database name, and you see how it says
| | 01:15 | database_name_here; that's where we
are going to put the database name.
| | 01:18 | So I'll go and grab my database name,
copy it, and paste it in. And then I need
| | 01:25 | the database username, so
I'll go grab database username.
| | 01:30 | I need the database password, so I'll grab
database password, and I also need the host name.
| | 01:39 | Now, the name that's entered
here is already localhost,
| | 01:42 | so I don't need to set it as localhost.
| | 01:44 | If you have watched the previous movie,
you will also remember that I entered a
| | 01:47 | different database prefix.
| | 01:48 | If we scroll down on this page, you
find the database table prefix here, and
| | 01:53 | you can change it to anything you'd like.
| | 01:55 | In my case, I changed it to
sm, so I'll change it to sm.
| | 01:59 | There is one final step you have
to do, and that is you have to add
| | 02:02 | something called Salt.
| | 02:03 | Salt is the computer equivalent of a salted path.
| | 02:07 | It's basically heavy encryption that
makes it almost impossible for evil scripts
| | 02:12 | to come in and exploit your site, and hack it.
| | 02:15 | The idea of the Salts is that you
put in unique phrases for a bunch of
| | 02:19 | different values, and the more unique
those phrases are, the harder it gets for
| | 02:24 | computers to guess what they are, and
they have to guess them to be able to do
| | 02:27 | things to your site.
| | 02:28 | Of course, punching in different
unique phrases eight times can be a bit
| | 02:32 | tedious, so WordPress has done it for you.
| | 02:35 | If you grab this URL here, copy it, go
to your browser, and open it in a new tab,
| | 02:42 | an online service will
automatically generate random Salts for you.
| | 02:47 | So every time you reload it,
you get a different stack.
| | 02:49 | So you just grab this entire stack
of code, copy it, go back to your text
| | 02:54 | editor, highlight all of these define lines,
and just paste in what you got from the Web.
| | 03:00 | That's it.
| | 03:01 | Now you have all your crazy, cryptic,
unique phrases, and you're ready to go.
| | 03:06 | The last step you need to do
is save this file, and save it as
| | 03:10 | just wp-config.php.
| | 03:15 | Now you've configured WordPress on
your computer to talk to the database.
| | 03:20 | The only thing that's left to do is
grab that file you just created, the
| | 03:23 | wp-config file, open your FTP host, log on
to your site, and grab it, and drop it over.
| | 03:33 | By doing this, you are adding that
wp-config file that the 5-minute install
| | 03:38 | wasn't able to create for you.
| | 03:39 | That way, even if the 5-minute install
didn't work, WordPress will still be able
| | 03:44 | to talk to the database.
| | 03:46 | As you can see, even if the 5-minute
installer doesn't work, setting up WordPress
| | 03:50 | manually is not rocket science.
| | 03:53 | Configuring the wp-config.php file is
the only step that involves any type of
| | 03:58 | code, and the WordPress team has made
this process as easy as possible by
| | 04:03 | providing clearly marked areas where
the information should go, and even a
| | 04:06 | direct link to the Salt generator,
right from within the file itself.
| | 04:11 | With the MySQL information and Salts set
up, and the wp-config.php file uploaded
| | 04:16 | to your server, you're ready to
launch your self-hosted WordPress site.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Starting WordPress for the First TimeSetting up WordPress| 00:00 | Once WordPress is uploaded to your
host, and configured to talk your database,
| | 00:04 | it's imperative that you immediately
visit the homepage of the site to initiate
| | 00:09 | WordPress for the first time.
| | 00:11 | This is where you set the name of the
site, your username, and password, and
| | 00:15 | some other information.
| | 00:16 | If you don't do this step, there's
a minute chance that someone will
| | 00:20 | stumble upon your domain, and literally take
over your Web site before you even get it set up.
| | 00:25 | Of course, this is not a big problem,
because if that were to happen, you can
| | 00:29 | just go and delete the database, and start over,
| | 00:31 | but it's a bit of a hassle,
| | 00:33 | so it's a good idea to set it up immediately.
| | 00:35 | If you've closed all your browser
windows before you got to the setup process,
| | 00:39 | it's easy to get back to the installation.
| | 00:41 | All you have to do is open your browser,
and go to your domain, and your subfolder,
| | 00:48 | whatever you set it to, and just open that page.
| | 00:51 | If WordPress hasn't already been set up,
you'll now land on this page, where
| | 00:55 | you're welcomed to WordPress.
| | 00:57 | From here, you have to give your site
a title, which you can change later.
| | 01:00 | You have to create a Username for
yourself, insert a Password for your
| | 01:05 | Username, and provide your e-mail
address, so that WordPress can e-mail you
| | 01:09 | your password when you forget it.
| | 01:11 | So first, I'm going to set a title; SAMOCA.
| | 01:15 | Then I'm going to set a username.
| | 01:16 | Now, it's really important that you
don't use admin as your Username.
| | 01:21 | Whatever you do, admin should not be
your user on your site, because admin used
| | 01:26 | to be the default user, and every
hacker who's ever tried to attack a WordPress
| | 01:31 | site has always started by
looking for the admin user.
| | 01:34 | So choose something other
than admin, whatever you do.
| | 01:36 | I'll set up samocamor10 as my Username,
and then enter Password, and my e-mail
| | 01:46 | address, info@samoca.org, and finally, I
can choose whether or not I want my site
| | 01:54 | to appear in search engines, like
Google, and Technorati right away.
| | 01:58 | I usually turn this off, and then I
reactivate it later on, when I actually have
| | 02:02 | content on my site, because I don't
want search engines to start indexing my
| | 02:06 | site when there's nothing really there.
| | 02:08 | When I've set up all the information,
I'm going to click Install WordPress.
| | 02:12 | I get to a page that says Success!
| | 02:15 | WordPress has been installed.
| | 02:16 | Were you expecting more steps?
| | 02:18 | Sorry to disappoint. And now I can log
in to WordPress for the first time. And
| | 02:23 | from here, I can click Back to SAMOCA, and voila!
| | 02:28 | Here is my new WordPress installation
up on the Web for everyone to see.
| | 02:32 | Setting up WordPress for the first
time is very simple, and gives you the
| | 02:35 | ability to set a custom
administrator name right off the bat.
| | 02:39 | This is a new feature
included with WordPress 3.0.
| | 02:42 | In the past, the default administrator
username was admin, and people forgot to
| | 02:47 | delete it, which made it a huge security risk.
| | 02:50 | So suffice it to say, do not set your
administrator username to admin, and
| | 02:55 | if you did, you should immediately
log in, and change your username to
| | 02:59 | something else.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Logging in to the WordPress Admin area for the first time| 00:00 | A WordPress Web site or blog
has two main parts:
| | 00:04 | a front end, which is what the public
sees when they visit your site, and a
| | 00:08 | back end, which is where you write
articles, post photos and videos, moderate
| | 00:12 | comments, and control the look
and functionality of the site.
| | 00:16 | Both the front end and back end are
accessible through any Web browser.
| | 00:21 | If you visit the domain where you
installed WordPress, and go to the correct
| | 00:24 | folder, you'll find the front
end of your WordPress site.
| | 00:28 | By default WordPress ships with a
theme called 2011, and it looks like this.
| | 00:34 | And inside 2011, you get a single post that
has a single comment, and also a sample page.
| | 00:41 | To get to the back end of WordPress, or
the admin panel, you need to go to
| | 00:46 | a specific Web address.
| | 00:47 | So you go to your domain, slash, whatever folder
you created, and then you type wp-admin.
| | 00:55 | This brings you to the login panel
for the WordPress back end, and here, you
| | 00:59 | simply enter your Username, and
your Password, and you can log in.
| | 01:06 | If you don't remember your password,
you can click the Lost your password
| | 01:10 | button, and you'll be taken to a field,
where you can either enter your Username,
| | 01:14 | if you remember your Username, or if
you don't remember your Username, you can
| | 01:18 | enter the e-mail address you defined
when you set up WordPress to begin with, and
| | 01:23 | then WordPress will send you an e-mail
with your username, and your password.
| | 01:28 | After entering my Username, and Password,
I'm going to check Remember Me, so I
| | 01:32 | don't have to keep doing this process
every time I log in, and click Log In.
| | 01:36 | Depending on my browser, the browser
may now ask if I want the browser to
| | 01:40 | remember my password, and I do, so I'll
say Save password, and now we're in the
| | 01:45 | back end of WordPress.
| | 01:47 | The first time you open the WordPress
back end, you land on the Dashboard with
| | 01:51 | this welcome message.
| | 01:53 | It gives you information about what
WordPress is, how it works, and so on, and
| | 01:57 | you also get direct links to basic
settings, how to add new content, and how
| | 02:03 | to customize your site.
| | 02:04 | If this is the first time you've
used WordPress as a self-hosted
| | 02:07 | application, it's a good idea to read
through this, and click on some of the
| | 02:11 | links, and see where you go.
| | 02:12 | One you're finished with it, you can
dismiss this front page message, so you
| | 02:16 | don't have to see it again, either by
clicking up here in the corner, or clicking
| | 02:20 | Dismiss this message, down here at the bottom.
| | 02:22 | The message collapses, and we
get to the standard Dashboard.
| | 02:26 | The WordPress Dashboard, or admin panel
as it's often called, is the landing page
| | 02:32 | for everything you do inside WordPress.
| | 02:35 | Here, you get information about your
blog under Right Now, where you can see a
| | 02:39 | list of how many posts, and pages,
and categories, and tags you have,
| | 02:43 | what theme you're currently running,
how many widgets you are using, and what
| | 02:46 | your commenting status is,
| | 02:47 | so how many comments you have, how
many have you've approved, pending
| | 02:51 | comments, and spam, and so on.
| | 02:52 | You'll also see what
version of WordPress you're using.
| | 02:55 | WordPress keeps updating constantly,
| | 02:57 | so you often find that your WordPress is
out of date, in which case, you'll get a
| | 03:01 | small flag up here, saying WordPress
is updated, and then you can match the
| | 03:05 | version down here with the one that
it says is the new version up here.
| | 03:09 | Next to Right Now, you have a QuickPress,
where you can quickly write new posts if
| | 03:13 | you want to, and below
that, you have Recent Drafts.
| | 03:16 | So if you're writing a lot of content,
but not publishing it, or if you have
| | 03:19 | contributors to your blog that write
content, but can't publish it, you see
| | 03:24 | what recent drafts are available.
| | 03:26 | Scrolling down, you have the list of
the most Recent Comments, Incoming Links,
| | 03:31 | and news about Plugins, what's going on
with WordPress, and other WordPress news.
| | 03:38 | This right section of the WordPress Dashboard,
changes depending on what page you're on.
| | 03:43 | To navigate between pages, you
use the panel on the left side here.
| | 03:47 | The panel on the left has three main sections.
| | 03:49 | The Dashboard section, that has a link
to the Home, or the Dashboard, and also
| | 03:54 | a link to Updates, if there are any
available. Then there's a section where
| | 03:58 | you create content.
| | 03:59 | So here you Posts, Media, Links, Pages,
and Comment moderation. And then the third
| | 04:06 | section deals with how
WordPress operates and functions.
| | 04:09 | Here you have Appearance, where you control
the Theme, and the Widgets, and other elements.
| | 04:14 | You have the ability to
install or uninstall Plugins.
| | 04:17 | You can add or remove Users.
| | 04:19 | You can use the different Tools
available, and you have all the
| | 04:21 | WordPress Settings.
| | 04:23 | At the very top of the admin panel,
you have the WordPress toolbar.
| | 04:27 | Whenever you're logged into WordPress,
you'll see the WordPress toolbar, and the
| | 04:31 | toolbar will change depending
on where you are on the site.
| | 04:34 | I'll cover the toolbar in more detail later.
| | 04:36 | What's neat about the WordPress
Dashboard is that it's very responsive.
| | 04:40 | That means, for example, you can
collapse the menu if you don't want to see the
| | 04:44 | whole menu, or if you're on a smaller
screen, and you feel it takes up too much
| | 04:47 | space, simply by clicking
this Collapse menu button.
| | 04:51 | When you do, you just get the icons for
the menu items, and when you hover over
| | 04:54 | them, you get these flyouts,
giving you the full list of options.
| | 05:00 | This menu will also collapse
automatically if your screen size is too small.
| | 05:04 | So if I reduce the size of my screen
here, you'll see that, when I get to a
| | 05:08 | certain point, the menu
automatically collapses for me,
| | 05:12 | so I don't have to do that.
| | 05:15 | On the right side, this whole
panel will always be customizable.
| | 05:19 | You can collapse any panel
you want at any time.
| | 05:23 | You can also move panels around, so you
could put, for instance, the Comments on top,
| | 05:27 | and Right Now below it.
| | 05:29 | You can also go to Screen Options at any time,
on any page, and select what you want to see.
| | 05:34 | So if you don't want to see Incoming
Links, you can simply check it off, and it
| | 05:38 | doesn't appear anymore, and then if you need
it for some reason, you can turn it back on.
| | 05:43 | All these functions relate to your account.
| | 05:46 | So you can change it for yourself
without changing it for anyone else
| | 05:49 | who's using the site.
| | 05:50 | The Settings are remembered, and they're
also remembered for every single page.
| | 05:54 | So let's say we go to the
Posts page, and Add a New Post.
| | 05:58 | We can do the exact same process here.
| | 06:00 | We can open Screen Options;
turn features on and off.
| | 06:03 | We can also go and grab any item, and
move it to change the order of that item,
| | 06:09 | or we can collapse them if
you don't want to see them.
| | 06:13 | While you're in the admin section of
WordPress, you may also want to see what
| | 06:17 | WordPress looks like on the front end.
| | 06:19 | To get to the front end, go up to this
WordPress toolbar, and click on Visit
| | 06:23 | Site, or you can just click on the site name.
| | 06:26 | I usually open it in a separate tab.
| | 06:28 | So I'll right-click, and go Open in new
tab, and now I have the WordPress back end
| | 06:33 | in one tab, and the front end in another tab,
| | 06:36 | so I can see what I'm doing.
| | 06:38 | The WordPress Dashboard, also known as
the admin area, or back end, is where you'll
| | 06:43 | do most of your work.
| | 06:45 | As with everything else in WordPress, it's
highly customizable, and easy to understand.
| | 06:49 | My tip to you is this: if you're ever
confused about what to do, or where to go to
| | 06:54 | do it when you're in the back end,
just read what the page says.
| | 06:58 | In most cases it's spelled out right
in front of you, and if you still can't
| | 07:02 | figure it out, there's always the
Help button, which is related to the page
| | 07:06 | you're currently on, and will give
you help information about what you see
| | 07:09 | on the screen.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the WordPress toolbar| 00:00 | Whenever you're logged in to your
WordPress site, you'll see the WordPress
| | 00:03 | toolbar on the top of your screen.
| | 00:06 | From this toolbar, you can access the
WordPress Dashboard by clicking the site
| | 00:10 | name, or if you're in the Dashboard, you can
visit the site by clicking the same site name.
| | 00:16 | You can also make common actions, like
create a new post, add a new media, or add
| | 00:21 | a new link, or page, or even a user, and
you can see information about your site.
| | 00:25 | Like right now, my toolbar is telling me
I have one available plugin update, and
| | 00:30 | I currently have no
comments awaiting moderation.
| | 00:33 | Depending on where I am on the
site, this toolbar will change.
| | 00:37 | As you saw, right now I'm on the front
page, so I have the button to create a
| | 00:41 | new post, and when I click on the site
name, I can jump to the Dashboard, or I
| | 00:46 | can change my theme, and widgets,
manage menus, backgrounds, and headers.
| | 00:51 | But if I go to the back end, the toolbar
changes ever so slightly, and now my site
| | 00:57 | name will only take me to the front page.
| | 01:01 | If I go to a single post or page, I get
a new button on the toolbar that'll let
| | 01:06 | me edit the posts directly, and the
same button will change to view the post
| | 01:11 | when I'm in the back end.
| | 01:13 | So as you can see, this toolbar is very
useful for quickly navigating between the
| | 01:18 | front and back end, and also
making quick actions.
| | 01:21 | Now, it's important to keep in mind that
the WordPress toolbar tends to change a lot.
| | 01:26 | It's changed several times over the past
couple of years, and it's likely to change again,
| | 01:30 | but the overall philosophy and functionality
of the toolbar will always stay the same.
| | 01:35 | It's meant to be here to help you do
actions very quickly, and to get to where
| | 01:39 | you want to go, without having
to type in URLs all the time.
| | 01:43 | On the right-hand side of the
toolbar, you see your own username.
| | 01:46 | It will usually say something like Howdy,
and then you're name, and from here you
| | 01:50 | have access to your own profile.
| | 01:51 | So you can see your profile icon, you can
edit your profile, and you can log in and out.
| | 01:56 | And at the very end, you
have a simple search box.
| | 02:00 | If you click on it, you can punch in a
search term, and this will then do a
| | 02:03 | search on your entire site,
finding what you're looking for.
| | 02:07 | On the far left-hand side,
you have the WordPress icon.
| | 02:10 | From here you can go directly to
the About WordPress page, inside your
| | 02:14 | WordPress installation, which
tells you about your current version of
| | 02:18 | WordPress, about what's new in that
current version, shows you the WordPress
| | 02:22 | credits, that show you who built
WordPress, and also tells you about the
| | 02:27 | freedoms associated with WordPress,
| | 02:29 | because WordPress is open source, so
you have what's referred to as freedoms,
| | 02:33 | because it's open, and you're also
using something that's under a specific
| | 02:38 | license called the GPL license, and
here you can find information about that.
| | 02:44 | The WordPress toolbar is a great tool
for quickly making actions on your site,
| | 02:49 | but there are certain situations where
you don't want to see the toolbar, when
| | 02:52 | you're on the front end,
even if you're logged in.
| | 02:55 | Fortunately, you can turn it off if you want to.
| | 02:58 | If you go to your user profile -- so you
can simply hover over your name here on
| | 03:02 | the right-hand side,
and click Edit My Profile --
| | 03:05 | you can toggle the visibility of your
toolbar when viewing the site on and off
| | 03:10 | with this simple box here.
| | 03:11 | So if I turn it off, and scroll down,
and update my profile, and then go to the
| | 03:17 | front page, you'll see I'm
no longer seeing the toolbar.
| | 03:22 | However, without the toolbar, there's no
easy way to jump back to the admin panel.
| | 03:28 | That's why I open the
front page in a separate tab.
| | 03:30 | But if I want to go back to the admin
panel, I now have to type in the address to
| | 03:35 | the admin panel, which is
wp-admin, to get back in.
| | 03:39 | The WordPress toolbar provides quick
and easy access to the functions and
| | 03:43 | actions you're most likely to
use when managing your site.
| | 03:46 | As you add more functionality to your
site through plugins, you may see new
| | 03:50 | features appear on the
WordPress toolbar as well.
| | 03:53 | Getting acquainted with the options, and
making the toolbar part of your regular
| | 03:56 | routine will save you lots of time;
trust me.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Testing your WordPress site| 00:00 | Before we do a deep dive into
WordPress, it's a good idea to make sure the
| | 00:04 | installation works properly, and that the
site functions the way it supposed to do.
| | 00:10 | Occasionally, the WordPress
installation gets broken during the upload, or
| | 00:12 | something goes wrong in the link
between the database, and the site itself, or
| | 00:17 | your database configuration might be a bit off.
| | 00:20 | These errors are usually easy to fix, or
at least easy to track, but it's a good
| | 00:24 | idea to make sure everything
works before we move forward,
| | 00:28 | so you don't do a lot of work, and then it
turns out later, it's not going to work properly.
| | 00:32 | The first rule of thumb is, if you can't
get access to your own WordPress site,
| | 00:35 | something is clearly wrong, but let's
assume that you are getting access to your
| | 00:39 | WordPress site, and it looks
like what you're seeing here.
| | 00:42 | In that case, we need to just make sure
that when we do things to the WordPress
| | 00:46 | site, it still works.
| | 00:47 | So what I am going to do is kind of jump
ahead in the course a little bit, and do
| | 00:51 | some very simple actions,
just make sure everything works.
| | 00:54 | Let's create a new post.
| | 00:56 | Go to New, and create a new post. I can also
go here to Posts, and Add New if I want to.
| | 01:02 | We are just going to make a simple post
here, and it's going to be test post to
| | 01:06 | make sure everything works.
| | 01:07 | I'll call it Test post, and I'll
just type in some basic text in here.
| | 01:14 | One common thing that may break inside
WordPress is file uploads, so let's make
| | 01:19 | sure that we can actually upload files
to WordPress, and that WordPress accepts
| | 01:23 | these files, and it's able to display them.
| | 01:25 | So I'll click the add media button,
which is this Upload/Insert text over here,
| | 01:31 | and I'll add a simple media file.
| | 01:33 | So I'll click Select Files, navigate to
somewhere where I have an image, and upload it.
| | 01:42 | Now I am simply going to click Insert
into Post, make sure the image actually
| | 01:47 | gets inserted into my post, click
Publish to publish the story, and then click
| | 01:53 | View Post to see it.
| | 01:56 | If everything worked the way it's supposed
to, we should now see a post called Test
| | 01:59 | post, with the text, just making
sure everything works, and an image.
| | 02:04 | If at any point in that process
something didn't work -- for example, if you
| | 02:09 | don't see the image, or if you got an
error while you were uploading the image --
| | 02:12 | it's usually for one of two reasons:
either your WordPress installation was
| | 02:17 | broken when you uploaded it to your
server, or WordPress is not able to talk
| | 02:22 | properly to your database.
| | 02:24 | If you're able to see WordPress, and you
can work with it, the likelihood is that
| | 02:27 | it's actually WordPress itself that's
broken, and if that's the case, you can
| | 02:31 | simply go and replace your WordPress
installation with a new one, and I'll
| | 02:35 | quickly show you how to do that.
| | 02:36 | You can collapse your window.
| | 02:38 | You open your WordPress installation
that you have in your computer, and if you
| | 02:43 | think there's something wrong with your
actual WordPress installation that you
| | 02:45 | downloaded, you can download a new version.
| | 02:48 | Then you open your FTP account,
and you log in to your host.
| | 02:54 | Find your WordPress installation, and
delete everything except for the wp-content
| | 03:02 | folder, and the file called wp-config.php.
| | 03:10 | Deleting WordPress entirely from your
system may seem like a drastic move, but
| | 03:14 | the reality is, even though we are
deleting everything, and replacing all the
| | 03:18 | files, it doesn't really matter, because
WordPress the application is actually
| | 03:23 | just a gateway that lets
you talk to the database.
| | 03:26 | So as long as you're not deleting the
database, the application can always be
| | 03:29 | replaced by a new one.
| | 03:32 | The reason why it didn't delete these
two components -- the wp-content folder, and
| | 03:37 | the wp-config file -- is because the
wp-content folder contains, amongst other
| | 03:42 | things, my uploaded files, and the
wp-config file contains all the information
| | 03:47 | WordPress needs to talk to my database,
and I don't want to have to redo the
| | 03:51 | setup process again.
| | 03:53 | Now that I have deleted WordPress, I can
go back to my Web site, and try to reload
| | 03:59 | it, and you'll see, nothing works.
| | 04:02 | But if I go back to My Computer, grab
all my files in my WordPress installation,
| | 04:08 | except for the wp-content folder, and
the wp-config file, and drag them into the
| | 04:14 | same folder I used to have WordPress
installed on, and let all the files get
| | 04:18 | pushed back up to my server, I'm now
restoring WordPress to a stable state, and
| | 04:23 | everything should come back online.
| | 04:26 | Now all the files are uploaded, if I
click on Failed transfers, I see there were
| | 04:31 | no Failed transfers, and now, when I go
back to my browser, and reload the page
| | 04:35 | again, we are back where we were. Same
page, same content, image is still working,
| | 04:42 | and I can go back to my
Dashboard, and everything looks the same.
| | 04:45 | So as you can see, even though I
deleted WordPress altogether, made sure it
| | 04:50 | didn't work, and then reinstalled
all of WordPress, we still have the
| | 04:53 | application exactly the way we want it.
| | 04:56 | Doing a quick check of the integrity
of WordPress might seem like a waste of
| | 05:00 | time, but it's a good rule of thumb,
so you don't end up with a site that
| | 05:03 | doesn't work down the road.
Better safe than sorry, and all that.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Placing WordPress into its own directory| 00:00 | If you have been following this
course from the beginning, you will have
| | 00:03 | installed WordPress under a
subdirectory, like I have here.
| | 00:07 | I called mine here, but you
could call yours whatever you want.
| | 00:10 | If you didn't do that, and you
installed WordPress directly on the main
| | 00:13 | directory, you don't have to watch this movie.
| | 00:16 | However, if you installed it under a
subdirectory the way I did, I'll explain to
| | 00:20 | you why I told you to do
so, and it's a simple reason.
| | 00:23 | As you know, to log in to WordPress, or
get to the WordPress admin panel, you go
| | 00:28 | to the location where you installed
WordPress, and you simply type in wp-admin.
| | 00:35 | This will always take you either to
the login page, or to the Dashboard.
| | 00:39 | Because this is public information, and
it's always the same for all WordPress
| | 00:42 | installations, a lot of hackers have
figured out how to write scripts that will
| | 00:47 | find this admin page, or find the login
page, and then try to brute force their
| | 00:51 | way in by trying out different
usernames and passwords until they get in.
| | 00:55 | A rudimentary, but effective way of
avoiding this kind of attack is to simply
| | 01:00 | install WordPress under a subdirectory,
and then tell WordPress to appear as if
| | 01:05 | it's installed under the main domain,
| | 01:07 | and that's what we are going to do now.
| | 01:09 | It's a bit of a tricky process, and it
requires a couple of steps, and to be quite
| | 01:13 | frank, it's a bit advanced for an
essential training course, but I think it's
| | 01:17 | important enough that I want to
show you how to do it properly.
| | 01:20 | The first thing you need to do is log
in to your WordPress installation, and go
| | 01:24 | to the Dashboard, and then go
down to Settings, and General.
| | 01:29 | You don't have to worry about
any of the other stuff that's here.
| | 01:31 | Right now what we are going to
focus on is these two lines: WordPress
| | 01:35 | Address, and Site Address,
| | 01:38 | because inside WordPress, you can set
a different physical address from the
| | 01:42 | perceived address. The Site Address is
the perceived address of where you visit
| | 01:48 | the site, even though it
actually lives somewhere else.
| | 01:51 | In our case, I simply want to take
away the directory name, so that the core
| | 01:56 | domain becomes the landing page for our site.
| | 01:59 | This is what's called giving WordPress
its own directory, and you can find more
| | 02:03 | information about it by
following this link over here.
| | 02:06 | It'll take you directly to a full-page
that breaks down every detail about this
| | 02:10 | process, including some fallbacks, and
weird things that may happen, and it also
| | 02:15 | has this very important warning.
| | 02:17 | If you're using multi-site installation,
or a network installation, which is rather
| | 02:22 | unlikely, but it's possible, then you
cannot do this process; it will not work.
| | 02:27 | It also has separate rundowns for if
you're using a Windows host, rather than a
| | 02:31 | Linux host, which is what I'm using.
| | 02:34 | Now that I have set the Site Address to
what I want, I am going to scroll down,
| | 02:38 | and click Save Changes.
| | 02:40 | Now, nothing will happen to the Dashboard,
because we're still at samoca.org/here,
| | 02:45 | but if I click on the site name now, and
try to jump to the front page, you will
| | 02:51 | see, the front page doesn't exist.
| | 02:53 | To make the front page appear, we have
to make some small changes to the way the
| | 02:57 | file structure is saved on our server.
| | 02:59 | So I am going to go to my FTP
application, log in to my server, and then I am
| | 03:06 | going to go to the main folder
for my WordPress installation.
| | 03:11 | From here, I am going to copy two
files: the one called .htaccess, and the
| | 03:16 | one called index.php.
| | 03:19 | If, for whatever reason, you don't see
a file called .htaccess, try to go to
| | 03:24 | Server, and toggle Force showing hidden
files to on, because sometimes the server
| | 03:29 | will try to hide files like the .htaccess
file, because it's generally a file that
| | 03:33 | you don't want to mess with.
| | 03:35 | Once I have these two files, what I
need to do is store them on My Computer,
| | 03:39 | so that I can make some tiny changes to
them, and then republish them onto the server.
| | 03:43 | So I am going to go into My Computer
here on the other side, and create a new
| | 03:47 | folder, so I don't mess with the
existing files. I will call this one custom.
| | 03:54 | And then I am going to move these two
files -- so the .htaccess and the index.php
| | 03:59 | files -- into that folder.
| | 04:01 | Now I can go to my Desktop, open the
Custom folder, and then I am going to open
| | 04:07 | the index.php file in a notepad.
| | 04:10 | I am using Notepad++ here on my PC. You
can also just use the regular Notepad, or
| | 04:15 | if you're on a Mac, you can use a
regular Notepad, or, for instance, TextWrangler;
| | 04:20 | they all do the same thing.
| | 04:21 | I'll click Edit in Notepad,
and I open the file.
| | 04:24 | Now, all I need to do here is
change the last line of code down here.
| | 04:29 | Let me just quickly explain how this works.
| | 04:31 | When a Web browser visits any domain,
it always looks for a file named either
| | 04:34 | index.php, index.html, or default.html.
| | 04:40 | If it finds that file, it assumes
that this is going to be the main page
| | 04:44 | for wherever it's at.
| | 04:46 | So what we're going to do is add a new
index.php file to the root directory of
| | 04:51 | our installation, and then we are
going to tell the browser where WordPress
| | 04:54 | lives. In this case WordPress lives
under forward slash, here, and then the file name.
| | 05:01 | Now, when I save this file, close my
editor, go back to my FTP application, go
| | 05:08 | down to the root folder, and move the
.htaccess file, and the index.php file, with that
| | 05:14 | small change, into the root directory.
| | 05:17 | I'll go back to my browser, reload
the root directory, and here we are back
| | 05:23 | on the front page, except now we're under
the root directory, rather than samoca.org/here.
| | 05:31 | Now, even though it looks like the site
now lives under this root directory, it
| | 05:35 | does, in fact, still live under samoca.org/here,
which means if I want to log in,
| | 05:40 | or I want to navigate to my admin panel using
the URL, I still have the type in /here/wp-admin.
| | 05:53 | If I go in, and I simply type in wp-admin,
it won't work, and I'll get this nice
| | 05:59 | little message saying, This is
somewhat embarrassing, isn't it?
| | 06:02 | Well, it isn't embarrassing;
this is the whole trick.
| | 06:05 | We are basically tricking the browser
into thinking that WordPress lives in a
| | 06:09 | different place than it really does.
| | 06:11 | Placing WordPress in a different
directory is a simple way of adding a level
| | 06:15 | of security to your site, and
avoiding some very rudimentary attempts at
| | 06:19 | hacking into your site.
| | 06:21 | It also makes it easier for you to add
other applications to your site if you
| | 06:24 | later want to do that, and as you can
see, although it's considered an advanced
| | 06:29 | function, it's' not all that
complicated, and if for any reason you ran into
| | 06:33 | problems while you were following
this, or you're using a host that has a
| | 06:37 | nonstandard setup, and you wonder what
you need to do to make it work, you can
| | 06:42 | always go directly to the link that
you find here under General Settings, and
| | 06:46 | this page will tell you all the
intricate details of how you do this, step by
| | 06:50 | step, for different systems.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Setting Up Your User ProfileEditing your profile| 00:00 | When you installed your WordPress site on
your server, you also created a user profile.
| | 00:05 | This user profile is the main admin profile.
| | 00:08 | A WordPress site can have many users, and each
of those users will have their own user profile.
| | 00:14 | The information in this profile can be
attached when you post pages, or posts, or
| | 00:19 | comments on your site, or
on other people's sites.
| | 00:22 | Your profile can contain as much or as
little information as you want, and can
| | 00:26 | be edited at any time.
| | 00:28 | When you make changes in your public
profile, those changes are immediately
| | 00:32 | reflected in any location
where your profile is displayed.
| | 00:35 | There are two main ways of accessing your
profile when you're logged into WordPress:
| | 00:40 | You can either go up to the WordPress
toolbar at any time, hover over your
| | 00:44 | username here on the right, and click
Edit My Profile, or you can go to the
| | 00:49 | Dashboard, navigate down to
Users, and select Your Profile.
| | 00:57 | From the Profile page, you can make
changes, both to how WordPress interacts with
| | 01:01 | you personally, and also what
information WordPress has stored about you.
| | 01:06 | Just remember that all the information
you input into your user profile is
| | 01:09 | public information that can be displayed
on your site, so don't enter something
| | 01:13 | you don't want to put out on the Internet.
| | 01:16 | From the top, you can toggle
the Visual Editor on and off.
| | 01:20 | To explain what that is, let's
take a look at the Visual Editor.
| | 01:24 | If I go ahead and create a new post in
a separate window, under Posts, and Add
| | 01:28 | New, you'll see that here we have a large
editing panel, and this is where we are
| | 01:35 | going to write all our
posts, and put all our content.
| | 01:38 | The editing panel has two tabs:
Visual, and HTML.
| | 01:43 | If you're in the Visual tab, you'll see
all the text like you would in a regular
| | 01:47 | text editor. So if you make
text bold, you will see it as bold.
| | 01:50 | If you go to the HTML view, you'll see
the HTML markup; that is, the Web code that
| | 01:56 | you write when you write content.
| | 01:59 | Some users choose not to see the Visual
editor, and only want to see the HTML editor.
| | 02:04 | So they simply disable the visual
editor all together in their profile.
| | 02:08 | So if you check this box at the top,
Disable the visual editor when writing,
| | 02:12 | you'll never see the Visual editor here;
you will only have the HTML editor.
| | 02:17 | For most users, this box
should be left unchecked.
| | 02:20 | The next option; you can choose
color schemes for your admin panel.
| | 02:25 | The default color scheme is gray, but I
can change it to blue, update my profile,
| | 02:32 | and you'll see that now the
color scheme is blue instead.
| | 02:35 | Personally, I don't really like
the blue, but that's up to you.
| | 02:39 | So I am going to switch it back to
gray, but if you like the blue better,
| | 02:42 | leave it at the blue.
| | 02:45 | The next option enables keyboard
shortcuts when you moderate comments.
| | 02:50 | This is great if you have a Web site
that gets a lot of comments, because you can
| | 02:53 | quickly moderate them by
punching in different keystrokes.
| | 02:56 | If you want to enable this function,
you should check out this link over here,
| | 03:00 | open it in a separate tab, and read
about all the keyboard shortcuts.
| | 03:05 | That way you can learn how to quickly
moderate comments, but unless you get a
| | 03:09 | lot of comments, this isn't all that important.
| | 03:12 | So you can choose whether you want to
toggle it on or off yourself; it doesn't
| | 03:15 | actually make any
difference whether or not you use it.
| | 03:17 | We have already mentioned the Toolbar
option before, but it's worth repeating.
| | 03:22 | If you uncheck this box, the Toolbar
will not display on the front end of your
| | 03:26 | Web site, even though you're logged in.
| | 03:29 | You can check this box off if you
want to see what the Web site looks like
| | 03:32 | without the toolbar in certain situations.
| | 03:35 | But I recommend you leave it on,
because the toolbar is very useful when
| | 03:38 | you're working in your site. It makes
it easy to navigate from the front to
| | 03:41 | the back end, and back,
| | 03:43 | so turning it off will kind of make it
more difficult to work with WordPress.
| | 03:47 | Under the Personal Options, you
have your personal information.
| | 03:51 | This is where you can enter your
own name, and decide how you want to
| | 03:54 | display your name publicly.
| | 03:56 | You will notice that you can't edit
your Username, and this is really important;
| | 04:00 | it's because the Username is the tool
with which WordPress recognizes you as a
| | 04:05 | user, and because you are currently logged
in as that user, you can't change the username.
| | 04:09 | Now, if you remember back to the very
beginning of the course, when I was talking
| | 04:13 | about how you can't have a user
named admin; well, if for some reason you
| | 04:18 | decided to create a user named admin,
what you need to do is create a new user,
| | 04:23 | and then log in as that new user,
and then delete the old admin user.
| | 04:28 | That's the only way you can
get rid of the admin user.
| | 04:31 | You can't go in and simply change the username.
| | 04:33 | But I am going to assume you took my
advice, and created your own Username, in
| | 04:37 | which case, you don't need to do anything.
| | 04:39 | What you do need to do is put in a name.
| | 04:41 | So I am going to put in my own name,
both first, and last, and then I can put in
| | 04:48 | my nickname if I want.
| | 04:49 | So I want to change that to mor10,
because that's usually my nickname online, and
| | 04:54 | then I can choose how I want
to display my name publicly.
| | 04:57 | Here you get a dropdown, and it will
give you all the different options. You
| | 05:00 | get your Nickname as an option, you
get your Username as an option, you can
| | 05:04 | choose only your First, or only your
Last Name, or you can choose the regular
| | 05:08 | spelling, which is First Name first, and then
Last Name, or Last Name first, and then First Name.
| | 05:14 | Depending on what you want to do
display on your site, you would usually either
| | 05:16 | pick your nickname, or your full name.
| | 05:20 | I'll pick my full name, and just go down
here, and update my profile, and then go
| | 05:24 | to the front page, and you'll see why I do this.
| | 05:29 | If I go to a single post that I have
created here, you will see, down here at the
| | 05:33 | bottom, in the meta-information about
this post, it says that this entry was
| | 05:38 | posted by Morten Rand-Hendriksen.
| | 05:40 | So if I go in to my profile, and I
change the Display name publicly as to, for
| | 05:46 | instance, mor10, click Update Profile,
and reload this page, you will see it now
| | 05:52 | says, This entry was posted
in Uncategorized by mor10.
| | 05:56 | The link remains the same, but the name changes.
| | 05:59 | So I can choose how I want
to display my information.
| | 06:02 | I am just going to reset it back to my own
name again, and then we can move further down.
| | 06:07 | The next section is Contact
Info, and this is quite interesting.
| | 06:11 | You may have noticed in the
toolbar there is a little icon,
| | 06:14 | and when I hover over that icon, I get
this little picture of this Samoca logo.
| | 06:20 | That's because I've already created a
profile on a site called Gravatar, and
| | 06:24 | attached that profile to my e-mail address,
and within that profile, there's an image.
| | 06:29 | It's called a Gravatar, and it's basically just
an avatar image attached to my e-mail address.
| | 06:34 | So because I have entered the same
e-mail address here as is attached to that
| | 06:38 | Gravatar, the Gravatar appears.
| | 06:41 | However, if I go in and change this -- I
can change it to my own e-mail address,
| | 06:48 | and now you all know how to e-mail me --
and I click Update Profile, you will see
| | 06:55 | that my Gravatar changed to my face.
| | 06:58 | So you see how the Gravatar image is
attached to the e-mail address that's
| | 07:04 | associated with your profile?
Well, that's how it works.
| | 07:07 | Later on in the course, we'll look at
how to create your own Gravatar, but
| | 07:11 | that's basically the gist of it.
| | 07:13 | This e-mail also becomes the e-mail
that WordPress sends you information to, so
| | 07:17 | make sure that it's a real e-mail address.
| | 07:19 | I am going to set it back to the
regular e-mail address, and then I can choose
| | 07:23 | whether I want to put in the
Web site address, so I am going to do that.
| | 07:29 | And if I want to add chat information for
AIM, Yahoo IM, and Jabber, or Google Talk.
| | 07:35 | Why it's these three settings, and not
something more common, like Twitter, or
| | 07:39 | Facebook, is quite frankly
beyond me, but that's the way it is,
| | 07:43 | so you can choose to enter it if you want to.
| | 07:46 | Remember, again, that all this information
will be publicly available on your site.
| | 07:51 | The final two fields let you add
Biographical Information, and also a New Password.
| | 07:56 | This information will be stored along
with your user profile, and depending on
| | 08:00 | the theme you're using to display your
content in WordPress, that information
| | 08:04 | may be associated with posts
or pages as people visit them.
| | 08:08 | So again, when you put stuff in here,
you have to remember that this is public
| | 08:13 | information that people can see.
| | 08:15 | It's great if you want to share
information about yourself; just remember to put
| | 08:18 | in stuff that you actually want to share.
| | 08:21 | And of course, the password settings at the
bottom are just like regular password settings.
| | 08:25 | If you want to reset your password, you
go in and punch in a password, and it
| | 08:28 | will tell you how strong it is. For
example, my own name is very weak, whereas
| | 08:34 | the default password I normally use is
medium, or an even stronger one than that --
| | 08:43 | and you have to duplicate that password twice.
| | 08:45 | So if you are ever wondering how to
change your password, remember, it's
| | 08:49 | always go to your name, Edit My
Profile, scroll to the bottom, change your
| | 08:54 | password; Update Profile.
| | 08:57 | Your user profile in your WordPress
site contains your personal information, or
| | 09:01 | at least the information you're
willing to share, and it will display this
| | 09:05 | information when
appropriate in your WordPress site.
| | 09:08 | Setting up your profile is an often
neglected step, but it's an important one.
| | 09:12 | This is also where you manage your
password, e-mail, display name, and so on.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating profile images with Gravatar| 00:00 | Every user registered with your
WordPress web site will have their own user
| | 00:04 | profile inside WordPress.
| | 00:07 | You can get to it by clicking on your
name up here in the toolbar, and you jump
| | 00:11 | directly to your user profile.
| | 00:14 | However, in addition to the user
profile you create on your WordPress Web site,
| | 00:18 | you can also create an additional
profile on a service known as Gravatar.
| | 00:23 | Gravatar, or Globally Recognized
Avatar, is a service that was created by
| | 00:28 | Automattic, the same company that
created WordPress, and it allows you to upload
| | 00:33 | a user profile to a service online that
different Web sites can pull information from.
| | 00:39 | For example, you see that since I'm
using the info@samoca.org e-mail address
| | 00:44 | right now as my contact
information e-mail address for my profile,
| | 00:49 | I get to Gravatar image from the Gravatar
profile associated with the e-mail address.
| | 00:55 | But what I want to do is create my own
Gravatar profile, and associate that with
| | 01:00 | my personal account under my site.
| | 01:03 | So first I am going to change to e-mail
address to my personal samoca e-mail
| | 01:07 | address, which is just morten@
samoca.org, and click Update Profile.
| | 01:14 | And now you see that my Gravatar image
is gone. That's because I don't have a
| | 01:18 | Gravatar profile image yet.
| | 01:19 | So now I need to go to gravatar.com,
and create that profile.
| | 01:24 | If you are familiar with WordPress.com,
you may have noticed that in
| | 01:27 | WordPress.com, there is this big field
here on the side of the profile page that
| | 01:32 | links you directly to Gravatar. That's
not available in WordPress self-hosting,
| | 01:36 | so you have to do this manually.
| | 01:38 | So I am going to go to gravatar.com,
| | 01:43 | and from here, I can either check out
other people's Gravatars, or I can create my own.
| | 01:48 | Just as an example, we can take a look
at my Gravatar, which is here under mor10,
| | 01:55 | and here you see that, in addition to my
image, which is used as my gravatar, you
| | 02:00 | also have my username, my short bio,
links to some of the Web sites I own, and
| | 02:06 | also verified services from
Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn.
| | 02:11 | I haven't updated this in a while, but
you could also add Facebook, and other
| | 02:15 | services if you wanted to.
| | 02:16 | Now I want to sign up, and
create a new Gravatar profile.
| | 02:19 | So I am going to click Sign Up, or I can
click Sign Up up here, and then I enter
| | 02:24 | the e-mail address I want to use:
morten@samoca.org, and click Signup.
| | 02:31 | Now Gravatar will send a confirmation
e-mail to that e-mail address to make sure
| | 02:35 | that I actually own the e-mail address.
| | 02:37 | So I will go to my Web mail, and
check, and here I have an e-mail from
| | 02:42 | gravatar.com, so now I can follow the
activation link, and I activate my username.
| | 02:48 | Now, here I have to create a username,
so I will say mor10samoca as my username
| | 02:55 | and I will check to see if
it's available, and it is.
| | 02:58 | And then I have to create Password,
and repeat it, and when I've filled all this
| | 03:04 | information out, I click Signup.
| | 03:07 | Now I have a Gravatar profile, and
now I can start adding content to it.
| | 03:12 | Right away, Gravatar will tell me I
don't have any images yet, and link me
| | 03:16 | to adding a new image.
| | 03:18 | If I somehow bypass this page, I can
do the same thing by going to the My
| | 03:21 | Account dropdown, and
clicking Add an Image here.
| | 03:24 | So I am going to go add a new image.
| | 03:27 | You can add images either from your
computer, from the Internet, from a Webcam
| | 03:31 | attached to your computer, or
from a previously uploaded image.
| | 03:35 | So what I am going to do now is I am
going to grab an image that already exists
| | 03:38 | on the Internet; namely, my own image.
