ninefootone
using wordpress
introduction
If you have a site that is built with WordPress, here are a few simple steps that will help you to login and use it to its full potential.
The URL for your WordPress login is www.domain.com/wp-admin. Once you’ve logged in, this will take you to the WordPress ‘dashboard’, where you can make changes to various aspects your site.
Your dashboard can be customised and so may look a little different to the screenshot shown here.
adding/editing blog posts
Posts are often linked to a news feed and can be added to frequently. Here’s our guide to how to set up a new post on your site…
1.
Select ‘posts’ in the side-menu and you’ll be taken to a list of the posts that have already been created. To edit a post thats already been created simply select ‘edit’ (A). To create a new post, select the ‘add new’ button at the top of the screen (B).
2.
Here you can create and edit your posts. The title of the post goes at the top (C) – ideally this shouldn’t be too long. The box below (D) is where you put the content of your post – text, images, links, quotes. The preview button (E) will let you preview the post before finalising it.
NOTE: When you copy and paste text, select the ‘text’ tab and copy it into here. Then select the ‘visual’ tab to continue editing the post. This will ensure the text will be correctly formatted.
There are various things you can do with the editor. If you need a little more guidance, wpbeginner.com has lots of useful pointers.
If your site is using Elementor, this button will appear. Click to have more control over the posts you create. For more information about using Elementor go to our Using Elementor page.
3.
Once you’re happy with the layout and content of the post you will want to publish it. To do this select publish (F). If you’d like the post to appear on a certain date you can do this (G), or if you’d simply like to keep it as a draft then you can save it for later (H).
adding/editing pages
Pages can be anything from an ‘about us’ page to a ‘contact us’ page – basically anything that isn’t a blog post. The process differs slightly depending on how you’re creating the page…
1.
Select ‘pages’ in the side-menu and you’ll be taken to a list of the pages on your site. To edit a page thats already been created simply click ‘edit’ (A). To create a new post, click on the ‘add new’ button at the top of the screen (B).
2a.
IF USING ELEMENTOR…
To set up a new page with Elementor you first need to do a couple of things. Give the page a name (C), change the content layout to ‘Full Width’ (D), add a ‘parent’ if necessary (E)* and then click either ‘publish’ (F) or ‘save draft’ (G).
After you’ve done these things, click the ‘edit with Elementor’ button (H). This will take you the page editor.
NOTE: Once you’ve set up the page with Elementor DO NOT click the ‘Back to WordPress Editor’ button. This could cause you to lose any styling work you’ve done on the page.
For more info about using Elementor go to our Using Elementor page.
*Parent pages
You can use the ‘parent’ attribute to nest pages to ensure logical web addresses for each page. While menus are handled separately (see ‘adding to menu‘ below) the parent attribute is still useful to help you organise pages on the dashboard and give you addresses such as domain.com/about-us/who-we-are. To do this you may need to create a blank page for eg. ‘About Us’ and then choose that as the parent for ‘Who we are’.
2b.
IF NOT USING ELEMENTOR…
You can create pages simply using WordPress. To create a page, firstly add a title (C). The box below (D) is where you put the content of the page – text, images, links, quotes. Add a ‘parent’ if necessary (E) (see above for more info.). The preview button (F) will let you preview the page before finalising it.
Once you’re happy you can publish the page (G) – this will take it live. If you would prefer to keep it as a draft, select the draft button instead (H).
NOTE: When you copy and paste text, select the ‘text’ tab and copy it into here. Then select the ‘visual’ tab to continue editing the post. This will ensure the text will be correctly formatted.
There are various things you can do with the editor. If you need a little more guidance, wpbeginner.com has lots of useful pointers.
adding media
Media (images, audio, files, etc) is all stored in the media library, and can easily be uploaded to your site…
You can add media on WordPress in various ways, but in each case the process is pretty much the same. One way to add media is to go to the Media Library and select ‘add new’ (A). Select the file from your desktop, or simply drag and drop into the box (B).
Once its added to the media library it can then be used throughout the site.
You can also add media directly in a page or post. You’ll see an ‘Add Media’ button and then the interface is very similar to the one shown here.
adding sermons
Depending on your site, you might need to regularly add sermons to your site…
1.
Select ‘sermons’ and you will be taken to an overview of all the sermons you have on the site. Select a sermon to edit it (A), or select ‘add new’ to add your latest sermon (B). You can also search for previous sermons (C).
2.
Once you’ve added the sermon title (D) and date (E) you have various options…
- Add Bible passage (F)
- Add Bible book (G)
- Add speaker name (H)
- Add service time – eg. ‘morning’ or ‘evening’ (I)
- Add video (J)
- Add audio – select ‘upload’ and add the sermon (K)
- Add service sheet (L)
- Add notes (M)
- Add sermon series – see ‘adding sermon series’ instructions for more details about adding sermon series (N)
- Add extra tags (O)
3.
Finally, its important to remember to set the publish date (P) to be the same as the date of the sermon – this will make sure the sermons are ordered correctly on the site. When you’re happy with everything, select ‘publish’ (Q).
adding sermon series
If your page has sermons, it can be helpful to add sermon series so the users can more easily find the sermons they’re searching for…
Select the ‘sermon series’ tab, then add whatever information would be most useful for the content…
- Add name (A)
- Add slug – this is the string of text that will appear in the URL (eg. all-age-services) (B)
- Add description (C)
- Add series bible book (D)
- Add series image (E)
Once your happy, select ‘add new tag’ (F). You can also search for, edit and delete other sermon series (G).
adding events
If your page has a calendar, you can add regular and one off events to your site…
1.
Select ‘events’ and you will be taken to an overview of all the events you have on the site. Select an event to edit it (A), or select ‘add event’ to add a new one (B). You can search for previous events (C). You can also look at the analytics of each page at any time (D).
2.
Once you’ve added the event title (E) you have various options…
- Edit the event link (F)
- Add a full description of the event (G)
- Add event details (H) – subtitle, time, date, location and other details if required
- Add tags to help people search for the right event (I)
- Add an event image (J) to illustrate what the event is about
- Select any extra options to show where the event wants to show on the site (K)
3.
Finally, its important to remember to set the publish date (L) to be the same as the date of the event date – this will make sure the events are ordered correctly on the site. You can preview changes (M) and when you’re happy with everything, select ‘publish/update’ (N).
adding to the menu
You want to make sure the menu at the top of your site is as simple and easy to navigate as possible. This is how to add new items to the menu…
1.
To edit the menu, go to the ‘Appearance’ drop down and select ‘Menus’. Select from the left hand menu whether you want to insert a page, post, custom link or category to the menu (A). Then click ‘add to menu’ (B).
It’s most common that you’ll add pages but Custom Links can be useful if you want to link to external pages or set up a top level item that it just a rollover and not an actual link.
2.
The item(s) will appear at the bottom of the menu. Drag and drop them to your desired position. If you want to change the name that appears in the menu, select the menu item and change the navigation label (C). Once you