So I will go here to gravatar.com/mor10,
| | 03:43 | and I will grab that same image. So I'll right-click
on it, and I will click Open image in new tab,
| | 03:53 | so that I get the URL directly to that
image, and I will just copy this whole URL.
| | 03:58 | Go back to my page, select dd an
image on the Internet, and paste in that
| | 04:03 | URL, and click Next.
| | 04:06 | And Gravatar will now go and
find that image, and then use it.
| | 04:10 | So here you see the full image, and
then previews of the different large
| | 04:14 | and small versions.
| | 04:15 | If I like what I see, I can
quickly click Crop and Finish!
| | 04:19 | Or, I can use this cropper to change
the crop of the image to whatever I want.
| | 04:25 | I am just going to just click Crop and Finish!
| | 04:30 | And then I get a Gravatar that I can use.
| | 04:32 | Before I can use it, I have to give my
Gravatar a rating, because some people
| | 04:36 | choose to upload Gravatars that
might be offensive in some way,
| | 04:40 | but this is just a picture of me, so I am
going to click rated G, and now I have a Gravatar.
| | 04:45 | There is one last step.
| | 04:46 | Now I have to select the image below
to associate it with my e-mail address.
| | 04:50 | So I am going to click on it to select
it, and Confirm, and now if I go to the
| | 04:56 | front page of my Gravatar profile,
you should see that the image appear.
| | 05:00 | If I want to add additional
information to my account, I can also do that.
| | 05:03 | I will go into My Account, and here, I
can Manage my Gravatars, I can Edit my
| | 05:08 | Profile, I can View my Profile, or I
can Add an Email Address, if I want to
| | 05:13 | associate several e-mail addresses with
one account, or I can add another image.
| | 05:18 | In this case, I actually want to
another image, because I notice now that this
| | 05:21 | image looks pretty terrible.
| | 05:22 | So I am going to go here, and actually
download my image. So I will save the
| | 05:27 | image on my computer.
| | 05:28 | I will just call it mor10, and then I
can go and say Add an image from my
| | 05:37 | computer, choose a file, click Downloads,
pick the image, click Next to upload it,
| | 05:46 | and then I can do the
cropping again if I want to.
| | 05:48 | Crop and Finish! Set the rating,
| | 05:54 | and now I have both those images available.
| | 05:56 | This is the old one, and this is new
one, and I can choose whether I want to use
| | 06:01 | one, or the other, and I can delete the
ones I don't want to use, if I don't want
| | 06:04 | to keep them in the system.
| | 06:05 | If I go back to the front page, you
will see that I now have a much better
| | 06:10 | quality image, and now I am going
to go and edit my profile a bit.
| | 06:14 | So I will go into my profile, and I will
put in all my information, and if I want
| | 06:19 | to, I can even add small bio. I am not
going to do that right now. And then I can
| | 06:24 | Save my profile, and then
I can add other elements.
| | 06:28 | For example, I can verify services
that are associated with my accounts.
| | 06:32 | This is done so that you can prove to
people that you are who you say you are.
| | 06:36 | Here you have a bunch of different
services: from Facebook, Flickr, to Twitter, to all
| | 06:40 | sorts of other things, and you can add
each of these services, and then link
| | 06:45 | your profile to them by logging into
those services. And that way, when people
| | 06:49 | go to your public profile, they'll see
that those services are associated with
| | 06:53 | your public profile,
| | 06:55 | and therefore, they will more sure
that when you say you are person, you
| | 06:58 | actually are that person.
| | 07:00 | Once you've finished creating your Gravatar
profile, you should see that Gravatar
| | 07:04 | appear up here in the Tab for your profile.
| | 07:07 | However, it sometimes takes a little
while for your Gravatar to kick in.
| | 07:11 | You can see, here is my Gravatar, and it
appears associated with my new e-mail address.
| | 07:19 | By setting up a gravatar.com profile,
and linking it to the e-mail address you
| | 07:23 | associate with your WordPress user
account, WordPress will source your Gravatar
| | 07:28 | photo when you comment on your own or
other sites using that e-mail address.
| | 07:32 | That way, if you leave a comment on a
WordPress blog, either on WordPress.com, or
| | 07:37 | on a WordPress site that someone else
owns, your Gravatar image and name will
| | 07:41 | show up next to that comment.
| | 07:43 | As a bonus, you get a nice profile page
on gravatar.com, with all the information
| | 07:48 | you want people to be able to see.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Configuring site settings| 00:00 | The control center of your WordPress
site is found under the Settings tab on the
| | 00:05 | sidebar menu inside the Dashboard.
| | 00:07 | From here, you can control
everything about your site, from the name and
| | 00:11 | tagline of the site, to where it's
located, to how you can write content, who
| | 00:15 | can read that content, and how they can
interact with the content through comments and such.
| | 00:21 | Let's take a look at some of the more
important settings, so you get your site set up right.
| | 00:25 | First, I'll go to the General tab and
from here, you control things like the
| | 00:30 | Site Title, and Tagline.
| | 00:32 | If you go to the front page, you'll
see, at the top of the site, we have the
| | 00:36 | site title, and tagline.
| | 00:38 | And whereas you set the site title when
you created the site, you didn't define
| | 00:42 | a tagline, and for that reason, you
get the default tagline, which is Just
| | 00:47 | another WordPress site.
| | 00:48 | Not very descriptive, so you should
really change this to something that
| | 00:51 | describes your site.
| | 00:53 | Below the Site Title, and Tagline,
you have the address of the physical
| | 00:57 | installation of WordPress, as well as
the site address, which we changed earlier
| | 01:01 | in the course, and then you have
the main e-mail address for the site.
| | 01:05 | So this is not the e-mail
address associated with your account.
| | 01:09 | This is the e-mail address that's
associated with the entire site as a whole.
| | 01:13 | By default, it's the e-mail address
you put in when you created the site, and
| | 01:17 | it should be kind of a catchall e-mail for
everything that you're doing on the site.
| | 01:21 | Then you can choose who
can register to the site.
| | 01:24 | In some cases, you may want to set it
up so that anyone can register on your
| | 01:28 | site as a subscriber, and then
they can comment and log in.
| | 01:31 | But in most cases, you want to leave
this unchecked, so that you can control who
| | 01:35 | can register to your site.
| | 01:37 | Regardless of whether or not you allow
people to register automatically, you
| | 01:41 | have to set a default role for new users.
| | 01:44 | The roles decide what people can and
cannot do to your site while they're
| | 01:48 | logged in, and the default role is always
Subscriber, and you should never really change this.
| | 01:52 | There's no reason to change it,
so just leave it at Subscriber.
| | 01:56 | Below the default role, you have Timezone.
| | 01:59 | This Timezone tab lets you define
what the time is where you are currently
| | 02:03 | located, and it's a good idea to
set this to your current location.
| | 02:07 | If you don't know the UTC time for your
current location, try typing in the name
| | 02:11 | of a large city close by
you, and see if it pops up.
| | 02:14 | For instance, I'm in Ventura,
California, so I'm going to type in Los
| | 02:17 | Angeles, and there it is.
| | 02:20 | And then I automatically set the time
zone of my site to Los Angeles time.
| | 02:25 | Below that, I can set the Date Format,
I'll just leave that as it is, and also
| | 02:29 | the Time Format, and what day
the week starts on.
| | 02:31 | When I've set all of this information, I
click Save Changes, and then I can
| | 02:36 | move on to the next tab.
| | 02:38 | The next tab is Writing.
| | 02:40 | Writing has to do with how you write
content onto the site, or rather, what the
| | 02:44 | default settings are when you write content.
| | 02:47 | From the top, you can
decide the size of the post box.
| | 02:51 | To see the post box, you have to go to
Posts, and click Add a New Post, and the
| | 02:56 | post box is this box where
you put all your content.
| | 03:00 | By default, the size is 20 lines, so right
now, there are 20 lines from top to bottom.
| | 03:05 | But if you want to, for instance, if
you always work on the screen that's much
| | 03:08 | larger, you can punch in a different number
here, and it'll always default to a larger size.
| | 03:13 | The next one is Formatting,
and here you have two options.
| | 03:16 | You can convert regular emoticons to graphics.
| | 03:19 | I always turn this off, because I find it
annoying. And you can also let WordPress
| | 03:23 | automatically correct badly written XHTML.
| | 03:26 | I always turn this on.
| | 03:28 | So you should really invert these two settings.
| | 03:31 | Below Formatting, you can set the
Default Post Category, the Default Post
| | 03:35 | Format, and also the Default Link Category.
| | 03:38 | I like to keep these the way they are,
because then I know that I'm going to
| | 03:41 | change it if necessary.
| | 03:42 | But you can choose to change, for instance,
the Default Post Category if you want to.
| | 03:47 | Next on this list is the Press This
bookmarklet, and this is kind of a neat thing.
| | 03:52 | If you have a browser that supports
bookmarklets -- for instance, Chrome does -- you
| | 03:57 | can open the Bookmarks bar in your
browser, and then drag and drop this
| | 04:01 | bookmarklet up to the Bookmarks bar.
| | 04:04 | Now, if I visit a new Web site -- let's
say I go to lynda.com/mor10, which is my
| | 04:10 | profile on Lynda.com -- I can simply
click this Press This button on my Bookmarks
| | 04:15 | bar, and a window automatically opens,
grabbing some of the content from the site
| | 04:20 | I'm on, and letting me write new content.
| | 04:23 | Right from this window, I can now write
a post, with a link directly to the page
| | 04:27 | I'm currently on, categorize it, give
it some tags, set the post format, and
| | 04:32 | either save it as a draft for later,
or publish it, without ever actually
| | 04:36 | visiting my Web site.
| | 04:38 | So it's a cool tool if you want to use
it, but I'm going to hide it for now.
| | 04:45 | Scrolling down, you see
we have three more options.
| | 04:48 | We have Post via e-mail, which
allows you to send e-mails directly to
| | 04:52 | your Web site, and then those e-mails
will be turned into posts that are
| | 04:56 | posted immediately.
| | 04:57 | And you also have Remote Publishing,
which allows you to attach other software to
| | 05:02 | your WordPress site.
| | 05:04 | These functions are advanced, and they
really depend on what tools you're using.
| | 05:07 | So if you want to play with them, you
can, and there is more information out
| | 05:10 | there available if you want to.
| | 05:12 | On the bottom, you have Update Services.
| | 05:15 | Currently, Update Services are
turned off, because we have set the privacy
| | 05:18 | settings to not index.
| | 05:20 | If we change the privacy settings, a
new panel will appear where you can
| | 05:24 | insert Update Services.
| | 05:26 | For now, I'm just going to
save my changes, and move on.
| | 05:30 | The next tab is the Reading tab, and this
has to do with how people see the site.
| | 05:35 | There are only few options here,
and they're pretty self-explanatory.
| | 05:38 | From the top, we can decide what we
want to display on the front page.
| | 05:42 | By default, we're displaying a
list of our latest posts in reverse
| | 05:45 | chronological order.
| | 05:47 | But later in the course, I'll show you
how you can switch it, so that you can
| | 05:50 | show a static front page, and then
use a different page as the blog page.
| | 05:55 | Under Reading settings, you can also
decide how many posts you want to show on
| | 05:58 | the front page, and index pages, and
likewise, how many posts you want to show in
| | 06:02 | your syndication feeds, so
your RSS feeds, and so on.
| | 06:06 | And you can also decide whether you
want to show the entire post, or just a
| | 06:10 | summary in those feeds.
| | 06:12 | The final option is the
Encoding for pages and feeds.
| | 06:15 | The default for Web encoding is
always UTF-8, but in some cases, if you use
| | 06:20 | foreign languages, you may want to
change this to a different language code, but
| | 06:23 | I'm going to leave it as it is.
| | 06:25 | There are two more tabs I
want to cover in this movie.
| | 06:28 | The first one is the Discussions tab,
and here you have a lot of options.
| | 06:33 | And the default options that are set
for Discussions are actually quite good,
| | 06:37 | but I'll show you some key ones, and
explain a bit about how they work.
| | 06:40 | Discussion settings has to do
with commenting on your site.
| | 06:44 | When people visit your site,
they can leave comments.
| | 06:46 | The default settings are set so that,
to comment on your site, people have to
| | 06:51 | fill out a name, and an e-mail address,
and the first time they comment on the
| | 06:55 | site, they have to get approved by
you before they can comment again.
| | 07:00 | That means every new comment that
comes in is automatically stored for
| | 07:03 | moderation by you, and you have to approve it.
| | 07:06 | You can change these settings if you
want to, and you can make your site more
| | 07:09 | open, so anyone can comment at any time,
| | 07:11 | but when you do that, you run the
risk of getting a lot of spam comments
| | 07:15 | onto your site as well.
| | 07:16 | There is a way of getting around that
by using the Comment Moderation tools.
| | 07:21 | You have both Comment Moderation, where
you can put in words, phrases, names,
| | 07:26 | URLs, e-mails, or IP addresses, that
automatically send comments directly to
| | 07:32 | moderation, and you can also add the
same to a Blacklist, which means if a
| | 07:37 | comment comes from any of these items,
they'll automatically get deleted.
| | 07:41 | At the bottom, you can set
information about your Avatars.
| | 07:45 | By default, WordPress will show avatars
for all commenters, and if no avatar is
| | 07:51 | attached to the commenter's e-mail,
they'll show either the mystery man, or
| | 07:55 | another default avatar that
you can choose from this list.
| | 07:59 | Here you can also define if you want
to allow PG-rated, R-rated, or X-rated
| | 08:04 | avatars to show up on your blog.
| | 08:06 | I recommend leaving it at G,
unless you want other stuff to appear.
| | 08:10 | Again, if I made any changes, I click
Save Changes. And finally, let's take a look
| | 08:15 | at the Privacy option.
| | 08:17 | The Privacy option only has two options.
| | 08:19 | You can either allow search engines
index your site, or you can ask search
| | 08:23 | engines not to index your site.
| | 08:25 | Remember how I said under Writing that
something changed if we changed Privacy settings?
| | 08:30 | Well, if I change it to Allow search
engines to index this site, click Save
| | 08:35 | Changes, and go back to Writing, you'll
see at the bottom here we now have, under
| | 08:41 | Update Services, a box where we can
put in the update services we want to
| | 08:45 | automatically update when we post new content.
| | 08:48 | You can fill this out with more
options simply by clicking on this link here,
| | 08:54 | and grabbing the full list directly from this
Web site, copy it, go back, and just paste it in.
| | 09:02 | By doing this, you are now automatically
notifying all the Web sites that catch
| | 09:07 | information about new content being
published on the Internet that you published
| | 09:11 | new content on the Internet.
| | 09:12 | That way, your content will be
pushed out on the Internet faster, and more
| | 09:16 | people will see it.
| | 09:17 | The Settings tab in the sidebar controls
how and what is displayed on your site,
| | 09:21 | how WordPress handles the content, and
who and how other visitors can access and
| | 09:26 | interact with your content.
| | 09:28 | Now you know how to change the site
name, blog commenters, make your site
| | 09:32 | visible to search engines, and
control what appears on your front page.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Creating PostsUnderstanding the difference between posts and pages| 00:00 | Working in WordPress, you have two
main types of content: posts, and pages.
| | 00:06 | Posts and pages are used for very
different things, so it's important that you
| | 00:09 | understand both the similarities
and the differences between them.
| | 00:12 | What defines posts more than
anything is how they are indexed.
| | 00:16 | Posts are indexed based on four factors:
| | 00:19 | publishing date, author,
category, and tag.
| | 00:23 | Each post must have a publishing date,
and an author attached, that you can then
| | 00:28 | sort based on, and each post
must also be placed in one category.
| | 00:32 | The tags are optional, and can further
help you relate the content to other
| | 00:36 | pieces of content on your site.
| | 00:39 | Categories are like overall
defining descriptions of your content.
| | 00:43 | Think of them as buckets you put things in.
| | 00:45 | In an art gallery, a category could be
something like painting, or photography,
| | 00:49 | whereas tags are more relational
content that relates a specific item to other
| | 00:54 | items that may have similarities to them.
| | 00:57 | It's easier to understand if you
see an example, so I will show you an
| | 01:00 | example in a little bit.
| | 01:02 | Posts and pages also differ a bit in
how they are presented on your Web site.
| | 01:06 | Posts are generally presented in
reverse chronological order. That's what you
| | 01:10 | see on the front page of a regular blog;
the most recent post appears at the
| | 01:15 | top, and then as you scroll down the
page, you get older and older content.
| | 01:19 | Posts are also displayed based on categories,
and tags, and authors, so at any time,
| | 01:25 | you can go and say, I only want to
see posts by a certain author, or under a
| | 01:29 | certain category, or posts with
a certain tag attached to them.
| | 01:34 | Posts also have break points.
| | 01:36 | You will often find that if you go to a
Web site, you will see on the index page,
| | 01:40 | you have maybe an image, and a short
version of a story, and then there is a
| | 01:43 | link, and when you click on the
link, you get to the full story.
| | 01:46 | Those are the break points
that you see inside posts.
| | 01:49 | And finally, posts tend to
have featured images.
| | 01:52 | Those are the images that appear on
indexes and on front pages that relate to
| | 01:57 | the posts, and are displayed
outside of the main content.
| | 02:01 | To get a better understanding of the
posts, let's take a look at our Web site
| | 02:05 | that has posts in it.
| | 02:06 | This is the Web site called Frugalbits
that we built for a company in Vancouver,
| | 02:10 | and it's based largely on posts.
| | 02:12 | This is the front page, and here
we have a standard post on the top.
| | 02:18 | It's under a category, which you
see here is called The Daily Deal.
| | 02:22 | It has dates, and it has an author,
though you can't see it on the front page.
| | 02:27 | If we scroll down, you see it has
this button that says, Continue Reading,
| | 02:30 | because the break line
for this post is right here.
| | 02:34 | So there's more content in the post, but you
have to click the button to see the full post.
| | 02:39 | In addition, you see that this post is
under a category named Food & Drink, so if
| | 02:44 | we click on that, we go directly to the
index for all the stories that are under
| | 02:48 | Food & Drink, and if we scroll down
you see that the post has a long list of
| | 02:56 | tags. And if I were to click on any of
these tags, I would then see a list of
| | 03:00 | all the other posts that
have those same tags attached.
| | 03:04 | Finally, the post has a featured image.
| | 03:07 | You see here, this post has this big
image, and if I go and jump to the Food &
| | 03:12 | Drink category, I see that same image,
but in a smaller version here on the side,
| | 03:17 | next to the short version of the story.
| | 03:20 | You can also see these featured
images in other elements on the site.
| | 03:23 | For example, this site has an eight
story slider at the top that shows the
| | 03:28 | featured image, along with a category, and
the title for the most recent eight stories.
| | 03:34 | That was posts. What about pages?
| | 03:37 | Whereas posts are organized as taxonomies,
pages are organized as static, singular elements.
| | 03:43 | They live on their own, and are not
really related to any other item.
| | 03:47 | When I say they are not really related,
that's a bit of an overstatement, because
| | 03:50 | in some cases, you will create
pages that are children of other pages.
| | 03:55 | Let's say, for instance, you have an
about page; you may have a sub-page under
| | 03:59 | the about page that shows a map of where
you can find the location, or a sub-page
| | 04:05 | that shows information about the
different people who work for an organization.
| | 04:09 | But generally, pages live on
their own as static elements.
| | 04:13 | The presentation of pages
reflects this very well.
| | 04:16 | Pages are presented as
singular individual elements,
| | 04:19 | so you don't have the categories, you
don't have the tags, and you generally
| | 04:23 | don't have any type of navigation
associated specifically with the page content.
| | 04:28 | One thing pages have that posts don't
have in WordPress are custom templates.
| | 04:33 | This means you can create multiple
different views, so depending on the content
| | 04:37 | of the page, you can
display it in different ways.
| | 04:40 | And finally, pages have dedicated
URLs, so that it's easy to find them.
| | 04:45 | For example, if you create an about
page, usually the URL will end up being:
| | 04:49 | your site.com/about.
| | 04:53 | If we jump back to the Frugalbits site,
we can take a look at pages, and how
| | 04:57 | they differ from posts.
| | 04:58 | From the top, I am going to jump to this
What is Frugalbits page, and you will
| | 05:04 | see that, first of all, it has this
URL I was talking about. It just says,
| | 05:07 | frugalbits.com/what-is-frugalbits.
| | 05:08 | And you see that, although it seems to
display fairly similar to the posts, there
| | 05:15 | are some elements missing.
| | 05:16 | We don't have a category, we don't have
a date, and when we scroll down, you will
| | 05:21 | see we don't have any tags.
| | 05:23 | We also have multiple different
page templates within this Web site.
| | 05:27 | This is the standard page template,
which looks much like a post, but if we
| | 05:32 | scroll down here, and look at the
editorial policy, you will see that the layout
| | 05:36 | of the page changes completely.
| | 05:38 | Because this is legal information, we
chose to take away all the sidebars, and
| | 05:42 | the distracting information,
and just show the main content.
| | 05:46 | So that leaves the question, when do
you use a post, and when do you use a page?
| | 05:51 | Posts are generally used for time-based
material, so if you think of yourself
| | 05:55 | like a newspaper, a post
would be anything that is news.
| | 05:59 | Anything you put up in the Web site that
is current right now, and that you want
| | 06:02 | to publish right away is a post.
| | 06:04 | Basically pretty much anything you are
going to put on your Web site will be a post.
| | 06:08 | Posts are also relational.
| | 06:10 | That means if you ever put up
something that relates in some way to something
| | 06:14 | else you have in the Web site already,
and you want to organize it so that if
| | 06:18 | someone goes and sees one story, they
will automatically have a way of jumping to
| | 06:22 | the next one, then you want to create a post.
| | 06:24 | Posts are often part of groups.
| | 06:27 | That means, for example, if you make a
series of tutorials, you would put them all
| | 06:31 | under one category, so that they would
all relate to each other, and your readers
| | 06:35 | would be able to find the other parts
of the tutorial when they read one part.
| | 06:39 | And posts are generally
things that need to be organized.
| | 06:43 | So anytime you want to publish some
content, and you think, does this need to
| | 06:46 | organize in some way?
| | 06:48 | If the answer is yes, in any
shape or fashion, it will be a post.
| | 06:52 | Finally, posts contain what I
like to call ephemeral material.
| | 06:56 | So if you're publishing something
that may be current right now, but becomes
| | 07:00 | irrelevant in about a week,
then would definitely be a post.
| | 07:03 | Anything you put up that you think that
people might be interested in right away,
| | 07:07 | but then it might become less
interesting over time, should be a post. And the
| | 07:11 | cool thing about that is that maybe
what you publish now, and you think is
| | 07:15 | interesting now, and then it becomes
less interesting later, will become
| | 07:18 | interesting again down the road.
| | 07:20 | Because it's a post, and you can
republish it later, or put it up on your front
| | 07:24 | page later, and then people
still be able to read it.
| | 07:27 | Pages, on the other hand,
are for static content.
| | 07:31 | Basically, static content is
stuff that doesn't really change.
| | 07:34 | Things like about information,
contact information, site maps, and so on.
| | 07:39 | Pages are usually non-relational,
meaning they don't really relate to
| | 07:42 | anything else, so you don't have categories,
and tags, or other ways of sorting based on it.
| | 07:47 | Of course, in some cases, you can
create these page trees, where pages have
| | 07:51 | parent-child relationships,
| | 07:53 | but that's the only type of relationship
one page will ever have with another page.
| | 07:57 | Pages are also what's
considered permanent fixtures.
| | 08:00 | If you are wondering if something
should be a page, think of it this way:
| | 08:03 | should this item have its
own button on the main menu?
| | 08:07 | If the answer is yes, then
it's almost always a page.
| | 08:10 | If the answer is no, or the answer is
yes, but when I click that button, I should
| | 08:15 | also see all the other stuff that
is related to that, then it's a post.
| | 08:19 | Pages are also usually macro level.
| | 08:21 | By that I mean they're information about
the overall site, or about the people
| | 08:25 | behind the site, or about what's going on on
this site, rather than the actual content itself.
| | 08:31 | And finally, pages are
usually site information.
| | 08:34 | Like I said,
information about the site itself.
| | 08:37 | Using pages and posts the right way in
WordPress will help you create a site
| | 08:41 | that is easy to navigate, and content
that is easily accessible to your visitors.
| | 08:45 | The rule of thumb is to use pages for
information that doesn't change, and that
| | 08:49 | is static, and posts for information
that keeps updating, and is transient.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a new post| 00:00 | When you want to publish new content
on your WordPress site, more often than
| | 00:03 | not, you'll be creating a new post.
| | 00:06 | Posts are at the core of what
WordPress is built to do, and they have been
| | 00:10 | around since beginning.
| | 00:11 | WordPress was originally built as a
blogging platform, and even today, when
| | 00:16 | WordPress is a full-fledged content
management system, the posts still are the
| | 00:20 | most important items in the site.
| | 00:23 | To create a new post, after you've
logged into your site, you can either go to
| | 00:26 | the WordPress toolbar, select New, and
Post, or if you're in the Dashboard, you
| | 00:32 | can go to the sidebar here,
and select Posts, and Add New.
| | 00:37 | Both will take you to the Add New Post panel.
| | 00:40 | From here, you'll enter a title, and
create all the content, attach categories,
| | 00:45 | pick a post format, and attach tags if
you want to, and do all the other things
| | 00:49 | you need to do to your post.
| | 00:51 | When you create a new post, you should
always start by giving it a title, before
| | 00:55 | you do anything else.
| | 00:56 | So I'm going to go grab a title from a
Word document here, and paste it in. I'm going
| | 01:01 | to have to clean it up a bit, and then
as soon as I click inside my edit field,
| | 01:06 | where I'll be writing my content,
WordPress will save a draft of this post, and
| | 01:11 | give it a permalink, so
that it can be visited later.
| | 01:14 | Now that I have a draft of the
post, I can start writing content.
| | 01:18 | This editor window works much like a
regular word processing window does.
| | 01:22 | I can simply type out content if I want
to, I can highlight it, I can change the
| | 01:28 | style of it if I want to, and
I can edit it in any way I want.
| | 01:32 | In this case, I'm going to paste in
some content from the Word document again.
| | 01:36 | So I'm going to go back to my Word
document, copy the contents, and then I'm
| | 01:42 | going to paste it in here.
| | 01:43 | Now you're probably thinking, I can just
hit Control+V, or go right-click and Paste,
| | 01:49 | but that's not a good idea, because
when you copy from something like a Word
| | 01:52 | document, that text probably has a
bunch of styling attached to it that you
| | 01:57 | don't want to put into your Web site.
| | 01:58 | Instead, you're going to use a special
function built into WordPress to do this.
| | 02:02 | So I'm going to click on this button
at the end of my toolbar here that looks
| | 02:06 | like a bunch of small buttons.
| | 02:08 | It's called the kitchen sink, and when you
click on it, you open a second row of buttons.
| | 02:13 | To be honest with you, I don't know why
that button is there. It should always be
| | 02:16 | opened this way, and I never close it.
| | 02:18 | So just click on the kitchen
sink button to get all your options.
| | 02:21 | From here, we have these two buttons:
Paste as Plain Text, or Paste from Word.
| | 02:27 | I don't really like using the Paste from Word
button, because sometimes it does odd things.
| | 02:32 | So I'm going to paste this as plain text.
| | 02:34 | So I will click on that button, it
opens a new window, and here I can simply
| | 02:39 | paste in the content that I copied out
of Word, do some basic cleanup, and click
| | 02:45 | Insert, and I now get that
content inserted as clean as possible.
| | 02:49 | I'll still have to do tiny little bit of
clean up here, and then I'm good to go.
| | 02:54 | Once I have a title, and some content,
I can save this post as a draft by
| | 02:59 | clicking Save Draft, and then I can preview
the content to see what it'll look like on my site.
| | 03:05 | So I'll click Preview, it will open a new
window, and when I scroll down, I see my content.
| | 03:13 | If I'm happy with what I'm seeing, I
can now click the Publish button, or if I
| | 03:18 | don't like it, and I want to get rid of
the post, I can click Move to Trash.
| | 03:22 | Now, just like with any other page
inside the WordPress admin bar, when you're
| | 03:26 | working inside the Post view, you can
make changes to the layout of the page
| | 03:30 | itself, if you want to change
how you operate inside here.
| | 03:33 | For example, if I don't normally
change my post formats, I may either want to
| | 03:38 | collapse this tab, or I may want to
hide it all together by going to Screen
| | 03:42 | Options, finding Post
Formats, and turning them off.
| | 03:48 | I can also grab any of these elements,
and change the order, or I can even grab
| | 03:55 | them, and move them to a different location.
| | 04:01 | And if I need more space for my editor,
I can grab the corner down here, and
| | 04:06 | make it bigger, or smaller.
| | 04:08 | Now there is an important little side note here:
| | 04:10 | if you want to change the size of
the editor, you can do it while it's in
| | 04:14 | Visual, but if you go to HTML, it
doesn't look like you can do it, because
| | 04:19 | there's no button to hover over.
| | 04:21 | Even so, if you grab these two little
bars down here in the corner, you can
| | 04:25 | still resize the window.
| | 04:27 | It's just really hard to see that you
can, and you also notice that you can't
| | 04:30 | make it smaller than 20 lines.
| | 04:33 | Knowing how to quickly start a new
post for your site is going to save you a
| | 04:36 | lot of time and effort.
| | 04:38 | One of the key components to running
a successful Web site these days is to
| | 04:42 | keep it fresh and current, and WordPress
makes every effort to make that happen for you.
| | 04:46 | Add to that, you can even customize your
post interface to make it easier for you to use.
| | 04:51 | It all adds up to you being able
to produce and publish great Web
| | 04:54 | content faster.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Advanced text formatting in a new post| 00:00 | To make your text content as
legible and approachable as possible, it's
| | 00:04 | important to lay it out properly.
| | 00:06 | That means applying proper
text formatting to your content.
| | 00:10 | To make this as easy as possible,
WordPress comes with a ton of tools built in,
| | 00:14 | precisely for this purpose.
| | 00:16 | In fact, working with text in WordPress
is not all that different from working
| | 00:20 | with text in a regular
word processing application.
| | 00:23 | That said, all text formatting
should be done within WordPress.
| | 00:28 | Here I have a post that I've already created.
| | 00:30 | If you don't have a post that you can
work on, simply go to New, and Post, or you
| | 00:36 | can go to Posts, and click
Add New, and just create a post.
| | 00:40 | After creating some basic text content,
we can start formatting it, and we have
| | 00:44 | lots of tools at our disposal.
| | 00:46 | If you open WordPress for the first time, you
might only see this first line of tools here.
| | 00:50 | If so, go the end of the line on the
right, and click on the Show/Hide Kitchen
| | 00:56 | Sink button to open the second row of buttons.
| | 00:58 | That way, you get all the functionality
that's built into WordPress, and you can
| | 01:02 | use all of it to format your text.
| | 01:05 | The edit area inside WordPress has all the
standard formatting tools you might expect;
| | 01:10 | things like Bold, Italicize, and
Underline, and it even has a very popular
| | 01:20 | blogger tool called Strikethrough,
which draws a line through the text.
| | 01:26 | You can also do things like create Bullet, or
Unordered lists, and Numbered, or Ordered lists.
| | 01:32 | This works exactly the same as it
would in a word processing application.
| | 01:36 | You create a new line, you start typing
something, and then you click the Bullet
| | 01:43 | to create a bullet list.
| | 01:44 | When you hit Enter, you create a new
list item, and if you want to get out of
| | 01:50 | it, you create a new line, and then you
click on the button again, and you're
| | 01:54 | back to a regular paragraph.
| | 01:56 | The same goes for the Ordered list.
| | 01:57 | If you click the Ordered list
button, you get a numbered list.
| | 02:07 | And again, when you want to get out
of it, you simply create a new line,
| | 02:11 | and uncheck the button.
| | 02:12 | In Web publishing, you have a special kind
of formatting for when you quote people.
| | 02:17 | It's called a block quote, and the way
it works is, you find a quote in your
| | 02:21 | text -- so here's a quote --
| | 02:24 | you put it on its own paragraph, so
I'll split it apart, I'll place my cursor
| | 02:29 | anywhere inside it, and
click the Blockquote button.
| | 02:32 | This indents my text, and will make it
display slightly differently in my post.
| | 02:38 | Moving on to the other tools, here
you have the regular Alignment tools.
| | 02:41 | I recommend you never ever use these
simply, because not all themes support
| | 02:46 | alignment, and in many cases, using the
Alignment tools will really mess things up.
| | 02:51 | So stay away from the
Alignment tools as much as possible.
| | 02:55 | You also have the Link tools, that we'll
cover in a later movie, and you have the
| | 03:00 | Insert More Tag, which is the break point.
| | 03:03 | To insert a break point, you simply
place your cursor wherever you want the
| | 03:06 | story to break, and click
the Insert More Tag button.
| | 03:11 | A break point is added here.
| | 03:13 | Now, this break point will appear on
places like the front page, meaning that if
| | 03:17 | you display the story in an Index,
you'll see the beginning of the text here, and
| | 03:22 | then there will be a link at the
bottom saying something like, Click here to
| | 03:25 | read the full story, or Click here for more,
| | 03:28 | and when people click on it,
they get to the full story.
| | 03:31 | Next to the more tag, you have a
spellchecker, where you can toggle the
| | 03:34 | spellchecker on and off.
| | 03:35 | And you see, right now
it's flagging all these names.
| | 03:38 | You can also pick what language
you want it to spellcheck for.
| | 03:41 | There are a lot of different languages
to choose from, and it will help you make
| | 03:46 | sure that your language is correct.
| | 03:47 | Next to the Spellchecker is a really
cool option that few people use. It's
| | 03:52 | called the Toggle fullscreen mode,
and if you click it, the fullscreen mode
| | 03:56 | takes over your page.
| | 03:58 | Now you have a completely distraction-
free environment, where you can write your
| | 04:02 | stories without seeing all
these other things hovering around.
| | 04:05 | You can do most of the same text
formatting in the distraction-free writing area
| | 04:10 | as you can in the regular text editor.
| | 04:13 | To get to those functions, though, you
have to move your mouse up to the top, and
| | 04:16 | you see they will appear at the top here.
| | 04:18 | When you're done writing your story in
the distraction-free mode, you can click
| | 04:22 | Exit fullscreen, and you'll
jump back to the regular view.
| | 04:26 | On the second line, you have more
advanced tools, and this is one of the main
| | 04:31 | reasons I think it's so weird that
this second line is usually hidden under
| | 04:35 | the kitchen sink button, because this
box at the very beginning, the one that
| | 04:39 | right now says Paragraph, it's maybe
one of the most important tools inside
| | 04:43 | this whole toolkit.
| | 04:45 | I'll show you how to use it.
| | 04:46 | When you write stories, you tend to have
subheadings, so let's say there's a subheading here.
| | 04:53 | You always want to make sure that
that subheading is formatted properly.
| | 04:58 | To do that, I use this
dropdown to pick what this is.
| | 05:02 | In this case, it's a subheading,
and I'm going to set it as Heading 2.
| | 05:06 | Now I chose Heading 2
because of how the Web is set up.
| | 05:10 | Generally, when you find a page of
content on the Web, what you want to see
| | 05:14 | is that the main heading, the first
line of text you see on the story, should
| | 05:18 | be Heading 1, and then any subheading
under there should be either Heading 2,
| | 05:23 | Heading 3, Heading 4, Heading 5, or Heading
6, depending on how they relate to each other.
| | 05:28 | What you want to do is create text
where you can clearly see the hierarchy of
| | 05:33 | the different headings, based on where
they're placed, and how they're styled.
| | 05:37 | So as you write your content, if
you have a subheading, and it's a main
| | 05:41 | subheading, then you'd assign it Heading 2.
| | 05:42 | If it's a heading underneath a subheading,
then you assign it Heading 3, and so on.
| | 05:48 | By doing this, you're not only telling
your readers what is more important in
| | 05:52 | your story, but you're also telling the
search engines how to index your content
| | 05:56 | properly, and that's what really matters.
| | 05:58 | So using this dropdown effectively, and
assigning the correct headings at all
| | 06:03 | times, will mean that your content
will be easier for people to understand.
| | 06:08 | Next to the Paragraph button we have
the Underline button that we've already
| | 06:11 | talked about, and you also have the
justify, or Align Full button, which is just
| | 06:16 | like the other alignment buttons.
| | 06:18 | You should never use this button.
| | 06:20 | And then you have a Color button
that you should also never use.
| | 06:23 | It basically assigns colors to your font.
| | 06:25 | But your theme should do that for you, and
in many cases, it will just mess up your text.
| | 06:30 | Next to the Color, you
have the two Paste buttons.
| | 06:33 | These allow you to paste in text
either as plain text, or to paste content
| | 06:37 | directly from Microsoft Word.
| | 06:39 | I recommend you always use
the Paste as Plain Text button.
| | 06:43 | When you click on it, it opens a window,
you paste in your content from whatever
| | 06:47 | text editor you got it from here,
and then you click Insert, and it gets
| | 06:51 | inserted in without any
kind of code attached to it.
| | 06:54 | It's a great way of pasting content
from the Web, or from documents, into your
| | 06:58 | page, without that, in the
process, breaking anything.
| | 07:01 | Next to the page buttons, you
have a Remove formatting button.
| | 07:05 | The way it works is, you highlight
some content that already has formatting
| | 07:09 | attached to it, like this content,
which has an underline to it, and you
| | 07:13 | click Remove formatting.
| | 07:15 | Now, of course, you can do the same by
simply toggling or untoggling this button.
| | 07:19 | But in some cases, this works just as well.
| | 07:23 | On the kitchen sink, you also have a
little-used, but very useful tool, which
| | 07:27 | allows you to install symbols.
| | 07:28 | So let's say I want a Pi symbol. I can
click on this, and I get a full symbol map
| | 07:34 | where I can find the Pi symbol,
| | 07:35 | if I look very carefully; it's
over here, and I can insert it in.
| | 07:40 | So that's great if you're doing
mathematical formulas, or if you want to say
| | 07:44 | something like Easy as Pi.
| | 07:48 | Next to that, you have the Indent function.
| | 07:51 | These are great if you want to have
lists with multiple different levels.
| | 07:56 | So let's say I have a sub-item here. I
can use the Indent function to indent the
| | 08:03 | sub-item, so that it's
indented from the main item.
| | 08:05 | If I don't want it to be indented, I
can then click again; it will jump back
| | 08:09 | to the main position.
| | 08:10 | And I also have Undo and Redo buttons.
| | 08:13 | As you can see, the text editing
functionality inside WordPress is quite
| | 08:19 | advanced, and if you use it wisely, you
can make very nicely laid out content,
| | 08:23 | that's easy to understand, and has the
right headings, and the right highlightings,
| | 08:28 | in the right places.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating and managing links| 00:00 | Links are the fundamental
building blocks of the World Wide Web.
| | 00:04 | In fact, without links there
wouldn't be a World Wide Web to begin with.
| | 00:09 | Links can be attached to many
different elements on a Web page; most
| | 00:12 | prominently text and images.
| | 00:15 | Creating links is simply a matter of
attaching an anchor tag with the URL to the
| | 00:19 | target location to an element on your page.
| | 00:22 | Sounds complicated, right?
| | 00:24 | But it's actually really simple.
| | 00:26 | What I need to do is find some content on
my page that I want to point somewhere else.
| | 00:32 | So first, I'm going to go through my
text here, and see if there's anything I
| | 00:35 | want to link somewhere else, and there is.
| | 00:37 | I have these two pieces of text here
that says, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.
| | 00:43 | So what I want to do is
change these texts into links,
| | 00:46 | so that when people click on the
names of these magazines, they jump to the
| | 00:50 | magazines themselves on the Internet.
| | 00:52 | First, I need to grab the URLs for
those magazines from their Web sites.
| | 00:57 | So I'm going to go find the Web sites.
| | 00:59 | Here is The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.
| | 01:03 | Then I'll go here and copy the URL,
highlight The New Yorker here in my text,
| | 01:11 | and then click the Link button.
| | 01:13 | You'll notice that the Link
button remains unclickable until you
| | 01:17 | highlight something.
| | 01:18 | Ones it's highlighted, you have
the ability to attach a link to it.
| | 01:22 | So I'll click the Link button, and
this opens the Insert/edit link dialog.
| | 01:27 | From here, I can paste in my URL,
remembering that I need http:// in the front,
| | 01:34 | and then I have to give my link a title.
| | 01:36 | Now, when I say I have to give it, I
don't mean that if you don't add a
| | 01:40 | title here it won't work.
| | 01:41 | What I mean is you should always put a
title on your links, so that when people
| | 01:45 | hover over it, they see where they're going.
| | 01:48 | So I'll say, Jump to The New Yorker, and
then I have an option whether I want to
| | 01:55 | open this link in a new
window or tab, or not.
| | 01:58 | My general rule of thumb is, if I'm
pointing to something that's not on my
| | 02:02 | Web site, or if I'm pointing to
something that is merely a reference from the
| | 02:07 | story, I always check this box.
| | 02:10 | That way, people can jump to this other
Web site, or to this other article, and
| | 02:14 | then when they're done, they can close
it down, and they're right back where they
| | 02:17 | started on my article.
| | 02:18 | If I'm linking to something internally,
either in my story, or in my Web site,
| | 02:23 | and I don't necessarily want people to
come back to the original story, I'll
| | 02:26 | leave it unchecked.
| | 02:28 | Once I've added both my URL, and the Title,
I'll click Add Link, and the link is added.
| | 02:33 | I'm going to do the same
again for The Atlantic.
| | 02:36 | So I'll highlight The Atlantic, go
to The Atlantic, and copy the URL.
| | 02:42 | Make sure I'm still highlighted, click
Insert/edit link, paste it in, give it
| | 02:48 | a Title, make sure that the Open link in a
new window/tab is checked, and click Add Link.
| | 02:56 | Now, what if I want to
edit one of these links?
| | 02:59 | Let's say I realize that
one of them is incorrect.
| | 03:02 | Well, then I can click on it, and
either take it away by clicking the Unlink
| | 03:06 | button, or I can click on the Insert/
edit link button again, and then I can
| | 03:12 | make edits to that link.
| | 03:14 | This exact same process
can be done in the HTML view.
| | 03:17 | So if we go to the HTML view, you'll see
that the content looks quite different,
| | 03:22 | and these links we created can be found here.
| | 03:25 | So here, we have The New Yorker
link, and here we have The Atlantic link.
| | 03:30 | As you can see, the link actually
consists of an anchor tag, followed by the
| | 03:35 | title I inserted, followed by an href,
which is the reference to the actual URL,
| | 03:40 | and then a target, which is what
window you'll open this link in.
| | 03:45 | I can create more links here by
selecting any word, and then clicking that Link
| | 03:49 | button, and it automatically opens that
same window, where you can create another
| | 03:54 | URL, another Title, and give that same option.
| | 03:57 | Now, there's one more function
here I can use if I want to.
| | 04:01 | Let's say I want to link to something
that's already on my Web site; a page or a
| | 04:05 | post I already created.
| | 04:07 | In that case, I'll highlight some text,
click the Link button, and instead of
| | 04:12 | putting in a URL, and a Title, I'll
click on this link to existing content
| | 04:16 | option, and this opens a field where I
can see my most recently posted posts and
| | 04:21 | pages, and I can also search,
if I have many to choose from.
| | 04:26 | From here, I can simply select,
for instance, this Test post, and it
| | 04:30 | automatically sets both my URL, and my Title,
and when I click Add Link, we get that same link.
| | 04:38 | But what's really cool about this
function is, if I choose to change the
| | 04:42 | permalink structure of my Web site --
that means I change the way the URLs are
| | 04:47 | displayed for this Web site --
| | 04:49 | the link I just created will still work.
| | 04:51 | What will happen is, as I change the
permalink, WordPress will know that I
| | 04:56 | changed the permalink, and it will
actually go in here ,and change this link to
| | 05:01 | match the new permalink structure for me,
without me having to worry about it.
| | 05:05 | That means if you're linking to
something internally on your Web site, and you
| | 05:09 | don't want it to break, use the link to
existing content function, and WordPress
| | 05:14 | will automatically keep track of your
links, and make sure that they never break.
| | 05:19 | Mastering the not very challenging
signs of effective link use will
| | 05:23 | greatly enhance the quality of your site, and
make it easier to navigate for your visitors.
| | 05:28 | Now that you see how easy it is to
make links, start making links to provide
| | 05:33 | your readers with further
reading, and relevant information.
| | 05:36 | And remember, if you ever quote
someone from the Internet, or you refer to
| | 05:40 | something, always make a link
pointing to the original source.
| | 05:44 | That way, you're giving away what they
refer to as link love, and at the same
| | 05:49 | time, you ensure that the people who
read your content can go and check your
| | 05:52 | source material, and find the originator.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding images| 00:00 | They say that an image says
more than a thousand words.
| | 00:03 | That may be true, but on the web an
image also make things easier to digest and
| | 00:09 | they can bring both life and
context to the text on your pages.
| | 00:13 | WordPress offers several different
ways of storing, sourcing, and including
| | 00:17 | images into your post, and also gives
you great flexibility when it comes to
| | 00:21 | deciding how those images will be
displayed within the context of that post.
| | 00:26 | I have created a new post here.
| | 00:28 | If you don't already have a post, you
can create a new one by either going to
| | 00:32 | New and select Post or by
going to Post and selecting Add New.
| | 00:37 | Now, I want to add an image into my post.
| | 00:40 | I do that through the new Add Media
Button that's added to WordPress 3.5, and
| | 00:46 | this button works a bit differently
from previous versions of WordPress.
| | 00:50 | The first thing I want to do when I
want to add an image is place my cursor
| | 00:54 | where the image should appear.
| | 00:56 | So, I'll place my cursor right here at
the top because I want it to appear at
| | 00:58 | the very top of my post.
| | 01:01 | Then to add the image, I'm
going to click the Add Media Button.
| | 01:05 | Now, if you've worked with WordPress in
the past, you'll see that this Add Media
| | 01:09 | panel is completely
different from previous versions.
| | 01:12 | That's because we have a whole new
Media Manager in WordPress 3.5. But it still
| | 01:17 | works much the same way.
| | 01:19 | You can either drag and drop files into
this large panel here--like you see it
| | 01:23 | says, Drop files anywhere to upload--
or you can click this large button to
| | 01:27 | select files from your computer.
| | 01:29 | I'm going to drag and drop a file.
| | 01:31 | I'll go to my browser on my computer,
find the image I want to use--it's this
| | 01:35 | one--and then simply grab it and drop it in.
| | 01:41 | Now, the image gets uploaded into
WordPress, it gets checked here in the Media
| | 01:45 | selector, and here, on the right-hand
side I can now set a title, a caption, and
| | 01:51 | alternate text, and do other things.
| | 01:53 | Before you insert an image into your
post or pages, it is important that you
| | 01:57 | fill out all this information
here on the right-hand side.
| | 02:00 | At the top we have the title. This is
the title of image and it's also what
| | 02:05 | WordPress is going to use to track the image.
| | 02:07 | So, it's a very good idea to set the
title to something that makes sense.
| | 02:11 | As you can see, by default, WordPress
will grab the title of the file and set it
| | 02:16 | into the title, and that
doesn't really make any sense.
| | 02:18 | So, I'm going to change it to
something that makes sense. So I'll set this to
| | 02:22 | Blue brush strokes. And this title will
appear when you hover your mouse over
| | 02:27 | the image on the page.
| | 02:29 | Below that, I have the caption.
| | 02:31 | The caption is the text that will
appear underneath the image. It's optional so
| | 02:35 | you can choose whether you want to add
a caption or not, and what's really cool
| | 02:39 | is in WordPress 3.5, you can
now add HTML into your caption,
| | 02:44 | meaning you can do things like bold
the text or italicized text, and you can
| | 02:48 | also add links into your caption.
| | 02:51 | That's great if you are sourcing your
image from somewhere else and you want to
| | 02:55 | link back to the original source, or
if you want to give further information.
| | 02:59 | All you have to do is
simply punch in the HTML here.
| | 03:02 | So, I'll create some bold text here
so you can see what I'm talking about.
| | 03:07 | As you can see, this strong
element is what creates the bolded text.
| | 03:12 | Before you save this, you also have
to add an alternate text to the image.
| | 03:18 | The alternate text is not technically
required by WordPress, but it's required
| | 03:23 | by what's called web standards.
| | 03:25 | What that means is that if the image
for some reason doesn't appear--it could
| | 03:29 | be because the server doesn't serve it to
the computer that's visiting the page or
| | 03:33 | maybe because something else is wrong--
the alternate text will appear in its place.
| | 03:37 | This is important because not everyone
who visits your website will have the
| | 03:42 | ability to see images.
| | 03:43 | It could be because they technically
don't have the ability to see the images
| | 03:47 | with their device or their browser, or
it could be because they are visually
| | 03:50 | impaired, or the person visiting your
website might not be a person at all; it
| | 03:56 | might be a computer like Google, and
Google can't see images--it only sees text.
| | 04:00 | So alternate text should be a
description of the image, and it will only appear
| | 04:05 | if you can see the image.
| | 04:06 | Now that we've set all the information
for the image, we have to decide how we
| | 04:11 | want to display the image in the page.
| | 04:14 | Under here you see it says
Attachment Display Setting.
| | 04:17 | Here, you can set the alignment of the image.
| | 04:19 | You can set whether or not the image
is going to link somewhere, and you also
| | 04:22 | get to decide what size you want to insert.
| | 04:25 | We'll start with Alignment.
| | 04:27 | You can choose between Left, Center, or
Right, and you can also set the alignment to None.
| | 04:32 | Left and Right break the text so
that if you put it on the Left, the text
| | 04:37 | would be on the right and if you put it on
the Right, the text would be on the left.
| | 04:39 | Center places the image in the Center
and forces the text to go either Above the
| | 04:45 | image or Underneath the image.
| | 04:46 | The None Option places the image in
context with the text, and this rarely works,
| | 04:52 | so I always suggest that you
use either Left, Center, or Right.
| | 04:56 | In this case I'm going to set at the Center.
| | 04:59 | Link To allows you to link somewhere.
So you can either insert a custom URL, you
| | 05:04 | can set it to the Attachment page,
which is the individual page for the image,
| | 05:09 | or you can set it to the media file,
which is the original image you uploaded.
| | 05:12 | I'm going to set this to Attachment Page.
| | 05:15 | And then finally, I get to
decide what Size I want to upload.
| | 05:19 | You have this option because when
you upload an image to WordPress what
| | 05:22 | WordPress does is it creates
numerous different versions of the image.
| | 05:26 | As you can see here, the original
image is 1200 x 900 and the full-size image
| | 05:31 | 1200 x 900, but I also have a
Large version that's 1024 x 768.
| | 05:37 | I have a Medium version that's 300 x 225,
and I have a Thumbnail that's 150 x 150.
| | 05:43 | I can choose which one of these versions
I want to display so that I don't have
| | 05:47 | to display a huge image if I don't want to.
| | 05:50 | I'm going to select the Medium version
and because I select the Medium version,
| | 05:53 | I'm going to change my
Alignment here to the left.
| | 05:57 | Now, to insert image into my post,
I simply click Insert into Post.
| | 06:03 | You can see my image appears here, on
left-hand side. It has the caption and the
| | 06:08 | caption has the bolded text.
| | 06:10 | To preview what I've done, I'm now
going to save the draft and click Preview,
| | 06:18 | and when I scroll down, you'll see
here we have the image. We have the caption.
| | 06:23 | When I click on the image, I jump to
the Attachment page for the image, which
| | 06:29 | displays the full-size image, and the
image is floating to the left with the text
| | 06:35 | wrapping on the right.
| | 06:37 | But what if I want to
make changes to the image?
| | 06:40 | I can go back into WordPress and then
I can simply click on the image and I
| | 06:44 | get these two options.
| | 06:45 | I can either delete the image
or I can go and edit the image.
| | 06:49 | When I click Edit Image, I go into
the old image editor and this allows me
| | 06:55 | to change my caption.
| | 06:57 | So I can either change it or if I don't want
it, I can simply highlight it and remove it.
| | 07:02 | I can also change the Alignment of
the image, so I can set it to None,
| | 07:05 | Left, Center, or Right.
| | 07:07 | I can change the alternate text and I
can also change where the image links to.
| | 07:11 | You see, right now that it links to the
Attachment page, but I can also click
| | 07:15 | Link to Image if I want to to point
direct to the image, or I can put in a URL of
| | 07:20 | any kind that I want to link to.
| | 07:22 | Let's say I want to remove the
caption, so I'll take the caption out, and
| | 07:26 | I'll update the page.
| | 07:28 | As you can see, the caption disappeared,
and now I can do something more interesting.
| | 07:33 | Let's say I wanted to move the image.
| | 07:35 | Well, if I want to move the image, say,
down to the next paragraph, all I have to
| | 07:39 | do is, click on it, grab it and
drag it down to the next paragraph.
| | 07:45 | And you see the image will retain
all its settings; it just moved around.
| | 07:49 | There's one unfortunate thing though:
I can't really do this if I have a
| | 07:52 | caption in place, and that's because
of how WordPress handles captions.
| | 07:56 | So, if you want to move your images
around like I just did, you need to
| | 08:00 | remove the caption first and then
move the image, and then you can put the
| | 08:02 | caption back in again.
| | 08:04 | If you managed to move the image with
the caption still there, chances are
| | 08:07 | you'll break your page, and it's really
unfortunate, so I recommend you not do that.
| | 08:12 | There's one more thing I want to
point out though, with the Media Manager.
| | 08:16 | You notice that when I click the Add
Media button, I also got this Media Library
| | 08:20 | Option and when it uploaded an image,
you also saw all these other images.
| | 08:24 | Well, these are all the other images
that I have already uploaded to my site.
| | 08:29 | And because of this new Media Manager, I can
add any of these images to my post if I want to.
| | 08:34 | All I have to do is click the image.
You see it checked. Here you see the old
| | 08:39 | information for the image, and if I want
to insert it, I simply click the Insert
| | 08:43 | into Post button and that image
will be inserted into my post.
| | 08:48 | As you can see, adding images to your
posts is a relatively simple procedure,
| | 08:53 | and as with everything else in WordPress,
it's extremely flexible and nothing is ever permanent.
| | 08:58 | Just remember to always give your
images an alternate description.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding an image gallery| 00:00 | So far, you've seen how you can add
images into your posts or pages, simply by
| | 00:05 | selecting where you want the image to
appear and then clicking the Add Media
| | 00:09 | button and adding that
image to your post or page.
| | 00:13 | You can do this to add images to
several different places in one post, so you
| | 00:17 | don't just have to have one image per post.
| | 00:19 | You can place them around and
move them around in any way you want.
| | 00:23 | However, sometimes you may want to add
an image gallery instead, so you can show
| | 00:27 | small thumbnails of a series of images
and then when the visitor clicks on them,
| | 00:32 | they would see larger versions of those images.
| | 00:34 | You can do that as well by using the
same Add Media function; it just works
| | 00:38 | a little differently.
| | 00:40 | To show you what I'm talking about,
I'll create a new post. So I'll click
| | 00:44 | Add New and I'll call it Simple
image gallery. And here I'm just going to
| | 00:51 | add an image gallery.
| | 00:53 | So, I'll click on the Add Media button
again and then I'll upload a series of
| | 00:57 | images instead of just one.
| | 00:59 | So, this time I'm going to click on
Select Files and I'll navigate to my
| | 01:03 | desktop and my assets where I have my images,
and I'll select these first five images here.
| | 01:10 | I'll click Open and the images
are now uploaded into WordPress.
| | 01:15 | As you can see, as they're uploaded, they
get checked, so I now have all these
| | 01:20 | five images checked into my gallery.
| | 01:23 | Before I add my gallery, I have to
remember to always give each of the images a
| | 01:27 | title and an alternate text,
and if I want to, also a caption.
| | 01:31 | So, I'm quickly going to name all these images.
| | 01:33 | You see right now I have this one checked and
it's up here, so I'll call this one Untitled #1.
| | 01:42 | I'll give it a caption, and
I'll set an alternate text.
| | 01:48 | Then I'll move on to the next image.
I'll call this one Untitled #2 and
| | 01:57 | select the fifth one.
| | 02:00 | Now, I know what you are going to say:
"This looks really cumbersome," right?
| | 02:03 | Because I have to go in and put in the
title and caption and alternate text for
| | 02:08 | each individual image.
| | 02:09 | And yes, it is cumbersome.
| | 02:10 | However, adding this information when
you upload the image will save you so much
| | 02:15 | time later, because all this
information is stored in WordPress,
| | 02:18 | so next time you want to use the
image that information is already there.
| | 02:22 | You can see it if you click on this old
image that we uploaded earlier in the course.
| | 02:26 | You see here we have the title, the
caption, and the alternate text all ready to go.
| | 02:30 | So, the first time you add the image,
you always have to remember to add all
| | 02:34 | this information right away and then
you don't have to have add it later.
| | 02:38 | Notice what happened when I clicked
on the blue image. You see how the
| | 02:41 | checkmark checked here?
| | 02:43 | That means I've now added
that image into my gallery.
| | 02:46 | So, I'm kind of jumping ahead, but
I'll show you what I'm talking about here.
| | 02:49 | I'll uncheck this for now.
| | 02:51 | So now, I have five images selected,
each with a checkmark. And down here it
| | 02:56 | says, "5 selected," and I can see them.
| | 02:58 | And I have a new button that
says, "Create a new gallery."
| | 03:01 | If I click on Create a new gallery, I
open directly to the Gallery Editor.
| | 03:06 | From here, I see each of the images,
along with my captions, and I see that
| | 03:11 | they're all thumbnails, and if I want to,
I can know reorganize these images by
| | 03:17 | simply dragging and dropping them around.
| | 03:19 | I can also remove an image from the
gallery by clicking Remove, and I can change
| | 03:25 | where each of the images are pointing.
| | 03:27 | By default, the images point to the
Attachment page and I'm going to leave it
| | 03:31 | like that. But if you are using a
plugin like a lightbox plugin that we'll
| | 03:35 | cover later in the course, you may
want to change the setting to Media File
| | 03:39 | instead, so that the image, when clicked
on, points to the original image and then
| | 03:44 | that original image will
pop up in a very nice way.
| | 03:46 | But like I said, I'll leave
it at Attachment page for now.
| | 03:50 | You can also choose how many
columns you want to be in your gallery.
| | 03:54 | You can change it to 2 or 1
or 3 or whatever you want.
| | 03:58 | I'm going to leave it at 3
and then click Insert Gallery.
| | 04:03 | When the gallery is inserted in
WordPress, all you get is this preview, so you
| | 04:07 | can't really see the gallery.
| | 04:09 | To see it you have to go and preview
your actual post, so I'll save my draft
| | 04:15 | and then click Preview to preview my post.
| | 04:19 | Here, you'll see that simple image gallery.
| | 04:22 | As you can see, each of my images
appears as a thumbnail, and when I click on one
| | 04:27 | of them, I'm taken to the
Attachment page for that image.
| | 04:31 | Here I see the full-size version of the
image. And the Attachment page also has
| | 04:35 | navigation so that I can jump
to the next image in this post.
| | 04:40 | So, I can go from image to
image to image if I want to.
| | 04:43 | I can also jump back to the original
post so that I'm back where I started,
| | 04:49 | and here is my gallery.
| | 04:51 | Now that I see my gallery, I
realize I'm missing an image from it.
| | 04:54 | So, I'm going to go back to edit my
post, click on the gallery, click Edit
| | 05:00 | Gallery, and I'm taken
back to the Edit Gallery view.
| | 05:04 | From here, I can now either remove
images or I can go to the Media Library
| | 05:09 | and add more images.
| | 05:10 | So I'm going to add this one. I'll
give it a title, because I didn't when I
| | 05:14 | uploaded it for some reason,
and I'll click Add gallery.
| | 05:20 | Now I can go back to edit my gallery
and I see my new image appears here, and
| | 05:24 | just like before, I can grab image and
move it around if I want to, and I can
| | 05:29 | also change my settings.
| | 05:31 | If you worked with WordPress galleries
before, this should surprise you; that's
| | 05:35 | because in previous versions of WordPress
the gallery function only worked with
| | 05:40 | images that were associated
with this particular page.
| | 05:43 | And as you noticed, the image I just added,
this one, was not associated with this
| | 05:48 | post at all; it was an image that was
uploaded previously, and I could select it
| | 05:52 | directly from my Media Library.
| | 05:54 | This is a new and very useful feature
inside WordPress that comes with WordPress
| | 05:59 | 3.5, and it allows you to create
galleries based on all the images that were ever
| | 06:04 | uploaded to your site without having to
reupload them to the post or mess with
| | 06:09 | the original code to make it work.
| | 06:10 | This is a very powerful feature and
it means you can create great image
| | 06:15 | galleries very easily.
| | 06:17 | Now that I've added my image, I'll
simply go Update Gallery and when I preview
| | 06:22 | the post again, you will
see, now we have six images.
| | 06:28 | Adding a simple image gallery to your
posts or pages in WordPress has always
| | 06:32 | been easy, and with the update to
WordPress 3.5 and the new Media Manager, it
| | 06:37 | has become easier than ever because
now you don't have to use images that are
| | 06:41 | associated just with this post.
| | 06:43 | You can add any image from your library
into your gallery and you can edit your
| | 06:47 | gallery in a very easy way.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding images, video, and audio from external sources| 00:00 | In addition to uploading your images to
WordPress itself, you can place images
| | 00:05 | and other media content, like video, from
other sites into your posts and pages.
| | 00:10 | This is because images and other media
elements are either replaced elements
| | 00:15 | or embedded elements.
| | 00:17 | They don't actually live on your page
but are gathered in from a URL and placed
| | 00:21 | on your page in place of code.
| | 00:24 | To put that into plain English, when
you look at this image gallery that we
| | 00:27 | created earlier, what you see is six
images, but what's actually here is six
| | 00:33 | boxes with gray borders and then URLs
pointing to the original images.
| | 00:38 | The images could live anywhere on the
web; they just happen to live on my site.
| | 00:42 | I could just as easily display images
that I found on a different site in this
| | 00:46 | page and the visitor would not
be able to tell the difference.
| | 00:50 | That's what I mean by replaced elements.
| | 00:52 | The browser sees the URL and
replaces the URL with the original image.
| | 00:57 | Let me show you how this works.
| | 00:59 | Let's say you find an image somewhere
that you want to add into your site.
| | 01:04 | I go to Flickr and I find
this image that I want to use.
| | 01:07 | Now, in this case, this is my image,
but you can use a lot of images on Flickr in
| | 01:12 | your site, as long as you
have the license in order.
| | 01:14 | Now, the first thing you want to do if
you want to use an image you find on the
| | 01:17 | web is make sure you're allowed
to use that image on your site.
| | 01:21 | A good rule of thumb when using images
that you find on the web is to assume
| | 01:26 | you're not allowed to use any
images you find on the web on your site.
| | 01:29 | If you find an image you really want
to use, you have to make sure that the
| | 01:33 | license allows you to use that image.
| | 01:35 | If you go to a source like Flickr,
it's pretty easy to find out because all
| | 01:39 | Flickr images have a license attached.
| | 01:42 | When you're on the Flickr page for
that image and you scroll down, you'll see
| | 01:46 | here it says License, and in this
case it says Some rights reserved.
| | 01:49 | If you click on the link you will go to
the Creative Commons License for this
| | 01:54 | particular image and then it will
explain exactly what you are allowed to do and
| | 01:58 | what you are not allowed to do.
| | 01:59 | In this case, it says, "You are free
| | 02:01 | to share, copy, distribute, and transmit
the work," but you're not allowed to earn
| | 02:06 | money from it and you're not allowed
to create new derivative works, and you
| | 02:11 | have to give attribution to
the original photographer.
| | 02:14 | That means you can use the image, you
can display it on your site, as long as you
| | 02:20 | say I took the image and that
you link back to the original image.
| | 02:24 | There's also an additional little
component in that when you use an image
| | 02:28 | taken from Flickr you have to link
back to this page, the original image page
| | 02:33 | for that image, so that when people click
on image on your site, it jumped to Flickr.
| | 02:38 | So, let's say I want to use
this image and I know I can.
| | 02:42 | To add an image to a post, I simply
have to create a new post, and I'll call this
| | 02:47 | one My wooden monkey.
| | 02:51 | And first I'm going to put in some text.
| | 02:53 | I will set a category, and then I'm
going to place my cursor where I want the
| | 02:59 | image to appear, just like I would
if I add an image from my computer.
| | 03:03 | To add the image, I'm going to click
Add Media, but then, instead of uploading
| | 03:07 | an image or picking an image from my
existing Media Library, I'm going to click
| | 03:12 | this From URL Button.
| | 03:13 | This gives me the ability to
point directly to an image on the web.
| | 03:17 | Now, I can go back to Flickr, I'll go
to Actions and click View All Sizes.
| | 03:23 | Then I'll find the size I want.
I'll pick this 500-pixel image.
| | 03:26 | I'll right-click on the image and copy
the image URL that I'm pointing directly
| | 03:31 | at this image, and then I'll paste URL in here.
| | 03:35 | WordPress is smart enough to notice
that this is an image so it changed
| | 03:39 | my options down here.
| | 03:40 | So now I have captions like I did
before, and I'm making sure that I put in
| | 03:45 | the proper attribution in my caption,
because that's what's the Creative
| | 03:49 | Commons License said.
| | 03:51 | I'll also put in an alternate text,
and I can also do things like align the
| | 03:56 | image, just like I would with a regular
image--Left, Center, Right, or None--and
| | 04:00 | I can link the image wherever I want to.
| | 04:02 | So, I'm going to set this image to
center, and I want to link this image
| | 04:06 | directly to the original page for the image.
| | 04:10 | I'm going to click Custom URL, go back to the
original page, copy out that URL, and paste it.
| | 04:24 | Now that I have all the information
in place, I'll click Insert into Post,
| | 04:27 | the image appears with the caption,
text underneath, click Publish, and when I
| | 04:36 | now view my post, you'll see the image
appears just like the other images, with the caption.
| | 04:43 | You can click on it to jump to
Flickr and the text appears underneath.
| | 04:48 | The only major difference between this
image and the images I uploaded myself
| | 04:54 | is that if I go to Edit Post, click Add
Media, and go to Media Library, you will
| | 05:00 | see I don't have the wooden monkey image here.
That's because I didn't upload it into WordPress,
| | 05:04 | so WordPress can't display it in the
Media Library. The image lives somewhere
| | 05:08 | else, but otherwise, it
behaves to exact the same way.
| | 05:12 | But images aren't the only things
you may want to put into your site
| | 05:16 | from another place.
| | 05:17 | A very common thing that pretty much
everyone wants to add to their site are
| | 05:21 | YouTube videos, and with WordPress,
adding YouTube videos is even easier than
| | 05:26 | adding images from, say, Flickr.
| | 05:28 | Let me first create a new post from my
video, and I will call this post Meet
| | 05:36 | Jim video because that's the name of the video.
| | 05:39 | I've already gone to YouTube to find the
video I want to display. It's right here.
| | 05:43 | (video playing)
| | 05:49 | Now, I want to grab the URL to the
video, and make sure the URL looks like this,
| | 05:53 | because sometimes when you go to YouTube
to get this crazy URL that has lots and
| | 05:57 | lots and of stuff here.
| | 05:59 | You want the clean URL, so you may want
to click on some buttons to get to the
| | 06:04 | actual original video when you do this.
| | 06:07 | Once you have the clean URL, you simply
copy it out, go into WordPress, and I'll
| | 06:14 | go to Text here instead of the Visual
view, and then I'll paste in the URL.
| | 06:19 | The URL is pasted in. I'm going to
set a category and click Publish.
| | 06:23 | And you notice what I did here:
Title, URL under text, Category,
| | 06:32 | Publish--nothing else.
| | 06:33 | If I click on Visual, you'll see all you see is the
URL, but if I click on View Post, scroll
| | 06:41 | down, here's the video.
| | 06:43 | If I click on it, it plays.
(video playing)
| | 06:51 | and this behaves just like
any other YouTube video on the web.
| | 06:55 | What's happening here is WordPress
has gotten so clever it can actually
| | 06:59 | tell from the URL that this URL from
YouTube--and that means there's a video
| | 07:04 | on the YouTube page
| | 07:05 | so I'm going to cut a whole in this
page and put the video inside it and let it
| | 07:10 | play and behave just like you would YouTube.
| | 07:12 | That means adding YouTube videos and
videos from other video sites like Vimeo
| | 07:17 | is really this easy.
| | 07:18 | You just grab the URL, plunk it in to
the text editor, and then it appears.
| | 07:23 | And this video behaves just like
any other content in WordPress.
| | 07:26 | I can now go in and edit my post.
| | 07:29 | I can add text above it.
| | 07:31 | I can add text below it.
| | 07:34 | I can add an image. And when I update
the post and view the post, you'll see we
| | 07:48 | have Text above, we have the video, we
have Text below, we have an image, and
| | 07:54 | everything else works exactly as it did before.
| | 07:57 | Adding media like images and videos
from external sources allows you to share
| | 08:01 | content you produced yourself or
content you found online with your readers,
| | 08:06 | bringing attention to the
originator and making the content available.
| | 08:10 | Just be careful you don't end up
stealing content inadvertently or that you
| | 08:14 | break licenses in the
process of publishing that content.
| | 08:18 | Adding images is pretty easy.
| | 08:20 | Getting the attribution right and
doing your due diligence is also easy.
| | 08:24 | Just make sure you have permission
to post content before you post it and
| | 08:29 | you'll be fine.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding categories, tags, post formats, excerpts, and other elements| 00:00 | In addition to writing the post itself,
adding a title, adding text content,
| | 00:05 | images, and other rich media,
| | 00:07 | WordPress gives you the ability to
attach extra information, and customize the
| | 00:11 | way the post displays and behaves
through the use of built-in functions.
| | 00:15 | These include categories and tags for
organization, post formats and featured
| | 00:20 | images for display functions, and
trackbacks and discussions for commenting.
| | 00:25 | All of these functions are
found within the Edit Post view.
| | 00:29 | So when you are done writing your article,
you have given it a title, and you've
| | 00:32 | put in all your content, it's time to
add all this extra information, so that you
| | 00:36 | are organizing your content properly,
and displaying it the way you want.
| | 00:40 | The first, and arguably most important
thing you have to do after you've finished
| | 00:44 | your post is to attach a category to that post.
| | 00:48 | Like I said earlier in the course,
every post must be under at least one
| | 00:52 | category, and if you don't assign a
category to a pos, it automatically gets
| | 00:56 | attached to the Uncategorized category,
which personally I find to look really weird.
| | 01:01 | So you need to add a new
category if you don't already have one.
| | 01:06 | To add a new category ,all you
have to do is click Add New Category.
| | 01:10 | Then this little function opens that
allows you to create a new category.
| | 01:14 | You have to give it a name, so I
will give this category the name Events,
| | 01:19 | and then you can choose whether you want
this category to be a child of another category.
| | 01:23 | In this case, I don't, so I am simply
going to click Add New Category, and the
| | 01:28 | new category is added.
| | 01:30 | Now I can turn off Uncategorized, and
this post will be categorized under Events.
| | 01:35 | If I want to I can add multiple
categories to one pos,t so I can create
| | 01:39 | another category called Painting, and
then click Add New Category again, and
| | 01:45 | now I have two categories.
| | 01:47 | As you build out your categories, you
will also be able to click on the Most Used
| | 01:52 | box to see the most used categories.
| | 01:54 | This is useful if you have so my
categories that you have to keep scrolling up
| | 01:58 | and down to find the one you are looking for.
| | 02:01 | Below Categories we have Tags, and tags are
second on the list of most important items.
| | 02:06 | Tags are like categories, except they
are more about the actual content of the
| | 02:11 | post than they are about
how you categorize the posts.
| | 02:15 | So in the Tags, you would add things
like blue, maybe, or the name of the artist,
| | 02:21 | or famous, or other things that may
or may not relate to other posts.
| | 02:27 | You put in each tag with a Comma
to separate them, and tags can be more
| | 02:31 | than one word, so let's say I
want to add the artist name as a tag.
| | 02:35 | I will go up here, and get the artist
name, copy it, and paste it in, and that
| | 02:40 | will then become a tag.
| | 02:42 | When you are finished with your list,
you click Add, and you see that each of
| | 02:45 | these tags will appear underneath.
| | 02:47 | And if you don't want one of these tags,
you simply click the little X, and the tag
| | 02:51 | will disappear again.
| | 02:52 | You can also choose from the most used
tags if you want to, but so far I haven't
| | 02:56 | used any tags, so none are available.
| | 02:59 | Scrolling down, I also have a
function called Featured Image.
| | 03:02 | This is a function that doesn't always appear.
| | 03:04 | It depends on what theme you are using.
| | 03:07 | In our case, we are using a default
theme that came with WordPress, which is
| | 03:11 | called Twenty Eleven,
| | 03:13 | and Twenty Eleven has a featured
image function, so we can use the
| | 03:16 | Featured Image function.
| | 03:17 | What the Featured Image function does
is it attaches an image to the post in
| | 03:22 | such a way that the theme can pull
the image out, and use it somewhere else,
| | 03:26 | like in an index page.
| | 03:29 | When we activate a featured image,
you'll quickly see what it does, and I
| | 03:32 | think it's kind of neat.
| | 03:33 | So click on Set featured image, and
then we are just going to choose the image
| | 03:37 | that's already in the post, so I will go
to Gallery, here I see the image that's
| | 03:41 | already in the post, and I will scroll
down and click Use as featured image.
| | 03:46 | Now you see the featured image
appears down here, and you get kind of an
| | 03:49 | indication of what's going to happen.
| | 03:51 | You see the image is long and wide, and
it's going to appear somewhere in our theme.
| | 03:58 | But there is one more thing I want to do.
| | 03:59 | I want to attach a post format to this post.
| | 04:03 | Now, I turned the post format off
previously in the course, so I need to turn it
| | 04:07 | back on again, so I can see it.
| | 04:08 | So I am going to go to Screen Options,
and then click on Format here, and that
| | 04:13 | will open the post Format option.
| | 04:16 | I think it will be all the way down at
the bottom here somewhere; there it is.
| | 04:20 | And here I can tell WordPress
what type of content this is.
| | 04:24 | In this case, it's a Standard post,
because it doesn't have anything special in
| | 04:28 | it, so I will leave it as Standard.
| | 04:29 | But depending on the content, you may
want to change it to either Link, or a
| | 04:33 | Gallery, or an Image, if that's what it is.
| | 04:37 | Now that I've set all that
information, I can move on.
| | 04:39 | There are couple of more options that I
can choose whether or not I want to edit
| | 04:43 | per individual post.
| | 04:45 | You see them under the Screen Options.
If you open Screen Options again, you see
| | 04:48 | we have the Excerpt, Trackbacks,
Custom Fields, Discussion, Slug, and Author.
| | 04:58 | As I activate each of these, they will
appear under the rest of the content on
| | 05:02 | my Edit Post page, and you will see them here.
| | 05:04 | The Excerpt is quite useful.
| | 05:06 | When WordPress displays your content
on an index page, it only displays the
| | 05:10 | first part of your content, and in many
cases, the beginning of your article might
| | 05:15 | not be very informative about the article.
| | 05:18 | In that case, you want to go down, and
write a separate excerpt that quickly
| | 05:23 | explains what that article is about,
and that text will be displayed instead.
| | 05:27 | The Trackbacks are a fairly advanced
function that allows you to tell Web sites you
| | 05:32 | are linking to that you
are actually linking to them.
| | 05:35 | If you want to know more about that, you really
need to look it up, because it's a bit complicated.
| | 05:40 | Custom Fields are also an
advanced option that is available in
| | 05:43 | self-hosted WordPress sites.
| | 05:45 | Sometimes the theme will allow custom
fields, sometimes you can build your
| | 05:49 | own custom fields, but this is an
advanced option, so I suggest you either
| | 05:53 | turn it off, or collapse it.
| | 05:54 | Discussion does exactly what it looks like.
| | 05:57 | You can toggle Allow comments. and Allow
trackbacks and pingbacks on and off for each page.
| | 06:02 | So you can choose whether or not people
can comment on the specific post or not.
| | 06:07 | And finally, the Slug allows
you to attach a slug to your post.
| | 06:11 | This is also an advanced function
that you are not going to use much.
| | 06:14 | All the way at the bottom
here, I have Revisions, and Author.
| | 06:18 | Revisions will literally give me a list of
every single revision I have of this post.
| | 06:23 | So if I click on it, I jump to a page
where I can see a version of the post as it
| | 06:28 | was before I changed it last.
| | 06:32 | And all the way at the bottom, I have
Author, where if I have multiple authors
| | 06:37 | registered on my blog, I could
pick a different author for this post.
| | 06:42 | Now that I've made all my changes, I
am going to click Save Draft again, and
| | 06:47 | Preview, and you'll see what
that Featured Image function is.
| | 06:52 | Notice how the header image all
of a sudden is something else.
| | 06:55 | If I go to the front page,
you will see what I mean.
| | 06:57 | I'll open the front page, and you see
here the header image is a stock image that
| | 07:02 | came with WordPress, but on this post,
the header image is now the featured
| | 07:07 | image, and that's how the
Featured Image function works.
| | 07:10 | It displays my featured image somewhere
in the theme outside of the post itself.
| | 07:15 | Now you know how to further
customize your posts to individualize them.
| | 07:19 | These options can be further
enhanced by adding certain plug-ins or theme
| | 07:23 | functions, and like with everything
else in WordPress, nothing you do in the
| | 07:27 | Edit window is ever final, so you
can always go back and change it to
| | 07:31 | something else later.
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| Managing post categories and tags| 00:00 | As we've been moving forward in this
course, I've been creating a lot of
| | 00:03 | content, and as you can see on the
Dashboard, you start seeing that content up here.
| | 00:09 | Here, we have two posts published;
| | 00:11 | I have a Page, I now I have three
categories, and three tags, and if we scroll
| | 00:15 | down here, you see I have
at least four recent drafts.
| | 00:18 | One of the great things about WordPress
is that it allows you to do bulk editing
| | 00:23 | of multiple items, and it also allows
you to do things like go in and change
| | 00:27 | existing items into something else
without that breaking anything, and I'll show
| | 00:32 | you what I mean by that.
| | 00:33 | If we go to Posts here on the side, and
view All Posts, we get to the general
| | 00:38 | post index that shows us all the posts
that we've created so far, and all the
| | 00:43 | information that we have about them.
| | 00:44 | You can see the title of each post, the
current status of each post, so you see
| | 00:49 | here it says Draft next to some of these posts.
| | 00:51 | And from here, you can either do things
directly to the post, either by editing
| | 00:56 | the post, so you go to the full post
editor. Or, you can click on Quick Edit, where
| | 01:01 | you can make small changes to, for
instance, the title, the slug, the release date,
| | 01:05 | you can set new categories, add tags,
and turn commenting and pings on and
| | 01:10 | off, and also change the status,
and even set a new post format.
| | 01:13 | You can also see who wrote the post, you
can see what categories are attached to
| | 01:20 | the post, you can see what tags are
attached to the post, and you can see the
| | 01:23 | release date, and how many
comments are for the post.
| | 01:27 | For each of these items, if I click
on any of these metadata items -- so the
| | 01:31 | author, categories, or tags -- I'll get to
a new view that only shows the content
| | 01:36 | that has this particular item attached to it.
| | 01:40 | So, for example, if I want to see
only the posts that are listed under the
| | 01:44 | Uncategorized category, I can simply
click on Uncategorized, and now I get a
| | 01:50 | filtered down version.
| | 01:52 | From here, I can see I have five posts
that are under Uncategorized, and that's
| | 01:57 | unfortunate, because I don't want any
of my posts to be under Uncategorized.
| | 02:01 | So what I'm going to do is bulk edit
all of these posts at the same time.
| | 02:05 | That means I can attach new
categories to all the posts at the same time
| | 02:10 | without having to do it individually.
| | 02:12 | But, before I do that, I need to create a
new category that I can assign these posts to.
| | 02:17 | Instead of going into a single post to
create a new category, I'm going to go here
| | 02:21 | to Posts, and select Categories.
| | 02:24 | From here, I can see all my
categories, and I can also see how many items
| | 02:28 | are attached to them.
| | 02:29 | Now, this only lists off published
items, so since I haven't yet published
| | 02:33 | anything, I only have two posts down here.
| | 02:37 | From here, I can now create a new category.
| | 02:39 | So I'll call the new category News,
and I can choose whether or not I want to
| | 02:44 | attach a slug, or a URL-friendly
version of the name to it.
| | 02:48 | If I don't, it will automatically grab
the name, and then just add it down here,
| | 02:52 | and if your category has more than one word,
it will simply put a hyphen between each word.
| | 02:57 | I can also choose whether I want this
new category to have a parent; I don't.
| | 03:02 | And I also can add a description if I want to.
| | 03:04 | I'm just going to leave it as it is,
and click Add New Category, and we now get
| | 03:09 | the News category over here.
| | 03:10 | The News category can now be edited,
either by Quick Edit, or a full Edit,
| | 03:15 | we can view the category, which means we
view the page that has an index of all
| | 03:20 | the content that's listed under that
category, or I can delete the category.
| | 03:25 | Now that I have the new category, I
can go back to All Posts, click on
| | 03:29 | Uncategorized again to filter it down,
and then I'm going to check every post
| | 03:34 | under here, and go to Bulk
Actions, and select Edit.
| | 03:39 | When I click Apply, I then get to
the bulk edit for all of these posts.
| | 03:43 | From here, I'll change the
categories by selecting News.
| | 03:47 | Then I'll click Update, and now all
these updates have the News category attached.
| | 03:53 | But what if I want to change the News
category to be called something else?
| | 03:57 | I can then go back to Categories,
select News, edit it, and change the name.
| | 04:04 | So let's call it Updates.
| | 04:05 | I'll also change the Slug to
updates, and I'll click Update.
| | 04:12 | Here's what's so cool about that:
| | 04:14 | when I go back to All Posts, you'll
now see that all these items that were
| | 04:18 | previously listed under News are now
under Updates, and that's because, even
| | 04:22 | though I changed name, WordPress knows that
I'm still assigning it to the same category,
| | 04:27 | so I can still see all this content.
| | 04:29 | This same process can also be used for tags.
| | 04:33 | You'll see that the Tag View looks
exactly the same as the Category View.
| | 04:36 | So here you can edit all of your tags, and
make changes to them in the exact same way.
| | 04:41 | By understanding how the WordPress
admin panel works, and by being aware of all
| | 04:45 | of these options, you're able to use
WordPress to its fullest capacity, and make
| | 04:50 | some very advanced changes to your
content very quickly, and very easily.
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| Publishing a post| 00:00 | Once you have written your post, and
attached all the correct information in it,
| | 00:04 | so you have your title, you have your
content, you have your images, you have
| | 00:08 | your categories, your post formats,
your tags, and everything else is in place,
| | 00:13 | it's time to publish your content.
| | 00:15 | All the publishing features are found
under the Publish panel inside Edit Post,
| | 00:20 | and from here, you can actually do
quite a bit more than just publish.
| | 00:24 | First of all, you can save any post
as a draft, as you've seen throughout
| | 00:28 | the course so far, and you can also preview
the post at any time while you're editing it.
| | 00:32 | In addition, you can throw your post
away by moving it to Trash if you don't
| | 00:36 | like it, and if you do that, you can
later go back to All Posts, go to Trash,
| | 00:44 | and resurrect any of the posts by
simply clicking Restore, and they come back.
| | 00:48 | But that's beside the point.
| | 00:49 | Of course, when you finish writing, the
last thing you want to do is move it to Trash.
| | 00:53 | You want to publish it.
| | 00:54 | So, I'm going to walk you through the
different settings here, so you understand
| | 00:58 | what happens when you publish.
| | 01:00 | From the top, we have Status.
| | 01:03 | When you write a new post, it
always gets automatically set to Draft,
| | 01:06 | because it's a draft.
| | 01:07 | You can now go in and change that
Draft to Pending Review if you want to.
| | 01:12 | You would do this if you have multiple
people managing your site, and maybe you
| | 01:16 | want someone else to look at it.
| | 01:18 | This status is also there because, if
you have a user that's registered as a
| | 01:23 | contributor, or an author, they don't
have permission to publish content.
| | 01:27 | Instead, when they want to publish
content, they save it, and then it gets
| | 01:32 | automatically appended to Pending
Review, and then someone with publishing
| | 01:36 | capabilities can then see that it's
listed under Pending Review, read it, edit
| | 01:40 | it, and then publish it.
| | 01:42 | Under Status, you have Visibility.
| | 01:44 | Now, you have three levels of
visibility for any post in WordPress.
| | 01:48 | Public, which is default, which means
once you publish it, anyone can see it.
| | 01:53 | You have Password Protected, which, like
it sounds, allows you to add a password to
| | 01:58 | the post, which means someone has to
have a password to be able to read it. And
| | 02:02 | you can also set it to Private.
| | 02:04 | If it's set to Private, the only people
who can see the post are people who are
| | 02:08 | registered as users on your
site, and who have a password.
| | 02:12 | They have to log in to the site to be able
to see your post, even on the front page.
| | 02:16 | For the rest of the world,
the post simply doesn't exist.
| | 02:19 | So I will set that back to Public, and then
you see we have an additional option here;
| | 02:23 | it says, Stick this post to the front page.
| | 02:26 | This is an interesting function.
| | 02:28 | It allows you to sort of weight the post.
| | 02:31 | That means you're telling WordPress,
this post is so important, it should go on
| | 02:36 | top of the regular blog stream, even
when newer content is available, because as
| | 02:41 | you know, on the front page of WordPress,
and in all the index pages, your
| | 02:45 | posts are listed in the reverse chronological
order, meaning that whatever was
| | 02:49 | published most currently will always be on
top, except in the case of a sticky post.
| | 02:55 | A sticky post will always appear
on top of the content that was most
| | 02:59 | recently published.
| | 03:00 | Under Visibility, you have an option
that says Publish immediately, and that
| | 03:04 | has an Edit button.
| | 03:05 | It looks a little odd until you
click on it, and then you realize you can
| | 03:09 | schedule your posts to any date you want.
| | 03:12 | Let me give you a couple of
examples of when that would be useful.
| | 03:15 | The first one is, let's say you wrote
seven articles, and you want each article
| | 03:20 | to publish on consecutive Wednesdays at 7 a.m.
| | 03:24 | All you have to do, then, is create all
the articles inside WordPress, go in and
| | 03:28 | edit Publish Immediately, and change the
date to the specific date and time you
| | 03:32 | want each of these articles to be published.
| | 03:35 | And then, because you changed it, the
button down here will change from Publish
| | 03:41 | to Schedule, and WordPress will sit and
hold on to the post until the time comes,
| | 03:46 | when it will be released automatically.
| | 03:48 | That way, you don't have to wake up
at 7 o'clock in the morning on every
| | 03:51 | Wednesday, and publish your content manually.
| | 03:54 | You can also use this function if you
have older content that you want to backdate.
| | 04:00 | That means, for example, if you have
an old Website that had content that was
| | 04:04 | written several years ago, and you're
moving to a new Web site, you can then
| | 04:07 | go in and change the publishing date to the
original publishing date from the original content.
| | 04:13 | That way, when people go in and look at
the order of your content, they will see
| | 04:17 | that this stuff is older.
| | 04:19 | After you've made the necessary
changes inside the Publish panel, and you're
| | 04:22 | satisfied with what you
have, it's time to publish.
| | 04:26 | And not surprisingly, to publish your content,
simply click the big blue Publish button.
| | 04:31 | Click the button, your post is published,
and you can now view it on your site.
| | 04:36 | If immediately upon publishing your
content, you realize you made a mistake, you
| | 04:40 | can now either go in and click on the
Status, and change it back to Draft, and it
| | 04:45 | will be taken off the Web again, or you
can go in and quickly make a change, and
| | 04:51 | then click Update, and the post will
be automatically updated immediately.
| | 04:55 | Once you've published your article,
it's always a good idea to click on View
| | 04:58 | post right away, so you can see the
article on your Web site, and you can make
| | 05:03 | sure that it works the way it's supposed to.
| | 05:05 | You should also go to the front page,
and make sure that the article displays
| | 05:09 | properly on the front page, so that you know
that everything works the way it's supposed to.
| | 05:14 | Publishing your post is the final
crucial step in the Web publishing process,
| | 05:18 | and just like with everything else,
WordPress makes every effort to make it as
| | 05:22 | flexible and easy as possible for you,
whether you want to publish your post
| | 05:25 | right away, or schedule it for the future.
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|
|
6. Creating PagesCreating a basic page| 00:00 | In addition to posts, which are the mainstay
of any WordPress site, you also have Pages.
| | 00:06 | Pages can be used to convey information
about your site, and provide things like
| | 00:11 | contact information, or contextual
information about the Web site, and the people
| | 00:16 | that run the Web site.
| | 00:17 | By default, when you create a new
WordPress site, you automatically get one page.
| | 00:22 | You can see it here right on the main
menu; it's called Sample Page, and when you
| | 00:26 | click on it, you go directly to that page.
| | 00:29 | Now, in the current theme -- this is the Twenty
Eleven theme that comes stock with WordPress --
| | 00:34 | the Sample Page uses a slightly
different template from the post.
| | 00:38 | If you open a single post, and look
at them side by side, you'll see that,
| | 00:46 | whereas the sample page only has the
page content -- you see, there's nothing up
| | 00:50 | here, and there's no extra information,
other than the page content --
| | 00:54 | the post has the date of the post
release, and some navigation at the top,
| | 00:59 | and it has information about the post, both
categories, tags, and who wrote it at the bottom.
| | 01:05 | So pages are quite different.
| | 01:07 | You also notice that the page, by default,
appears on the main menu, and that kind
| | 01:11 | of says everything you need to know about pages.
| | 01:14 | If you're going to make content that you
think belongs on the main menu with its
| | 01:18 | own button, it's probably going to be a page.
| | 01:21 | So let's create a new page now.
| | 01:23 | I'll go to New, and create a Page.
| | 01:28 | If I'm inside the Dashboard, I can also
go directly to Pages, and then click Add
| | 01:32 | New. And here you see that the Page
editor looks very much like the Post editor.
| | 01:38 | In fact, there aren't that many
differences, except for the fact that the Page
| | 01:42 | editor doesn't have categories, and tags,
and some of the other features that are
| | 01:45 | specifically associated with posts.
| | 01:48 | From here, I can create a new page,
and in this case, I want to create a page
| | 01:52 | that gives people information on how
they can volunteer for the organization
| | 01:56 | this Web site is for.
| | 01:57 | First, I'm going to give the page a title.
| | 01:59 | So I'll say Volunteer for SAMOCA, and
then I'm going to go grab the text I need
| | 02:06 | from a Word document.
| | 02:07 | I'll open my Word document, and grab
the information, copy it, use Paste as
| | 02:15 | Plain Text to paste it in, and click Insert to
insert it, and that's really all I need to do.
| | 02:25 | Unlike the post, where you now have to
attach categories, and tags, and do all
| | 02:30 | these other ancillary things, with a
page, you really only have to put in the
| | 02:34 | content, and then you can just publish it.
| | 02:36 | Now, before I do that, let me just
mention that the pages are actually exactly
| | 02:41 | like the posts in most ways.
| | 02:43 | That means you can still add media if
you want to -- both images, and videos, and
| | 02:48 | whatever else you find -- you can still
format the content in the same way you did
| | 02:52 | in the posts, and you can even add a
featured image to the page in the same way
| | 02:57 | you did with the posts.
| | 02:59 | When you're done editing the page, and
you've added whatever elements you want,
| | 03:03 | to publish it, you simply click
Publish, and the page is published.
| | 03:08 | Now you can go and view the page,
and you see here we have our new page.
| | 03:15 | Personally, I find it weird that you can
comment on pages, because they're static content.
| | 03:19 | So here, I want to turn the
commenting for this page off.
| | 03:22 | So I'm going to go back, and edit
the page, go to Screen Options, find
| | 03:28 | Discussion, because Comments is the actual
comments that are associated with this page.
| | 03:34 | Hide the Screen Options, go down here,
and turn off comments and pings. Click
| | 03:40 | Update, view the page again, and
| | 03:44 | now we have a page without comments.
| | 03:47 | Notice that on my main menu,
I now have three items:
| | 03:51 | the link to my homepage, the sample
page that came with WordPress, and the
| | 03:55 | Volunteer for SAMOCA page
I've just created.
| | 03:58 | Since I don't need the sample page
anymore, I'm going to go to my Dashboard,
| | 04:02 | go to Pages, find the Sample Page, put it in
the Trash, and then throw it away altogether.
| | 04:11 | So I'll click on Trash,
and delete it permanently.
| | 04:16 | Go back to the front page, and
now you see we have two menu items:
| | 04:19 | Home, and Volunteer for SAMOCA.
| | 04:21 | As you can see, writing a basic page
in WordPress is not all that different
| | 04:27 | from writing a post.
| | 04:28 | The main differences are in the way
WordPress handles pages, and in the extended
| | 04:33 | options attached to the content.
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| Organizing page hierarchy| 00:01 | Whereas posts in WordPress have
categories and tags to create taxonomy, or
| | 00:05 | organization, or sorting, pages are
ordered in basic parent-child relationships.
| | 00:11 | Any page can be the parent of any
other page, and children of pages can have
| | 00:16 | children of their own.
| | 00:17 | This makes it easy to create logical
relationships between different pages.
| | 00:21 | The parent-child relationship is also
reflected in the URL of the pages, and in
| | 00:26 | the menus when you add pages to the menus.
| | 00:29 | What I want to do here is create an
about page, and then I want this Volunteer
| | 00:34 | for SAMOCA page to be a child of
that about page, so that there's a clear
| | 00:39 | relationship between the two.
| | 00:41 | First I'll create a new page, so I'll
go to New, and click Page. I'm going to
| | 00:46 | call this one About, and then I'm going
to go to my Word document, and grab the
| | 00:51 | text content I want, and you see how
this text content has some styling?
| | 00:56 | First I need to get rid of the styling,
and then I need to re-add it. So I'll go
| | 01:00 | in here, click on Paste as Plain Text,
paste in the text, click Insert, and then
| | 01:08 | I'll just go back and take a look, and I
see that these two are headings, so I'll
| | 01:12 | go and find them, and assign H2 to each
of them, so that they become headings.
| | 01:18 | In addition, I want to add an image
to this page, so I'll go to Add Media,
| | 01:24 | browse for the file I want, and here it
is, click Open, and then I can go in and
| | 01:31 | change the Title, and all the
information. I'll say SAMOCA HQ, The SAMOCA
| | 01:40 | building, and I will leave the Caption
alone, and click None for the Link, and
| | 01:47 | insert the Large size, in the Center,
click Insert into Post, and I accidentally
| | 01:53 | put it in the wrong place, so I'm going
to go grab the image, and move it up to
| | 01:57 | the beginning, and clean it up a
bit, and now we've created a new page.
| | 02:03 | So I'm going to publish this page, and
then jump to the front page of my site
| | 02:09 | to see what this looks like.
| | 02:10 | So now I have both the About page, and
a Volunteer for SAMOCA page on my main
| | 02:15 | menu here, and if I click on About, I
go directly to the page with all that
| | 02:20 | information I've just added. And here
you see why you should always preview your
| | 02:24 | content immediately after publishing it:
| | 02:27 | Somehow I managed to break this
subtitle, so it says An Introduc tion, so I
| | 02:32 | need to go in and edit this right away,
so I don't look like a fool. I'll go
| | 02:37 | click on the Edit Page button, jump
directly to the page, scroll down until I
| | 02:42 | find it, and here it is; simple fix,
click Update, view the page, and now
| | 02:51 | everything looks right.
| | 02:54 | But I said I wanted to create a
parent-child relationship here, so that
| | 02:57 | the About page is the parent of
the volunteer page. I can do that in
| | 03:02 | several different ways.
| | 03:03 | I can go to All Pages, and here I see my
list of all pages, and then I can go and
| | 03:08 | click Quick Edit under the page I
want to be the child, and then from this
| | 03:13 | dropdown, select what
page I want to be the parent.
| | 03:17 | In this case, I want the About page to be
the parent, and when I click Update, and
| | 03:22 | reload this page, you'll see that the
Volunteer for SAMOCA page is now listed
| | 03:27 | underneath the About page with this
dash, indicating that it's now a child.
| | 03:32 | And if I now go to the front page,
you'll see that the About page appears as the
| | 03:37 | only option on the menu, but when I
hover my mouse over it, I now get an
| | 03:42 | additional option for the
Volunteer for SAMOCA page.
| | 03:44 | So now there is a clear visual
connection, and a parent-child relationship
| | 03:49 | between the two pages.
| | 03:51 | Like I said, I can make that change in
some different ways. I can also go into
| | 03:55 | Pages, go and edit my Volunteer for
SAMOCA page, and right here in Page
| | 04:00 | Attributes, I can also choose the Parent,
so I can switch between no parent, and
| | 04:04 | About, and then update the post,
and that update will take effect.
| | 04:09 | If I have multiple pages that are all
children of one parent page, I can even
| | 04:14 | set the order of each of these pages, and that
order will be reflected in how the menu appears.
| | 04:20 | In that case, I would set the order
down here in the Order field. So I would
| | 04:24 | start the order at 0, and then move 1, 2,
3, and so forth, and that is the order
| | 04:29 | the menu will display in.
| | 04:31 | Creating logical structures for your
pages using parent-child relationships can
| | 04:35 | make it much easier for your
visitors to navigate your content.
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| Using page templates| 00:00 | One of the things that I love about
WordPress is that WordPress gives you all
| | 00:04 | this flexibility when it comes to
how you want to display your content.
| | 00:09 | An example of that is
what's called Page Templates.
| | 00:11 | When you create a page, you can assign
different types of templates to that page,
| | 00:16 | and depending on the theme you're using,
those templates may change the way that
| | 00:19 | page displays quite dramatically.
| | 00:22 | In the Twenty Eleven theme, you have three page
templates. You have the default template,
| | 00:27 | which is what you see
right now on my About page.
| | 00:30 | Basically, it shows the page content
on it's on in the center, but you also
| | 00:35 | have two additional page templates that we
can use to change the appearance of our pages.
| | 00:40 | To activate a page template, we have to
go in and edit the page. So I select the
| | 00:44 | page here, and then I go click Edit
Page, or I could go to All Pages, and then
| | 00:49 | select the page I want to edit.
| | 00:51 | The page Template is available
under Page Attributes over here.
| | 00:55 | If I drop down the Template option, I
see that, in addition to Default Template,
| | 00:59 | I also have Showcase
Template, and a Sidebar Template.
| | 01:02 | The Showcase Template will be covered
later in this course, but for now, I'm
| | 01:06 | going to use the Sidebar Template.
| | 01:08 | So I'll activate the Sidebar
Template, and click the Update button.
| | 01:11 | When I now view the page again, you'll
see that the page now looks just like
| | 01:18 | the front page did;
| | 01:19 | it has the content on the
right, and the sidebar on the left.
| | 01:23 | Now, there are different ways why you
might want to do this. One good example is
| | 01:27 | if you want to use a
static page as your front page.
| | 01:30 | In that case, you may want to show the
sidebar, because the sidebar gives you
| | 01:33 | navigation options for other content.
That way you can use a static page without
| | 01:39 | losing the navigation of the
regular front page in the process.
| | 01:43 | The tricky part about page templates
is that they are theme dependent, so
| | 01:48 | depending on what theme you currently
have activated on your site, the page
| | 01:52 | template options will change.
| | 01:54 | Some themes don't have any page
templates, some themes have many page
| | 01:58 | templates, but there is no
standardized name system for them, which means if
| | 02:02 | you activate a new theme, and basically
switched away your site looks, then your
| | 02:08 | assigned page templates will probably
fall out, and all your pages will default
| | 02:12 | back to the default template.
| | 02:13 | So if you want to take advantage of the
page template functionality, you have to
| | 02:18 | first make sure your theme
supports page templates to begin with.
| | 02:22 | It's easy to see if they don't support
page templates, because if you go in and
| | 02:26 | edit a page, and you have no page
templates to choose from, you simply won't see
| | 02:30 | the page template option here at all.
| | 02:33 | If you don't want to go in and edit
the post itself, you can also change the
| | 02:36 | page template by going to Quick Edit.
| | 02:38 | If you go to All Pages, go to your
page, and click Quick Edit, you'll see that
| | 02:43 | right here under Parent, and Order, you
have the Template dropdown, where you can
| | 02:47 | select the page template you want to use.
| | 02:50 | Changing the page template is an easy,
but important trick that can help you
| | 02:53 | visually identify certain page content
as different from other page content.
| | 02:58 | That said, page templates are
theme dependent, so there's no guarantee
| | 03:02 | you'll find a layout you like.
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| Creating a static front page| 00:00 | The front page of a Web site is very
important. It's where most people land the
| | 00:05 | first time they visit the site, and
it's also the face of the site as a whole.
| | 00:09 | On the Web, first impressions are vital,
so it's important that the front page
| | 00:13 | of your Web site conveys the exact message
you want to put out there, and nothing else.
| | 00:18 | By default, the front page on a
WordPress site is the standard blog. You see the
| | 00:23 | latest post at the top, and as you
scroll down, you see older and older posts.
| | 00:28 | But in many cases, you don't want this
to be the front page of a site. You
| | 00:32 | want a static page that has specific
information on it, and then you want the
| | 00:36 | blog to be in a separate location.
| | 00:38 | This is actually quite easy to
accomplish inside WordPress, but it requires a
| | 00:42 | few steps, so let's see how that's done.
| | 00:45 | First I need to create two pages.
| | 00:47 | One that will operate as the front
page itself, and I also need to create a
| | 00:51 | placeholder page for the blog.
| | 00:52 | So I'll go to New, create a new page,
call it Front Page, and here I want to add
| | 01:00 | an image, and some text.
| | 01:02 | I already added the image to my Media
Library, so I'll click Add Media, go to
| | 01:07 | Media Library, find the image, click
Show, and then set it to Center, and Large,
| | 01:14 | and insert it into my post. And then I
want to add some text, so I'm going to
| | 01:18 | go to my Word document, copy out the
text, Paste as Plain Text, paste it in, do
| | 01:25 | some basic cleanup, and click
Insert, and then format the text.
| | 01:46 | Before I publish the page, I also want
to change to page template, so that I get
| | 01:49 | the Sidebar Template, and I want to turn
comments and trackbacks off, so I don't
| | 01:55 | have comments and trackbacks on my front page.
| | 01:58 | Now I'll publish this page, and when I
go to my site, you'll see that the page
| | 02:04 | appears here on my menu as a separate page,
and when I go to it, I get the front page.
| | 02:10 | Problem is, I don't want it to appear
as a separate page. I want it to appear as
| | 02:14 | the home page, and then I want a
separate button to go to the blog.
| | 02:17 | To make that happen, I need to make a
second page, so I'll go back to New, make
| | 02:24 | another Page, and this page I'm simply
going to call Blog, and do nothing else.
| | 02:29 | That's because this will
become a placeholder,
| | 02:31 | so anything you do here in the
configuration, either by putting in text, or to
| | 02:35 | configure it, will be
overwritten by the blog page anyway.
| | 02:38 | So I'll simply publish this Blog page,
and now I can tell WordPress to use the
| | 02:43 | Blog page as the blog, and the
Front Page as the front page.
| | 02:48 | That setting happens
inside Settings, and Reading.
| | 02:53 | At the top here, we have the option
Front page displays, and by default, it's set
| | 02:58 | to Your latest posts.
| | 02:59 | But if you want to, you can change it to a
static page, and that what we're going to do.
| | 03:03 | So I'll select A static page, and then
for Front page, I'll select Front Page, and
| | 03:08 | for Posts page, I'll select Blog.
| | 03:11 | When I save these changes, and jump
back to my Web site, you'll see that the
| | 03:16 | front page now displays the Front Page, and I have
a new button called Blog that gives me the Blog.
| | 03:27 | Now, of course, you see that it looks kind of
silly that the front page is called Front Page.
| | 03:32 | So I'm going to go edit this page, and
change the title to something a little
| | 03:36 | more welcoming, like Welcome to Samoca,
click Update, go back to my Web site, and
| | 03:47 | you see the front page
now says Welcome to Samoca.
| | 03:50 | Changing the front page to suit your
needs in WordPress is a relatively simple
| | 03:53 | process, and because WordPress is
entirely dynamic, you are free to change the
| | 03:58 | front page back, or change it
to something else at any time.
| | 04:01 | So whereas one week you may want the
blog on the front page, the next week you
| | 04:05 | can have the front page be a static
page. It makes no difference, and it's
| | 04:09 | always up for further alteration.
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|
|
7. Managing Images, Video, and Other MediaManaging media from the Admin panel| 00:00 | WordPress has been designed in such a
way that all the content inside WordPress
| | 00:05 | is handled pretty much the same way.
| | 00:07 | That means whether you're editing a post,
a page, or even your media, you pretty
| | 00:17 | much get the same functionality
around them, and that's even more true
| | 00:21 | now that we have WordPress 3.5 to work with.
| | 00:25 | When you add media items like images or
files to your WordPress site, what you
| | 00:30 | are actually doing is
creating a new post for each item.
| | 00:33 | As you can see here, previously in the
course, we created an image gallery that
| | 00:37 | had five images, and you can see here
that each of those images has been given
| | 00:41 | its own post that's found under Media.
| | 00:44 | From here you get lots of information
about each of the images, and you can also
| | 00:48 | make changes to them.
| | 00:49 | If you look at each of the images,
you will see here we have the title of the
| | 00:53 | image, we have information about what
type of file this is--it's a JPEG image--
| | 00:58 | you see who the author is--so who
uploaded the image originally--and you can see
| | 01:02 | where the image was uploaded to.
| | 01:04 | So you can see here, the image was
uploaded to the Simple image gallery.
| | 01:07 | In some cases, you'll have images that
are assigned to multiple different posts,
| | 01:11 | and all those would be listed here.
| | 01:13 | You can also see if there are any
comments associated with a specific image and
| | 01:17 | even when it was posted.
| | 01:19 | From the Media Library, you can also do
things like add new images that are not
| | 01:24 | associated with this
specific post. So, let's do that.
| | 01:28 | I'll click Add New to add a new image
and then I'll go and select the file.
| | 01:33 | I will go and find this one.
It's an image of a woman.
| | 01:39 | And once the image is uploaded, I can
now go back to my library, and you'll see
| | 01:44 | we now have a new image here.
| | 01:46 | From here, I can now edit my image in
many different ways, and those ways don't
| | 01:50 | just include information about the image;
I can also edit the image itself.
| | 01:55 | I'll click on Edit and we're
taken to the new Edit Media page.
| | 01:59 | Now, if you've worked with WordPress in
the past, you'll notice this looks quite
| | 02:02 | different. That's because an image or
any other media item is now actually
| | 02:06 | handled like a proper post.
| | 02:08 | So here you see the familiar post title
element where you can put any title, so
| | 02:12 | I will call it Woman at gallery.
| | 02:17 | I can change my permalinks if I want to.
I can also view the Attachment page for
| | 02:21 | this image. And when I scroll down,
you see I can edit my image, I can add a
| | 02:27 | caption to the image and an alternate
text, and we have something new called
| | 02:31 | Attachment Page Content, where I can
actually add extra content to the post.
| | 02:36 | So if for example, I'm just going to
grab some random content here, so I'll go
| | 02:41 | to Google and search for "random text
generator," just to get some random text.
| | 02:52 | So, here we have some random text.
| | 02:54 | I'll put that in, so I'll copy it and put
it in here and then Update and click
| | 03:04 | View Attachment Page, and
you'll see what I'm talking about.
| | 03:08 | Here, we have a standard Attachment
page that shows the original image, and if
| | 03:12 | we were grabbing the image from a post,
we would be able to navigate to other
| | 03:16 | images in the post, and we could
also see what post it was from.
| | 03:20 | But now when I scroll down, you will
see under here we have that text, and this
| | 03:25 | text will only appear when you go to
the Attachment page for this image.
| | 03:29 | Meaning, if you make an image
gallery and you want provide lots of extra
| | 03:33 | information about an image, you can now
attach it directly to the Attachment page.
| | 03:37 | It's a very cool new feature that many
people don't know about, so now you know.
| | 03:42 | But I want to do more.
| | 03:43 | I want to change this image because
right now, I don't really like the cropping of the image.
| | 03:48 | So, I'm going to go back to Edit Media and
scroll down and find the Edit Image button.
| | 03:55 | When I click on this, I get some
editing functionality inside WordPress.
| | 03:58 | Now, I'm just going to be frank
with you: WordPress is not an image
| | 04:02 | editing application.
| | 04:03 | So, I don't really recommend editing
images in WordPress, but if you are short
| | 04:09 | on time or you don't want to use
something like Photoshop, you can do a simple
| | 04:13 | image editing inside WordPress; it's just
not an ideal application to do it, but you can.
| | 04:19 | Let's say I want to crop this image.
| | 04:20 | What I'm going to do is place my cursor
inside the image, click and drag, and I
| | 04:26 | create a crop window.
| | 04:28 | I want this crop window to be exactly square,
| | 04:30 | so I'm going to go to Image Crop
here and set the Aspect Ratio to 1:1.
| | 04:35 | That will make it a square.
| | 04:37 | Then I want to increase the size of
the square, so I'm going to hold down my
| | 04:40 | Shift key--that will lock the aspect
ratio--and then I can grab a corner and
| | 04:46 | increase the size of my crop. And then
I'll just drag it around until I find
| | 04:53 | that the crop matches what I want.
| | 04:56 | Now that I have the crop I want, I'm going to
click the Crop tool and the image is cropped.
| | 05:03 | When you do these kinds of things,
like crop or turn the image or flip it
| | 05:08 | horizontally or vertically, you have
to make sure that you apply the changes
| | 05:12 | to the right image.
| | 05:13 | In this case, I applied it to all the
image sizes, because you remember from the
| | 05:17 | past, when you upload an image to
WordPress, WordPress creates several different
| | 05:21 | versions of that image.
| | 05:23 | But you can also choose to only crop
the thumbnail or you can crop all the
| | 05:27 | images except the thumbnail.
| | 05:29 | Once you have a crop you like or
you've made other changes you like, you can
| | 05:33 | click Save, or if you don't like what
you just did, you can click on the Undo
| | 05:38 | button and then you jump
back to the previous version.
| | 05:41 | I like what I see here,
so I'm going to finish this up.
| | 05:44 | I'm going to click Save. This saves
the new cropped version of the image.
| | 05:48 | I'm also going to go down here and add
an alternate text to my image, so I'll copy out
| | 05:55 | this description and then update my media item.
| | 05:59 | I'll go back to my Media Library and
you see that now we have a new image.
| | 06:05 | It's the cropped image.
| | 06:06 | It has a title, Woman at
gallery, and it's currently unattached.
| | 06:11 | If I later add this image to a new post
or in a gallery, you'll see that the new
| | 06:16 | posts or galleries where this is
displayed will appear here under Uploaded To.
| | 06:20 | So, I can always see where
different images are attached.
| | 06:24 | If I want to add the image to a new
post, all I have to do now is go to
| | 06:28 | New > Post, call it Woman at gallery,
and because this image is already uploaded
| | 06:36 | into the system, all I have to do
is click Add Media, Media Library.
| | 06:41 | Here is my image. All the information
is already here. Click Insert into Post.
| | 06:47 | The image appears in the cropped format,
and if I preview the post, I seem here we
| | 06:54 | have the image, it's cropped the way I
cropped it, and if I click on it, I jump
| | 06:59 | to the Attachment page for Woman at
gallery. Scroll down, and here we have all
| | 07:03 | that new Attachment page information.
| | 07:10 | Understanding what you can do in the
Media Library and being able to use these
| | 07:14 | functions to reconfigure your content
and spread changes to titles and other
| | 07:19 | elements to your site will help you
be more efficient in how you handle your
| | 07:24 | media content on WordPress.
| | 07:26 | And as you can see, it's very easy.
| | 07:28 | Just remember: any media item you
upload is always handled like an individual
| | 07:33 | post, and like an individual post, you
can always make changes to it, and no
| | 07:37 | changes are ever final.
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| Understanding how WordPress handles media| 00:00 | Uploading, inserting, and managing
images in WordPress is really easy,
| | 00:05 | but I find it's always a good idea
to understand what happens behind the
| | 00:09 | scenes, so that you really know how
WordPress handles images, so that when
| | 00:13 | you're moving on with WordPress and
becoming more advanced, you have a good
| | 00:17 | understanding of what happens when an
image goes from your computer into the
| | 00:20 | server through WordPress.
| | 00:23 | Let me show you how all these
works by giving you an example.
| | 00:26 | First, I'm going to create a new post.
| | 00:28 | So, I'll create a new post, call it
Image example, and in this post I'm going to
| | 00:35 | add an image in several different ways.
| | 00:38 | First, I have to add the image to
WordPress, so I'll click Add Media, and I will
| | 00:42 | select the file from my computer.
| | 00:44 | I'll select this large image of
a group of people at a gallery.
| | 00:48 | I'll upload the image.
See, it gets uploaded here.
| | 00:52 | And because this is a larger
image, it takes a little more time.
| | 00:56 | I'll give them a title, and an alternate text,
and then I want to insert image into my post.
| | 01:11 | So, what I'm going to do is set the
Alignment to Center so that each image
| | 01:16 | gets on its own line.
| | 01:17 | I'll set Link To to Media File so that
the link, when you click on the image,
| | 01:23 | it goes to the original image, and
then I'm going to set different sizes.
| | 01:27 | So, I'll start with the thumbnail size,
insert it into the post. I'll hit Enter
| | 01:33 | to go to a new line.
| | 01:36 | I'll go Add Media again, select the same
image, drop it down, select the Medium Size.
| | 01:45 | Hit Enter to create a new line again,
click Add Media, select the same image,
| | 01:50 | drop down the Size Menu, select Large,
insert into the post. Create a new line,
| | 01:59 | click Add Media, select the same image
one more time, use the Size dropdown and
| | 02:04 | select Full Size, click Insert Into Post.
| | 02:08 | Now, I'm going to give it a Category,
so I'll give it Uncategorized this time
| | 02:12 | because this is just a demo, and then
I'll save my draft and preview the post.
| | 02:19 | Here, you see we have four
versions of the same image.
| | 02:21 | We have the Thumbnail,
| | 02:23 | we have the Medium-Size, we have
the Large Size, and the Full-Size.
| | 02:28 | To show you the difference, I'm
going to right-click on this image in my
| | 02:32 | browser and then click Open Image in
New Tab, and I'm going to do the same for
| | 02:36 | the three other ones.
| | 02:38 | So, what WordPress has done is that it has
taken the original image here and then
| | 02:45 | made three new versions of that image,
depending on what size I want to use.
| | 02:50 | This is done to offset load on the
browser, because if you're going to display
| | 02:55 | an image in this small size, you
shouldn't put in an image that's six times
| | 02:59 | bigger, because then you're just
telling the browser to download a huge image
| | 03:03 | and then just display it much smaller.
| | 03:04 | You might as well display a smaller
version of that image, and that's what
| | 03:08 | happens when you upload images to WordPress.
| | 03:10 | WordPress takes the image and then
makes a bunch of new versions of image to
| | 03:14 | fit different sizes.
| | 03:17 | So, whereas what you're seeing
inside WordPress is a single image,
| | 03:20 | if you go to the back-end, you'll
see there are many different sizes.
| | 03:24 | To see this in real life, we can go to
our server. I'll go to my FTP client here,
| | 03:29 | and I'll navigate to wp-content and
uploads, and then the folder for this month.
| | 03:36 | In here, you see that each of the
images that got uploaded actually displays in
| | 03:42 | many different versions.
| | 03:44 | You have the original image and
then you have different versions.
| | 03:47 | You have the thumbnail, and medium-size,
the large-size, and you also have this
| | 03:53 | weirdly sized one, the 794 x 288, and
this is the one that displays in your
| | 03:59 | featured image, up at the top of the header.
| | 04:02 | Now, these image sizes
are defined by two things:
| | 04:04 | they are defined by WordPress settings
and they're also defined by the theme.
| | 04:08 | In this case, the thumbnail, medium,
and large sizes are defined by settings
| | 04:13 | inside WordPress, and the header
image size is defined by the theme.
| | 04:18 | To change the thumbnail, medium, and
large sizes, you can go into WordPress,
| | 04:24 | go to Settings, and Media, and here you find
Thumbnail Size, Medium Size, and Large Size.
| | 04:32 | So, here you can go and change those
settings for yourself to make the settings
| | 04:35 | fit with the theme you are using or
the specific look you're going for.
| | 04:42 | Understanding how WordPress handles
images when they are uploaded--that the
| | 04:46 | images are transformed into several
different versions depending on what size
| | 04:50 | you insert--and then inserting the
right size image for the right use--
| | 04:55 | small images when you want them to be
small, medium images when you want them to
| | 04:59 | be medium, and large images when you
want them to be large--will help improve the
| | 05:03 | load time of your site and will also
avoid situations, like for example, if
| | 05:08 | someone opens your site on their
cellphone, they'll downloaded a huge image
| | 05:12 | that's way bigger than their screen on
their phone, instead of just a small one,
| | 05:16 | so they can only see a small version.
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|
|
8. Extending WordPress Functionality with Plug-insInstalling plug-ins | 00:00 | One of the many advantages to having a
self-hosted WordPress site is the ability
| | 00:04 | to extend the functionality of
the site by installing plugins.
| | 00:08 | Plugins are small little programs that
you can run inside WordPress that will
| | 00:13 | then add functionality, or change
existing functionality in WordPress.
| | 00:17 | Plugins are developed by open source
developers, like you and me, and are usually
| | 00:21 | posted to the wordpress.org Plugin
Directory, where you can find information
| | 00:25 | about them, and you can download them,
and you can also see what other people say
| | 00:29 | about those plugins.
| | 00:31 | You can also find plugins on other Web sites.
| | 00:33 | Generally, these are for-pay
plugins that are more advanced.
| | 00:37 | These plugins are not heavily
moderated by the WordPress community, and though
| | 00:41 | many of them are great, some of them
are not so great, so you have to be a bit
| | 00:45 | more careful when you use plugins from
outside the WordPress Plugin Directory.
| | 00:50 | WordPress ships with two
standard plugins installed.
| | 00:54 | And to see them, you have to go to your
Dashboard, scroll down to Plugins, and
| | 00:59 | click Installed Plugins.
| | 01:00 | Here you see we have two plugins
already installed, but they're both inactive.
| | 01:05 | The first one is called Akismet, and
it's a plugin that helps you monitor spam
| | 01:10 | comments on your site. It's very useful,
| | 01:13 | but that usefulness comes at a price.
| | 01:14 | So when you activate the Akismet plugin,
you have to go pay for an API key to use it.
| | 01:20 | Below the Akismet plugin we have
Hello Dolly, and Hello Dolly is one of the
| | 01:24 | first plugins ever made.
| | 01:26 | It's the original plugin created by
Matt Mullenweg, the guy who created
| | 01:30 | WordPress, and it's a very simple plugin
that automatically generates quotes
| | 01:35 | that are then put in to your site.
| | 01:36 | Let's activate it, so you
can see how a plugin works.
| | 01:40 | I'll activate Hello Dolly by
clicking this Activate link here.
| | 01:44 | Once the Hello Dolly plugin is
activated, what it does is it puts a small part
| | 01:49 | of the lyrics from the song Hello Dolly
by Louis Armstrong in the top corner of
| | 01:54 | your WordPress admin panel on every page.
| | 01:56 | So as you navigate through pages, or
reload your pages, you'll see you get
| | 02:01 | different parts of that quote
appearing up here,
| | 02:03 | and this is the whole idea of a plugin.
| | 02:05 | What you're doing is you're
adding functionality to WordPress that
| | 02:08 | WordPress didn't ship with.
| | 02:10 | And the good thing about them is, if you
add the functionality, and you don't like
| | 02:13 | it -- let's say you don't want to see
these quotes at the top of your screen every
| | 02:17 | time you log in -- you can simply go back
to Plugins, and deactivate the plugin.
| | 02:22 | When you deactivate it, you're still
keeping the plugin within your system;
| | 02:26 | you're just not seeing it running.
| | 02:28 | So it's like you're
turning a program on and off.
| | 02:31 | You can also choose to delete
a plugin if you don't like it.
| | 02:34 | I generally delete Hello Dolly,
because it just takes up extra space.
| | 02:38 | And to do that, I simply click the
Delete button. WordPress will ask me if I
| | 02:42 | want to delete Hello Dolly, and
I say Yes, Delete these files,
| | 02:47 | and Hello Dolly disappears from my plugin
directory, and no longer exists in my
| | 02:52 | WordPress installation.
| | 02:53 | As you can see, it's very easy to
activate and deactivate plugins, and also
| | 02:58 | delete them, and it's just as easy to
install a new plugin into WordPress.
| | 03:02 | Let's say I want to add the Jetpack plugin.
| | 03:05 | The Jetpack plugin -- I'll show it to
you here -- the Jetpack plugin is a plugin
| | 03:13 | created by WordPress.com that adds a
lot of the features you generally find in
| | 03:17 | WordPress.com to your
self-hosted WordPress site.
| | 03:21 | The cool thing about the Jetpack plugin
is that it's actually a wrapper for a
| | 03:25 | bunch of smaller plugins.
| | 03:27 | So if you install just the Jetpack plugin,
as more services come online, more
| | 03:32 | services become available inside your
WordPress installation automatically.
| | 03:38 | If I want to install Jetpack on my site,
I can go to Plugins, and click Add New
| | 03:43 | up here in the corner, or I can click
Add New directly under Plugins on the main
| | 03:47 | menu, and I go to the Install Plugins page.
| | 03:51 | From here I can either search for a
plugin, find plugins based on popular
| | 03:55 | tags, and I can also go and look at
Featured plugins, Most Popular plugins,
| | 04:03 | Newest plugins, and Recently Updated plugins.
| | 04:08 | For now, I want to do a search,
because I know what plugin I want.
| | 04:11 | So I go to Search, and just type in
jetpack, and click Search Plugins.
| | 04:16 | Now WordPress will return to me the search
results from the WordPress Plugin Directory.
| | 04:21 | And here at the very top you see Jetpack by
WordPress, which is the plugin I want to install.
| | 04:26 | Just keep in mind that sometimes when
you do a search, the most popular, or the
| | 04:30 | best plugin might not be at the very top,
| | 04:32 | so you might have to scroll a bit
to find what you're looking for.
| | 04:36 | In this index view, I can see
information about the plugin.
| | 04:38 | I see the Name, I see the Version number,
I see the Rating from other users, and
| | 04:43 | I can also see the short
Description, and who made it.
| | 04:46 | In this case, even though the Rating
isn't that high, this is in fact the
| | 04:50 | plugin I want to install, because it's the
one made by Automattic, and it's the original.
| | 04:53 | You'll notice that the other plugins
that seem to have higher ratings are
| | 04:57 | actually add-on functions
to the original plugin.
| | 05:00 | So even though they look more popular,
in fact, you need to install Jetpack to
| | 05:05 | use most of these functions.
| | 05:06 | If I think this is the plugin I want,
I'm going to click Details to get more
| | 05:10 | information about that plugin, and here
I get all the information that's posted
| | 05:14 | in the directory from the
Description, to Installation instructions, to
| | 05:19 | Screenshots, to a Changelog that
basically shows what has happened to the
| | 05:25 | plugin over time, and also an FAQ.
| | 05:28 | Just for reference, the information
that you see here in this popup window is
| | 05:32 | the same information you would get
if you went to the Plugin Directory,
| | 05:35 | searched for Jetpack, and
went to the Jetpack page.
| | 05:38 | So here you see, you have
that same information.
| | 05:42 | If I like what I see, and I decide that
this is the plugin I want, I can either
| | 05:46 | install it directly from this popup
window by clicking Install Now, or I can
| | 05:51 | install it here in the
directory by clicking Install Now.
| | 05:56 | When I click it, I'm asked if I want
to install the plugin, I say OK, and
| | 06:01 | WordPress now downloads the package
file, which is a ZIP file, unpacks the
| | 06:05 | package file, and installs the plugin
into my WordPress application.
| | 06:09 | Now all I have to do is click
Activate Plugin to activate it.
| | 06:14 | Jetpack is a plugin that requires one
extra step, and many plugins do require
| | 06:18 | extra steps once they were installed.
| | 06:20 | In the case of Jetpack, we now need to
connect Jetpack to WordPress.com, so we
| | 06:24 | get all the functionality.
| | 06:26 | That's because Jetpack is
powered by WordPress.com.
| | 06:29 | So I'm going to click on this Connect
to WordPress.com button. I'm now taken to
| | 06:34 | the Sign Up page for the Jetpack plugin,
where I can insert my WordPress.com
| | 06:39 | username and password.
| | 06:41 | I already have a username and password
for WordPress.com, but if you don't have
| | 06:45 | it, you can simply click
on the Need an account,
| | 06:47 | and set up a new account
with WordPress.com.
| | 06:50 | If you need more information about how
to set up a WordPress.com account, go
| | 06:54 | check out my WordPress.com
Essential Training course, right here in the
| | 06:58 | Lynda.com Training Library.
| | 06:59 | I'm going to plug in my username here,
and my password, click Authorize Jetpack,
| | 07:08 | and Jetpack is now authorized, which
means samoca.org is now connected directly
| | 07:13 | to my WordPress.com account.
| | 07:16 | Once the plugin is activated, you can
see that the plugin now appears in my
| | 07:20 | menu as a new item, with functions.
| | 07:22 | And when I click on that item, I can go
in and change settings for the plugin.
| | 07:27 | Depending on the plugin you're
installing, the new features may appear anywhere
| | 07:32 | inside your menu, or they may just be
add-ons that just make something happen on
| | 07:36 | your Web site, as you'll
see later in this course.
| | 07:39 | All plugins are different, so when
you install them, you have to read the
| | 07:43 | documentation to figure out exactly what it
is they do, and how you can configure them.
| | 07:47 | Plugins are a great and simple way
of adding functionality to your site.
| | 07:51 | There are thousands and thousands of plugins
out there, and chances are, there is
| | 07:55 | one for the exact
functionality you're looking for.
| | 07:58 | Just keep in mind that you may have to
test a few plugins before you find one
| | 08:02 | you're completely satisfied with.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Ten must-have plug-ins for all WordPress sites| 00:00 | WordPress by itself is a powerful
application, but it has its limits.
| | 00:05 | To get the full functionality out of
WordPress, there is a series of plugins
| | 00:09 | you should install.
| | 00:10 | This list is by no means complete, and
in many cases, there are alternatives to
| | 00:15 | the plugins I suggest,
| | 00:16 | but these are usually the plugins I
install when I set up sites for other people.
| | 00:20 | They cover everything from search
engine optimization, to backup, to readability.
| | 00:25 | All of the plugins I am about to
mention are available inside wordpress.org
| | 00:29 | Plugin Directory, where you can find them,
and that means you can also find them
| | 00:33 | directly from the WordPress
Dashboard, and install them from there.
| | 00:37 | The first plugin is called
Jetpack by WordPress.com.
| | 00:40 | What Jetpack does is it brings in a
lot of the functionality you'll find inside
| | 00:45 | WordPress.com sites, and adds them
to your self-hosted WordPress site.
| | 00:49 | This is based on requests that people
had about having a WordPress.com site, and
| | 00:54 | then moving to self-hosting, and
realizing that a lot of the features that were
| | 00:57 | available on .com are not
available for self-hosting.
| | 01:02 | Jetpack is actually a wrapper
that contains a lot of other plugins.
| | 01:06 | So what happens is, when you install
Jetpack, it will automatically pull down
| | 01:10 | all these different plugins into your
site, and you can activate them, and
| | 01:14 | configure them individually.
| | 01:16 | It's a really smart solution, because
as more plugins become available in
| | 01:20 | Jetpack, they automatically become
available inside your site, so you
| | 01:23 | constantly get new features.
| | 01:26 | The next plugin is Akismet.
| | 01:29 | Now, Akismet is this really clever
spam filter that runs inside your site, and
| | 01:34 | catches spam from your Comments section.
| | 01:37 | I run Akismet on one of my sites,
and it has a 99.8% accuracy rate in
| | 01:43 | catching spam comments.
| | 01:44 | This is great, because I get thousands
of spam comments every single day, and
| | 01:49 | then I don't have to filter through every
single one, and delete all the spam comments;
| | 01:53 | Akismet does it for me.
| | 01:55 | There's one caveat though:
Akismet is not free.
| | 01:58 | If you want to use Akismet, you
have to get an Akismet.com API key.
| | 02:02 | So if I go to this page, you'll see that
to say goodbye to comment spam, you have
| | 02:07 | to get an Akismet Key.
| | 02:10 | To get the Akismet API key, you have to go
and tell Akismet what kind of blogger you are;
| | 02:16 | whether you are a personal blogger, a
pro blogger, or an enterprise blogger, and
| | 02:20 | based on your answers to questions, it
will decide how much you have to pay.
| | 02:25 | In some cases, it doesn't cost
you anything, but in most cases,
| | 02:27 | you have to pay some sort of
fee to use Akismet on your sites.
| | 02:34 | Next on the list is SEO, or
search engine optimization.
| | 02:38 | Personally, I don't like this term,
because it's not really accurate anymore.
| | 02:42 | We're more talking about changing the
content on your page in such a way that it
| | 02:45 | gets indexed properly, and more
importantly, when people share your content on
| | 02:49 | social networks, like Flickr, and
Google+, it gets shared properly out.
| | 02:54 | I will give you two options here.
| | 02:56 | There is a simple option, called All
in One SEO Pack, and there's the more
| | 03:01 | advanced option, called WordPress SEO by Yoast.
| | 03:05 | I personally use WordPress SEO by Yoast,
because it has more powerful features,
| | 03:10 | but it's also way more complicated to set up.
| | 03:12 | So if you just want something
simple, select All in One SEO Pack.
| | 03:17 | Both of these will be
covered later in this course.
| | 03:20 | Like with any computer software,
there's always a risk that something may go
| | 03:24 | wrong with your Web site;
| | 03:26 | it could get hacked, your server might
go down, or something else might happen
| | 03:31 | that somehow breaks it.
| | 03:32 | Though it's unlikely, it's always a very
good idea to have proper backups of all
| | 03:37 | your content, and here I am going to
give you two very different options.
| | 03:40 | You can either go for a simple
backup plugin that backs up your database.
| | 03:45 | A plugin like this WP-DB-Backup is very easy.
| | 03:49 | You install it on your site, you just
set some basic functions, and what it will
| | 03:53 | do is it will create backups of your
whole database, and send those backups
| | 03:57 | either to your server, or to an e-mail address.
| | 04:00 | So what I usually do is I create a
specific e-mail address on Gmail just to catch
| | 04:06 | database backups for a site, and then I
get the site to send a database backup
| | 04:11 | every single day to that Gmail address,
| | 04:14 | so that if something were to happen, I
can just go to Gmail, grab the latest
| | 04:18 | database backup, and restore my database.
| | 04:20 | If you want a more advanced option, you can
use this one: WordPress Backup to Dropbox.
| | 04:26 | This uses the free cloud hosting
service Dropbox -- well, it's free for the basic
| | 04:30 | plan, and then you can upgrade it -- and
then it backs up not only your database,
| | 04:34 | but also all your files into Dropbox.
| | 04:37 | It's a way more advanced function,
because it backs up way more stuff, and
| | 04:41 | it's also more secure.
| | 04:43 | And because you're using Dropbox, it
lives somewhere else in the cloud, so it's
| | 04:47 | not related directly to your site,
| | 04:49 | so if your server goes down, you
can still restore all your content.
| | 04:53 | Backup to Dropbox is a bit more advanced,
but I actually recommend you use this
| | 04:56 | one rather than just a database
backup if you have a Dropbox account.
| | 05:01 | The internet and how people use
it is changing rapidly these days.
| | 05:05 | One of the most prevalent trends we're
seeing is that more and more people are
| | 05:08 | visiting Web sites using their mobile
devices, like cell phones, and tablets.
| | 05:13 | Though the more serious WordPress
themes are starting to become responsive --
| | 05:17 | meaning they'll change depending on the
size of the screen you're using -- it can
| | 05:21 | be a good idea to install a plugin
that specifically addresses the needs of
| | 05:25 | users that visit your site
using a cell phone, or a tablet.
| | 05:29 | For that, I encourage you
to install this one: WPtouch.
| | 05:33 | There is a free model, and a paid model.
| | 05:36 | This is by far the most powerful
mobile solution, and it's a great one.
| | 05:40 | It was developed by these two guys,
Duane Storey, and Dale Mugford, who I actually
| | 05:44 | know, and they have made a
plugin that is truly stellar.
| | 05:47 | It is a very, very good plugin, and I
am not just saying that because I know
| | 05:50 | them, because I used this plugin
before I knew them, and I really like it.
| | 05:54 | So if you want a mobile experience,
simply install this plugin, follow the
| | 05:58 | settings, and you're good to go.
| | 06:00 | Typography is a personal hang up for me.
| | 06:03 | I like to see things laid out
properly, with proper typography.
| | 06:07 | By that, I mean you have things like
proper ampersand signs, and code that's
| | 06:12 | formatted properly within pages.
| | 06:14 | This is kind of tricky to do if you
don't really know all the Web standards,
| | 06:18 | but if you don't, you can simply
install a plugin like wp-Typography, and a lot
| | 06:22 | of that work is done for you.
| | 06:25 | This isn't as much a visual thing
that you will see on the front page.
| | 06:29 | It's more a plugin that does stuff on
the back end, that cleans up your content,
| | 06:33 | and makes it better for browsers.
| | 06:35 | So install it, play around with the
settings, and see if you like it or not.
| | 06:39 | When you create a WordPress site, you
should always create contact page, and
| | 06:43 | there are hundreds of different plugins
that help you create contact pages, with
| | 06:47 | contact forms on them.
| | 06:49 | Contact forms are great, because they
allow your visitors to send you a message
| | 06:53 | without you giving them your e-mail address.
| | 06:56 | You should never leave your e-mail
address directly on your Web site, because then
| | 06:59 | spambots will find your e-mail
address, and start sending you spam,
| | 07:03 | but if you put up a contact form,
people can easily send you a message directly
| | 07:07 | from your Web site, and
then you can respond to them.
| | 07:09 | There are hundreds of different
plugins that will create contact forms.
| | 07:13 | I like to use either the Contact
Form 7 plugin, or this one called Fast
| | 07:18 | Secure Contact Form.
| | 07:19 | The Fast Secure Contact Form adds
additional spam protection, through
| | 07:24 | CAPTCHA, onto your site.
| | 07:25 | So if you're worried that you will get
a lot of crap, you can install this one,
| | 07:29 | and it will add a level of security.
| | 07:32 | One of my personal favorite
plugins is called FancyBox.
| | 07:36 | FancyBox is this neat plugin that
attaches to your images, and what happens is,
| | 07:42 | when you have a FancyBox plugin
installed, and someone clicks on an image that
| | 07:46 | links to a larger version of that same image,
| | 07:49 | they will get this nice little box that
pops up in their browser, that shows the
| | 07:54 | image, along with a caption, or the title,
and then they can see the image while
| | 07:58 | being in the site, and close it down.
| | 08:00 | So instead of having an experience
where clicking on an image takes you away
| | 08:04 | from the Web site, the image
gets opened inside your Web site.
| | 08:08 | There are several FancyBox plugins
available inside the Plugin Directory.
| | 08:12 | This one is very powerful, and
it supports more than just images.
| | 08:16 | You can also add things like YouTube
videos into it, which is a really neat feature.
| | 08:21 | When you have a lot of content on
your Web site, you will notice that when
| | 08:24 | you're on the index pages, and you
scroll down to the end of the index page,
| | 08:27 | you'll have two links;
| | 08:29 | one that says Older Posts,
and one that says Newer Posts,
| | 08:33 | but I like to add more navigation to
that, so that people can see how much
| | 08:37 | content is available.
| | 08:38 | For that, this WP-PageNavi plugin is great.
| | 08:42 | It simply adds a proper page
navigation bar at the bottom of your index
| | 08:46 | pages, so rather than just having
previous, or next, you now have a full range
| | 08:51 | of buttons that let you navigate through
different pages, and also navigate from page to page.
| | 08:56 | It's a small little improvement, and again,
there are many options for how to do this,
| | 09:01 | but the WP-PageNavi plugin is a very
simple way of adding this type of navigation.
| | 09:05 | I am just going to warn you in advance
that sometimes this doesn't work, and in
| | 09:09 | some cases, you have to go and do a
little extra work to make it work,
| | 09:12 | but once it works, it's a good plugin.
| | 09:16 | Finally, I encourage you to install
the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
| | 09:20 | This is a great little plugin that
tracks all of your content, and figures out,
| | 09:25 | for each post, what other posts are
related to it, and then you can display that
| | 09:30 | list of other related posts either in your
sidebar as a widget, or somewhere within your post.
| | 09:36 | The reason why you should install
this plugin, which is also known simply as
| | 09:39 | YARPP, is because when people read your
content, you want them to stay on your
| | 09:44 | site, and find other content, and this
is a very easy way of showing them other
| | 09:49 | stuff on your Web site that relates
to what they're already interested in,
| | 09:52 | so you keep them on your Web site
longer, and you keep them engaged.
| | 09:56 | Using the right plugins to extend the
capabilities of your WordPress site will
| | 10:00 | greatly enhance both the functionality
of your site, and how well it reaches out
| | 10:05 | to your intended audience.
| | 10:07 | The plugins we've covered here are all
tried and tested, and work well together
| | 10:11 | to make your site a better place
to be for you, and for your audience.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a contact page with a contact form| 00:00 | Regardless of what your Web site is about,
the reason why you put up a Web site is
| | 00:04 | usually because you want to publish
information out to the world, so that the
| | 00:08 | world can find that
information, and do something with it.
| | 00:11 | Whether you are a company, or you are a
blogger, or you're someone else who just
| | 00:15 | wants to publish information on the
Internet, chances are, the people who find
| | 00:19 | that information will also want to get
in touch with you about that information.
| | 00:23 | For that reason, I think there should
always be a contact page on any Web site,
| | 00:28 | so that someone who visits the Web site
can easily find out how to get in touch
| | 00:31 | with a Web site owner, and talk to them.
| | 00:34 | Depending on what kind of Web site you
have, you may have different types of
| | 00:37 | information on that contact page, but I
do encourage you to add a proper contact
| | 00:41 | page on your site, and add a link to that
contact page right on the main menu, so
| | 00:46 | it's easy for your visitors to
know how to get in touch with you.
| | 00:50 | Because we are making a Web site for a
fictional art gallery here, I am going to
| | 00:54 | add a Contact page that has extra
information about how to contact us,
| | 00:58 | including phone number, and address, and also
other information, and then has a contact form.
| | 01:04 | The reason why I want to use a contact
form, rather than leaving my e-mail address,
| | 01:08 | is that if you leave your e-mail address
on the Internet, spambots, or computers
| | 01:13 | that just run on the Internet will find
your e-mail address, put it on a list, and
| | 01:18 | then sell it to people who want
to send you tons of spam e-mails.
| | 01:22 | So leaving your e-mail address out in the
open on the Internet is a really bad idea.
| | 01:25 | It's a much better idea to create a
form where you can collect the information
| | 01:30 | you want from the people who contact you, and
then it's up to you to contact them back later.
| | 01:35 | It also has an added benefit for your
visitors, because it's much easier for a
| | 01:39 | visitor to fill out a simple form, and
click Submit than it is to grab your e-mail
| | 01:43 | address, open their e-mail program, and
then write a subject line, and paste in
| | 01:48 | your address, and then send the e-mail.
| | 01:50 | So in this movie, we are going to
create a contact page that has an e-mail form.
| | 01:54 | To do that, we need to
install the contact form plugin.
| | 01:57 | So I am going to go to my Dashboard, to
Plugins, and click Add New, and then I am
| | 02:04 | going to search for one of the
many contact from plugins available.
| | 02:07 | This one is called Contact Form 7,
and it's very basic, and easy to use.
| | 02:13 | I click Search Plugins, and now I get
both Contact Form 7, and some of the many,
| | 02:19 | many, many, many other contact forms
available, because the WordPress Plugin
| | 02:23 | Directory has tons of contact form plugins,
and which one you choose is really a
| | 02:28 | matter of preference.
| | 02:30 | I find Contact Form 7, and I am going
to install it clicking Install Now.
| | 02:36 | The plugin gets downloaded,
and installed into WordPress.
| | 02:39 | I can now activate it, and I get a new
option down here at the bottom of my menu.
| | 02:44 | Depending on what plugin you are
installing, this menu option may appear in
| | 02:48 | many different places.
| | 02:49 | I've seen it appear under Appearances,
under Plugins, under Tools, under
| | 02:54 | Settings, and also as its own new tab.
| | 02:57 | Where the menu item appears is
entirely up to the plugin developer,
| | 03:01 | so in some cases, after installing your
plugin, you kind of have to go searching
| | 03:05 | for it to find it in your menu.
| | 03:07 | To set up a new form, I now click
the Contact button, and I get to my
| | 03:11 | Contact Form settings.
| | 03:13 | When you install a Contact Form 7, you
have a default contact form already created.
| | 03:18 | It asks for a name, which is required,
it asks for an e-mail address, which is
| | 03:22 | required, it asks for a subject, and
then has the message, and a Send button.
| | 03:27 | From here, you can then
choose to change this message.
| | 03:30 | If you want to do that, you can click
the Generate Tag button, and you can add
| | 03:34 | extra text fields, or other information,
and you can also change the settings of
| | 03:38 | the Contact Form itself; both the e-mail
that you receive from the contact form
| | 03:43 | when someone fills it out, and here you
can put in what it looks like, and where
| | 03:46 | it gets sent to, and you can also set
things like a second e-mail address, and the
| | 03:51 | message that gets displayed
when people fill out the form.
| | 03:54 | I am just going to use the default settings.
| | 03:57 | Now, because I want to install this
contact form into a page, I need to grab
| | 04:01 | this piece of code here, and copy it, and this
is what I'll paste into the page I want to use.
| | 04:06 | Now all that's left to do is create a new page.
| | 04:09 | So I go to New > Page, call the page Contact, and
I'll go down here, and paste in the form code.
| | 04:20 | Now when I publish the page, and view the
page, you will see that my page now has
| | 04:26 | a contact form, where I can fill out my
Name, my Email address, a Subject line,
| | 04:31 | and a Message, and then click Send.
| | 04:33 | But I want to add some extra information
to this contact page, so I am going to
| | 04:36 | go back to Edit Page, and then I'll go
to my Word document, and grab that extra
| | 04:42 | information that I want to publish. And
because this is just a short code, I can
| | 04:48 | treat it like any other text.
| | 04:49 | So here, I can paste in my other text
content, and format it in any way I want.
| | 04:56 | I'll click Insert, we get the information,
I'll do some simple formatting, and
| | 05:05 | I'll say, Get in touch with us
by filling out the form below,
| | 05:15 | and make that a Heading2; update
the page. And then finally, I want to
| | 05:20 | turn commenting off,
| | 05:21 | so I'll go here and turn Discussion off
for both options, and update the page again.
| | 05:29 | Now when I view the page, you'll see we
have a Contact option on our main menu,
| | 05:34 | the contact information is here, and the
visitor can fill in the form, and when
| | 05:38 | they do, the form automatically
sends an e-mail to my e-mail address.
| | 05:41 | So here, I can put in my Name, Morten, and
my Email address, and a Subject line: Hey!
| | 05:53 | I wonder if this is working!
| | 06:01 | When I am done writing my message, I
click Send, and if everything works right,
| | 06:06 | the message should now be sent to my e-mail.
| | 06:09 | So now I can log into my Web mail,
and in my inbox, you now see I have a
| | 06:19 | message from Morten, Hey!
| | 06:22 | I wonder if this is working!
| | 06:23 | And I can see all the
information from that message.
| | 06:25 | I see the from information, both who
sent it, and the e-mail address to that
| | 06:29 | person, the subject line, and the
message body. And if I click Reply, it
| | 06:35 | automatically replies back to the
e-mail address that was entered in the form.
| | 06:41 | Adding a contact form on your site
makes it easy for your visitors to get in
| | 06:45 | touch with you, without you in the
process having to give away your e-mail address
| | 06:48 | to everybody, and as you saw from this
demonstration, adding a form using a plugin
| | 06:53 | is a very easy process.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Troubleshooting when a plug-in crashes a site| 00:01 | Hosting your own WordPress site gives
you pretty much complete freedom, but
| | 00:04 | with that freedom comes responsibility.
| | 00:07 | Because you are in complete control, you
can inadvertently do things that end up
| | 00:11 | breaking, or even worse, crashes your
site all together. But don't worry;
| | 00:16 | WordPress is a rock solid application,
and if you do something that causes a
| | 00:20 | catastrophic failure, you can
usually fix it quite easily.
| | 00:23 | The key here is to just keep you cool.
| | 00:26 | When it comes to plugins, WordPress
has gotten really good at catching errors
| | 00:29 | before they become a problem.
| | 00:31 | So if you install a plugin that's buggy,
chances are, WordPress will simply block
| | 00:36 | it from working, rather than
crash your site in the process.
| | 00:39 | However, there are some cases where
you can actually manage to take down your
| | 00:42 | entire Web site by installing a broken plugin.
| | 00:45 | I am going to show you what happens
when you install a plugin that doesn't work,
| | 00:49 | and I will also give you some tips
about how to avoid that from happening ever.
| | 00:52 | If I go to my Dashboard, and I go to Plugins,
I see all the plugins that I have installed.
| | 00:59 | What you will notice when you start
using your site is that these plugins keep
| | 01:02 | wanting to update all the time.
| | 01:04 | You usually get this warning here:
there is a new version of, plugin name,
| | 01:08 | available, and then you can view
the details of that plugin, or you can
| | 01:11 | update them automatically.
| | 01:13 | You'll also get a warning up here in
the WordPress toolbar saying that you have
| | 01:17 | plugin updates available.
| | 01:19 | My general recommendation is that you
do any upgrade that comes up for plugins.
| | 01:23 | However, you have to keep in mind
that when you update a plugin, in some
| | 01:27 | rare cases, bad things happen, and when they
do, you need to know what to do to fix them.
| | 01:33 | When I installed this version of WordPress,
it came with an outdated version of Akismet.
| | 01:38 | To upgrade it, I simply have to click
this upgrade automatically button, or if
| | 01:42 | there are many plugins that need to be
updated at the same time, I can go to
| | 01:46 | Update Available here, and I'll get a
list of all the plugins that have updates
| | 01:50 | available, and I can then click on all of
them, and use the Bulk Actions to update
| | 01:55 | all at the same time.
| | 01:58 | Updating plugins works pretty much
the same way as installing a plugin.
| | 02:01 | You tell WordPress to update the plugin,
| | 02:03 | WordPress will deactivate the plugin,
download the new version of the plugin,
| | 02:06 | install it, and reactivate your plugin.
| | 02:09 | If everything goes according to plan,
you get a message saying the plugin was
| | 02:13 | updated successfully, and you can
also see details for that new plugin.
| | 02:16 | But what happens if you
install a plugin that's broken?
| | 02:20 | Well, if you follow my advice,
chances are that will never happen to you.
| | 02:25 | My advice is to never install a
plugin unless you can find it either in the
| | 02:28 | WordPress Plugin Directory, or if it's a
well known plugin that a lot of people use.
| | 02:33 | If you find some obscure plugin on the
Internet that doesn't seem to have a lot
| | 02:37 | of support, or it doesn't seem quite
right, then don't even bother trying to
| | 02:41 | install it, because chances are,
there's something wrong with it.
| | 02:43 | For example, I went on the Internet, and
I found a plugin I built called crashy.
| | 02:49 | It's a great little plugin that doesn't work.
| | 02:52 | Since I found it on the Internet, and
it's not available on the WordPress
| | 02:55 | Plugin Directory, because it crashes Web sites,
I have to upload it into my system manually.
| | 03:00 | So I downloaded the plugin to my
Dashboard -- it's right down here; it's called
| | 03:04 | crashy -- and now I am going to upload it
into WordPress, so I'll click Upload.
| | 03:08 | Now I'll navigate to the file, I'll find the
zip file, and I'll install it into WordPress.
| | 03:16 | WordPress grabs the file, gets it
uploaded into its system, and installs it, and
| | 03:21 | now I can activate the
plugin, and now I get this warning.
| | 03:24 | Because this plugin is broken, because I wrote
it that way, WordPress refuses to activate it.
| | 03:30 | It says, there's something wrong, there
is a fatal error, and then it even tells
| | 03:34 | me where in the plugin that
fatal error is; it's on line 47.
| | 03:38 | And this is something really great:
| | 03:40 | WordPress realizes that this plugin is
broken, so instead of letting the plugin
| | 03:44 | break my entire Web site, it just
says, I am not going to use this.
| | 03:47 | You can install it,
but it will just sit here.
| | 03:49 | As a result, the plugin appears down
here as unactivated, and no matter what I
| | 03:54 | do, I can't activate it. I can keep
clicking Activate, but it won't actually activate.
| | 03:59 | If I absolutely have to use this
plugin, I can try to fix it myself, but I
| | 04:03 | know, because I built it, that this
is unfixable, so we might as well just
| | 04:07 | delete the plugin here.
| | 04:09 | However, there are certain very, very
rare cases where you install a plugin,
| | 04:13 | everything seems fine, but when you
activate it, a cascade happens, where maybe
| | 04:18 | two plugins are using the same function,
or there is some sort of collision, and
| | 04:22 | the whole Web site goes down.
| | 04:24 | That experience can be quite jarring,
because usually what happens is your
| | 04:27 | entire Web site simply disappears.
| | 04:30 | It turns into a white page and
you can't log in to it anymore.
| | 04:33 | This is really scary, and if
that happens, here's what you do:
| | 04:37 | you go to FTP application, you log in to
your server, you navigate to where you
| | 04:43 | installed WordPress, go to the wp-content
folder, find the plugins folder, and
| | 04:49 | here, you get a list of all your plugins.
| | 04:51 | Now you find the one that you
installed last, that you assume is the one that
| | 04:55 | crashed everything, and from here,
you can either rename the folder, or you
| | 04:59 | can simply delete the folder all together,
and that plugin is taken out of your system.
| | 05:03 | So if I go in here, and I delete crashy;
simply delete it, and reload my page
| | 05:09 | here, you will see that right now we
can see crashy as an option, but when I
| | 05:15 | reload the page, we get this new
warning that says Plugin file does not exist,
| | 05:22 | meaning my plugin has disappeared.
| | 05:24 | The reason why I'm still seeing the
warning is because I reloaded the page while
| | 05:28 | the warning was active, and you can see
up here it says, error=true in the URL,
| | 05:32 | but if I go to Plugins,
| | 05:35 | I see that my plugin disappeared.
| | 05:37 | So if you install a plugin, and your
site crashes, immediately go to your FTP
| | 05:42 | application, find the plugin folder, and
delete that folder, and you should see
| | 05:46 | your site go back up again. And
that brings up an important point:
| | 05:50 | when you install a new plugin, always
install one plugin at a time. That way,
| | 05:55 | if something goes wrong, you know what
you did just before it went wrong, and you
| | 05:59 | can fix it from that point.
| | 06:02 | WordPress crashes can be incredibly
scary, because they generally take your
| | 06:05 | entire Web site offline, but the reality
is that in almost every case, they were
| | 06:10 | caused by whatever action you did last,
and in most cases, that was install and
| | 06:15 | activate a new plugin, or
install and activate a new theme.
| | 06:19 | Fortunately, you can restore WordPress
to a previous, stable state by simply
| | 06:23 | renaming the plugin folder, or deleting
the plugin folder, by going into the FTP
| | 06:28 | application, and going to your server,
and that way WordPress can't find the
| | 06:33 | broken file, and WordPress will
reset itself back to a stable state.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
9. Working with ThemesInstalling new themes from the WordPress Themes directory| 00:00 | In WordPress the Theme is the collection
of files that decides what your Web site
| | 00:05 | looks like on the
front end, and also how it behaves.
| | 00:09 | By default, when you create a new
WordPress site by installing WordPress on
| | 00:13 | your Web server, you automatically get the
default theme, which is called Twenty Eleven.
| | 00:18 | You can see Twenty Eleven here.
| | 00:20 | It may seem like a fairly basic theme,
but as you start exploring all the functions,
| | 00:26 | you will notice it's actually quite advanced.
| | 00:27 | We will explore all the features of
Twenty Eleven in a later chapter, but just
| | 00:32 | to give you a preview, one of the cool
things about Twenty Eleven is that it's a
| | 00:36 | so-called responsive theme, meaning that
it responds to the screen size, and will
| | 00:41 | change to content depending on the size
of the screen, so that if you visit this
| | 00:45 | Web site using a mobile device, you
will be able to see the same content, but
| | 00:49 | formatted for the smaller screen.
| | 00:52 | You can preview that by simply changing
the size of the window you're currently
| | 00:55 | using, and you will notice that as I
change the window size, the frame responds
| | 01:01 | by changing it's shape, and if I scroll
down, you will see that things like the
| | 01:05 | sidebar will pop in and out
depending on how wide the screen is.
| | 01:10 | The Twenty Eleven theme is one of
thousands of themes available for WordPress,
| | 01:15 | and you can also create
your own themes if you want to.
| | 01:18 | If you don't like the look of your site,
you can, at any time, go in and change
| | 01:23 | the theme to something else, and
you'll change the look of your Web site to
| | 01:26 | something completely different
with just a few clicks of the mouse.
| | 01:30 | The best place to find new themes is to go
to the Free Themes Directory on wordpress.org.
| | 01:36 | Here you have over a thousand themes
that have been tested and approved by a
| | 01:40 | crew of theme testers that are
associated with the WordPress organization.
| | 01:45 | If you use a theme from the WordPress
themes directory, you will know that it
| | 01:49 | works properly, and that its future
proof, meaning that as WordPress updates, it
| | 01:54 | won't break the site.
| | 01:56 | There are a lot of really cool
themes here that serve different purposes.
| | 02:00 | You have everything from eclectic
themes that appeal to artists, to very basic
| | 02:05 | themes that appeal to developers, like
me, that you can start from scratch with,
| | 02:09 | to advanced modern themes, that do
things like provide responsive design.
| | 02:15 | If you want to view further information
about any other themes while you are in
| | 02:19 | the theme directory, you can simply
click on the theme, and you go to the Themes
| | 02:22 | page, where you can read the information,
and you can also preview the theme in an
| | 02:27 | active WordPress site.
| | 02:29 | Once you find the theme you like -- let's
say I like this Responsive theme -- you
| | 02:34 | can then go back to your Web site, go to
the WordPress toolbar, and select Themes,
| | 02:40 | or you can go to the Dashboard, and go
down to Appearance, and select Themes, and
| | 02:45 | from this Manage Themes page, you can
now either manage existing themes on your
| | 02:49 | site, or switch to a new theme.
| | 02:52 | As you can see, when we
installed WordPress, we got two themes:
| | 02:56 | the current theme, which is Twenty
Eleven, and there is also the old default
| | 03:00 | theme, called Twenty Ten.
| | 03:03 | To switch themes, all you have to do
is find a theme you like within your
| | 03:06 | site and click Activate.
| | 03:09 | So if I click Activate here, and I go
back to my front page, you will see my
| | 03:14 | Web site changed from the Twenty
Eleven theme, to the Twenty Ten theme.
| | 03:19 | But themes aren't all that different.
| | 03:21 | What I want to do is change to
a completely different theme.
| | 03:24 | So I'll go back to the toolbar, and
Themes, and then I'll select Install Themes.
| | 03:31 | From here, I can either search for a
theme based on Terms, or I can use this
| | 03:35 | Feature Filter to select specific
features that I want my theme to adhere to.
| | 03:41 | I can go and check out Featured
themes, and here we get a list of all the
| | 03:45 | Featured themes. I can go and check
out Newest themes, and these will be the
| | 03:49 | newest themes that are uploaded to the
WordPress theme directory, or I can see
| | 03:54 | what has recently been updated of themes.
| | 03:56 | I am going to search for a theme, and I
am going to search for this one I found
| | 04:00 | over here, called Responsive. So I will
just say responsive, and click Search, and
| | 04:07 | here we get both the Responsive theme
itself, and also other themes that have
| | 04:12 | the work responsive in its
description, or in it's text.
| | 04:15 | Now I can look at details
for the theme I want.
| | 04:18 | So I will click on Details, and this
will open information about this theme,
| | 04:22 | including the current Version, who
wrote it, and also the user rating, and if I
| | 04:28 | think I am going to install this, I can
click Preview, and I get a live preview of
| | 04:33 | this theme, so I can see what it looks like.
| | 04:36 | If I like this theme, and I want to use
it, I have to install it into WordPress,
| | 04:40 | so that it becomes active.
| | 04:42 | To do that, I am going to click
Install, the installation dialog opens, and
| | 04:47 | from here, I can click Install Now, and
WordPress will do the same it did for the plugins.
| | 04:52 | It will download the package, unpack
it, and install the theme on my site.
| | 04:58 | Now I can either Preview the theme,
Activate a theme, or Return to the Theme Installer.
| | 05:03 | I am going to return to the Theme
Installer, and go back to Manage Themes, and now
| | 05:08 | you see I have three themes available:
Twenty Ten, which I just switched to, the
| | 05:13 | original Twenty Eleven
theme, and also Responsive.
| | 05:17 | Before I activate the Responsive theme, I
want to see what it looks like on my Web site.
| | 05:21 | So I am going to click Preview.
| | 05:25 | Now I get a preview of the Responsive
theme with my content, and as you can see, I
| | 05:30 | have my own buttons up here, so I have
the Home, About, and Contact buttons, and
| | 05:34 | if I click on the About button, I
see the About page, with its content.
| | 05:40 | But as you can see, this theme, by
default, doesn't display all the content that I
| | 05:45 | have on my site, which means there are
site settings for this theme that I have
| | 05:49 | to configure, and in our case,
that's not what I want to do just yet.
| | 05:52 | So I am going to go find
myself a different theme.
| | 05:55 | I will Close it, I will leave it in
here for later, so I can play around with it
| | 05:59 | when I have time, and then I will go
and install a different theme instead.
| | 06:03 | I will go back to Featured to see if
there is something else that catches my eye,
| | 06:08 | and if I scroll down, I find this
theme called Esquire that I quite like.
| | 06:12 | So I am going to install this theme.
Same process; you install it, it is
| | 06:18 | downloaded into WordPress, and then I can
preview it directly, and this looks more to my liking,
| | 06:25 | so I'm going to activate this theme.
| | 06:27 | I will close it, and click Activate,
and now when I go to my front page, you'll
| | 06:35 | see that my Web site has completely changed.
| | 06:37 | We are now using this new theme, rather
than the original theme. And you also
| | 06:41 | notice that I didn't actually
make any changes to my content.
| | 06:45 | All I did was I activated a new
theme, and now my Web site looks
| | 06:49 | completely different.
| | 06:50 | It works the same way; I can still
navigate to my single posts, I can click on
| | 06:55 | different elements, but the appearance
is completely different, and that's a
| | 07:00 | whole point of themes.
| | 07:02 | The themes represent the perfect
separation of style and content.
| | 07:06 | WordPress handles the content
separately, so we can switch between different
| | 07:10 | themes, and change the look of our site,
without having to worry about rewriting
| | 07:14 | or reformatting any of
our content in the process.
| | 07:18 | And finally, if I activate a new theme,
and I have decide I don't like it, I can
| | 07:22 | always go back to Themes, reactivate my
default theme, which is Twenty Eleven, and
| | 07:29 | when I go to the front page,
we are back where we started.
| | 07:32 | Adding a new theme to your WordPress
site can add functionality, or just give it
| | 07:37 | a new and exciting look.
| | 07:38 | You can also use this function to
add your own custom theme to get that
| | 07:42 | perfectly individualized look.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Installing new themes from the Internet| 00:00 | Sometimes you'll find that the
themes available from the WordPress theme
| | 00:03 | directory just don't cut it, or you'll
find the theme on the Web, or even buy a
| | 00:08 | premium theme you like better.
| | 00:10 | When this happens, you have
to manually install the theme.
| | 00:14 | That used to mean using an FTP client
to upload files to your site, and then
| | 00:19 | manage it manually, but you don't have
to do it like that anymore, unless your
| | 00:23 | server has very, very high security settings.
| | 00:26 | In most cases, you can simply download
the theme off the Internet, and install it
| | 00:30 | manually into WordPress,
using the WordPress interface.
| | 00:34 | Let's say you went to my Web site, design
is philosophy, and you really liked the
| | 00:38 | theme that that Web site is currently running.
| | 00:40 | Well, I have made that theme
available for you to download, but it's not
| | 00:45 | available in the WordPress theme
directory, because it's kind of a wonky theme
| | 00:48 | that I'm playing around with a lot.
| | 00:50 | If you want to get that theme, you
can go to WORDPRESS THEMES here, and find
| | 00:55 | VIDUNDER, which is what it's called.
| | 00:56 | You get to the page for the theme, and
from here, you can download the theme file.
| | 01:03 | Once you have downloaded the file, you
can now upload that file into WordPress,
| | 01:08 | and then activate this theme.
| | 01:09 | So go back to your site, go to the
WordPress toolbar, and select Themes, or go to
| | 01:17 | the Dashboard, and go to
Appearance, and select Themes.
| | 01:21 | Then go to Install Themes, and instead
of searching, click on the Upload button,
| | 01:27 | and WordPress will allow you to
upload a zip folder with a new theme in it
| | 01:31 | directly to your site.
| | 01:33 | I'll click Choose File, navigate to
my Downloads, where I find the vidunder
| | 01:38 | folder, click Open, and click Install Now.
| | 01:43 | WordPress uploads the file, unpacks
the folder, and now we can activate
| | 01:48 | or preview the theme.
| | 01:49 | So I'm going to return to the Themes page
first, so you can see that this theme appears.
| | 01:53 | And if I scroll down here, you see
we now have the theme that I just
| | 01:58 | uploaded available.
| | 02:00 | You can preview the theme, and see what
your own content will look like with it,
| | 02:05 | and if you like what you
see, you can click Activate.
| | 02:11 | As you can see, the theme I downloaded
from a Web site on the Internet, and then
| | 02:15 | installed manually, operates the exact
same way as the themes I downloaded from
| | 02:20 | the WordPress theme directory, and
installed inside WordPress. And when I now go
| | 02:24 | to my front page, you'll see that we're
running the same theme as I'm running on
| | 02:28 | my blog, and you also see that this
theme requires some customization.
| | 02:33 | For instance, the sidebar looks really
weird right now, and that's because of how
| | 02:37 | I set up the sidebars in this
particular theme, and that's also one of the
| | 02:40 | reasons why it's not featured in the
WordPress theme directory, because this
| | 02:45 | theme requires some customization
on your part for it to work properly.
| | 02:50 | And this theme works exactly
like the other themes we installed.
| | 02:53 | The main menu is here, it has dropdowns,
you can also go to a single post, and
| | 02:59 | if you go to a single post,
you see something kind of neat.
| | 03:01 | If you scroll down, not only do you
get the author profile for the author of
| | 03:06 | this post, where you can follow a link
to see all the posts by that author, and
| | 03:10 | you can follow this author on Twitter,
but you get a box here that shows other
| | 03:15 | recent related posts to this post.
| | 03:18 | The theme also has some fancy features
built in, like the ability to hide or show
| | 03:23 | this box with the author content, so
you can easily get to your comments.
| | 03:28 | Now, before you jump on to Google,
and start searching for free WordPress
| | 03:32 | themes, and just download anything you can find,
and install it on your site, I have to warn you,
| | 03:37 | there are a lot of free WordPress
themes out there that have a lot of stuff in
| | 03:40 | them you really don't want in your site.
| | 03:43 | I've come across themes that will
inject all sorts of bad stuff into your code,
| | 03:48 | and themes that will add advertising to
your site, or add exploits to your site,
| | 03:52 | or other things you really, really
don't want to have anywhere near your site.
| | 03:56 | So if you're going to grab a theme from
the Internet that's not featured in the
| | 04:00 | theme directory, make sure that the
person who made that theme is trustworthy,
| | 04:05 | and also that this theme is fully
supported, so that you know that other people
| | 04:10 | are using it, and are not running into trouble.
| | 04:13 | It's not necessarily dangerous to
download themes off the Internet, and install
| | 04:17 | them yourself; you just have to be
careful, so you don't accidentally install
| | 04:21 | something you'll regret later.
| | 04:23 | Regardless, adding a new theme to your
WordPress site can add a lot of extra
| | 04:27 | functionality, especially if it's a
custom theme like the one you're seeing here,
| | 04:31 | or if you decide to build your own
theme, or even a child theme, you would use
| | 04:36 | this exact same process to install
that theme into WordPress, and activate it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Configuring themes| 00:00 | When you install and activate a new
theme, you're changing not only the
| | 00:04 | appearance of your WordPress site,
but often also adding, augmenting, or
| | 00:08 | subtracting functionality.
| | 00:10 | For this reason, whenever you
activate a new theme, it's a good idea to dig
| | 00:14 | through the theme options, and whatever
documentation is available, and also test
| | 00:19 | to make sure the site works as before.
| | 00:21 | As you can see, after we activated
this Vidunder theme on our site, things
| | 00:27 | look a little wonky.
| | 00:28 | That's because the theme has specific
options that we haven't activated yet,
| | 00:32 | and as a result, because we haven't activated
them, things don't look the way they should.
| | 00:37 | For example, we have this weird
sidebar here that looks quite odd, and if we
| | 00:43 | go and look at another site that's
running the same theme, you'll see that
| | 00:46 | this site has a custom logo, and also
a Twitter box up here in the corner,
| | 00:51 | that we don't have yet.
| | 00:52 | In fact, this theme ships with a
lot of extra functionality to it,
| | 00:56 | but you have to find that
functionality to be able to use it.
| | 01:00 | A general rule of thumb is, any time
you install a new theme, you should always
| | 01:04 | go and read the documentation.
| | 01:06 | This goes for pretty much everything in
life; any time you get something new, you
| | 01:10 | read the documentation for it,
but it's worth repeating.
| | 01:13 | On the page I built for this theme, if
you scroll down, you'll find a section
| | 01:18 | for Setup that outlines every single
feature you can customize on the theme,
| | 01:23 | and by reading this Setup list, you'll
be able to get a better idea of what you
| | 01:26 | can do with this theme.
| | 01:28 | But you don't have to read it.
| | 01:29 | You can also just go straight into
the Dashboard, and start looking for
| | 01:33 | the features yourself.
| | 01:35 | If we go to the Dashboard, you'll find
that, more often than not, most of the
| | 01:40 | features attached to a theme can
be found under the Appearance tab.
| | 01:44 | The Appearance tab has to do with the
appearance of your site, and depending on
| | 01:48 | the theme you're using, you'll often
find a Menus option, a Background option
| | 01:53 | and a Header option.
| | 01:55 | If I select the Background option, for
example, you'll see here I can upload a
| | 01:59 | Background Image, and I can
also change the Background Color.
| | 02:03 | So if I go here, and I select a
random color -- let's say I want a shade of
| | 02:08 | blue -- and click Save Changes, and then
go back to my front page, you'll see my
| | 02:14 | theme changed to blue.
| | 02:17 | That still leaves this weird
sidebar that doesn't look quite right.
| | 02:20 | Well, we're jumping ahead here,
because we'll cover how to deal with widgets
| | 02:24 | later in the course,
| | 02:25 | but I'll give you a little preview.
| | 02:28 | If I go to my toolbar, and go to the
Site, and select Widgets, I can configure
| | 02:33 | the widgetized areas in my site, and right now,
you see that I have extra widgetized areas.
| | 02:39 | I have an area called Custom Area, and
this says Custom widget area, full width,
| | 02:43 | and jammed up against the header. And
when I look at my site -- I'll open it in
| | 02:48 | a separate window here -- you'll see that,
that explains why these widgets look weird;
| | 02:53 | because this widgetized area is
obviously meant to contain image information,
| | 02:57 | like what you have on the main site here.
| | 03:00 | So what I need to do here is move these
widgets to a different widgetized area,
| | 03:05 | and conveniently, we have
that area directly underneath.
| | 03:08 | It's called Primary Widget Area.
| | 03:10 | So I'm simply going to grab my widgets,
and pull them down to the Primary Widget
| | 03:15 | Area, and now, without even saving, if I
go and reload my front page, you'll see
| | 03:23 | that now the sidebar looks much better.
| | 03:26 | What I've done here so far is a process
that applies to any theme you install.
| | 03:30 | When install a new theme, always read
the documentation first, and then go
| | 03:34 | through your WordPress Dashboard, and
see if you can find new features and
| | 03:38 | functionalities, and try to play
around with them to see how they configure,
| | 03:42 | because although the content itself
doesn't change when you change a theme, the
| | 03:46 | way that content is displayed changes
quite dramatically, and different themes
| | 03:50 | have different ways of
displaying different content.
| | 03:53 | So by understanding your theme, you
can utilize all the different features
| | 03:57 | within that theme much better.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Best practices for working with themes| 00:00 | WordPress is an open-source application.
That means both the application itself,
| | 00:05 | and most the stuff you can find and
attach to WordPress, like plugins, and themes,
| | 00:09 | are all developed by people like you and me;
| | 00:13 | enthusiasts who just want to expand on
the application, or want to make it better.
| | 00:17 | Unfortunately, that also means that
some of the stuff you find, like themes, and
| | 00:21 | plugins, may not be all that great, and
in some cases, the people who build it may
| | 00:27 | even have nefarious content built into
the themes, so they can do exploits
| | 00:31 | on your sites, or do something really evil.
| | 00:34 | As a result, there are some basic rules
I want you to follow when you install a
| | 00:38 | new theme on their site,
| | 00:40 | the most important one being you should
really try to only install themes that
| | 00:44 | you find inside the WordPress theme
directory, because all the themes in the
| | 00:48 | WordPress theme directory have
already been vetted by people who know what
| | 00:51 | they're doing, and tested to make sure
they work properly, and they don't have any
| | 00:55 | evil code in them, and that
they'll work also in the future.
| | 01:00 | The next rule is, if you want to use
a theme you find somewhere online,
| | 01:04 | try to test it in a local environment first.
| | 01:07 | Install WordPress using BitNami, or
WAMP, or MAMP on your computer, and test the
| | 01:12 | theme on your computer
before you publish it online.
| | 01:16 | That way, if something's off, you will
know, and you won't accidentally publish it
| | 01:20 | to the Web, and have your Web site exploited.
| | 01:24 | The next rule is, if you have a
theme, make sure it's always up to date.
| | 01:29 | Theme developers tend to roll out
updates for there themes all the time, so
| | 01:33 | that when an update comes available, make sure
you update your theme, so that it always current.
| | 01:39 | There's also something called premium
themes that are available. You can buy
| | 01:42 | these premium themes, and install them on
your site, but I'm not a really big fan
| | 01:47 | of premium themes, and here's the reason why:
| | 01:50 | a lot of premium themes add functionality
to your sites that WordPress already does.
| | 01:55 | For example, many premium themes will
have their own custom menu options, even
| | 02:00 | though WordPress already has a
custom menu option.
| | 02:03 | As a result, if you deactivate the
premium theme later, and then try to use the
| | 02:07 | menus, you'll notice that all your
custom menus have disappeared. That's really
| | 02:11 | unfortunate. That said, some premium
theme manufacturers create great stuff.
| | 02:16 | So if you want to install a premium
theme, make sure you do your due diligence,
| | 02:21 | and ask around first. Go on
Twitter, or Facebook, and ask people, hey,
| | 02:25 | have you used this theme before? Do you
know this theme manufacturer? Are they good
| | 02:29 | at what they do? And so on, to make sure
that if you're spending money on themes,
| | 02:33 | you get some good stuff.
| | 02:35 | The most important thing, though, is if
you're using WordPress, I encourage you to
| | 02:39 | really learn how it works, because if
you learn how it works, you can start
| | 02:43 | building your own stuff, and
that's always the best thing.
| | 02:47 | Do what I do: build your own themes.
Design them, build them out, and get more
| | 02:52 | advance, so you understand how
WordPress works, and you're able to create a
| | 02:56 | Web site that looks and
behaves exactly the way you want.
| | 03:00 | There are some great courses on Lynda.com
both by me, and by other people, who will
| | 03:06 | show you how to create great WordPress
themes from scratch, or to create child
| | 03:10 | themes, or to create extensions to
themes, so you can really use everything
| | 03:15 | WordPress can do for you.
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| Customizing WordPress for smartphones and tablets| 00:00 | In the past few years, the
Internet has seen a mobile revolution.
| | 00:04 | By that I mean more and more people
access the Web using mobile devices, like
| | 00:08 | smartphones, and tablets.
| | 00:10 | The problem is that most Web sites are
designed and developed to fit on bigger
| | 00:15 | screens, and when you use a mobile
device with a smaller screen, you get a
| | 00:19 | suboptimal experience.
| | 00:23 | I think you know what I am talking about;
| | 00:25 | when you go to a Web site, and you have
to keep zooming in and out to see content,
| | 00:29 | or scrolling left to right, or
have a really hard time navigating.
| | 00:32 | That's because that Web site was not
designed to work on mobile devices.
| | 00:37 | To solve this problem, there are
mobile plugins available that change the
| | 00:41 | appearance and functionality of your site
when visitors use smartphones or tablets.
| | 00:46 | In addition, you can activate so-called
responsive themes that automatically
| | 00:51 | conform to the size of the screen.
| | 00:53 | The default theme you get installed
when you create a new WordPress site, the
| | 00:57 | Twenty Eleven theme, is a responsive theme.
| | 01:00 | That means, if you resize the window
you're displaying the theme in, the
| | 01:04 | content will automatically respond,
and adapt to the size of that screen, and
| | 01:10 | jump around, and refit.
| | 01:12 | For a more advanced example of
responsive design, you can take a look
| | 01:16 | at blendinsider.com.
| | 01:18 | It's a Web site we built for Microsoft
that had to be responsive, because they
| | 01:22 | have a lot of content.
| | 01:24 | As you can see, at the top we have
this slider, where you can slide through
| | 01:28 | stories, and you also have these boxes.
| | 01:31 | And as I resize this window, you'll see
that the slider changes shape, and when
| | 01:36 | we get to a small enough size,
those boxes that were on the side will
| | 01:40 | automatically jump down
below the rest of the content.
| | 01:44 | The whole idea of responsive design is
that you have one coherent design that
| | 01:49 | responds to all different screen sizes.
| | 01:51 | So no matter what kind of device you
use to access this content, you'll always
| | 01:55 | see the same Web site, just
in different configurations.
| | 02:00 | If you're going to launch a WordPress
site today, and you want to have a theme
| | 02:04 | only, then I recommend you use a
responsive theme like Twenty Eleven, and there
| | 02:08 | are lots of other responsive
themes available on the WordPress theme
| | 02:12 | directory right now.
| | 02:13 | So if you go to your site, under
Themes, and you go Install Themes, and search
| | 02:20 |
| | 02:20 | for responsive, you'll find several
themes available that are all responsive, and
| | 02:26 | will all conform to the size of the screen.
| | 02:29 | But sometimes, you may want to have a
custom experience just for mobile users.
| | 02:35 | If that's the case -- and in many cases
it is -- I recommend you install a specific
| | 02:40 | plugin known us WPtouch.
| | 02:43 | WPtouch comes in two varieties: there
is the free variety, and the pro variety,
| | 02:48 | and you can read all about it by
visiting bravenewcode, which is the company that
| | 02:52 | makes the WPtouch plugin.
| | 02:55 | What's so cool about the WPtouch
plugin is that it creates a completely
| | 02:59 | different and customizable experience
for mobile users, that's much more touch
| | 03:04 | friendly than anything you'll
get, even in responsive design.
| | 03:08 | WPtouch is designed specifically to
work with all smartphones, and also with the
| | 03:13 | most popular tablets.
| | 03:15 | You can install WPtouch directly
from the plugin directory by going to
| | 03:20 | Dashboard, selecting Plugins > Add New,
searching wptouch, in one word, and installing it.
| | 03:32 | When you activate the plugin, you'll see
that on your regular site, nothing much
| | 03:38 | happens; it's the same Web site.
| | 03:40 | But if you were to visit your site
using a mobile device, you would now get a
| | 03:45 | completely different experience.
| | 03:47 | You can change the settings of the
WPtouch plugin to customize that experience
| | 03:51 | even more by going to Settings, and
selecting WPtouch, and here you land on the
| | 03:58 | WPtouch settings page.
| | 04:00 | From here, you can change anything from
the language, text direction, you can
| | 04:05 | also set things like the site title
specifically for mobile devices, you can
| | 04:09 | include or exclude categories, and tags,
you can decide what icons you want to
| | 04:14 | use, and you can even leave
custom footer messages, and so forth.
| | 04:19 | WPtouch is a very advanced plugin, and
there are a lot of interesting features here.
| | 04:23 | And if you decide to upgrade to the
pro plugin, you get even more features,
| | 04:28 | and more functionality.
| | 04:30 | I like to use WPtouch, because
it's literally plug-and-play.
| | 04:34 | You just install it, and it
works, and it works really well.
| | 04:36 | And if you want to, you can start
customizing content by attaching specific icons,
| | 04:42 | like the ones you see here, to
specific functions within the user interface,
| | 04:46 | to get a more custom
experience for your specific site.
| | 04:51 | Enabling your site to play well with
mobile devices, either through a responsive
| | 04:55 | theme, or a mobile plugin, will
greatly improve the user experience for the
| | 04:59 | visitor when they visit
your site on a mobile device.
| | 05:02 | Today, adding mobile component, either
a responsive theme, or a mobile plugin, is
| | 05:08 | an absolute must for anyone
who is creating a Web site.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. WordPress behind the ScenesAccessing the wp-content folder| 00:00 | When working with WordPress, most of what you
need to do can be done through the admin panel.
| | 00:05 | But every now and again, you need access
to the core of the site to make changes.
| | 00:09 | This could be when something goes wrong
with a new theme or plugin, or when you
| | 00:13 | want to do some customization, or if you
just want to figure out why something is
| | 00:17 | not working quite right.
| | 00:18 | When you upload content into WordPress,
whether it be installing a new theme, or
| | 00:23 | a new plugin, or when you upload
images, or other media files, you're actually
| | 00:27 | putting them onto your server,
under a folder called wp-content.
| | 00:32 | And from this folder, you can
override what WordPress is doing, and also see
| | 00:36 | what's happening if something is going wrong.
| | 00:38 | To get to the wp-content folder,
you have to go to your FTP client.
| | 00:42 | So I'll open my FTP client,
and I'll log in to my site.
| | 00:48 | And here, under the root
folder, I find wp-content.
| | 00:51 | When I open this folder, you'll see
several different folders, depending on how
| | 00:56 | you've configured your site.
| | 00:58 | The folders that will always be in this
folder are plugins, and themes, and most
| | 01:03 | often also uploads, unless you
change that in your settings.
| | 01:07 | In addition, you'll often find the
upgrade folder, which contains information
| | 01:11 | about your upgrades; both your theme
upgrades, and your plugin upgrades, and
| | 01:15 | your WordPress upgrades.
| | 01:17 | If we go into the plugins
folder, you'll see how it works.
| | 01:20 | It's very straightforward.
| | 01:22 | Every time you install a new plugin
into WordPress, you're actually putting a
| | 01:25 | new folder into the plugins folder,
and each of the plugins lives on its own,
| | 01:31 | just like what you see here.
| | 01:32 | Meaning if you want to add new plugins
into WordPress, all you have to do is
| | 01:36 | add a new folder in here, and
WordPress will automatically recognize that new
| | 01:40 | plugin, and ask if you want to activate it.
| | 01:43 | Likewise, if you want to delete a plugin,
or if a plugin breaks, or something
| | 01:47 | else goes wrong, you can simply go in here,
select the plugin folder, and delete it.
| | 01:53 | A good example of how to use this folder
is if you want to upgrade a plugin, but
| | 01:57 | you're afraid that that
upgrade might break something.
| | 01:59 | When I think that might happen,
what I do is I log in to my FTP client,
| | 02:04 | I grab the existing plugin folder, and
copy it over to my computer, so that I
| | 02:09 | have a backup of the
original plugin that I know works.
| | 02:12 | Then I can go into WordPress, and
upgrade the plugin, and see if everything works.
| | 02:17 | If it doesn't, I can go back in through
FTP, delete the new plugin, and bring
| | 02:22 | back the old one, and
everything will go back to normal again.
| | 02:26 | The themes folder has the exact same structure.
| | 02:29 | As you can see, each theme has its own folder.
| | 02:33 | And just like with the plugins, when
you add a new theme, what you're actually
| | 02:37 | doing is placing a new folder into the
themes folder, and then WordPress will
| | 02:41 | automatically recognize that
folder, and register that new theme.
| | 02:45 | And likewise, if something goes wrong
with a theme -- let's say you install a
| | 02:49 | broken theme, or if the theme stops
working for some reason -- you can go in here,
| | 02:54 | grab the theme folder, and simply delete
it, and WordPress will fall back to one
| | 02:58 | of the default themes.
| | 02:59 | The only thing you should never do when
you're in this theme folder is delete everything.
| | 03:04 | If you delete all the themes,
then WordPress simply won't work,
| | 03:07 | but as long as you have one of the
default themes -- twentyeleven, or twentyten -- in
| | 03:12 | this folder, WordPress should work just fine.
| | 03:16 | In addition to the plugins, and themes
folders, we also have the uploads folder.
| | 03:21 | If you didn't change your uploads
settings inside WordPress, every time you
| | 03:25 | upload content to WordPress, whether
it be images, documents, PDF files,
| | 03:31 | videos, or audio, they all get stored
inside the uploads folder, based on the
| | 03:36 | year, and the month.
| | 03:38 | So when you open this uploads folder,
you will find a folder for each year
| | 03:42 | you've been using the site,
along with a folder for each month.
| | 03:45 | And then under that month, you'll
find all the files you've uploaded.
| | 03:49 | You also see here that when you upload
an image to WordPress, WordPress actually
| | 03:53 | makes a bunch of different
versions of that image for you.
| | 03:56 | So I uploaded this one image here, and then
WordPress made five different sizes for me.
| | 04:02 | This is important, because these
sizes are dependent on the theme.
| | 04:07 | In this case, because I'm using this
Twenty Eleven theme that has this big
| | 04:11 | header graphic at the top here,
whenever I upload an image, I automatically
| | 04:16 | get an image created that will fit into
that box if I choose to use that image
| | 04:20 | as the featured image.
| | 04:22 | I also get other sizes created that
are defined either inside the theme, or
| | 04:26 | inside the WordPress media settings.
| | 04:29 | But if I activate a new theme that
uses a different type of sizes of these
| | 04:33 | images, I need to then regenerate new
images for this new theme, so that the
| | 04:39 | images will still fit
within what the theme requires.
| | 04:42 | You can use a plugin to do that, or you
can do it manually, but it has to be done,
| | 04:46 | otherwise things won't work quite right.
| | 04:52 | The wp-content folder is the only
folder that WordPress will change when
| | 04:56 | you upload content.
| | 04:57 | That also means, if for some reason
you need to delete WordPress, the
| | 05:02 | application, off your server, and
reinstall it, or if you need to do what's called
| | 05:07 | a hard update, where you download a
fresh version of WordPress onto your
| | 05:11 | computer, and then publish the new
files onto your server, rather than using the
| | 05:16 | automatic update, you always need to
keep in mind that you should never change
| | 05:21 | the wp-content folder.
| | 05:23 | If you want to change WordPress as a
whole, you should leave the wp-content
| | 05:27 | folder, as well as the
wp-config folder, alone.
| | 05:31 | Everything else inside the WordPress
application can be deleted, and reinstalled,
| | 05:35 | but wp-content, because it contains all
your plugins, all your themes, and all
| | 05:40 | your uploaded files, would be very
foolish to delete, because if you delete
| | 05:45 | it, then you lose all your themes,
your plugins, and your uploaded files.
| | 05:49 | That also means if you're doing
backups of your WordPress site onto your
| | 05:53 | computer, the folder you should care
about backing up is this wp-content folder,
| | 05:58 | because it contains all your customizations.
| | 06:01 | Understanding the file and folder
structure of your WordPress installation is
| | 06:05 | vital if you're going to do any
advanced development, or other work.
| | 06:09 | Fortunately, all you really need to
know is that the files you want are almost
| | 06:14 | always stored in the wp-content folder.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Manually installing themes and plug-ins| 00:00 | Even with all the in app features of
WordPress, and the ability to upload and
| | 00:04 | install new themes and plugins right
from the admin panel, there are situations
| | 00:09 | where you may need to do a fully manual upload.
| | 00:12 | This could be because you're developing a new
theme, and you're just changing a couple of files,
| | 00:17 | or because an installation went wrong
when you did the automatic install, or
| | 00:22 | because a file got corrupted on the
server, or because the server has very
| | 00:26 | high security settings, and WordPress
is not allowed to install new theme
| | 00:30 | folders on its own.
| | 00:31 | In all these cases, you can still
install both themes and plugins, but you
| | 00:35 | have to do it the manual way.
| | 00:37 | To do that, you have to download the zip
folder onto your computer, and then use FTP
| | 00:42 | to push the files up to the
server, so that WordPress can see them.
| | 00:45 | Let's say I want to
install this AutoFocus 2.0 theme.
| | 00:49 | AutoFocus 2.0 is not available in
the WordPress theme directory, and
| | 00:53 | for arguments sake,
| | 00:55 | let's say that my Web host had such
strong security features that I couldn't use
| | 00:59 | the regular install method to
upload a zip file to WordPress.
| | 01:03 | In that case, I have to go and find the
zip file manually, download it on to my
| | 01:07 | computer, and then I have to
unpack it, so I get the folder itself.
| | 01:17 | I'll dump that folder on to my Desktop,
and now I can go to my FTP client, and
| | 01:22 | log in, and then I can upload the file.
| | 01:24 | So I'll go to my wp-content folder, and
themes, and then before I upload it, I'll
| | 01:31 | just show you that it's not currently there.
| | 01:33 | I'll go in, and look at Themes, and you
see, right now we have Twenty Eleven, we
| | 01:40 | have Esquire, we have Responsive, we
have Twenty Ten, and we have Vidunder.
| | 01:45 | But if I go back to my Desktop, and I
grab the autofocuslite folder, and simply
| | 01:51 | dump it into the themes folder in my
WordPress Installation, and I let the FTP
| | 01:55 | application push all the files onto my
server, I can now go back, and reload the
| | 02:00 | Themes page, and you see now
AutoFocus Lite is installed.
| | 02:06 | I can Preview it, and if I
want to, I can activate it.
| | 02:11 | To remove the theme as an option, I
can now either delete it from inside
| | 02:14 | WordPress itself by clicking the
Delete button, or I can go back to my FTP
| | 02:19 | client, find the folder, and simply delete it.
| | 02:25 | With the folder deleted, the
option disappears inside WordPress.
| | 02:30 | The same goes for plugins.
| | 02:32 | Let's say I can't install plugins
automatically using WordPress, but I find a
| | 02:37 | plugin in the WordPress
Plugin Directory I want to use.
| | 02:40 | Let's say I want to use this FancyBox plugin.
| | 02:42 | So I'm going to grab Easy FancyBox, and
from the Plugin page, I can download a zip
| | 02:50 | file of this plugin to my computer.
| | 02:52 | So I'll download it, extract it onto
my computer, and do the same process.
| | 03:03 | I'll move Easy FancyBox to my
Desktop, go to my FTP application,
| | 03:10 | open the plugins folder, and
simply drag and drop easy-fancybox in.
| | 03:16 | When all the files are uploaded, I
can now go back to my Dashboard, go to
| | 03:21 | Plugins, and Installed Plugins, and you'll see
that Easy FancyBox is now available for me.
| | 03:27 | And if I go back and delete Easy
FancyBox on the server, when I reload my
| | 03:35 | Plugins page, Easy FancyBox is gone.
| | 03:38 | Knowing how to manually manage and
upload themes and plugins to your site gives
| | 03:43 | you full control over every aspect of your site.
| | 03:45 | And more importantly, it gives you
the power to make quick changes when
| | 03:49 | something goes wrong.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| What to do when your site crashes| 00:00 | I don't want to scare you, but
the reality is, with a self-hosted
| | 00:03 | installation of WordPress, you're
pretty much guaranteed that at some point in
| | 00:07 | time, you'll run into trouble.
| | 00:09 | Fortunately, when you do run into
trouble, it's usually because of something
| | 00:13 | very simple, like installing a
broken plugin, or a broken theme.
| | 00:17 | And because it was caused by a simple
problem, it usually has simple solution.
| | 00:21 | To give you an idea of what might happen,
I'm going to show you some examples of
| | 00:25 | how your site might break,
and also how you can fix it.
| | 00:28 | Let's say I went to the Internet, and I
found some really awesome stuff that I
| | 00:32 | need to install on my site.
| | 00:34 | I found this crashy plugin, and the
crashyTheme that, according to the theme
| | 00:39 | and plugin authors, are the number one
most popular plugins and themes that
| | 00:44 | anyone ever installs, and all
professional WordPress users use these, so
| | 00:47 | therefore, I must too.
| | 00:49 | Because I've downloaded them off
the Internet, I have to use the manual
| | 00:52 | install to install them.
| | 00:53 | So I'll go into SAMOCA here, and I
will go to Plugins, and click Add New to
| | 01:00 | install the crashy plugin. I'll go to
Upload, choose the file, navigate to the
| | 01:06 | crashy plugin, and install it, and
everything seems to be working fine.
| | 01:12 | But when I click Activate Plugin,
WordPress detects an error in my plugin.
| | 01:18 | This is a fairly common error, that
there's something wrong in the plugin, and
| | 01:21 | therefore, it won't run.
| | 01:22 | But in some cases, you'll have error cascades.
| | 01:26 | There might be a plugin that contests
with another plugin, and it triggers a
| | 01:29 | whole pile of errors.
| | 01:31 | I've seen several hundred errors appear
at the same time, and when that happens,
| | 01:35 | WordPress might stall, and you
won't be able to do anything.
| | 01:38 | If you get a simple error like this,
all you have to do is delete the plugin
| | 01:42 | you just activated, and
then everything should be fine.
| | 01:46 | But in the cases where the errors are
so severe that you can't really use your
| | 01:50 | interface anymore, you have to do
something a little more drastic.
| | 01:53 | If that's the situation, you need
to use your FTP client to go into the
| | 01:58 | back end of your site, so navigate
to wp-content, and plugins, find the
| | 02:04 | offending plugin you just installed --
| | 02:06 | in this case, crashy -- and simply delete it.
| | 02:09 | When you delete the plugin, and then
go back to Installed Plugins, you'll see
| | 02:13 | the plugin is gone, and so is the error,
and everything should go back to normal.
| | 02:18 | If you did a blanket update of all of
your plugins, and you all of a sudden
| | 02:22 | have a site that doesn't work, it
usually means that one or more of your
| | 02:26 | plugins has broken.
| | 02:27 | So what you then need to do is go
into your FTP client, move all of your
| | 02:32 | plugins away from your server -- so put
them in a folder on your computer -- and
| | 02:36 | then one by one, drag them in,
and activate them.
| | 02:39 | That way, you'll find out what's
clashing, and what's not working properly.
| | 02:44 | What you saw here was a fairly
simple and easy to deal with error,
| | 02:48 | but what if the error is
much more severe than this?
| | 02:51 | Let's say I install the crashyTheme.
| | 02:54 | I found it on the Internet, so I
have to use the manual install.
| | 02:57 | I'll go here and click Upload, choose
the file, find crashyTheme, install it,
| | 03:07 | and so far, everything
seems to be working fine.
| | 03:10 | I'll go to my Themes page, and I can see
that the crashyTheme is installed, but
| | 03:14 | already, I can see it looks kind of suspicious.
| | 03:16 | It has no thumbnail, and the
description -- The best theme ever built.
| | 03:21 | All professional WordPressers use the
Crashy Theme -- has way too many exclamation
| | 03:25 | points to be serious.
| | 03:27 | Even so, I'm not even going to
preview it; I'm just going to activate it.
| | 03:32 | And my whole Web site disappeared.
| | 03:34 | This is a rather scary situation.
| | 03:37 | Not only did my Web site disappear,
but I can no longer visit the front end.
| | 03:41 | No matter where I go, it's just gone.
| | 03:46 | I can even go through a different Web
browser, and try to visit it here, and
| | 03:49 | you'll see, the site is simply a white page.
| | 03:54 | Nowhere to log in, no
content; it's simply gone.
| | 03:59 | So what do I do?
| | 03:59 | Well, I already know what caused this.
| | 04:02 | I installed a theme that clearly doesn't
work properly, right? And I have a theory
| | 04:06 | that that might be what it is,
| | 04:08 | so I'm going to go back into the FTP
client, find -- under wp-content -- the themes
| | 04:13 | folder, and here, I'm simply going to
rename the crashyTheme folder to something else.
| | 04:18 | So I'll say crashyThemeBROKEN, and
this is enough to confuse WordPress.
| | 04:24 | So now WordPress will try to find the
crashyTheme folder, but it can't find the
| | 04:29 | crashyTheme folder, so it'll just
default back to the default theme instead.
| | 04:33 | So when I reload my admin page, I land
back on my admin page, and I get this
| | 04:39 | warning: The active theme is broken.
| | 04:42 | Reverting to the default theme.
| | 04:43 | That's because it can't find crashyTheme
anymore, since it's under a different folder.
| | 04:48 | So now I can go and find Twenty Eleven,
and activate Twenty Eleven instead, and
| | 04:55 | on the front page, my site
is now back and working again.
| | 05:00 | Now that I know it was the crashy
theme that was the offending theme, I
| | 05:03 | should really go into my FTP again,
and delete crashyTheme, so that won't
| | 05:07 | happen again by accident.
| | 05:10 | Having your Web site go down
completely is the most scary thing that can
| | 05:14 | happen in WordPress.
| | 05:15 | I've seen it happen to several people. I've
even had it happen to myself several times.
| | 05:21 | But the good thing is, in
almost every single case,
| | 05:24 | the reason why it's happening is because
there is a theme or a plugin installed
| | 05:28 | that's making a big mess of things.
| | 05:31 | And the way to resurrect everything
back to the way it was is usually to simply
| | 05:35 | either find the broken theme, or to
move all the themes out, except for the
| | 05:39 | default theme, and then slowly move
one theme in at a time, until we find out
| | 05:43 | which one breaks your site.
| | 05:45 | The reality is, breaking WordPress
permanently is extremely difficult, because
| | 05:50 | you'd have to break the database.
| | 05:52 | All the theme files, and all the
other stuff is just peripheral, and you
| | 05:56 | can always replace it.
| | 05:58 | When something goes wrong with your
WordPress site, the number one thing to
| | 06:01 | remember is that it can
almost always be fixed.
| | 06:04 | Usually, catastrophic errors, like
your entire site going down, are actually
| | 06:09 | caused by very minor issues that can
be fixed in less than five minutes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
11. The Twenty Eleven (Default) ThemeExploring theme options| 00:00 | One of the great things about working
with an application like WordPress is that
| | 00:04 | it's in constant evolution.
| | 00:06 | An example of that is the introduction
of the new Theme Customizer functionality
| | 00:11 | that came with Version 3.4 of WordPress,
which was released shortly after we
| | 00:16 | created, The WordPress
Essential Training courses.
| | 00:19 | So before we dive headfirst into how
you can customize the Twenty Eleven theme,
| | 00:23 | let me give you a preview by using the
Theme Customizer, so you can see how cool
| | 00:28 | this new feature is.
| | 00:29 | The Theme Customizer is accessible
from two different locations in WordPress.
| | 00:34 | You can either access it from the front
-end by going to the WordPress toolbar
| | 00:39 | and dropping down and selecting
Customize, or you can go to the back-end, go to
| | 00:45 | Appearance > Themes, and click
Customize under the currently active theme. Both
| | 00:51 | will take you to the same place.
| | 00:53 | So I'll click on this and open it.
| | 00:56 | What you have here on the right when
you open the Theme Customizer is the
| | 00:59 | currently active theme, in this case
Twenty Eleven, that's customized in
| | 01:03 | whatever way it was configured.
| | 01:05 | On the left, you have all the
customization options that come with the Theme
| | 01:10 | Customizer, and depending on the theme,
this list will be longer or shorter.
| | 01:15 | This list gives you information about
the theme and also gives you all the
| | 01:18 | customization options the developer has
allowed you to use inside the Theme Customizer.
| | 01:24 | So from the top you get information
about the theme; here we see a preview image
| | 01:29 | and some text, and then from here on,
we get all the customization options.
| | 01:33 | Now what's really cool about the Theme
Customizer is that you can now experiment
| | 01:38 | with your theme and make changes to it
that only appear on your computer, and
| | 01:43 | it's not until you save it that other
people can see it, which means you can
| | 01:47 | change features on your site and see
if they work before you publish them.
| | 01:51 | Let's say for instance, I want
to change my Site Title & Tagline.
| | 01:54 | Now if you're looking at the site right
now, you see there is no site title and
| | 01:58 | tagline, and depending on where you are
in the course, you may not have actually
| | 02:03 | configured the site to look exactly
like what it is now, that's because what
| | 02:07 | you're looking at is the final project
in this course, and I've just kind of
| | 02:12 | jumped ahead, because we're recording this later.
| | 02:14 | So first I'm going to reactivate the
Site Title & Tagline by dropping down the
| | 02:18 | option and going down here
and say Display Header Text.
| | 02:21 | When I do that, you see the preview
changes immediately and we now have the
| | 02:26 | site title and tagline.
| | 02:27 | And now I can go and edit it.
| | 02:29 | For instance, I can change the Site
Title to Samoca Gallery, and as I do that,
| | 02:34 | you get an instant preview of
what that's going to look like.
| | 02:38 | And that preview is permanent on the
site, on your computer, so you can even
| | 02:42 | navigate and see that that preview stays.
| | 02:46 | If you don't like what you just did, you
can simply go and edit it back, and you
| | 02:52 | are back to where you started.
| | 02:54 | So I can go turn off the Header
Text again and it just disappears.
| | 02:57 | Going down I can also change the colors, in
this case the Background Color of the theme.
| | 03:02 | I can go and change that to a red for
instance, you see it appears down here as red.
| | 03:08 | And you can literally experiment until
you find the color you want, which is
| | 03:13 | really cool, because previously, you
would have to go in, change the color,
| | 03:17 | preview, and then go back and
change the color and preview.
| | 03:20 | But now you can do all that in the
Customizer and see what it ends up looking like.
| | 03:24 | I'll set that back to white. You
can also change the Header Image.
| | 03:28 | What you see here is a large header
image I uploaded and if I go to the Header
| | 03:32 | Image option, you'll see the preview
of that image and here I can also go to my
| | 03:37 | computer and either drag and drop the
file in, or I can use the browser to select
| | 03:41 | the new file, or I can go check
previously uploaded files I've used for the
| | 03:45 | header and select one of those, or if
the theme supports it, I can select one of
| | 03:49 | the Default header images.
| | 03:50 | When I select them, they automatically
preview in the Window, so I can see what
| | 03:55 | they're going to look like, and again,
I can navigate somewhere else in the
| | 03:58 | site and see that it stays the same, so
I can really test out the header image
| | 04:03 | before publishing it.
| | 04:04 | If I don't like what I just did, I can
simply go back to Uploaded, select the
| | 04:08 | original image again and I'm
back where I started.
| | 04:11 | Likewise, you can set the Background Image.
| | 04:14 | Right now we have a tiled background
image that goes from left to right, but
| | 04:18 | here I can change the settings.
| | 04:20 | I can set it to No Repeat.
| | 04:21 | I can set it to see that it
appears again and again and again.
| | 04:25 | I can set it to Tile
Horizontally, which is what I did.
| | 04:28 | And I can also change things like the
Background Position of the image, and also
| | 04:31 | whether or not it's Fixed or Scrolled.
| | 04:34 | This allows you to experiment with
different background images and see what they
| | 04:38 | look like on the site before you publish them.
| | 04:41 | At the bottom, we have two options
that will appear on every theme.
| | 04:44 | There are Navigation, which gives you
all the different navigation areas on the
| | 04:48 | site, and allows you to define what
menu to display in that navigation area.
| | 04:53 | So for example, in the header here, if
I want to change the Header menu to the
| | 04:58 | Sidebar menu I defined, I
simply click it and it changes.
| | 05:02 | And I can also change whether I want the
front page to be my latest posts or a static page.
| | 05:08 | Once you are done with your
customizations and you're happy with what the site
| | 05:12 | looks like you can click Save & Publish,
| | 05:14 | and what you see in your computer will
become public for everyone, or if you
| | 05:18 | don't like it, you can click Cancel and
WordPress will jump you back to where you started.
| | 05:23 | That means if you activated the Theme
Customizer from the front-end, you will
| | 05:27 | land on the front-end, and if you
activated the Theme Customizer from the
| | 05:30 | back-end, like I just did, I
land on the back-end.
| | 05:34 | And one last thing, the Theme
Customizer is an addition to the functionality
| | 05:39 | that's already in WordPress.
| | 05:41 | That means all the stuff I just did,
changing the header image, changing the
| | 05:45 | background, all of that is still
available inside WordPress Admin.
| | 05:48 | We can still go to menus and change the menus.
| | 05:51 | We can still go to Header and
configure the header, we can still go to
| | 05:55 | Background and configure the
background, but the Theme Customizer makes it
| | 05:59 | easier to preview what you're doing
without having to jump back and forth
| | 06:03 | inside the menus.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting a custom background| 00:00 | The Twenty Eleven theme comes with a
whole slew of customization options,
| | 00:04 | including changing the background.
| | 00:06 | You can change both the overall
background color, and also attach a background
| | 00:10 | image to your site, to
create some interesting looks.
| | 00:14 | Let's first go reset the
theme back to its default look.
| | 00:17 | So I'll go to my site, to my
Dashboard, go to Appearance, and select Theme
| | 00:23 | Options, and I'm going to reset back to
Content on left, and now I'm going to go
| | 00:29 | change the background color.
| | 00:31 | So under Appearance, I have
this new option called Background.
| | 00:34 | This, again, is something that appears
if it's activated in the theme, but if
| | 00:38 | your theme doesn't support
background, you won't have this option.
| | 00:41 | So I'll click Background, and this
takes me to the Custom Background page.
| | 00:45 | From here, I can either upload a
background image, or I can set a
| | 00:49 | custom background color.
| | 00:51 | So let's do that first.
| | 00:53 | I want to go in and Select a
specific color that I want to use.
| | 00:55 | I'm going to pick a blue, I'll find
a nice light blue color, and then I'll
| | 01:03 | simply click Save Changes.
| | 01:06 | I'll open the site in a separate tab,
so you can see it, and here, you see the
| | 01:10 | background now has this nice blue color.
| | 01:13 | I can go in again, click Select a
Color again, and change it to a different
| | 01:17 | color; maybe I want it to be darker.
Click Save Changes, reload the page, and we
| | 01:25 | get a darker background.
| | 01:27 | So here, you can play around until you
find the exact right background color you
| | 01:31 | want for your content.
| | 01:33 | But there are more options.
| | 01:34 | I'm going to Clear my Background Color
back to default, and then I'm going to
| | 01:39 | use a background image instead.
| | 01:41 | So I'll go here to Upload Image,
and choose an image I want to use as
| | 01:45 | my background image.
| | 01:46 | I'll navigate to my Assets, and go look at
Images, and here I have the image I want to use.
| | 01:53 | It's this weird bannery painting.
| | 01:55 | So I'll click Open, and Upload. The
image now gets uploaded into the system,
| | 02:01 | and WordPress gives me a preview of what this
image is going to look like as the background.
| | 02:05 | Now, this is kind of a zoomed out preview,
so it won't necessarily look exactly
| | 02:09 | like this, but you'll
see what it will look like soon.
| | 02:12 | First, I'll simply Save Changes the way
they are, and go back to my Web site, and
| | 02:17 | reload the page to take a look at it.
| | 02:19 | And here you see, we have the Background
Image in the background, and you can
| | 02:23 | also see that it tiles.
| | 02:25 | If I zoom out, you'll see it better.
| | 02:27 | What's happening here is WordPress is
putting up the image, and then putting up
| | 02:31 | the same image again, and than putting
it up again, and so on, and so forth, from
| | 02:35 | left to right, and then
from left to right again.
| | 02:38 | So it's filling my
background with the image; tiling it.
| | 02:42 | I can change that setting by going back
into Background, and scrolling down, and
| | 02:47 | you see that here I can change the Position.
| | 02:49 | So I can change it from
Left, to Center, to Right.
| | 02:53 | I can also change the Repeat factor.
| | 02:55 | I can set it to No Repeat, and
then only one image is displayed.
| | 02:59 | I can then change it to Center,
or to Left again.
| | 03:02 | I can also set it to the default, which
has full tile, and then I can set it to
| | 03:06 | tile only horizontally, or only vertically.
| | 03:09 | So depending on what I'm using this image
for, one of these features may make sense.
| | 03:14 | For example, if I tile it horizontally,
and then go down here under Attachment,
| | 03:19 | and set it to Fixed,
| | 03:20 | you'll see that when I Save the
Changes, and reload my page, I get the
| | 03:26 | background image, but as I scroll
down, the background image stays in place,
| | 03:30 | because it's fixed to the background.
| | 03:32 | That way, I don't need to tile it
vertically, because we never get down to the
| | 03:36 | point where the image ends.
| | 03:38 | But this kind of looks wonky.
| | 03:40 | I want to use a different type of image,
and I'm going to use the tiling feature
| | 03:44 | to create a gradient effect.
| | 03:46 | What I'll do is I'll remove the
current background image by clicking
| | 03:50 | Remove Background Image.
| | 03:51 | I'm then going to upload a new image I
created specifically for this purpose.
| | 03:55 | You see it here; it's called gradient,
and it's really an image that's very thin,
| | 03:59 | and very long, and it has a gradient in it.
| | 04:02 | So I'm going to select the
gradient image; Upload it.
| | 04:07 | I'm going to set it to Tile
Horizontally, just like it says here, and I'm going
| | 04:11 | to set the Attachment to Scroll.
| | 04:13 | Now when I Save Changes, and reload the
front page, you'll see that we have this
| | 04:19 | nice gradient from the top to the bottom,
and as I scroll down, the gradient goes away.
| | 04:23 | But you'll also see we have this harsh
line here, because the default Background
| | 04:27 | Color is a gray, and not a white.
| | 04:29 | So the last thing I'm going to do is
go back to Background, and even though I
| | 04:33 | have an image here, I can
still set the Background Color.
| | 04:36 | So I'll set the Background Color to a
hard white, which is fff, and click Save
| | 04:41 | Changes one last time, and now when I
reload the page, the gradient merges
| | 04:47 | nicely with the background color, and
we have a completely new look to our site.
| | 04:52 | As you can see, even something as simple
as changing the background of your site
| | 04:56 | can have a huge impact on how it looks.
| | 04:59 | We've barely scratched the
surface of what is possible here.
| | 05:02 | The best way to explore this
further is to just experiment, and see
| | 05:05 | what happens.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting custom header images| 00:00 | The header of your Web site is the first
thing a visitor sees, so it's important
| | 00:04 | to incorporate imagery that is
both attractive, and inviting.
| | 00:08 | If you're setting up a site for a
company, it may also be a good idea to
| | 00:11 | incorporate your company logo, or
other identifiable elements in the header.
| | 00:16 | In Twenty Eleven, you have a lot of
control of this whole header section.
| | 00:21 | As you can see, by default, you have the
site title, and description, and then you
| | 00:25 | have a Search box, you have a large
image, and then you have a menu underneath.
| | 00:32 | To change this, you can go to the Dashboard,
and then go down to Appearance, and select Header.
| | 00:38 | From here, you get a preview what the
header looks like, and you can upload an
| | 00:42 | image, use one of the default images,
remove the images, toggle whether or not
| | 00:47 | you want to display the front page
text, and also set the text color.
| | 00:52 | So let's open the front end in a separate
tab, so we can see what we are talking about.
| | 00:57 | And here I want to make some changes.
| | 00:59 | First of all, I want to replace the
default image here with a custom image
| | 01:03 | I've created, that has both the company
logo for this gallery that I'm working
| | 01:07 | on, and a nice image.
| | 01:09 | I also want to get rid of the header
text altogether, and I want to move the
| | 01:13 | Search box down here to the main menu.
| | 01:16 | Sounds complicated, right?
| | 01:17 | It's actually very, very easy.
| | 01:19 | First let's get rid of the header text.
| | 01:22 | I'll go back into this Header section,
scroll all the way down, and here where it
| | 01:26 | says Display Text,
I'll simply toggle it to No.
| | 01:30 | The preview now shows just the header
image, and if I save this, and reload the
| | 01:35 | front page, you'll see that not only
did the header text disappear, but the
| | 01:39 | Search box moved down to my menu.
| | 01:41 | So I got two of my tasks accomplished.
| | 01:43 | The last one is to replace this header image.
| | 01:46 | By default, Twenty Eleven ships with a bunch
of different header images that cycle,
| | 01:51 | but I want to replace it with
the header image I've created.
| | 01:54 | I've made sure that I created the image
to be exactly 1000 by 288 pixels large.
| | 02:00 | If you make it any other size,
WordPress will help you crop it down,
| | 02:04 | but I suggest, if you're going to make a
custom image, you just make it this size to
| | 02:07 | begin with, because then you know
what it will end up looking like.
| | 02:10 | I'm going to go choose
file to upload a new image.
| | 02:14 | I'll select the image I
want, click Open; Upload.
| | 02:19 | I see a preview here, and then
I'm going to simply Save Changes.
| | 02:25 | Now when I reload the front page, we
have my new custom header here at the top,
| | 02:30 | that works also as a Home button.
| | 02:32 | There's one caveat though; do you
remember earlier in the course I was talking
| | 02:36 | about the Featured Image
option inside WordPress?
| | 02:40 | Well, if we attach a
featured image to any of our posts,
| | 02:43 | you'll see that the Featured Image
option takes over the header image.
| | 02:48 | As people go into the posts, they'll
see whatever featured image is assigned,
| | 02:53 | rather than the header image.
| | 02:54 | That means, in the case of Twenty Eleven, if
you're going to use a custom header image,
| | 02:59 | and you want it to appear on all your pages,
you can't use the Featured Image function.
| | 03:04 | If you use the Featured Image function,
then the image in the header will be
| | 03:08 | replaced every time you use it.
| | 03:10 | If you made all these changes, and you
realize you don't like them, you can go
| | 03:14 | back to Header, scroll down to the
bottom, and click Remove Header Image, and
| | 03:20 | Restore Original Header Text, and you'll go back
to the way things were in the very beginning.
| | 03:25 | Creating a custom header image gives you
the ability to add a visual identifying
| | 03:29 | element, or just something nice
and personal for your site, or blog.
| | 03:33 | The possibilities here are only
limited by your own imagination.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Showcase page template| 00:00 | The Twenty Eleven theme comes with a hidden
feature not many users take advantage of;
| | 00:05 | it's called the Showcase page template.
| | 00:08 | The Showcase page template is meant to
go on the front page of your site, and
| | 00:12 | provides a highly customized
view of your latest content.
| | 00:15 | It's a lot of fun to play with, and it
interacts with your content in an unusual way,
| | 00:20 | so let's take a look at how it works.
| | 00:22 | Earlier in the course, I showed you
how you could create a static page to
| | 00:26 | replace your front page, and that's
what we're going to do here one more time.
| | 00:29 | So I'm going to go to my Dashboard, and
then I'm going to create a new page that
| | 00:34 | will go on the front page, and this is
going to be a placeholder page, much like
| | 00:39 | that blog page we created earlier.
| | 00:41 | So I'll call this one just Front, and
I'll put no content in it, because I don't
| | 00:46 | need to, and then I'll go here under
Template, and select Showcase Template.
| | 00:52 | I'll Publish this page, and go to All
Pages, and take Blog out of Draft, because
| | 01:00 | previously I set it to Draft.
| | 01:02 | So I'm going to go to Quick Edit, change
the Status to Published, and Update, and
| | 01:07 | that way we now have the Front page,
which is going to be the new front page, and
| | 01:11 | we also have the Blog page.
| | 01:13 | Now I can go down to Settings, and
Reading, and set Front page displays to A
| | 01:19 | static page, selecting Front for the
Front page, and Blog for the Posts page.
| | 01:26 | I'll save the changes, and then I'll
open the site in a separate tab, and you'll
| | 01:31 | see the front page looks quite different.
| | 01:33 | When we scroll down now, you see we
have the most Recent Post here at the top,
| | 01:38 | with a large space on the left side,
and then we have this list of the next
| | 01:44 | most Recent Posts, including links
to leave replies in the comments.
| | 01:48 | But that's just the beginning.
| | 01:50 | The Showcase age template has a
really cool built-in feature that not
| | 01:53 | many people know about.
| | 01:55 | It appears here at the
very top if you activate it.
| | 01:58 | So we have to activate it.
| | 01:59 | The way you do that is, you go to your
Posts, and then you assign some of your
| | 02:04 | posts as sticky posts.
| | 02:06 | If you make them sticky posts, they'll
automatically appear in a slider in the
| | 02:11 | very top of your page.
| | 02:12 | So I'm going to pick four to be sticky posts.
| | 02:15 | I'll just simply select them, and I'll
go to Bulk Actions, and select Edit, and
| | 02:22 | click Apply, so that I can
edit all these at the same time.
| | 02:26 | Then I'll go over here, and select Sticky
as the option, and Update all four posts.
| | 02:33 | Now when I go back to my front page,
and reload it, you'll see that I have a
| | 02:36 | slider that shows the featured image
for each of the posts, or in cases where
| | 02:41 | there is no image, you won't see an image;
you'll just see the post text itself.
| | 02:46 | Now I also see that if I want to use
this feature, I do need to attach featured
| | 02:51 | images to the sticky posts.
| | 02:53 | So I have to go back in here, find the
stories in question, open them, and here
| | 02:58 | I have to set the Featured Image.
| | 03:00 | So I'll scroll down, go Set featured
image, and in this case, the image in the
| | 03:05 | post is actually found in the Media
Library, so I have to go to the Media
| | 03:08 | Library, find the image, which is down here,
click Show, and then set as featured image.
| | 03:16 | It appears here, which means it works.
| | 03:20 | So now I can Update it, and then I can
go back to my front page, reload it, and
| | 03:26 | when I navigate to the next post,
you'll see that image appear.
| | 03:29 | So as you can see, by activating
this advanced feature, the Showcase page
| | 03:34 | template, we now have a very different
front page from the standard blog roll,
| | 03:39 | and that means people who visit your
sites will get a completely different view
| | 03:43 | from the normal, boring blog.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Customizing the Showcase widgets| 00:00 | The Twenty Eleven theme doesn't just come with
a custom page template for the front page;
| | 00:05 | it also has a custom
widget area for that template.
| | 00:08 | Let's take a closer look
at the Showcase sidebar.
| | 00:11 | We haven't really talked much about
widgets yet, but if we go to the Blog page,
| | 00:16 | you can see that the widgets
appear here in the sidebar.
| | 00:19 | Widgets are small applications that you
can attach to a sidebar, or another area,
| | 00:25 | that will display different kinds of
information, for example, a list of recent
| | 00:28 | posts, or recent comments,
or other information.
| | 00:32 | There are several widgetized
areas inside the Twenty Eleven Theme.
| | 00:36 | You have a sidebar widgetized area,
and at the bottom, you also have three
| | 00:40 | widgetized areas in the footer.
| | 00:42 | By default, they're turned off,
because there are no widgets in them.
| | 00:46 | But on the front page, now that we're
using the Showcase Template, we also have
| | 00:52 | a widgetized area here, where
you can place more information.
| | 00:56 | To use it, I can go to my Dashboard,
go to Appearance, and select Widgets,
| | 01:01 | and you'll see that, in addition to
the Main Sidebar, we have something
| | 01:05 | called Showcase Sidebar.
| | 01:07 | In here, we can dump any widget we like, and
that widget will appear only on the front page.
| | 01:13 | So let's say I want to show my most
recent tweets right on the front page.
| | 01:18 | Well, because I've installed the
Jetpack plugin already, I have a Twitter widget
| | 01:23 | that I can use to show my recent tweets.
| | 01:25 | So I'll grab the Twitter widget with my
mouse, and drag it, scroll up and drop it
| | 01:31 | into Showcase Sidebar.
| | 01:33 | Here, I can give it a title, so I'll say
Recent Tweets from @mor10, and then I have
| | 01:40 | to plug in my Twitter user name, which
is mor10. And then I can decide how many
| | 01:45 | tweets I want to show;
| | 01:47 | let's say I want to show 7 tweets.
| | 01:49 | I also have some other options. I can
choose if I want to hide my replies to
| | 01:53 | other people, and also if I want
to include my retweets or not.
| | 01:57 | I'll leave retweets checked, and
I'll make sure to hide my replies.
| | 02:02 | At the bottom, I can choose to add text that
will display between the tweet and the timestamp.
| | 02:07 | I'm going to leave that alone, and I'm going to
click Save to save the settings I just created.
| | 02:12 | And then, since I've added this into
the Showcase Sidebar, when I reload my
| | 02:16 | page, you see a list of my most recent
tweets right here on the front page of the site.
| | 02:25 | And because this is a widgetized area,
you're not restricted to only using
| | 02:28 | the Twitter widget.
| | 02:30 | You can add any kind of widget into
this area, and you can even add custom
| | 02:34 | widgets, and custom functions built using
the Text widget, which we'll be covering
| | 02:39 | later in this course.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using post formats| 00:00 | There's one last thing I want to show
you about the Twenty Eleven theme. It's what's
| | 00:05 | called post formats.
| | 00:07 | Now, post formats are not bound only
to the Twenty Eleven theme. A lot of modern
| | 00:11 | themes use post formats,
| | 00:13 | but Twenty Eleven uses them in a way
that makes them easy to demo.
| | 00:17 | The best way of understanding how post
formats work is by seeing what they do to
| | 00:21 | the Blog page on the
Twenty Eleven theme.
| | 00:24 | As you can see on this Blog page,
I've added some new content.
| | 00:28 | We have a quote, which is just a regular
post, with a block quote inside it, and
| | 00:33 | we have several posts, like this one,
that just contain a single image, and we
| | 00:38 | have the image gallery that we created
earlier in the course, so you can see
| | 00:41 | it starts with an image, and there is some
text, and then there is the gallery down here.
| | 00:46 | There are also some more elements
further down, but we'll get to those later.
| | 00:50 | So what are these post formats?
| | 00:51 | Well, if I scroll up to the top, and I
click on the Edit button for this Famous
| | 00:57 | quote post, I jump straight to the Editor,
and here, if I scroll down, you can see
| | 01:03 | in the sidebar I have this
panel called Format.
| | 01:07 | This panel will only appear if your
current theme supports post formats, and
| | 01:12 | depending on what theme you are using,
the lists of formats may be different.
| | 01:16 | In the Twenty Elevem theme, you have a full seven
different post formats to choose from.
| | 01:20 | In this case, I am going to pick the
Quote option, because this is a quote, and
| | 01:25 | now you'll see something interesting happen.
| | 01:27 | When I click Update here, and jump to
my Blog page again -- so I'll go to my
| | 01:35 | site, and select Blog -- you'll see that the
styling of the quote changed ever so slightly.
| | 01:41 | You may remember before, it was
indented, and put off to the side in a smaller
| | 01:44 | font, but now, because I'm using a post
format for the quote, WordPress is seeing
| | 01:49 | that it's in a block quote,
and changing the styling for it.
| | 01:52 | To see a more significant change, you can go
down to the post that just has an image in it.
| | 01:57 | I'll leave this page as it is, and then
I'll go and edit the post in a separate tab.
| | 02:02 | So I'll go to All Posts, find the image in
question -- it's this one: Building a community.
| | 02:07 | As you can see, it's just a regular post,
with an image that has a caption on it,
| | 02:12 | I scroll down,
and set the post Format to Image.
| | 02:17 | When I update this post, and reload
the page, you'll see that the formatting
| | 02:24 | of the image changed.
| | 02:26 | We now see the image enveloped in
this dark frame, and we see additional
| | 02:30 | information about the image
in this little panel below.
| | 02:33 | It's just a visual change, but it
makes a big difference to the Blog page.
| | 02:37 | We can also make such a
change to this gallery post.
| | 02:41 | By default, it just displays as a
regular post, so you see the image at the top
| | 02:46 | that we inserted into the post itself,
and then when we scroll down, you see the
| | 02:49 | gallery at the bottom.
| | 02:51 | But if I go back to Edit Post, and
edit this post, and this time I'll do it
| | 02:57 | using Quick Edit -- so I'll find it,
Simple image gallery down here, click
| | 03:01 | Quick Edit -- and then pick the Gallery
post format, and Update, you'll see that
| | 03:09 | when I reload the Blog page, instead
of seeing the whole post, we are now
| | 03:14 | seeing a preview of the image gallery
here, along with a text that says, This
| | 03:18 | gallery contains 6 photos.
| | 03:20 | So again, it's a stylistic change just
for the Blog page, but it makes a big
| | 03:25 | difference in how things are displayed.
| | 03:27 | There is one more cool feature with these
post formats in the Twenty Eleven theme.
| | 03:31 | There is a special widget designed
specifically to interact just with the post
| | 03:36 | formats for link, status, and aside.
| | 03:40 | Let's just take a quick
look at what those are first.
| | 03:42 | If I go into my post here, I created a
link for Wikipedia, and when I open the
| | 03:48 | post, you'll see it's just a simple
post that has a heading, Wikipedia, and then
| | 03:54 | has a functioning link inside it.
| | 03:56 | I've set the post Format
for this post to Link.
| | 04:01 | I've also created a status; you can
see the post format here, and if you
| | 04:05 | click on that one, you'll see that
this is just a short status update; it's
| | 04:10 | kind of like a tweet.
| | 04:12 | And finally, I want to create an aside.
| | 04:14 | Here, I have a post called Special
opening hours on Sunday, and it's kind of a
| | 04:18 | longer status update; it could be a
thought, or something like that, and when I
| | 04:23 | click Quick Edit, I am going to
set this to Aside, and I click Update.
| | 04:28 | Now I have to change my
widget on the front page.
| | 04:33 | In a previous movie, we used a
dedicated Showcase widgetized area to display
| | 04:38 | my most recent tweets.
| | 04:40 | Now I want to take that widget out, so
I'll go to Appearance >Widgets, find the
| | 04:46 | Showcase Sidebar, and remove that widget,
and then I am going to dump in this one
| | 04:51 | instead: the Twenty Eleven Ephemera widget.
| | 04:54 | I'm not going to change anything in it.
I am simply going to go back to the
| | 04:59 | front page, and reload it.
| | 05:02 | And you see that this widget automatically
goes into my posts, finds my links,
| | 05:06 | my asides, and my updates,
and automatically displays them.
| | 05:10 | If I click on the link, I'll jump
directly to the target for that link; in
| | 05:15 | this case, Wikipedia.org.
| | 05:17 | If I click on Renovations, or if I
click on Special opening hours on Sunday, I
| | 05:22 | jump directly to the post for those updates.
| | 05:25 | Depending on the theme you are using, you
may or may not have post formats activated.
| | 05:30 | If you do, you should try
using them, and see what happens.
| | 05:33 | What you'll normally see is that the
post formats interact with your blog
| | 05:37 | index pages.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. The Appearance TabUsing widgets| 00:00 | Depending on what theme you are
running, you will have so-called widgetized
| | 00:04 | areas, where you can insert
widgets with all sorts of information.
| | 00:09 | Widgets are the small applications
that show information, like links to most
| | 00:14 | recent post, recent comments,
archives, and other information.
| | 00:20 | If you've been following this course,
you've seen me briefly interact with
| | 00:23 | widgets on the front page,
through the Showcase page template.
| | 00:28 | If you go to the Blog page, you'll
see that the theme comes with a set of
| | 00:32 | standard widgets already
installed here in the sidebar.
| | 00:35 | You have a Search widget, a Recent
Posts widget, a Recent Comments widget, an
| | 00:41 | Archives widget, a
Categories widget, and a Meta widget.
| | 00:44 | The Twenty Elreven theme also comes
with three more widgetized areas.
| | 00:50 | All the way at the bottom of the page,
you'll find three widgetized areas
| | 00:54 | here in the footer;
| | 00:55 | one to the left, one to the
center, and one to the right.
| | 00:58 | But these will only appear if
you actually add widgets to them.
| | 01:02 | Which widgets are active, and where they
are placed, is managed from the Dashboard.
| | 01:08 | You can either go directly to the
Widgets page, by going to your WordPress menu,
| | 01:12 | and selecting Widgets, or you can
go to the Dashboard, scroll down to
| | 01:17 | Appearance, and select Widgets.
| | 01:20 | On the left of the Widgets page,
you see all your available widgets,
| | 01:23 | and depending on what plugins you've
installed, the list of widgets may vary.
| | 01:28 | There are some standard widgets that are
always available through WordPress, and
| | 01:31 | then as you add in plugins,
you may get more widgets.
| | 01:34 | For example, I've added the Jetpack
plugin to the site, so therefore, I have a
| | 01:40 | series of extra widgets
that say Jetpack on them.
| | 01:43 | These are widgets that
come with the Jetpack plugin.
| | 01:46 | So if you don't see them, it's
because you don't have the Jetpack plugin
| | 01:50 | installed and activated.
| | 01:53 | On the right-hand side, you can see all
of the widgetized areas that you can use.
| | 01:58 | In Twenty Eleven, you have five;
| | 02:00 | the Main Sidebar, which is what appears
in your blog page, the Showcase Sidebar,
| | 02:05 | which is what appears just on the
showcase pages, and also three Footer Areas.
| | 02:11 | All these widgetized
areas work the exact same way.
| | 02:15 | You see a list of the widgets that are
currently active, each of these widgets
| | 02:19 | may have options that you can open by
clicking the arrow down, and here, you can
| | 02:24 | make small changes to them if you want,
like add titles, in the case of the
| | 02:27 | search widget, decide how many posts
to show, in case of the Recent Posts
| | 02:32 | widgets, or set up other information.
| | 02:35 | Since the widgets are small little
applications that run on their own inside
| | 02:39 | WordPress, the settings also
vary greatly from widget to widget.
| | 02:43 | What's really cool about the widget
area is that it's completely interactive.
| | 02:47 | First off, it has auto-save
functionality, which means as soon as I make
| | 02:51 | a change here, it's automatically saved,
so I don't have to click any Save buttons.
| | 02:55 | I'll show you an example.
| | 02:57 | If we open the Blog page in a separate
window, you see that currently we have
| | 03:03 | the Search widget on top, then
Recent Posts, and then Recent Comments.
| | 03:07 | But if I simply go in here, grab the
Search widget, and pull it down under
| | 03:13 | Recent Comments, and reload my page,
the Search widget automatically moves.
| | 03:20 | I can give the Search widget a title,
and save it, reload the page, and now the
| | 03:28 | Search widget has a title.
| | 03:30 | If I want to get rid of a widget, so I
don't want to display it -- let's say I
| | 03:33 | don't want to display the Meta widget --
I can either grab it, and simply drag it,
| | 03:37 | and drop it outside the widgetized
area, and it will disappear, or I can drop
| | 03:43 | down, and say Delete;
both will do the same thing.
| | 03:47 | If I made a change to a widget, like
say, this Search widget here, and I want to
| | 03:52 | save that change for later, I can
collapse the regular Available Widgets area,
| | 03:57 | and drag the Search widget
over to Inactive Widgets.
| | 04:01 | Now my widget will be saved with
all my settings, even though it's not
| | 04:04 | currently displayed.
| | 04:05 | So if I want to use it later, I can go
and grab it here, and pull it back in.
| | 04:10 | And that is how you add new widgets.
| | 04:11 | Let's say I want to populate my
three Footer widgetized areas.
| | 04:17 | I'll collapse the top one first,
because it takes up a lot of space, and then
| | 04:20 | I'll open each one in turn,
and add widgets into them.
| | 04:23 | Now, you can run the same widget in
multiple different places on the same page.
| | 04:28 | So even though I have my most Recent
Posts, and most Recent Comments widget
| | 04:32 | already in my sidebar;
| | 04:34 | I can still add it to my
Footer widgetized areas as well.
| | 04:37 | So I usually add Recent Posts in one
Footer widgetized area, Recent Comments in
| | 04:44 | the next, and then something else in the third.
| | 04:48 | So let's add the Archives.
| | 04:51 | Now that I've made these changes, I
can go check them out, and you notice I
| | 04:55 | didn't save anything, right?
| | 04:57 | So I reload my page, and scroll all the
way down to the bottom, and you see I now
| | 05:02 | have three new widgetized areas here:
| | 05:04 | Recent Posts, Recent Comments,
and Archives.
| | 05:09 | Widgets are an easy way of adding
extra information, and extra navigation to
| | 05:13 | your WordPress site.
| | 05:14 | Just be careful that you don't overcrowd your
site with tons, and tons, and tons of widgets.
| | 05:19 | You get something I like to call
sidebar overload, and it can be really hard
| | 05:23 | for people to look at.
| | 05:25 | But using widgets wisely, you can
make it much easier for people to
| | 05:29 | navigate your Web site.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Jetpack widgets| 00:00 | If you're familiar with WordPress.com,
you know that inside WordPress.com, you
| | 00:05 | have a very long list of Available
Widgets, but when you're using WordPress as a
| | 00:10 | self-hosted solution, the default
list of widgets is not very long.
| | 00:14 | That's because you can choose what
widgets you want to add yourself.
| | 00:18 | Widgets come in in two ways;
| | 00:20 | they either come in via your theme,
as is the case with the Twenty Eleven
| | 00:25 | Ephemera widget, or they come in via
plugins, like Jetpack, which brings with it
| | 00:30 | a lot of new widgets.
| | 00:32 | So let's take a look at the widgets
that come with the Jetpack plugin.
| | 00:36 | First, I am going to clear out my Main
Sidebar, so we don't have anything that
| | 00:40 | clutters it, so I'll simply grab and
drag out the widgets that are here. And then
| | 00:47 | we can start adding in the
Jetpack widgets, one by one.
| | 00:50 | I am going to start with
the one that's called Image.
| | 00:53 | When I drag this in, I have the
ability to add an image to my sidebar.
| | 00:58 | Previously, you had to write the HTML
to do that manually, but now you can use
| | 01:02 | this Jetpack widget. I'll give it a title;
| | 01:06 | in this case, I am going to make an
image that links directly to my Twitter
| | 01:09 | profile. Follow us on Twitter,
and then I need an Image URL.
| | 01:16 | I don't have the ability to upload an image
here, so I need to upload that image manually.
| | 01:21 | So what I am going to do is
upload an image in a new tab.
| | 01:24 | So I'll go to Media, and Add New,
right-click, and Open in new tab.
| | 01:30 | Then I am going to upload a new image,
and I am going to use this SAMOCAonTwitter
| | 01:35 | image. I'll make sure all the information
is there, and then I'll go down to File
| | 01:42 | URL, and grab the File URL.
| | 01:45 | So this is the physical
location of the image on my server.
| | 01:49 | I'll save all changes, and now I can
close this window again, go back here, and
| | 01:56 | paste in the File URL.
| | 01:59 | Now I have to add an alternate text to
my image, because just like when you add
| | 02:02 | an image to your post, you have to add
an alternate text; Follow us on Twitter.
| | 02:09 | I can give the image a title if I want
to, and also a caption, then I can decide
| | 02:14 | where I want to align the image, so I
can set it to None, Left, Center, or Right.
| | 02:18 | So I'll leave it at None.
| | 02:20 | I can also define a specific
width and height of the image.
| | 02:23 | This is a good idea if the image is
much larger than your sidebar, and you
| | 02:27 | want to scale it down.
| | 02:28 | But in my case, the image
is exactly the right size.
| | 02:31 | And finally, I can add a Link URL, which is
where the image points when you click on it.
| | 02:37 | So I'll say http://twitter.com,
and then my Twitter handle.
| | 02:45 | When I click Save, and I go and visit my
site, and go to the blog, you will see
| | 02:52 | we now have a nice little image here,
and when I click on it, I jump directly
| | 02:57 | to my Twitter profile.
| | 03:00 | You also see that the theme automatically
added a border around my image.
| | 03:03 | So even though I thought it would fit,
it doesn't, which means I have to go in
| | 03:07 | and make some very, very small changes.
| | 03:09 | So I am going to assume that this is
about 10 pixels on either side, so I am
| | 03:14 | going to go in and take the Width down
20 pixels to 67, and then I'll take out
| | 03:22 | the Height, so that WordPress calculates
it automatically, and click Save again.
| | 03:28 | And then I am going to reload the page. I
should see the image fit with the sidebar.
| | 03:33 | Now that I am done configuring the
image widget, I can collapse it, and then I
| | 03:39 | can add another one.
| | 03:41 | I am going to add the Blog
Subscriptions widget now.
| | 03:44 | This allows me to add a function
where people can click a button, and
| | 03:47 | automatically subscribe
to my blog, via e-mail.
| | 03:51 | There's already a title, and an Optional
description, and a Subscribe Button text
| | 03:55 | here, and I can choose to change
it if I want, or not if I don't.
| | 03:59 | I even have a way of showing how
many people are currently subscribing.
| | 04:03 | I suggest turning this off until you
have more than zero subscribers, otherwise
| | 04:08 | it will look a little lame.
| | 04:09 | I have added the widget, so now I can
simply reload my Blog page, and you'll see
| | 04:14 | it appear right here: SUBSCRIBE TO
BLOG VIA EMAIL, and then you can put in
| | 04:19 | your e-mail address,
and click Subscribe.
| | 04:20 | I can go in and change the title, save it again,
reload my front page, and the title changes.
| | 04:32 | Our next widget is called RSS Links.
| | 04:34 | If I grab that, and pull it in, you get
the option of displaying links directly
| | 04:39 | to your RSS feeds on your site.
| | 04:42 | So if I reload the blog page again, you
will see my RSS feeds are now available,
| | 04:48 | and if I click on them, you go
directly to the text feed for my page.
| | 04:54 | This doesn't look like something you
want to link to, but for people who follow
| | 04:59 | blogs using RSS readers, like me,
they're very useful, and RSS readers are
| | 05:05 | getting more and more popular, so
offering up these links is a very good way of
| | 05:09 | helping people follow your content, without
always having to go to your Web site to read it.
| | 05:15 | The last widget currently added
by Jetpack is the Twitter widget.
| | 05:20 | I grab the Twitter widget, scroll up,
and put it in, and here I can give it a
| | 05:26 | title, and I put in my Twitter handle,
and I define how many tweets I want to
| | 05:32 | post, whether or not I want to show my
own replies to other people, and whether I
| | 05:37 | want to show my retweets
of other people's tweets.
| | 05:41 | I'll save the configuration, go back
to my blog, reload the page, and you see
| | 05:48 | here at the bottom,
we now have my latest tweets.
| | 05:52 | You may have noticed I said the last
widget currently added by Jetpack; well
| | 05:56 | that's because Jetpack constantly updates, and
as it updates, more widgets become available.
| | 06:02 | If you want to see what widgets are
available, you can go to the Jetpack
| | 06:05 | configuration, and if you scroll down,
you see here you have a box that says
| | 06:10 | Extra Sidebar Widgets, and you can click
Learn More to get more information about
| | 06:15 | what widgets are available.
| | 06:17 | As Jetpack evolves, and as WordPress
evolves, you are likely to see more widgets
| | 06:22 | added in, and like I said, Jetpack is
not the only plugin that adds widgets.
| | 06:27 | If you go to install new plugins, and
simply search widgets, you will find that
| | 06:31 | there are thousands of other plugins that
will add different types of widgets to your site.
| | 06:35 | Depends on what you're looking for, but
more than likely, you will find exactly
| | 06:39 | what you need if you
just look for the plugin.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating custom widgets using the Text Widget| 00:00 | In addition to the special purpose
widgets that come with WordPress, and the ones
| | 00:05 | you can add by adding plugins or new
themes, there is a general use widget
| | 00:10 | called a Text widget.
| | 00:12 | This widget let's you set any title,
and also input a variety of different
| | 00:16 | content, either using
plain text, or HTML.
| | 00:20 | That means you can add some very
advanced stuff into your site by using the
| | 00:24 | Text widget, without having to add a
custom widget just for that function.
| | 00:29 | I'll give you two examples.
| | 00:30 | Let's say I first want to add a small
bio on the sidebar at the top, so people
| | 00:35 | can see what this Web site is all about.
| | 00:38 | I'll go to my Dashboard, go to Appearance,
and Widgets, and here, I am going
| | 00:44 | to scroll down and find the Text widget,
and I am going to move it up to the
| | 00:48 | top of my Main Sidebar.
| | 00:50 | Then I am going to go to a Word document,
where I've already written my bio, and
| | 00:54 | I am going to grab the title, paste
it in, and then I am going to grab two
| | 01:01 | paragraphs, and paste them in.
| | 01:05 | Now you notice, unlike in my Post view,
I don't have to do any Paste as Plain
| | 01:10 | Text function here, because
this field is a plain text field,
| | 01:14 | so any styling will be
stripped the second I copy it out.
| | 01:18 | Here, I am going to clean
it up, and then I can post it.
| | 01:20 | But before I do that, I am going to
check this Automatically add paragraphs
| | 01:24 | box, so that it automatically adds in
proper paragraph tags around my content.
| | 01:31 | Now I am going to save it.
| | 01:32 | If I go and reload my page, jump to my
Blog page, and you'll see, here we have
| | 01:38 | that bio, right here in the sidebar.
| | 01:41 | Now that I've posted it here,
I see it is way too long.
| | 01:43 | So I can go back in, and
edit it, and save it again.
| | 01:49 | Now when I reload, you
see we have a shorter bio.
| | 01:55 | What's so cool about the Text widget is
that it also allows you to add in links.
| | 01:59 | So let's say I want to add a link to the
Google map that points to where Ventura is.
| | 02:05 | I'll go to a new tab, go to maps.google.com,
and I'll find where Ventura is. Here it is!
| | 02:15 | Now I am going to grab the link.
| | 02:17 | So I'll click on the Link button; copy it.
| | 02:20 | Then I am going to back into my Widgets,
and I'll find where it says Ventura,
| | 02:24 | so this is the text I want to link.
| | 02:26 | And here, I have to type in the proper
HTML code for a link, which starts with
| | 02:31 | <a href=" I'll paste in the link,
end my quotation, space, title, because
| | 02:43 | I need a title for my link;
Ventura on Google Maps.
| | 02:48 | I also want it to open in
a separate window,
| | 02:51 | so I'll say target="_blank
| | 02:59 | I'll end my beginning tag, go to the end
of the word I want to highlight as a link,
| | 03:07 | </a> this closes the link.
| | 03:10 | Now I can save it, reload my Blog page,
and you see Ventura is now an active link.
| | 03:19 | If I click on it, I jump to a
new window with a map of Ventura.
| | 03:25 | You can also add even more advanced
functionality into this Text widget.
| | 03:29 | Let's say I want to add
the Twitter Follow button.
| | 03:33 | This is an active code that you can add
directly from Twitter that allows people
| | 03:37 | to follow your Twitter
stream directly from your site.
| | 03:40 | I'll go to Google, and search for it,
and I find it right here at the
| | 03:43 | top: Twitter Buttons.
| | 03:45 | I'll click on it, and
then I want a Follow button.
| | 03:49 | I am going to put in the username I
want to follow; Morten. Show username, I
| | 03:55 | don't want a Large button,
and I want it to be in English.
| | 03:58 | So now I can grab this code here,
copy it out, go to Widgets, collapse the
| | 04:05 | current Text widget, and I'll leave it
where it is. And then I'll go add another
| | 04:10 | Text widget, and I'll just paste in that code.
| | 04:14 | So here you see this code is quite advanced.
| | 04:17 | It also has some JavaScript in it, here,
starts with script, and ends with script,
| | 04:22 | which means if I was in
wordpress.com, this wouldn't work.
| | 04:26 | But because I am on my self-hosted
site, I can do whatever I want, and that
| | 04:30 | includes adding JavaScript in my
sidebar widgets, so now when I reload my page,
| | 04:36 | you see I have the Follow button,
and it works.
| | 04:39 | I can also do the same thing for the
Facebook Like box if I want to, and I
| | 04:43 | will get a nice big Facebook Like box
that I can control in any way I want,
| | 04:47 | directly in my sidebar.
| | 04:49 | The Text widget allows you to add
custom content in your sidebar, including HTML
| | 04:54 | content, like links, images,
and even JavaScript.
| | 04:58 | Because you are on a self-hosted site,
there really aren't that many limitations.
| | 05:02 | One limitation, though, is that you
can't add PHP code into your Text widget.
| | 05:07 | If you want to do that, you have to go
and download a plugin that allows you to
| | 05:11 | add a PHP widget into your sidebar.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating custom menus| 00:00 | WordPress lets you create custom
menus pointing to pretty much anything
| | 00:04 | you want, both in the theme itself, like
this main menu here, and also in the sidebar.
| | 00:10 | WordPress menus are controlled from a
simple user interface right inside the
| | 00:13 | admin panel, and are easy to manage
with simple drag-and-drop behaviors.
| | 00:18 | When you activate a standard WordPress
theme, the menu items that appear on the
| | 00:22 | menu are links to your front page, and then
links to every static page you add to the site.
| | 00:29 | But what if you want to add something
else, or you want to reconfigure the
| | 00:32 | order of the menu items?
| | 00:35 | In that case, you need to create a
custom menu to replace the default menu.
| | 00:39 | To do that, I am going to go to my
toolbar, and select Menus. If you're in the
| | 00:44 | Dashboard, you can also go to Appearance,
and select Menus. And this is a function
| | 00:49 | that only appears if your
theme supports custom menus.
| | 00:52 | If it doesn't support custom menus,
you won't have this option at all.
| | 00:56 | From here, I am going to first create a
new menu, so I will call this one Header
| | 01:00 | menu, and I will click Create Menu.
| | 01:04 | Now that I created a menu, the whole
menu interface becomes available to me.
| | 01:09 | Here, I have the list of menus themselves,
including the area where I can edit the
| | 01:14 | menus on the right, and then on the left,
I have the Theme Location for the menu,
| | 01:19 | because depending on the theme you're
using, you may have several different
| | 01:22 | places you can add menus.
| | 01:24 | The norm is to have a primary menu
at the top of the site, and maybe a
| | 01:28 | footer menu at the bottom.
| | 01:30 | You also have the types
of menu items you can add.
| | 01:33 | You can add Custom Links, you can
add Pages, and you can add Categories.
| | 01:38 | I am going to create a menu that
matches the one I currently have first.
| | 01:43 | So I will go to my site in a
separate tab, just to see what I have.
| | 01:47 | And here I have the Home button, the
About button with the dropdown, the Blog
| | 01:52 | button, and the Contact button.
| | 01:55 | Because most of these are pages, I am
going to collapse Custom Links, and collapse
| | 02:00 | Theme Locations for now, and then
I am going to pick these pages.
| | 02:03 | Here I have the Blog button, to
Contact button, the About button, and the
| | 02:08 | Volunteer for SAMOCA button,
| | 02:10 | and I can click Add to Menu
to add all of them.
| | 02:13 | But there is one menu item
missing: the Home button. Where is it?
| | 02:19 | It's under View All.
| | 02:20 | So you click View All, and
here you see we have Home: Front.
| | 02:24 | If I select that one, and click Add
Menu, I also get the Home button.
| | 02:30 | Now that I've added the buttons I want
into my menu, I need to configure each of them.
| | 02:34 | If I click the down button here, you
see I can change both the Navigation
| | 02:39 | Label -- that is what displays in the menu -- and
also the Title Attribute for each of my menu items.
| | 02:44 | So here I am going to change this to
Home, and then I am going to put in the
| | 02:48 | Title Attribute: Home of SAMOCA.
| | 02:50 | A lot of people don't add Title Attitudes
to their main menu items, because they
| | 02:56 | don't like it when you hover over the
main menu, and then you get that little
| | 03:00 | flyout that says what the menu is.
| | 03:03 | But that's a bad idea; you should
always add a Title Attribute to your menu
| | 03:07 | items, because if someone accesses your
Web site either using a text-to-speech
| | 03:12 | browser, or if they are a search engine,
and they don't know what your Web site is
| | 03:16 | about, finding a link that
simply says Home makes no sense.
| | 03:21 | The word Home does not say anything
about where that link is pointing,
| | 03:25 | so you add a title attribute that further
describes where that link is pointing.
| | 03:30 | In this case, Home of SAMOCA; much
more descriptive, and it will only show up
| | 03:35 | when you hover over it, or if
you use a text-to-speech browser.
| | 03:40 | Now that I've added both a label, and a
title attribute, I can collapse this one,
| | 03:45 | and move on to the next.
| | 03:46 | The Blog button has the
right label already,
| | 03:48 | so I am just going to say SAMOCA Blog
here, and jump to the next one, Contact
| | 03:54 | SAMOCA, go to the About one,
and finally, Volunteer for SAMOCA.
| | 04:02 | I am just going to copy
that out, and paste it back in.
| | 04:07 | Now that I've made my changes to the
menu items, I need to click Save Menu, so
| | 04:11 | that those changes are reflected,
and now you see my title has changed.
| | 04:16 | I've created a menu;
| | 04:17 | I can now reopen Theme Locations, and
assign a Header menu to the Primary menu.
| | 04:23 | I'll click Save, and when I reload my
page, I now have these menu items up appear,
| | 04:31 | and when I hover over them, you see
that my title attributes appear as well.
| | 04:35 | The problem is, now my menu is
not configured in the right order.
| | 04:39 | I need to reorganize these items, and I
also want this Volunteer for SAMOCA item
| | 04:44 | to appear as a dropdown under About.
| | 04:46 | So I will go back to my Menus,
and then I will reorganize them.
| | 04:51 | The way you reorganize menus is
simply by grabbing any item, and
| | 04:55 | dragging, and dropping it
into the location you want.
| | 04:58 | In this case, I want the order to be
Home, Blog, About, and then dropdown to
| | 05:03 | Volunteer for SAMOCA, and then Contact.
| | 05:06 | But I want the Volunteer for
SAMOCA to be an actual dropdown,
| | 05:09 | so I am going to grab it again, and
pull it to the right, and you see now it
| | 05:14 | indents under About.
| | 05:16 | That way, it will be a dropdown.
| | 05:17 | So when I save the menu again, and reload
my front page, you see that now we have
| | 05:24 | Home, Blog, About, with
the dropdown, and Contact.
| | 05:29 | But your options of menu
items don't stop at pages.
| | 05:34 | I can also add direct links
to categories if I want to.
| | 05:37 | Let's say I want to give people an
easy way of getting to my paintings.
| | 05:42 | In that case, I go to Categories, select
Painting, add that option to the Menu,
| | 05:47 | position it where I want it to,
fix the navigation label, and add a
| | 05:52 | descriptive Title Attribute.
| | 05:56 | Save the menu, reload the page,
and when you click on this link, you
| | 06:04 | automatically go to the Category Archives
for any post that's listed under Painting.
| | 06:10 | You can also add custom links;
| | 06:12 | let's say I want to add a link to Wikipedia.
| | 06:15 | I can simply type in Wikipedia.org,
and then give it a label, click Add to
| | 06:22 | Menu, place the menu item where I
want it to appear, give it a Title
| | 06:29 | Attribute, and Save the menu.
| | 06:35 | And just like with the other items, now I
have a link to Wikipedia right on my main menu.
| | 06:41 | This can be used to add links to
your main Web site, if you have a separate
| | 06:45 | Web site for your company, or to your
blog, if you have a separate Web site for
| | 06:49 | your blog, or to some other elements.
| | 06:51 | It can also be used to link to
specific items within your site.
| | 06:55 | So if I go to the front page, let's say
I want to have a permanent link to this
| | 07:00 | quote. I can simply copy the link
address for this quote, create a custom link,
| | 07:08 | and paste that link address in, and
then give it a label, beauty is...
| | 07:15 | click Add to Menu, place the item where I
want it to be, give it a Title Attribute,
| | 07:24 | save the menu, and when I reload my
page, and click on that menu item, I jump
| | 07:33 | directly to this post.
| | 07:34 | Now I've created a custom front page
menu, but I can also create additional
| | 07:40 | menus if I want to. Simply by clicking the
Add Menu button here, I can create a new menu.
| | 07:45 | Let's call this one Sidebar menu, and
from here, I can drag in some menu items,
| | 07:53 | click Add to Menu, organize them in the
way I want, save the menu, and then I can
| | 08:02 | go to Widgets, find the widget called
Custom Menu, drag it in where I want it to
| | 08:08 | appear, select the Sidebar menu, click
Save, reload my blog page, and now when I
| | 08:17 | scroll down, you'll see that custom
menu appear right here in the sidebar.
| | 08:22 | Creating, deploying, and editing custom
menus in WordPress is now very simple.
| | 08:27 | And more importantly, you can now
change your menu items on the fly.
| | 08:31 | So if you need to link to a new page, a
particular category, or even a page on a
| | 08:36 | different Web site, you can do so
quickly and easily, both in the sidebar, and in
| | 08:41 | the theme itself, if the theme supports menus.
| | 08:44 | Custom navigation has always been one of
the top most WordPress requests, and now
| | 08:49 | it's available right at your fingertips.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
13. WordPress SettingsManaging site users| 00:00 | Part of the advantage of using a
content management system like WordPress is
| | 00:05 | the ability to have multiple users
attached to a single site, and to give each
| | 00:09 | of these users different permissions, based
on who they are, and what they're going to do.
| | 00:14 | WordPress has extensive user management
tools built in, and using them, you can
| | 00:18 | allow either your coworkers, or your
friends access, and publish content on your
| | 00:23 | site, without in the process
giving them administrator rights.
| | 00:27 | User management in WordPress is
done under the Dashboard, under Users.
| | 00:33 | When you open the user management
panel, you'll see a list of all the users
| | 00:36 | registered on your site.
| | 00:38 | On this page, you will see all the
information about each individual user;
| | 00:42 | everything from the username, the full
name, the e-mail address, to the user's
| | 00:48 | role, and how many posts
that user has created.
| | 00:52 | If you go in and edit one user,
you can edit all the personal profile
| | 00:57 | information about that user if you are
logged in, or if you're not logged in as
| | 01:02 | that user, you can add things like
access roles, if you are an administrator.
| | 01:07 | When you first set up the site, you
created one administrator user account.
| | 01:11 | This is the main account for the site.
| | 01:14 | If you want to add new users, you can
do so by clicking the Add New button up
| | 01:18 | here, or by going to Users,
and clicking Add New.
| | 01:23 | When you add a new user, you
have to give that user a username.
| | 01:27 | In this case, I'll set it to mor10,
because I am going to create a new user for
| | 01:30 | myself that has lower
capabilities than the administrator user.
| | 01:35 | Then you also have to give an e-mail
address, and this e-mail address will be
| | 01:39 | tied to that user account so that, first
of all, the user can receive e-mails from
| | 01:44 | WordPress with things like password
information, and also so that that user can
| | 01:49 | link his or her Gravatar
profile to this user account.
| | 01:53 | So I'll say mor10@samoca.org, and then
you can choose whether or not you want to
| | 01:58 | fill in first and last name,
Web site, and so on.
| | 02:02 | When I create new users for other
people, I tend to fill this out, simply
| | 02:06 | because they will forget, but in many
cases, you want to leave it open, so people
| | 02:10 | can fill that out on their own.
| | 02:11 | I am going to set a password, and
then, because this is a new user, and I'll
| | 02:17 | pretend it's not me, I have to
click this Send Password button.
| | 02:22 | That way, WordPress will automatically
send the password to the user, so that
| | 02:26 | the user can log in.
| | 02:28 | By default, a new user will always have
the Subscriber Role, but you can drop
| | 02:32 | this down, and give a new user anything
from an Administrator Role, to an Editor,
| | 02:37 | Author, Contributor, or a Subscriber.
| | 02:39 | But for now, I'm going to leave it at
Subscriber, and I'll explain the different
| | 02:43 | roles in a little bit.
| | 02:44 | So first, I'll add the new user.
| | 02:48 | I can see that new user appear here on
my index page for users, and I also see I
| | 02:53 | now have a Subscriber.
| | 02:55 | Now I can log in to my e-mail for that
e-mail address, and check my Inbox, and I
| | 03:01 | can see here I have an e-mail directly
from the Web site saying that I have a
| | 03:06 | new username and a password for the site,
and giving me a place to log in, and my
| | 03:10 | username, and password.
| | 03:11 | So I am going to copy this link, and I
am going to open an incognito window, so
| | 03:17 | that I'm not logged in to the site.
| | 03:22 | As you can see, I am not currently
logged in here, and then I can log in using
| | 03:26 | that link by punching in my Username,
and my Password. And I highly recommend not
| | 03:35 | using password123 as the password like I did,
but use something a little bit more advanced.
| | 03:42 | When I log in as this new user, you
will see that my user interface is
| | 03:46 | dramatically different from
the one of the Administrator.
| | 03:50 | All I can do as a Subscriber is set up
my Personal Options, like the Color Scheme,
| | 03:55 | and whether or not I want to see the
toolbar when I'm logged into the site, and I
| | 03:59 | can set up information about myself.
| | 04:00 | If I go to the Dashboard, you will see
that I have nothing here. There's just
| | 04:07 | information from the WordPress
blog, and other WordPress news.
| | 04:11 | And depending on how the site is set up,
there might be something inside this
| | 04:15 | big box, but very unlikely.
| | 04:17 | This is because I currently have the
Subscriber permissions, and the Subscriber
| | 04:22 | can simply just subscribe to the site.
| | 04:25 | A good example of when you want to add
subscribers is if you disallow anyone
| | 04:29 | who's not a Subscriber from commenting
on your site. That way you can force
| | 04:33 | people to actually log in before they
can comment, and you can create kind of a
| | 04:37 | closed community of commenters.
| | 04:39 | So let's take a closer
look at this idea of roles.
| | 04:42 | As I said, there are several levels of
roles inside WordPress, and if you go to
| | 04:47 | this Web page under the Codex called
Roles and Capabilities, you'll find an
| | 04:52 | explanation of these different roles.
| | 04:54 | In a regular WordPress
site, you have five roles;
| | 04:57 | you have Administrator, Editor,
Author, Contributor, and Subscriber.
| | 05:02 | The Administrator can do everything
on the site, including reconfiguring it,
| | 05:06 | adding and subtracting new users, and
publish and unpublish all contents.
| | 05:11 | An editor can only publish and manage
posts and pages, and they can also manage
| | 05:16 | other users post some pages.
| | 05:19 | An Author can only publish
and manage their own posts.
| | 05:22 | A contributor can write posts, and
manage them, but cannot publish them.
| | 05:29 | If they try to publish them, they will
get saved as Pending Review. And finally, a
| | 05:33 | Subscriber can pretty much do nothing.
| | 05:36 | So if I go into my Users here, and edit
the role of this new user from Subscriber
| | 05:43 | to, for example, Contributor, and update
the user profile, you will see that when I
| | 05:50 | log in as that new user, I now have the
capability of adding new posts. But when
| | 05:58 | I do, rather than the panel saying
Publish, it says Submit for Review, and I also
| | 06:03 | can't set a date for publication.
| | 06:05 | This is because I don't have the
right to actually publish any content.
| | 06:09 | I only have the right to create the
content, and then someone with a higher role
| | 06:14 | will then be able to go in and edit
my content before it gets published.
| | 06:18 | This is an excellent way of
controlling the content of your site.
| | 06:22 | Let's say you are creating a Web site
for a company, and you want to give several
| | 06:25 | people within the company the ability
to maybe write content, or even publish
| | 06:29 | content, but you don't want to let them
go in and change the name of the site, or
| | 06:34 | mess around with the theme, or add plugins.
You can simply create new users that have
| | 06:38 | different roles, depending on how high
up in the system they are, and what their
| | 06:42 | responsibilities are.
| | 06:45 | Finally, if you have a user in your
system that you don't want to have in
| | 06:48 | your system, or if for some reason
someone managed to create a new user
| | 06:52 | account on your site -- and this does
happen -- you can simply go in as an
| | 06:57 | Administrator, and delete that user.
| | 06:59 | If you delete the user, the user
disappears, and WordPress will ask you who you
| | 07:04 | want to assign as an Author for the
posts that that user may have created.
| | 07:09 | WordPress allows you to add
multiple users to your site.
| | 07:13 | That way, you can have more people
producing content, and managing the content on
| | 07:17 | your site, and have more content available.
| | 07:21 | With a firm handle on the different user
roles, you can create a solid publishing
| | 07:25 | network with lots of new content.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Managing comments| 00:00 | At the core of the social Web lies the
ability to interact with your readers.
| | 00:04 | In a WordPress based site, this
interaction is mainly done through comments.
| | 00:09 | Having an active commenting community
attached to your sites can be hugely rewarding,
| | 00:13 | but because anyone can leave a
comment on a Web site, and not everyone who
| | 00:18 | comments has good intentions,
comment management is a necessary evil.
| | 00:23 | Management of comments in WordPress
can be done in several different places,
| | 00:27 | but before we get to that point,
let's take another brief look at our
| | 00:30 | commenting settings.
| | 00:31 | If I go to my Dashboard, and go down to
Settings, and Discussion, I can configure
| | 00:40 | who can comment, and how they can comment,
and when they can comment on my site.
| | 00:45 | I left everything here as default, and
what I want you to notice is this entry
| | 00:49 | down here: Comment author must
have a previously approved comment.
| | 00:54 | This is important, and
you'll see why in a second.
| | 00:57 | When I am logged into WordPress, and
someone has left a comment on my site, and I
| | 01:01 | have to do something with that comment,
I can see it up here in my toolbar.
| | 01:06 | You see the Comments section now says,
Comments, 4, and if I hover over it, it
| | 01:10 | says, 4 comments awaiting moderation.
| | 01:12 | I can now either click on this button,
or I can go to my Comments section here,
| | 01:17 | and go directly to my Comments, and here I
see that I have some new comments on my site.
| | 01:22 | The reason why none of these have
been approved yet is because I have that
| | 01:26 | setting on that said commenters
must already have one approved comment.
| | 01:30 | That means, currently, only users that
are logged into my site, because they are
| | 01:35 | Administrators, or Authors, or Editors, or
Publishers are able to comment without
| | 01:40 | having to have their comments approved.
| | 01:42 | And as new people comment on the site, I
can go in, and approve the comments if I
| | 01:47 | want, or not approve them if I want, and
based on my actions, they can then come in
| | 01:51 | and comment again later.
| | 01:53 | Now that I have comments, I need to read
through them to make sure that I should
| | 01:57 | give these people permission
to keep commenting on my site.
| | 02:00 | So I'll start at the bottom, because
that's the earliest comment I got, and I'll
| | 02:04 | read it, and it says, Wow!
| | 02:06 | I never knew the Beauty is in eye of the
beholder quote was actually from Plato.
| | 02:10 | Very cool!
| | 02:11 | And here I can also see who commented,
a guy named Joachim, and I see his e-mail
| | 02:16 | address, and what IP address he sent it from.
| | 02:19 | I can see when it was commented, and also
which post that comment was attached to.
| | 02:24 | Once I have read the comment, I
can make several different actions.
| | 02:28 | I can either Approve the comment, I can
Reply to the comment, I can quickly edit
| | 02:33 | the comment, or do a full edit of the
comment, and I can also flag it either as
| | 02:36 | Spam, or just throw it away in the Trash.
| | 02:39 | In this case, this looks like a legit
comment, so I am going to approve it, and
| | 02:44 | now it turns from yellow to gray.
| | 02:47 | If I now go to the post over here, and
make sure that under Screen Options,
| | 02:55 | Comments are checked as on.
| | 02:58 | I can scroll down, and you'll see
that comment appear right under my post.
| | 03:04 | From here, I get the exact same options I
had inside the Comment Moderation view.
| | 03:09 | I can Unapprove the comment, I can Reply to it,
I can Edit it, or I can Spam it, or Trash it.
| | 03:14 | And if I go and view the page, and
scroll down, I now see the comment appear
| | 03:21 | right here in this view.
| | 03:23 | Because it's a good comment, you
should always respond right away.
| | 03:27 | You can either respond to a comment by
going to the post itself, and clicking
| | 03:31 | Reply, and this will open this view,
and because you are logged in already, you
| | 03:35 | can just comment as yourself, or you
can go to edit the post, scroll down to
| | 03:42 | Comments, and reply right from within
the editor here, or you can go to the
| | 03:48 | Comments section, find the comment, and
Reply it right from within the Comments section.
| | 03:55 | And when I reply, and go and view the
post, you will see that my reply appears
| | 04:01 | inside the other commenter's reply.
| | 04:04 | Depending on the theme, how this is
displayed may vary quite a bit, but for most
| | 04:09 | new themes, you will see this type of
nesting, where you can see the main comment,
| | 04:13 | and then reply is nested
underneath that main comment.
| | 04:16 | So let's go take a look at
the rest of these comments.
| | 04:21 | The next one on the list says, Great shot.
| | 04:23 | I like seeing pictures of
people at art galleries.
| | 04:26 | And if I go and look at what post this
is attached to, it does in fact have an
| | 04:30 | image of people in an art gallery.
| | 04:33 | However, if I look closely I can see that Mr.
| | 04:36 | Awesome entered in a Web site, and
this Web site is called usbdevicesforfree.
| | 04:42 | This sounds fishy to me, because I know
that a lot of people will leave comments
| | 04:46 | on Web sites simply to get links to
some site they run where they earn money.
| | 04:51 | Therefore, I'm thinking that even
though it looks like a legit comment, this is
| | 04:55 | actually in fact a very advanced spam comment.
| | 04:59 | So before I publish it, I
am going to go and edit it.
| | 05:01 | So I will go to Quick Edit, and I am
going to take away that URL to his Web site,
| | 05:07 | because I don't want a link to that Web site.
| | 05:10 | This is not really a nefarious Web site,
but trust me, sometimes people leave some
| | 05:16 | pretty nasty links to some pretty
nasty Web sites in your comments.
| | 05:19 | So you always want to make sure that
you follow those links, and make sure you
| | 05:23 | want to link to them from your Web site.
| | 05:24 | So even though I want to keep the
comment, I don't want to keep the link.
| | 05:28 | I also have to remember now that if I
approve this comment, I am giving the
| | 05:32 | person with this e-mail
address the right to comment again.
| | 05:35 | And since I don't want to give this crazy
e-mail address the right to comment again,
| | 05:39 | I am going to go to Quick Edit again,
and also take away his e-mail address.
| | 05:46 | That way I can approve the comment with
his name attached, without him being able
| | 05:52 | to comment later using the same e-mail address.
| | 05:55 | So I will click Approve, and the
comment will appear, but I don't, in the
| | 05:59 | process, allow someone to come in
and leave garbage on my Web site.
| | 06:03 | Then I get to the next
comment, and this is a very common one.
| | 06:06 | If you look at it, it looks like a real
comment, however, if you start reading it,
| | 06:11 | you realize that this is just some
boxed content that someone put in. It says,
| | 06:15 | Definitely agree with what you stated.
| | 06:17 | Your explanation was
certainly the easiest to understand.
| | 06:20 | I tell you, I usually get irked when
folks discuss issues that they plainly do
| | 06:25 | not know about, and so on, and so on.
| | 06:27 | This is a real comment that was left on
my Web site, and this is actually a very
| | 06:31 | common type of comment.
| | 06:33 | You see that it has no specifics about
anything, and the funny part is that this
| | 06:37 | comment, which sounds like it's
commenting on some sort of discussion, is
| | 06:41 | appended to a post that only has a
photo in it, which means clearly it doesn't
| | 06:46 | actually make any sense.
| | 06:47 | The reason why you will get these
comments on your site is precisely because you
| | 06:52 | set that setting that says you already
have to have one approved comment before
| | 06:56 | you can get to comment on this site.
| | 06:58 | What the spammers will do is they
will leave these boxed comments that look
| | 07:02 | real, so that you approve them, and
once you prove them, they will then start
| | 07:06 | spamming your site.
| | 07:07 | Because I can tell that this is a
spam comment, I am going to Spam it, and now
| | 07:12 | it's dumped into my Spam folder.
| | 07:14 | The last comment is also a real comment.
| | 07:17 | I read it, it's pretty obvious that
it's a real comment, and I want this person
| | 07:21 | to keep commenting on my site.
| | 07:22 | So I will click Approve, and because I
like the comment, I am also going to
| | 07:26 | respond right away, and post that response.
| | 07:29 | Just like with posts and pages, you
can also do bulk actions inside Comments.
| | 07:33 | Let's say you want to either approve
or unapprove a bunch of comments at the
| | 07:37 | same time. You can simply click on
them, do a bulk action of Approve, of
| | 07:44 | Unapprove, Approve, Mark
as Spam, or Move to Trash.
| | 07:48 | And once you put something into Spam or
Trash, you should really go check it. If
| | 07:52 | you decide it was not spam, you can
then Not Spam it, or if you decide it is spam,
| | 07:57 | and you don't want to keep it, simply
click Delete Permanently, and it goes away
| | 08:00 | from your system entirely.
| | 08:03 | Comments can be a great way to build a
community, and drive new followers to your
| | 08:07 | site, and the best way to keep them
coming is to join in the conversation.
| | 08:11 | Just keep in mind that you need to be
vigilant with comment moderation, otherwise
| | 08:15 | your site can be overrun by spam very quickly.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Disqus to handle comments and avoid spam| 00:00 | Though WordPress handles comments
great on its own, there are some inherent
| | 00:04 | issues with the WordPress commenting system.
| | 00:07 | For one, the only way you can
authenticate commenters is by either
| | 00:10 | demanding they sign up as a
subscriber to your site, or that they leave
| | 00:14 | their e-mail address.
| | 00:15 | Both of these are bad options, and
they don't really work all that well
| | 00:19 | at preventing spam.
| | 00:20 | For another, the WordPress Comments
section is an easy target for comment spam.
| | 00:25 | There are many ways to deal with these issues.
| | 00:28 | The one I keep falling back on is
to use a service called Disqus as the
| | 00:33 | comment management system.
| | 00:34 | Disqus is a third-party service that
takes over commenting on WordPress, and
| | 00:39 | allows users to identify themselves
through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and a
| | 00:45 | whole range of other services.
| | 00:47 | In addition, Disqus adds new features,
like voting on comments, sorting, and even
| | 00:52 | favoriting comments, and Disqus users
can track their own comments on multiple
| | 00:57 | different Web sites, and see the
responses for them in one central location. And
| | 01:02 | best of all, it's nondestructive.
| | 01:04 | You can install Disqus on your site,
and let Disqus take over your commenting,
| | 01:09 | and then at a later date, you can
uninstall it, and WordPress will still have
| | 01:13 | a record of every single comment, along with
all the responses, right in its own system.
| | 01:18 | Disqus is a fairly advanced option,
but I am going to show you how to simply
| | 01:22 | integrate it into your site, and then
you can start playing with it yourself.
| | 01:26 | Before I do that, I'll show you what
Disqus looks like, because you're likely to
| | 01:29 | have seen Disqus on some other
Web site without being aware of it.
| | 01:33 | We installed Disqus on this
blendinsider.com Web site, and you see it in the
| | 01:37 | Comment section down here.
| | 01:40 | The Comments section, though it's
customized to look like the Web site, is in fact
| | 01:43 | powered by Disqus, and you can see
that it's a little bit different from the
| | 01:48 | regular Comment section in a WordPress site.
| | 01:50 | From the top, you can like or dislike
the page as a whole, and you can also sort
| | 01:55 | the comments based on best rating,
based on the newest first, based on the
| | 02:01 | oldest first, and also
based on popular right now.
| | 02:05 | For each comment, you can see who liked
the comment, you can flag the comment,
| | 02:10 | you can like it yourself, and you can reply
directly to the comment from within the field.
| | 02:16 | And as you can see, all the comments are
displayed in a very useful way, and if
| | 02:21 | you scroll all the way to the bottom,
you see that we also have this Reactions
| | 02:25 | field, which shows reactions on
other social media outlets to this post.
| | 02:31 | So all in all, Disqus is a really
cool way of displaying your comments.
| | 02:35 | It's also much easier to manage your
comments once you're inside the Disqus system.
| | 02:40 | And for someone who visits the site,
it's much easier to comment, because when
| | 02:44 | you go, you can either log in directly
to Disqus, or you can use one of these
| | 02:49 | other OAuth services that most
people already have accounts with.
| | 02:53 | So I can, for instance, go in here, and
log in via Twitter, and that way I don't
| | 02:57 | have to have a separate log in, and I
don't have to leave my e-mail address to be
| | 03:01 | able to comment on this page.
| | 03:02 | So how do we add Disqus to our Web site?
| | 03:06 | Well, you can manage Disqus on your
own, going directly to disqus.com, and set
| | 03:12 | up an account here.
| | 03:13 | But to make it easier, you can also add
Disqus as a plugin directly into your site.
| | 03:19 | Simply go to your Dashboard, go to
Plugins > Add New, search for it, and it's
| | 03:25 | spelled a little oddly; its spelled
disqus. Search for the plugin, and you'll
| | 03:34 | find the Disqus Comment
System plugin right here.
| | 03:38 | Install it just like you would any
other plugin, Activate the plugin, and now
| | 03:45 | you have to configure the
plugin to enable Disqus comments.
| | 03:48 | So I will go click on that button, and
here, WordPress will make an assumption
| | 03:53 | that my current profile
already has an account with Disqus.
| | 03:58 | I don't, so I need to click on this
don't have a Disqus Profile yet, and I will
| | 04:03 | be taken directly to Disqus,
where I can create a new profile.
| | 04:07 | Here, I am going to sign up with an
e-mail address, and set up a Username for
| | 04:13 | myself, and a Password, and create a profile.
| | 04:23 | Now that I've created an account -- and I
am just going to save the password in my
| | 04:27 | browser here -- I am going to add a new site.
| | 04:30 | So I will click, under Your Sites, Add
to register a new site, and here I can
| | 04:35 | put in the URL to the site,
so that's samoca.org.
| | 04:40 | I can set up the site name,
and a short name if I want to.
| | 04:45 | This short name will be the short name that
appears in the URL for the site under Disqus.
| | 04:51 | So for example, if my site was called
Samoca Art Gallery, I might want to change
| | 04:55 | that short name to something
different, so that it displays better here.
| | 04:59 | But in this case I am going to set it
at samoca, I am going to set myself as a
| | 05:04 | Primary Moderator, and then
click Continue to add the site.
| | 05:09 | My site has now been registered
with the short name Samoca, and the
| | 05:13 | Primary Moderator is me.
| | 05:16 | Now I can do a quick setup here,
and decide what I want to do with the
| | 05:20 | features, but I'm just going to leave
the defaults, and click Continue. I jump
| | 05:26 | to the page for my site, and I can
read this information if I want to, or I
| | 05:31 | can just click Begin.
| | 05:32 | From here, I'm given instructions
on how to install Disqus on all these
| | 05:36 | different types of services.
| | 05:38 | But since I've already installed the
WordPress plugin, I can just jump directly
| | 05:41 | back to my WordPress site,
and start using Disqus.
| | 05:45 | I'll open a new tab here, I will login to
my site, go to Comments, and now you see
| | 05:52 | we have an option called Disqus.
| | 05:53 | And from here, I am simply going to
log in with my new username and password,
| | 06:00 | click Next, select the Web site, which is
this one, click Next, and Disqus has now
| | 06:08 | been installed on my blog.
| | 06:10 | Because Disqus doesn't yet know
anything about my site, I now need to export my
| | 06:15 | comments into Disqus.
| | 06:17 | So where it says, if you have existing
comments, you may wish to export them
| | 06:20 | now, I will click export them, and
then I go directly to the settings, where I
| | 06:25 | can export my comments.
| | 06:26 | So I will export my comments.
| | 06:32 | Now all my comments are put into a
queue with Disqus, and this does take a
| | 06:35 | little while, especially if
you have a lot of comments.
| | 06:38 | So it may take a little while
before your comments appear on your site.
| | 06:42 | But in the meantime, Disqus is now
activated on your site, and if you go to
| | 06:47 | a single post, and you scroll down to
the Comment section, you see that we
| | 06:56 | now, instead of having the default
Comment feature, we have the new Disqus
| | 07:00 | comment system right here.
| | 07:02 | And if you want to manage your comments,
it still works the exact same way as
| | 07:06 | before. You go under Comments, and Disqus,
and you go directly into the comment
| | 07:12 | moderation section, where you can now
moderate your comments through Disqus.
| | 07:16 | Disqus has a whole host of advanced
features that you can see under Advanced
| | 07:22 | Options here, and they also keep
expanding their functionalities.
| | 07:25 | There's always more stuff being added,
and more advanced features being added.
| | 07:30 | It's a free service, and it can be
extremely powerful at letting people be able
| | 07:35 | to comment on your site, and
also follow their own comments.
| | 07:38 | So it's a great service you should
really consider using for your site.
| | 07:42 | By leaving Disqus in charge of your
comment moderation, you get a better user
| | 07:46 | experience, and a more secure
solution for your site, and your visitors.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
14. Exporting and Importing WordPress ContentImporting and exporting content from WordPress| 00:00 | A common scenario when creating a new
self-hosted WordPress site is that you may
| | 00:05 | have an original WordPress.com blog, or
a blog somewhere else on the Internet
| | 00:10 | using another free service, and you
want to move that content into your new
| | 00:14 | self-hosted site to get more control over it.
| | 00:17 | If that is the case, WordPress has
plenty of options for helping you import that
| | 00:22 | content into your site in a simple way.
| | 00:25 | And I'll give you one example by
importing content from an existing
| | 00:28 | WordPress.com blog into the site.
| | 00:32 | The first thing you need to do if you
want to import content from WordPress.com
| | 00:36 | to your own self-hosted site is go to
the WordPress.com site you want to import
| | 00:41 | content from, go to the Dashboard,
go to Tools, and select Export.
| | 00:50 | From here you can choose
what content you want to export;
| | 00:53 | all content, just your posts, just
your pages, or just feedback, which is
| | 00:59 | basically comments and pingbacks.
| | 01:02 | In this case, I only want to
export posts, and here I can make further
| | 01:06 | decisions if I want to export just
certain categories, or certain authors, or a
| | 01:10 | specific date range.
| | 01:12 | And when I'm done with all my
settings, I click Download Export File, and
| | 01:16 | WordPress will generate an XML file that
I can download directly to my computer.
| | 01:22 | I'll decide to keep this file,
| | 01:23 | even though my computer says it may be
dangerous; it's not actually dangerous,
| | 01:28 | and now that I have the file on my
computer, I can go back to my self-hosted
| | 01:32 | site, go to the Dashboard, go
down to Tools, and select Import.
| | 01:40 | From here, you get a list of all the
different services you can import content from.
| | 01:44 | As you can see, you have several options.
| | 01:46 | You have Blogger, Blogroll, the
Categories and Tag Converter, which is a tool you
| | 01:51 | can use to change categories and tags.
| | 01:54 | You have import from LiveJournal, from
a Movable Type, or TypePad blog, from an
| | 02:00 | RSS feed, from Tumblr, or from WordPress.
| | 02:04 | Now, the importer itself is not yet
installed inside your WordPress application,
| | 02:08 | so you have to download it manually, but it's
not like you need to go and find the importer.
| | 02:13 | All you have to do is simply click
on the service you want to import
| | 02:16 | from; WordPress will automatically
take you to the installer for that
| | 02:21 | particular import plugin.
| | 02:23 | You click Install Now, the plugin is
installed, and you can activate it, and then
| | 02:28 | you return directly to the importer.
| | 02:31 | From here, I can now choose
the file I want to import;
| | 02:35 | in this case, that file I just
downloaded, which is found under Downloads.
| | 02:40 | I'll select the file, click Open,
and then click Upload file and import.
| | 02:47 | Now WordPress will read the file, find
out what content is in it, and then based
| | 02:52 | on that content, ask me a bunch of questions.
| | 02:55 | Usually, the only question it'll ask is,
who do you want to assign the posts
| | 02:59 | you're importing to, because originally
in the site you're importing from, a
| | 03:04 | certain user created those posts,
| | 03:06 | and inside your new WordPress site,
you have to assign an author to each post,
| | 03:11 | and that author has to be a
user on your site.
| | 03:14 | So here you can either create a new
author by putting in a username, or you can
| | 03:19 | select an existing author.
| | 03:21 | So I'm going to select myself as
the author of the posts I'm importing.
| | 03:25 | I can also choose whether or not I want
to import the attachment files that are
| | 03:29 | attached to the post.
| | 03:31 | That would be the images, or any
other media content that was uploaded to
| | 03:35 | attach to those posts.
| | 03:37 | In normal cases, I want to check this
box because I want to download those files
| | 03:40 | as well into my site.
| | 03:43 | When I've done all these settings, I
click Submit, and WordPress will now cycle
| | 03:48 | through every single post that's in
that XML file, and import that content.
| | 03:53 | Depending on how large that file is,
this may take a long time, and in many
| | 03:58 | cases, you run into a situation
where the file is simply too big.
| | 04:02 | In that case, you have to go back to the
Export option that you get your content
| | 04:06 | from, and create several different date ranges.
| | 04:09 | So say you export content from maybe
three or four months at a time, and you do
| | 04:13 | several exports of different content.
| | 04:16 | As the importer runs, what it does is
it cycles through every single post,
| | 04:22 | grabs all the content, imports it into your site,
and then puts it up as a new post in your site.
| | 04:28 | So what we should see here now is that,
if we go to Posts, and we scroll to the
| | 04:34 | bottom, we have this new post.
| | 04:36 | It's just a single post, and
it's called Windows 8 video.
| | 04:38 | If I go to my WordPress.com site on
the front page, you see here it is; the
| | 04:44 | Windows 8 video post.
It just has a video in it.
| | 04:49 | And if I go here and view my new Windows 8
video post, you'll see there it is; the video.
| | 04:56 | So I just imported this post into my own
site, and assigned it to myself as the author.
| | 05:02 | If you have an existing Web site or
blog on any of these services, or if you
| | 05:13 | have an existing self-hosted
WordPress site somewhere else, and you want to
| | 05:17 | import the content from that site into your
new site, you can do so using the Importer tool.
| | 05:23 | I just want to tell you, though, that
the Importer tools are not perfect, and
| | 05:26 | in many cases, things get a little mangled
when they get imported into your new site.
| | 05:31 | So after you've imported content,
always go in and check all the content you've
| | 05:35 | imported to make sure everything still
works, and you don't have any broken image
| | 05:39 | links, or other information
that doesn't display properly.
| | 05:41 | But if your alternative is to go in and
copy each individual post with all the
| | 05:47 | text, and paste them over manually,
this is a much, much better option.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
15. WordPress Site Maintenance and SecurityBacking up a WordPress site| 00:00 | WordPress is a rock-solid publishing
platform and chances are you're very
| | 00:04 | unlikely to ever run into any serious problems.
| | 00:08 | Even so, like with everything else on
the web, your WordPress installation is at
| | 00:12 | the mercy of volatile servers,
complicated networks, and evil no-gooders, with
| | 00:16 | way too much time on their hands.
| | 00:18 | So to ensure your WordPress
web site stays alive and healthy,
| | 00:22 | it's a good idea to have a steady
backup cycle; both of your site itself and
| | 00:27 | also of your database and the content.
| | 00:29 | It may seem like a hassle, but trust
me, if and when something goes wrong,
| | 00:34 | you'll be glad you have a backup lying around.
| | 00:36 | There are three main datasets you
need to backup on your WordPress site:
| | 00:40 | your database, your theme, plug-
ins, and uploaded files, and your
| | 00:44 | access information.
| | 00:46 | And depending on what kind of backup
model you want to go for, there are
| | 00:49 | different methods for doing this.
| | 00:52 | I'll show you two different
approaches and then you can choose which one
| | 00:55 | works best for you.
| | 00:56 | The first approach involves creating
a database backup in your email system
| | 01:01 | and also on the server and then backing up
your regular data content on your own computer.
| | 01:06 | To do that, we're going to use a
plug-in, so we're going to go into the
| | 01:10 | Dashboard, go to Plugins, and
install a plug-in called wp-db-backup.
| | 01:20 | It's a very simple plug-in that allows
us to make database backups of our site.
| | 01:24 | I'll Install the plug-in,
| | 01:26 | activate it, and once it's installed,
the plug-in appears under Tools.
| | 01:33 | Here at the bottom you have Backup, and from
here, you can decide what you want to backup.
| | 01:39 | These are the core database tables
that are always backed up and you should
| | 01:43 | always check all of them.
| | 01:44 | You may want to exclude spam comments
and also post revisions, because they
| | 01:49 | take up a lot of space.
| | 01:50 | So I'm going to check those two, but
otherwise, everything else is normal.
| | 01:54 | And then you have Backup Options.
| | 01:56 | You can either do an immediate
backup right now either to your server, to
| | 02:01 | your computer, or to your email, or
you can schedule backups that are sent to
| | 02:06 | your email at intervals.
| | 02:08 | So what I usually do is I do an
immediate backup to my email address and the
| | 02:16 | system now cycles through all my
database content and packages it and then
| | 02:20 | sends it to my email.
| | 02:23 | If I want to, I can also leave a copy of that
backup on my server or download it to my computer.
| | 02:29 | And then I want to setup a schedule.
| | 02:31 | Depending on how often you post
content, you may either choose Once Hourly,
| | 02:36 | Twice Daily, Once Daily, or Once Weekly.
| | 02:39 | But it's always a good idea to at
least have one backup every time you make a
| | 02:42 | change to your site.
| | 02:43 | I'm going to set it at Once Weekly
and then set the Email backup address to
| | 02:48 | mor10@samoca.org, because I know that
this will generate a lot of emails, and
| | 02:56 | then I click Schedule backup.
| | 02:58 | Now the backup will run in the
background and then once weekly, it'll package
| | 03:02 | down the database and
send it to my email address.
| | 03:05 | For large sites with a lot of content
that are updated frequently, I create
| | 03:10 | a dedicated email address just for the
backup so that the backups don't clog my system.
| | 03:15 | That way I have a complete record of my
database since the beginning of the time,
| | 03:20 | and I can always go back and
resurrect the site using the database backup
| | 03:24 | whenever something goes wrong.
| | 03:26 | If I'm using this backup solution, I'm
only backing up the database content.
| | 03:31 | That means I have to manually backup my
files so that I know that if the cycle
| | 03:37 | is down or something goes wrong, I can
resurrect the site including the files.
| | 03:41 | To do that, I'm going to
make a backup on my computer.
| | 03:44 | So first, I'll make a new
folder for my backups.
| | 03:52 | Then I'm going to go to my FTP client,
log in to my site, and from here I'm
| | 04:00 | going to the backup to wp-
content folder and the wp-config file.
| | 04:05 | This is the only file and only
folders that really matter in a backup.
| | 04:08 | The rest of the files and
folders can always be replaced.
| | 04:12 | And because I'm creating a new backup,
I'm going to go into my folder, create a
| | 04:16 | folder for today's date.
| | 04:18 | So I'll create a new folder and call
it march312012, and then I can drop the
| | 04:27 | wp-content folder and the wp-
config file into this folder.
| | 04:35 | By doing this I am backing up all my
site settings into wp-config file and I'm
| | 04:40 | also backing up all my themes, all my
plug-ins, and most importantly, all the
| | 04:44 | files I've uploaded to my site,
either image files or media files, on my
| | 04:49 | computer, so that if something were to
go wrong, I now have a complete backup
| | 04:53 | of my entire sites.
| | 04:54 | But you see that already there are a
lot of files on my site, which means that
| | 04:59 | if you keep doing this, you'll
end up racking up a lot of data.
| | 05:04 | So an easier way of doing this is to
simply use a plug-in that not only backs up
| | 05:08 | your database but also backs up your web site.
| | 05:12 | Back in WordPress, I've deactivated some
of my plug-ins and I'm also going to go
| | 05:16 | and deactivate the WordPress database
backup plug-in, so it doesn't collide with
| | 05:21 | the new backup plug-in I'm going to install.
| | 05:24 | So I'll click Deactivate to get the plug
-in deactivated, and then I'll go click
| | 05:28 | Add New to add the new plug-in.
| | 05:31 | This one is called backup to dropbox.
| | 05:33 | And if you're not familiar with
Dropbox, it's worth taking a look at.
| | 05:38 | Dropbox is an online cloud service
that allows you to sync folders between
| | 05:42 | computers and also store them in the
cloud on Dropbox, so that if something were
| | 05:47 | to go wrong with one of your computers,
you can still find all those files.
| | 05:51 | Personally, I have Dropbox
installed on all my devices.
| | 05:55 | I have it on my home computer, my office
computer, my laptop, even my tablet and my phone.
| | 06:00 | And by placing files and folders in
Dropbox, I can then access them from any of
| | 06:05 | these devices at any time and
all of them are always up-to-date.
| | 06:09 | In this instance, we're going to use
Dropbox as a repository for the site backup.
| | 06:15 | What this plug-in does is it links
WordPress to Dropbox and allows WordPress to
| | 06:20 | send files to Dropbox so that you have
an automated backup system in the cloud.
| | 06:26 | First I'm going to install WordPress
Backup to Dropbox and activate the plug-in.
| | 06:31 | And once the plug-in is activated,
you'll see it appears all the way down here
| | 06:36 | at the bottom of the side menu, and I
can click on it and now I have to link the
| | 06:42 | plug-in directly to Dropbox.
| | 06:44 | Now the next step requires that
you already have a Dropbox account.
| | 06:47 | If you don't have a Dropbox account, go to
dropbox.com and sign up for the free service.
| | 06:53 | Once you have the Dropbox account,
you can click on this Authorize button.
| | 06:58 | This takes you to a page where Dropbox
asks if you want to authorize WordPress
| | 07:02 | Backup to Dropbox to talk to Dropbox directly.
| | 07:06 | And in this case you do.
| | 07:08 | You want WordPress to be able to write content
directly onto Dropbox, so you get your backups.
| | 07:13 | So I'll click Allow and when I now go
back and reload this page, you see we now
| | 07:20 | have WordPress Backup to Dropbox
linked up to Dropbox, and I get some basic
| | 07:25 | information like what account I'm
linked to and also how much space I have.
| | 07:30 | As you can see, I currently have 2.5
gigabytes of free space, because I don't
| | 07:35 | have anything in my Dropbox yet.
| | 07:36 | With WordPress Backup to Dropbox
linked to Dropbox, we can now configure the
| | 07:41 | plug-in to do the backups we want.
| | 07:43 | If we scroll down to Settings here, you
can start off by saying if you want to
| | 07:47 | store the backups in the
subfolder of the wpb2d app folder.
| | 07:53 | I'm not going to do that, but
you can if you want to, just for
| | 07:56 | organizational purposes.
| | 07:58 | Next, you can set what day and
time you want the backup to happen on.
| | 08:03 | You can set it to any date and time,
but I recommend you set it to sometime
| | 08:06 | during the night so that you don't
have a problem with people accessing your
| | 08:10 | site just as it happens because it's
quite labor-intensive for your web site.
| | 08:14 | When it comes to what day you want to
set it on, you should set it directly
| | 08:18 | after you normally do updates to your site.
| | 08:21 | So for example, if you only post on
Thursdays, you should set it on Friday morning.
| | 08:26 | If you only post on Wednesdays, you
should set it on Thursday, and so on.
| | 08:29 | So I can go in here and change this,
I'll set it to Wednesday at 1 am, and then
| | 08:34 | you can choose the Frequency
from Daily to Weekly, and so on.
| | 08:37 | I'm going to set it to Weekly and that's
the recommended setting, unless you're
| | 08:41 | very infrequent blogger.
| | 08:43 | At the bottom here, we have
the most important option.
| | 08:46 | That is, we can select what folders and files
we don't want to back up. This is important,
| | 08:52 | because as I've said previously,
there are a lot of files and folders in
| | 08:56 | WordPress you don't need to
backup because they are replaceable.
| | 09:00 | If you lose the file, you can simply
replace it with a new version from the
| | 09:04 | most recent version of WordPress and
everything will just work the way it's supposed to.
| | 09:08 | That means backing up these files
and folders is pointless because you're
| | 09:13 | just wasting space.
| | 09:14 | What you want to do is only backup
the files and folders that matter.
| | 09:18 | And these are the wp-content folder
which contains your plug-ins, your themes,
| | 09:23 | and all your uploaded files, your
htaccess file if you have it, because it
| | 09:28 | configures certain server
settings that are special to your site.
| | 09:32 | And finally, the wp-config file
which has all the configurations that let
| | 09:37 | WordPress talk to your database.
| | 09:40 | So I'm going to go and check all, to say
I don't want to backup any of the files.
| | 09:45 | And once they're all checked, I'm
going to scroll back up again and uncheck
| | 09:49 | wp-content, htaccess, and down here, wp-config.
| | 09:57 | With all the settings complete, I now
have automatic backup every Wednesday at 1
| | 10:02 | am on a Weekly basis and I'm backing
up wp-content, htaccess, and wp-config.
| | 10:10 | I click Save Changes, and at the top
here, you'll now see the next scheduled
| | 10:15 | backup and you have all the
settings that you can change at any time.
| | 10:20 | Running automatic backups of your
site is important, not only because if
| | 10:24 | something were to go wrong you have a backup,
but also because it gives you peace of mind.
| | 10:29 | You don't have to worry about your site.
| | 10:31 | What backup procedure you choose
to use is completely up to you.
| | 10:35 | But as you've seen, setting up a backup
system using either plug-ins or a manual
| | 10:39 | method, or a combination of both is not
hard, and it's something I recommend you
| | 10:44 | start doing right away.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Restoring a site from a crash| 00:00 | If your WordPress site goes down in a
catastrophic crash, is hacked, or is
| | 00:04 | otherwise compromised, you may very
well have to restore it from backups.
| | 00:09 | Fortunately, WordPress is intentionally
compartmentalized, so that a failure in
| | 00:14 | one section rarely affects another.
| | 00:17 | Knowing how to diagnose different issues,
apply the correct fix, and restore
| | 00:21 | site data from a backup, are
important skills for any WordPress site owner.
| | 00:26 | Fortunately, these tasks are relatively
simple to undertake as long as you have
| | 00:30 | a solid backup routine in place.
| | 00:33 | Let's say one day you're working on
your site, and you reload your front page,
| | 00:37 | and all of a sudden this happens.
| | 00:40 | You get a server error, and clearly
something is badly wrong with your site, but
| | 00:44 | you didn't install a new plugin, you
didn't install a new theme, and you didn't
| | 00:48 | really do anything that
should cause this problem.
| | 00:50 | More than likely, what you're
looking at here is WordPress itself being
| | 00:54 | broken for some reason.
| | 00:56 | It can happen because there is a bad
sector on the server, or something else
| | 01:00 | could have gone wrong that would
break WordPress as an application.
| | 01:03 | The good thing about this is that when
WordPress breaks, it generally breaks in
| | 01:08 | the file structure, which means if you
simply replace the broken files with new
| | 01:12 | files, everything should
be back up and running again.
| | 01:15 | Whenever I see a WordPress Web site go
down like this, in some cases, you'll also
| | 01:19 | see a slightly different view,
| | 01:20 | so I'll open this in Firefox to show you.
| | 01:23 | In Firefox, instead of getting that
warning, you simply get a white page.
| | 01:29 | If you already know you didn't install
a new theme, or a new plugin when this
| | 01:32 | crash happened, you can make the
assumption that what went wrong here was that
| | 01:36 | WordPress somehow broke.
| | 01:39 | If that's the case, what you should do
is replace WordPress, the application,
| | 01:43 | with a fresh new version of
WordPress, the application.
| | 01:46 | The first step is to go to wordpress.org,
download the latest version of
| | 01:53 | WordPress, extract the folder, and then I'm
going to move this folder onto my Desktop.
| | 02:05 | So now I have a fresh version of
WordPress, and I know that everything inside
| | 02:11 | this folder is fine.
| | 02:13 | So the problems that I may have on my site
should not be duplicated inside this folder.
| | 02:18 | The next thing I want to do is go to my
FTP application, log in to my site, and
| | 02:24 | though the site looks like it's normal,
I'm going to assume that something is
| | 02:28 | badly wrong here, and that some
file is either missing or broken.
| | 02:31 | So to deal with that problem, I'm
simply going to replace every single file in
| | 02:35 | here -- except for the wp-content folder, and
the wp-config file -- delete them all off
| | 02:42 | the server, and then replace it
with a fresh new version of WordPress.
| | 02:46 | Before I do anything,
though, always make a backup.
| | 02:48 | I've already made a backup of the wp-content
folder, and my wp-config folder, and
| | 02:55 | I'll also make a backup of my .htaccess file.
| | 02:58 | So I'll go into my Backups, find the
backup for today, and grab my .htaccess
| | 03:05 | file, and dump it in.
| | 03:06 | These are the only files I need to keep,
and I'm just backing them up in case, for
| | 03:11 | some strange reason, I
accidentally delete them off the server.
| | 03:15 | Now I'm first going to remove all the
other files from WordPress in my host, so
| | 03:20 | that I can upload a fresh
new version of WordPress.
| | 03:23 | So I'll go Control+A to select all my
files, and then I'll uncheck wp-content,
| | 03:28 | .htaccess, and wp-config, and I'll
delete the rest of them. So I'll hit Delete,
| | 03:35 | and delete the rest of WordPress.
| | 03:37 | This may seem extremely drastic and
harsh, but the reality is, currently
| | 03:42 | your site is not working, which means whether
or not I delete it should make no difference.
| | 03:47 | And you have to remember that WordPress
the application, is separate from the
| | 03:52 | stuff you post on WordPress.
| | 03:55 | So when you publish content on to
WordPress, you're actually putting that
| | 03:58 | content in a database somewhere else,
and WordPress is just the application you
| | 04:02 | use to access that database.
| | 04:05 | So whether or not you delete WordPress,
and replace it with a new application
| | 04:09 | doesn't make any difference to the database.
| | 04:12 | Now WordPress is deleted, and I can
move in my fresh version of WordPress.
| | 04:16 | So I'll open my wordpress folder, I'll
go Control+A to select all the files, and
| | 04:21 | just unselect wp-content, and I already
know there is no wp-config file in here,
| | 04:26 | because this is a fresh version of WordPress.
| | 04:29 | So now I'll simply grab all these files,
and dump them into my FTP application,
| | 04:34 | effectively reinstalling WordPress.
| | 04:38 | Now that I've uploaded a fresh
version of WordPress, I'm going to cross my
| | 04:41 | fingers, and hope that the error on my
site was caused by either a missing file,
| | 04:46 | or a broken file, and that in
this process, I've fixed the problem.
| | 04:49 | So I'll go back to my browser, reload
the front page, and my site comes back
| | 04:55 | online, which means I've fixed the problem.
| | 04:58 | I did this to show you
something very important:
| | 05:00 | you really have to understand this;
that WordPress as an application is a
| | 05:04 | standalone application.
| | 05:06 | The best analogy I can think of is
if you think of WordPress like a word
| | 05:11 | processing application, like Microsoft Word, and
the database in WordPress like a Word document.
| | 05:16 | Whether or not you have Microsoft
Word installed on the computer makes no
| | 05:21 | difference to the document; the
document still exists on its own.
| | 05:25 | You can uninstall Microsoft Word, and you
will longer have access to your Word document,
| | 05:30 | but if you reinstall Microsoft Word,
then you can open your document again.
| | 05:34 | The same with WordPress.
| | 05:36 | But what if you install the fresh
version of WordPress, and the site
| | 05:39 | still doesn't work?
| | 05:41 | Then you have to go back to your
source, and figure out what's wrong.
| | 05:44 | One possible reason may be that your
wp-config file either got corrupted, or that
| | 05:50 | your database information has changed.
| | 05:53 | If you reset your WordPress to a fresh
install, and it still doesn't work, you
| | 05:57 | need to go and check out your wp-config
file, and find out that all the
| | 06:01 | information in the wp-config
file is in fact correct.
| | 06:05 | That means grabbing your wp-config file,
putting it on your computer, opening it
| | 06:11 | in a notepad, and going in, and checking
these entries: database name, database user,
| | 06:17 | database password, and database host name.
| | 06:20 | If this information is correct, and
your site still doesn't work, it's likely
| | 06:25 | a database problem.
| | 06:27 | But more likely than not,
it's not a database problem;
| | 06:30 | it's either this information, or
you've simply installed a broken theme, or a
| | 06:35 | broken plugin, in which case, you
need to go into your FTP application, go
| | 06:40 | to the wp-content folder; under themes,
find the theme you just installed, and
| | 06:45 | uninstall it, or under plugins, find the
plugin you just installed, and uninstall it.
| | 06:52 | There is one more possibility,
and it's the most severe one.
| | 06:55 | There is a very, very, very small chance that
something may have happened to your database.
| | 07:01 | If your database has been corrupted in
some way, the first thing you should do
| | 07:05 | is contact your hosting
provider, and ask them for a help.
| | 07:08 | More than likely, they will have a
backup of your database, and they will be
| | 07:12 | able to just replace your current
database with the old one, and everything
| | 07:16 | will go back to normal.
| | 07:17 | By having your site hosted with a hosting
provider you are paying, you are also
| | 07:21 | paying for service,
meaning they should help you.
| | 07:25 | If for some bizarre reason they refuse
to help you, or they can't help you, you
| | 07:29 | can still go to your database backup,
and restore your database manually.
| | 07:33 | If you're going to do that, you need to
go to this page on the WordPress Codex.
| | 07:38 | It's called Restoring Your Database
From Backup, and it'll walk you through all
| | 07:42 | the steps of restoring your database.
| | 07:44 | I'm not going to walk you through it
here, because this process changes depending
| | 07:48 | on the host you're using.
| | 07:49 | But this page will walk you through
the process, and using this page, and being
| | 07:54 | on the phone with your hosting provider will
help you restore your database from a backup.
| | 08:00 | Depending on the situation, different
backup restoration routines will kick in.
| | 08:05 | In almost every case, your site will go
down because of corrupt WordPress files,
| | 08:09 | a bad theme, or a bad plugin.
| | 08:11 | Only in rare cases will you experience a
database failure, or even worse, a hacked site.
| | 08:18 | But even when these catastrophic events
happen, you can easily restore things to
| | 08:22 | the way they were, using your backups,
and the techniques I've just shown you.
| | 08:26 | And remember, if something goes badly
wrong with your site, your first option
| | 08:30 | should always be to contact your
hosting provider, and asking them for help.
| | 08:34 | More likely than not, they'll be able
to walk you through the process, or just
| | 08:38 | fix it on their end without much hassle.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Keeping WordPress up to date| 00:00 | The social Web is evolving at an astonishing
rate, both in how people use it, and
| | 00:05 | also in the technology
that runs behind the scenes.
| | 00:08 | Any good platform, like WordPress,
make every effort to stay on top of that
| | 00:13 | evolution, both to keep up with the
latest trends, and also to keep its users safe.
| | 00:18 | Because WordPress is an open-source
platform, it has an almost unlimited supply
| | 00:23 | of coders and developers who are always
working on making the platform better.
| | 00:27 | That means there are nearly constant
updates rolling out, containing everything
| | 00:32 | from small code fixes, to security
hole patches, to full feature upgrades.
| | 00:37 | This is true for the platform itself,
as well as for all plugins and themes.
| | 00:42 | Running a WordPress site of your own,
it's important that you always stay on top
| | 00:45 | of these developments, so you know
you're always working with the latest version,
| | 00:49 | and have the latest security patches.
| | 00:52 | Fortunately, upgrading WordPress,
and also upgrading plugins and themes,
| | 00:56 | is incredibly easy.
| | 00:58 | When an update to WordPress becomes
available, you immediately get this warning
| | 01:02 | at the top of your Dashboard.
| | 01:04 | It'll tell you what version number is
the new version that's available, and it'll
| | 01:08 | ask you to upgrade right away.
| | 01:10 | You'll also be able to see it on your Dashboard;
| | 01:12 | under the Right Now heading, it'll say,
You are using WordPress, and then give
| | 01:16 | you the version, and it'll also give you
a button saying what is the new version.
| | 01:21 | And if you don't see it anywhere here,
because you've turned it off in your
| | 01:24 | settings, you can go to Dashboard, and
Updates, and here you'll see a list, not
| | 01:30 | only of what versions of WordPress you
can update, but also if you have upgrades
| | 01:34 | for any of your plugins or themes.
| | 01:37 | When a new update is released, it's
always a good idea to go to the page for the
| | 01:40 | upgrade to check out what was actually changed.
| | 01:44 | WordPress releases these version
history documents that we'll show you exactly
| | 01:48 | what was changed in that latest release.
| | 01:50 | And you can see that a lot of files were
changed in this release between 3.3 and 3.31.
| | 01:57 | In almost every case, you
always want to apply an update.
| | 02:01 | There are some scenarios, like if
you're running an extremely customized site
| | 02:05 | that has very advanced custom plugins
or themes in them, that you may want to be
| | 02:09 | a bit careful about upgrading right
away, because there might be bugs.
| | 02:13 | But overall, you should always apply
the latest upgrades, because the upgrades
| | 02:17 | come with important security upgrades.
| | 02:20 | To update WordPress is, like I said,
an incredibly simple procedure.
| | 02:24 | You go to the Update page, and after
backing up your database and your files, you
| | 02:29 | click on Update Now.
| | 02:32 | WordPress will now go to the WordPress
repository, grab the latest version of
| | 02:36 | WordPress, download it, unpack it, and
install it for you, and you get a message
| | 02:41 | saying, for example, Welcome to
WordPress 3.3.1, with information about this new
| | 02:47 | version of WordPress.
| | 02:49 | The exact same thing happens
when you upgrade plugins or themes.
| | 02:53 | WordPress will go out for you, grab
the file, unpack it, and install it.
| | 02:58 | In the very unlikely circumstance that
updating WordPress, or updating a theme, or
| | 03:02 | a plugin crashes your site, you can
always also revert back to an earlier
| | 03:07 | version of WordPress.
| | 03:08 | To do that, go to wordpress.org, click
on the Download button, and here on the
| | 03:17 | side, we have a link to Release Archive.
| | 03:20 | Here, you'll find every single version
of WordPress from the very beginning.
| | 03:24 | You see version 0.71 all the
way up to the current release.
| | 03:29 | So if, for instance, you upgraded to the
latest version, but it doesn't work, you
| | 03:33 | can go and find an earlier version
that you know worked, download that, and
| | 03:38 | install it manually using the manual
backup solution we showed you earlier.
| | 03:42 | That way, even if a new install takes
your site down, the original install will
| | 03:48 | bring it back up again.
| | 03:49 | In certain updates, for example,
between version numbers -- so in the jump
| | 03:54 | between 3.1 and 3.2, or 3.2 and 3.3 -- you'll
often see database updates happen at the same time.
| | 04:01 | In that case, what will happen is you'll
get a small flag when you do the update
| | 04:06 | that says, you now need to update your database.
| | 04:08 | All you have to do then is click on
the button that says Update Database, and
| | 04:13 | it'll be done for you.
| | 04:15 | Keeping WordPress, and your plugins,
and your themes up to date is an easy
| | 04:19 | process, and it's also a very important one.
| | 04:22 | So any time you see a flag that says
there is an update available for either
| | 04:26 | WordPress, a plugin, or your
theme, you should always apply it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
16. Getting ReadersCreating user-friendly permalinks| 00:00 | As you've been playing around with
your site, you may have noticed that the
| | 00:03 | permalinks, the URLs that appear up here
in the address field, look kind of odd.
| | 00:09 | If, for example, I go to the blog, and
then go to a quote, you'll see that the
| | 00:15 | URL says, samoca.org/?p=168.
| | 00:21 | This last part of the link
is the reference to this post.
| | 00:25 | This is post number 168 in the
database, and the Question Mark
| | 00:31 | basically says, I'm looking for post
number 168, and the URL is in fact a
| | 00:37 | database reference saying, go to
the Database; find post number 168.
| | 00:44 | That's a great permalink for a computer,
but is a terrible permalink for human
| | 00:49 | beings, because it doesn't make any sense.
| | 00:52 | What you want is a human readable
permalink structure, so that when you send
| | 00:56 | someone a link, they can read the
link, and understand what that content is.
| | 01:01 | This is a very complex operation that
involves what's called a URL rewrites,
| | 01:06 | where the database automatically, and on
the fly, rewrites your URLs to point you
| | 01:11 | to the right content.
| | 01:13 | However, it's not complicated for you,
because the developers of WordPress have
| | 01:18 | created an interface for that exact purpose.
| | 01:21 | If you go to your Dashboard, go down to
Settings, and select Permalinks, you can
| | 01:27 | select a variety of different
structures for your Permalinks, and you can also
| | 01:32 | create your own custom structure if you want to.
| | 01:35 | So for example, if I want to change it
from the Default, which is this weird ?p,
| | 01:40 | and then the number for the
post, I can select Post name.
| | 01:45 | You see the Custom Structure appear
down here, and when I save this change, and
| | 01:52 | visit my site, now when I reload,
you'll see that when I visit Beauty is, for
| | 01:57 | example, which points to this Famous
quote link, it will take me to the story
| | 02:02 | called Famous quote, and
the URL says famous-quote.
| | 02:07 | Same thing for pages. I
jump to page, it says about.
| | 02:12 | I jump to Volunteer for SAMOCA, it
says about/volunteer-for-samoca, because
| | 02:18 | Volunteer for SAMOCA is
the child of the About page.
| | 02:22 | These names are the slugs
you see admin panel.
| | 02:26 | So if you go back to the edit settings,
and go to, for instance, a page, you'll see
| | 02:31 | that if we Quick Edit Volunteer for
SAMOCA, we have a Slug here, and the Slug is
| | 02:37 | volunteer-for-samoca, with dashes in between.
| | 02:40 | So the slug is the machine-readable name,
and it's also the name used in the URL.
| | 02:48 | You can play around with these Permalinks
Settings, and create your own custom
| | 02:51 | settings if you want.
| | 02:52 | You can create quite advanced
permalinks, using a number of different tags
| | 02:57 | that are available.
| | 02:58 | By following this link,
you'll see a full list of them.
| | 03:00 | Go down here; you can set year,
month number, and so on, all the way down.
| | 03:07 | You can also set the Category
and Tag base, which is down here.
| | 03:12 | This is used so that, if you, for
instance, put topics as the Category base,
| | 03:18 | then any time someone goes to a Category
page, it will start by saying topics,
| | 03:22 | and then it will list the name of the
category, and you can do the same for the Tags.
| | 03:26 | Combined, all these features allow you
to create highly customizable permalinks
| | 03:32 | that will point to
different content on your site.
| | 03:35 | The only thing I urge you not to
do is the most popular thing to do.
| | 03:39 | A lot of people start the permalink structure
by saying category name, and then post name.
| | 03:45 | This can, in some cases, cause
severe problems on your site
| | 03:49 | if you have a category that has the
same name, and the same slug as a page,
| | 03:53 | because in that case, WordPress won't
know where you're pointing, and things can
| | 03:57 | get really messed up.
| | 03:59 | With a logical and easy to read permalink,
people are more likely to visit your
| | 04:03 | site, because they
understand what you're linking to.
| | 04:05 | That said, more and more people are now
using shortened links when they share
| | 04:09 | content on social networks.
| | 04:11 | So it's not necessarily the be all and
end all it was a couple of years ago,
| | 04:16 | and I'm going to quickly show
you that short link as well.
| | 04:20 | If we go back to the front end of the site, go
to the blog, find a post, and go to Edit Post,
| | 04:27 | you'll see that, in addition to having
the Permalink listed here are the top --
| | 04:32 | which, by the way, now that you've
activated Custom Permalinks, you can change
| | 04:36 | into something else if you want --
| | 04:39 | you can also get the Shortlink.
| | 04:40 | If you click Get Shortlink, you get
this wp.me short link that is unreadable,
| | 04:47 | but it's very short, and you can use
this link when you share things on Twitter,
| | 04:52 | or Facebook, instead of the long full link.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up WordPress for search engine indexing and social sharing| 00:00 | Once you've created a Web site, and
you're starting to produce great quality
| | 00:04 | content that you are putting online,
you want people to be able to find that
| | 00:07 | information, and also share it with their
friends, so more people can find that information.
| | 00:12 | In Web design and development circles,
the terms findability and shareability are
| | 00:17 | becoming very important issues.
| | 00:20 | The Web is filled with content, and it's
a true challenge to get your site to cut
| | 00:24 | through the noise, and
reach your target audience.
| | 00:27 | One of the main reasons I use WordPress
when I develop sites for my clients is
| | 00:31 | that WordPress is, by nature, built
to be found, and built to be shared.
| | 00:36 | Search engines and social networks,
like Facebook, and Twitter, love WordPress
| | 00:41 | sites, and with some extra tweaks, you
can dramatically increase both your
| | 00:45 | findability, and your shareability, and
ensure that your site doesn't become one
| | 00:49 | of those undiscovered gems on the Web.
| | 00:51 | We are going to be using search engine
optimization tools to do this, but I don't
| | 00:57 | really like that term search engine
optimization, or SEO, because it carries with it
| | 01:02 | this idea that you can somehow optimize your
site to be higher ranked on the search engines.
| | 01:07 | That's not really the case. What you
can do with these tools is insert good
| | 01:13 | descriptive information about your
posts, and that information is what's
| | 01:17 | displayed in the search engines, and
also all the social networks when people
| | 01:21 | share your content.
| | 01:23 | There is an easy way, and a more complicated
way to do this, and I am going to show you both.
| | 01:28 | The easy way is to install
the All in One SEO Pack plugin.
| | 01:32 | So let's do that first.
| | 01:34 | I will go to my Dashboard, go to
Plugins, Add New; search for all in one seo.
| | 01:45 | This is not the first
plugin you will see on the list;
| | 01:48 | it's actually more like number five.
| | 01:50 | You want the one that's just
called All in One SEO Pack.
| | 01:53 | The other ones are plugins that
attach to the All in One SEO pack.
| | 01:58 | I click Install Now, the plugin is
installed, and now I am going to activate the
| | 02:04 | plugin. And now that I have activated the
plugin, I immediately get this warning
| | 02:09 | that I need to configure All in One
SEO Pack. That's because, by default, this
| | 02:14 | plugin is turned off,
| | 02:15 | so I have to turn it on.
| | 02:17 | I can go directly to the admin page
from here, or I can go to Settings, and
| | 02:21 | find All in One SEO.
| | 02:24 | After scrolling past all the
information on top, and also considering donating
| | 02:28 | to the plugin developer, you find the
settings, and here you need to set the
| | 02:33 | plugin status to Enabled.
| | 02:35 | I will walk you through the rest of the
settings in a bit, but first let's just
| | 02:39 | activate it, and see what happens.
| | 02:43 | What the All in One SEO plugin does is
| | 02:46 | it gives you new fields inside your post
editor, and I will show you what those are.
| | 02:50 | Let me just turn all the other stuff off.
| | 02:52 | So I will leave All in One SEO Pack
checked, and then I will just turn off
| | 02:57 | Excerpt, Trackbacks, Custom
Fields, Discussion, Slug, and Author.
| | 03:03 | Now you will see, almost directly under
the Editor, we have this new field called
| | 03:09 | All in One SEO Pack, and
let me show you how it works.
| | 03:12 | First I am going to create my new post.
| | 03:14 | I will call this post High altitude
experiments - How to boil an egg faster, and
| | 03:27 | then I can put in some content, and after
categorizing the post, I can publish it.
| | 03:39 | Now if I go and view the post in a
separate window, you will see that the
| | 03:43 | title of this page up here says High altitude
experiments, and so on, and so on, and so on.
| | 03:51 | What I want to do now is attach a
better description to this page.
| | 03:55 | So I can go down to All in One
SEO Pack, and enter a new title.
| | 04:02 | This time I will say, How to
boil an egg, and I can also append a
| | 04:07 | shorter description.
| | 04:08 | So I will say, Article about
how to boil eggs on mountains.
| | 04:16 | And I can even add Keywords if I want to.
| | 04:19 | The keywords are less important these
days, so I will leave it at just adding a
| | 04:23 | Title, and a Description,
and I will update the page.
| | 04:28 | Now if I reload this page, you will
see that the title up here in the tab
| | 04:33 | changed to How to boil an egg, whereas
the title of the posts itself stays as
| | 04:38 | the original title, and if we go into
the back end of the page, so we look at
| | 04:43 | the code itself, you will see that down
here, we now have a new meta field that
| | 04:49 | says, meta name, description, and then here it
has that Article on How to boil eggs on mountains.
| | 04:56 | This information, though it's not
available to us human beings when we visit the
| | 05:01 | site using a regular browser, is made
available to search engines, and to social
| | 05:06 | media sites, meaning that when people
share this post on Facebook, or Google+,
| | 05:12 | Facebook and Google+ will go and grab
this title, and this short description, when
| | 05:17 | that link is displayed.
| | 05:19 | That way you can actually control what
people see when they see your site, either
| | 05:24 | on Google, or in these social networks.
| | 05:28 | The All in One SEO Pack plugin also
lets you set settings for other pages.
| | 05:32 | For example, you can set both the Home
Title, the Home Description, and even Home
| | 05:38 | Keywords for your homepage, since the
homepage contains all these other pages,
| | 05:43 | and you can automatically
change the way this is displayed.
| | 05:46 | You will see that right now, when I
hover over this tab, it says the title of the
| | 05:51 | post, and then the title of the site.
But you can go here and change it to
| | 05:54 | something else, for instance, the title of
the post, then a category, and then the
| | 05:59 | title of the site, or you may want
to leave the title of the site out.
| | 06:03 | And you can do this for
each of these different fields.
| | 06:07 | The All in One SEO Pack plugin is
fairly advanced, and you can even upgrade to
| | 06:12 | Pro Version, which is even more advanced.
| | 06:15 | However, you can still upgrade a step
further by installing a different plugin;
| | 06:20 | the one called WordPress SEO
that's made by a man name Yoast.
| | 06:23 | Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin takes
things a step further, and also integrates
| | 06:28 | your site, both with search
engines, and also with social networks.
| | 06:32 | So I am going to go in and
install that plugin as well.
| | 06:36 | So I will click Add New, and I will
search for SEO Yoast. Here it is; WordPress
| | 06:45 | SEO by Yoast. I will install it, and
activate it, and after I turn off these
| | 06:52 | flags, you will see I now have a
whole new panel down here, with lots of new
| | 06:57 | options for my plugin.
| | 06:59 | Now, before I start messing with these
settings, I am going to turn All in One
| | 07:02 | SEO Pack off by deactivating it,
| | 07:06 | and then I am going to go back into
my post editor. So I will click Add New
| | 07:09 | Post, scroll down, and now, instead of
the All in One SEO Pack box, I have this
| | 07:17 | larger WordPress SEO by
Yoast box that has more options.
| | 07:21 | This plugin is very advanced, and
there a lot of settings that you can really
| | 07:25 | dive into, but I will show you
the coolest feature about it.
| | 07:28 | It has a Snippet Preview, which
previews both what this post will look like
| | 07:33 | when it's shared on search engines,
and what it will looks like when it's
| | 07:36 | shared on social networks.
| | 07:37 | So as I go in and type in an SEO Title,
for example, This is my new title, you
| | 07:45 | can see what it looks like when it's
shared. And if I put in a description,
| | 07:52 | you'll see that as I type, I not only
see the snippet preview, but I can see what
| | 07:57 | happens when I write a sentence that's
too long, because we have a very limited
| | 08:01 | number of keystrokes for these sharing options.
| | 08:04 | So by using the WordPress SEO by Yoast
plugin, we are seeing more of what we're
| | 08:09 | doing, and we can refine our search
and sharing parameters even more.
| | 08:12 | And like I showed you, the SEO by
Yoast plugin has a lot of extra features.
| | 08:18 | For example, it allows you to create
custom XML sitemaps that you can submit
| | 08:22 | directly to search engines.
| | 08:25 | It also allows you to verify your site
with a major webmaster tools, like Google
| | 08:29 | Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster
Tools, and the Alexa Verification Tools.
| | 08:35 | And it allows it to link your site
directly to the Facebook OpenGraph,
| | 08:39 | and this last setting is extremely
useful if you have a Facebook page, because
| | 08:44 | now you can associate your Web site
directly with that Facebook page.
| | 08:48 | If you just want to make your content
better for search engines, and for people
| | 08:52 | who share your site, it's good enough to
use the WordPress All in One SEO Pack plugin.
| | 08:59 | However, if you want complete detail
control, and you really want to get good at
| | 09:04 | this, you should download and
install WordPress SEO by Yoast.
| | 09:08 | You may have to read some documentation,
and you have to really go through these
| | 09:12 | settings, and customize them to your
liking, but this plugin will take your
| | 09:17 | site far.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Enabling easy sharing through AddThis| 00:00 | Over the last several years, the Web has
evolved from search-centric to social-centric.
| | 00:06 | By that I mean, whereas people used
to use search engines to find content,
| | 00:10 | they now use social networks, like Facebook,
Google+, and Twitter to both share and find content.
| | 00:18 | That also means that you have to make
it as easy as possible for people to be
| | 00:22 | able to share your content with the world,
| | 00:24 | and ideally, you want to make it so
that with one click, they can share your
| | 00:28 | content on their preferred social network.
| | 00:32 | As you can see, right now, my post has
no sharing features, meaning if I want to
| | 00:36 | share this on say Facebook, I would
have to go in and copy the URL, go to
| | 00:41 | Facebook, paste the URL in, and
then Facebook would help me share it.
| | 00:46 | What I want to do is add buttons to
my site, so that people can just click a
| | 00:50 | button, and it shares that
content out with other people.
| | 00:54 | If you have the Jetpack plugin installed
like I do, then you already have some
| | 00:58 | basic sharing options built in.
| | 01:01 | To find them, you can go to Settings,
and then go down to the bottom under
| | 01:04 | Sharing, and here you have the ability
to put basic sharing buttons on your
| | 01:09 | posts and your pages.
| | 01:11 | To use this, all you have to do is
grab the features you want, so let's say I
| | 01:15 | want the Facebook button, I want a
Twitter button, and I want a Google+ button,
| | 01:20 | and then under a Share
button, I want the rest of them.
| | 01:23 | So I'll just drag all of them in
here, and now I have a basic sharing bar.
| | 01:30 | You can see a preview of it down here,
and it has this Share button that opens
| | 01:34 | more options, and this bar can be
appended to either my pages, or my posts, or
| | 01:39 | even my index pages.
| | 01:42 | I can customize these buttons if I want.
| | 01:44 | If I click on the dropdown here, I
can change the Facebook button from the
| | 01:47 | Default, which is an icon plus text, to
either the Share button from Facebook, or
| | 01:53 | the Like button from
Facebook that everyone is used to.
| | 01:57 | For Twitter, I can choose whether I
want to use the smart button, which is what
| | 02:00 | you see here with this Tweet number, or if
I just want a standard button that says
| | 02:05 | Twitter next to it, and I don't
have any options for Google+ right now.
| | 02:11 | Once I've created the bar I want, I
can set some basic configurations.
| | 02:15 | I can change the Sharing label.
| | 02:16 | You see right now it says Share this,
but I can say Spread the love, or Share
| | 02:21 | this with your friends, or whatever I want,
and I can also set whether or not the
| | 02:24 | buttons should open in a
separate window, or in the same window.
| | 02:29 | With all the buttons set, I then
decide where I want to display them.
| | 02:33 | I want to display the buttons only on
my Post pages, because I find that they
| | 02:36 | clutter up everywhere
else where they're displayed.
| | 02:39 | But if you want to, you can add them
to other pages, like the index pages, or
| | 02:44 | regular pages, or even media pages.
| | 02:47 | Once I'm satisfied with my settings, I
simply click Save Changes, and if I now
| | 02:54 | go and open a post, scroll down, you'll
see that at the bottom of the post, we
| | 03:01 | now have the sharing buttons.
| | 03:04 | So through Jetpack, I get a basic
sharing option that allows me to add these
| | 03:08 | basic sharing buttons.
| | 03:09 | But you can add far more advanced
sharing buttons by using a dedicated plugin,
| | 03:15 | and there are hundreds of different
plugins available that add different
| | 03:18 | types of sharing buttons.
| | 03:19 | The one I use the most is one called
AddThis, and I'll show you what it looks like.
| | 03:25 | It has a lot of different customization
options, and this is one of them.
| | 03:29 | What you see here is four interactive
buttons, and one Plus button that shows
| | 03:34 | the rest from AddThis.
| | 03:36 | The point of this particular tool
is that, rather than showing a set of
| | 03:40 | preconfigured buttons -- let's say I pick
Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ -- AddThis
| | 03:44 | will track the user, and find out, the
current user, what does that person
| | 03:50 | regularly use? And then display
the buttons for those services.
| | 03:54 | So if I was a heavy Google+ user,
it would show Google+ first,
| | 03:59 | but if I was a heavy Facebook
user, it would show Facebook first.
| | 04:04 | Before we add AddThis, I'm going to
turn off the sharing options we've
| | 04:08 | already configured.
| | 04:10 | Because this feature comes with
Jetpack, you can't uninstall the feature;
| | 04:14 | it comes with Jetpack, but you
can deactivate it, like I just did.
| | 04:18 | And then I'm going to go to Plugins > Add
New, search for addthis, in one word, and
| | 04:26 | install the AddThis plugin.
| | 04:31 | Once installed, I can make changes to
the plugin by going to Settings, and
| | 04:36 | scrolling down to AddThis, and from here,
I can decide what kind of button I want.
| | 04:42 | From the admin page for AddThis, I can
customize where I want to display the
| | 04:47 | buttons, and also how I want
them to display.
| | 04:50 | I want the buttons to only appear on the
top of my posts, so I'm going to go down
| | 04:54 | here ,and turn Choose sharing tool
to display below the post to None.
| | 04:59 | And then, instead of this default button
row, I'm going to go to More Options, and
| | 05:04 | pick a different one.
| | 05:05 | As you can see, I have a bunch of
different preconfigured options, but I want
| | 05:10 | to build my own. So I'll click Build your own,
and from here, we can really get specific.
| | 05:17 | You can either go in and specify a set
of services you want to display, and if
| | 05:21 | you want the service codes, you can
just follow this link, and it will take you
| | 05:26 | to the AddThis page, where you see all
the different services available, and
| | 05:30 | there are hundreds and
hundreds of these services available.
| | 05:33 | Or you can simply go to Automatically
personalized, and pick how many you want to display.
| | 05:40 | So I'll set it to 5, and then I'll also
activate the More button, so that we have
| | 05:45 | more services available.
| | 05:47 | What'll happen now is, when people
visit the site, AddThis will automatically
| | 05:52 | ask the browser, what is the most commonly
used social networks the current user uses?
| | 05:57 | And then display the links
for those social networks.
| | 06:00 | That means we're customizing the
display for each individual user, and making it
| | 06:04 | more likely that that user shares our content.
| | 06:08 | Now that I've set the settings I want,
I'm going to scroll down to the bottom,
| | 06:11 | and save changes,
and then reload my page.
| | 06:17 | And you'll see, now I have five sharing
buttons, plus this pop-up with more sharing
| | 06:22 | options, right at the top of my posts.
| | 06:25 | And if a visitor clicks on, for
instance, this Facebook button, she is taken
| | 06:30 | directly to a Share page, where you see
the information about the post, and you
| | 06:34 | can share that link.
| | 06:38 | If you're using AddThis, you should
also go sign up for a free AddThis account.
| | 06:42 | That way, you can track the stats of
your sharing, and see how people behave in
| | 06:46 | the sharing environment,
and what they're sharing.
| | 06:49 | Once you're using it, you can also click
on the Advanced tab, and see some of the
| | 06:53 | more advanced options, because it can
really get quite fancy with this feature,
| | 06:57 | and add some very advanced buttons
to your site.
| | 07:01 | Adding interactive sharing buttons
to your site, either through Jetpack, or
| | 07:05 | through AddThis, or through some other
plugin, will greatly enhance the user
| | 07:09 | experience for the people visiting your
site, and will also increase the reach of
| | 07:14 | your site as a whole, because once
people start sharing your site, their friends
| | 07:18 | will see your content, and
then they will share it further,
| | 07:22 | and the more people share your content,
the more popular it gets, the more
| | 07:26 | visitors you get, and the
more trusted your site gets.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Best practices for writing content to get more readers| 00:01 | Some of the most common questions I
get from my clients, as well as people
| | 00:04 | who've just set up their own WordPress
site are, what do I do now? What do I
| | 00:08 | write about? Why aren't people sharing my content?
And, how do I get a better ranking on Google?
| | 00:15 | The answer to all those questions
is good quality content, because
| | 00:20 | today, content is key.
| | 00:22 | In fact, content trumps everything else.
So whereas in the past, you were able
| | 00:27 | to cheat the search engines by doing clever
coding in your site, and writing in certain keywords,
| | 00:32 | now the only thing that matters is that
your content is well-written, factual,
| | 00:37 | and that people like it, because today,
sharing on social networks trumps search engines.
| | 00:44 | In fact, more and more people are using
their social networks as search engines,
| | 00:49 | so people go searching for things on
Facebook, on Twitter, and even on YouTube,
| | 00:54 | rather than going to Google.
| | 00:56 | So you should be focusing all your
attention on spreading content out to
| | 01:01 | these social networks.
| | 01:02 | That means when you write your content,
always start by asking a question, and
| | 01:07 | then answering that question.
| | 01:09 | When you're done writing your content,
click the Like button, like your own
| | 01:13 | content, so that your friends see
that you published something new.
| | 01:16 | Also share the link on Facebook, on
Google+, on Twitter, and other places, so that
| | 01:23 | your friends, and your social network see
your content, and spread it out further.
| | 01:28 | Also make it so that people have an
easy time sharing the content if they like
| | 01:32 | it, and also have an easy time interacting
with it by leaving comments, or leaving
| | 01:37 | something on your
Facebook page, or something else.
| | 01:40 | That way you create a community that
will spread your content further than you
| | 01:44 | ever could on a search engine.
| | 01:47 | In today's society, what matters is
that you create good quality content that
| | 01:52 | people actually care about.
| | 01:54 | And if you want to get good ranking,
that means you should write about something
| | 01:58 | you either care about, you know about,
or that you want to know about, because
| | 02:03 | no matter what, you'll find someone
out there who is also interested in what
| | 02:06 | you're writing about.
| | 02:08 | So if you write good content, the
viewers will come, but remember, it takes time.
| | 02:13 | So here is the basic plan for you.
| | 02:16 | Make a plan where you set aside one
hour on one day of every week -- let's say
| | 02:21 | one hour every Wednesday -- and you say,
in this one hour every Wednesday, I'm
| | 02:26 | going to write a full post.
| | 02:28 | I'm not going to spend more than an hour, and
when the hour is up, I'm going to publish it.
| | 02:32 | And then you make that into a routine,
so that every weekm, you publish a new
| | 02:36 | article on Wednesday that
you only spent one hour on.
| | 02:40 | When you're well into that routine, and
its working, and you've got readers, then you
| | 02:43 | can start expanding; maybe adding another
day, or maybe adding another hour, so
| | 02:48 | you write longer or better content.
| | 02:50 | But that way, you make a routine out
of it, and you make your system better,
| | 02:54 | so that you're able to create
quality content that gets published on a
| | 02:58 | regular basis.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
17. Diving Further into the World of WordPressWordPress sites are not just plain old blogs| 00:00 | When you start working with WordPress,
it's easy to think that WordPress is
| | 00:04 | mainly a blogging tool.
| | 00:06 | You use it to create a blog, you publish
your blog content, you get other people
| | 00:09 | to comment on your blog, and
it's basically just a blog.
| | 00:14 | The reality, though, is quite different.
| | 00:16 | WordPress can be pretty much anything
you want it to be, just like I said in the
| | 00:20 | very beginning of this course.
| | 00:22 | Rather than thinking of WordPress as a
blogging tool, think of it as a tool you
| | 00:25 | use to build Web sites.
| | 00:28 | By changing your frame of reference
like that, you'll discover you encounter
| | 00:32 | whole new possibilities, and you
start getting ideas about what you can do.
| | 00:36 | Let me show you some Web sites we've
built with WordPress, just to give you an
| | 00:40 | idea of how flexible this application is.
| | 00:44 | You've already seen the
BlendInsider Web site.
| | 00:47 | It's basically a blog that we designed
for Microsoft, so that they can write
| | 00:51 | content about an application known as Blend.
| | 00:54 | BlendInsider really is a blog,
although the blog posts are all tutorials,
| | 00:59 | but what I want you to see in
BlendInsider is how the pages change,
| | 01:03 | depending on the content.
| | 01:05 | You see here on the front page, we
have this large slider, along with these
| | 01:10 | two boxes on the side.
| | 01:11 | But if we go down to the pagination,
and jump to page number 2, you see that
| | 01:16 | that box disappears,
and we only see the posts.
| | 01:20 | If I jump to a single post, the design
changes, and we get this large header that
| | 01:25 | spans across the sidebar,
and the sidebar shifts down.
| | 01:29 | These are all design elements that
take away from that general idea of what a
| | 01:33 | blog looks like, and this is kind of
where things are going, both with WordPress,
| | 01:37 | and with the Web in general.
| | 01:39 | Gone are the days of structured design,
and people are going more and more for
| | 01:43 | alternative ways of laying things out,
and WordPress has no limits in terms
| | 01:47 | of how you do things.
| | 01:49 | The only limit is your own
skills, and your own imagination.
| | 01:52 | We've also looked at this
Frugalbits Web site.
| | 01:55 | Frugalbits is a magazine style
WordPress site.
| | 01:59 | It's still technically a blog,
because they post content in a reverse
| | 02:03 | chronological order.
| | 02:04 | However, it doesn't look much like
what you expect a WordPress site to look
| | 02:08 | like, and it doesn't function
much like a WordPress site either.
| | 02:13 | For something completely
different, check out this site.
| | 02:17 | It's a site we built for an Norwegian
Bank, and in fact, it's not as much a blog
| | 02:21 | as it is a charitable contest, where
people can send in applications, and then
| | 02:26 | other people can vote on those
applications, and based on how many votes you
| | 02:30 | get, they get money from the bank.
| | 02:33 | What's cool about this site is that
all the content you see here in each
| | 02:36 | application was submitted
by the organization.
| | 02:40 | So the only thing the owner of the
site has to do is go in, read the content,
| | 02:44 | and automatically publish it.
| | 02:45 | The site also has a separate section that
showcases information about the new bank.
| | 02:51 | It has a different type of layout, it
has different information, and it even has
| | 02:55 | this Bank Finder section down here.
| | 03:00 | And it has this historical bar, where
you can see the history of the bank, and
| | 03:04 | how it evolved over time.
| | 03:07 | Still WordPress, but doesn't
look much like WordPress anymore.
| | 03:11 | You can take that a step further,
by looking at Philip Lanyon's site.
| | 03:16 | Phil Lanyon is a Director of Photography
in Vancouver, and he has created some
| | 03:20 | ads you likely have seen on TV.
| | 03:23 | What you're seeing here on the front
page is actually the regular index page;
| | 03:27 | it's just laid out in a
very, very different way.
| | 03:30 | So what you're seeing here is, the
first post, the second, the third, fourth,
| | 03:34 | fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth posts.
| | 03:38 | Still an Index page, but very different,
and when you jump into any of the posts,
| | 03:44 | you get a large video, and then you
get links to other related items below.
| | 03:49 | Still WordPress, still posts, but
doesn't look anything like WordPress anymore.
| | 03:55 | And also check out this site:
worldwidewesternfront.com.
| | 03:59 | This is the site I'm currently working on,
and it has some very advanced features.
| | 04:04 | Like for instance, this front page
will reorganize every time you reload it,
| | 04:08 | so that as you reload it, you see that
the images change sizes, and though the
| | 04:19 | order stays the same, the
layout of the page changes.
| | 04:23 | This site also has other advanced
features, like a complex archive of every
| | 04:28 | artist featured on this site,
that you can toggle on and off.
| | 04:31 | So you can see an alphabetical list, and
a sortable archive, where you can switch
| | 04:37 | between ordering everything from
A to Z, or from Z to A, or even Random.
| | 04:43 | All these sites combined show
you one very important thing:
| | 04:47 | there is no such thing as a WordPress
look and feel, and WordPress can do pretty
| | 04:51 | much anything you put your mind to.
| | 04:53 | It's just a matter of figuring out what
it's going to look like, how it's going
| | 04:57 | to function, and then
building that functionality.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating child themes with WordPress| 00:00 | Now that you've created your own
WordPress site on your own host, you're ready
| | 00:04 | to start making more advanced content.
| | 00:07 | Well, you may not be ready
just yet, but you will be soon.
| | 00:10 | You'll discover that as you start
working with WordPress, you'll want to do
| | 00:14 | more, and I'll give you a good place to start.
| | 00:16 | One of the most common things people
want to do when they start working with
| | 00:20 | WordPress is they want
to customize their themes.
| | 00:22 | I'm here to tell you that rather than
creating a new theme from scratch, what
| | 00:27 | you should start with is creating a child theme.
| | 00:31 | A child theme takes all the components
of an existing theme, and then just change
| | 00:35 | the features you want to change, without
messing with the original theme, so that
| | 00:40 | if the original theme author decides
later to upgrade their theme, you can
| | 00:45 | upgrade the parent theme, and still
retain all of your changes, without them
| | 00:50 | having to make a bunch
of changes in the process.
| | 00:53 | To help you get started building child
themes, I've created this course right
| | 00:57 | here in the Lynda.com Online
Training Library called WordPress 3:
| | 01:01 | Building Child Themes.
| | 01:02 | It starts out with the Twenty Ten
default theme, and builds out a highly
| | 01:07 | customized theme on top of Twenty
Ten that you can then use to further
| | 01:12 | build your own content. WordPress 3:
| | 01:15 | Building Child Themes was designed in
such a way that each component of the
| | 01:18 | course can be used in any theme, and the
course shows you techniques you can use
| | 01:23 | to build your own child
themes from any other theme.
| | 01:27 | So if you want to move further, the first
step should be to check out WordPress 3:
| | 01:32 | Building Child Themes, right here in
the Lynda.com Online Training Library.
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| Creating portfolio sites with WordPress| 00:00 | The stock version of WordPress is
already a powerful application, but with
| | 00:05 | some simple coding, you can make it
far more powerful, and also more advanced,
| | 00:09 | by adding your own features, like
custom posts types, custom taxonomies, and
| | 00:14 | custom index pages.
| | 00:16 | I've created a course called Create
an Online Portfolio with WordPress that
| | 00:20 | shows you the process of creating
custom posts types, and custom taxonomies to
| | 00:25 | create a completely new
type of sites using WordPress.
| | 00:29 | By adding custom posts types, and
custom taxonomies, you're able to section out
| | 00:33 | the regular posts, so the blog posts, as
something separate from other types of
| | 00:38 | content on your sites.
| | 00:39 | So if you're running a site that has
multiple different types of content, you
| | 00:44 | want to create custom posts types
and custom taxonomies, so you can sort,
| | 00:48 | display, and organize these different
types of contents in different boxes, and
| | 00:53 | manage it in an easy way.
| | 00:55 | If you want to learn more about
these techniques, you should go check out
| | 00:58 | Creates An Online Portfolio With
WordPress, right here in the lynda.com Online
| | 01:03 | Training Library.
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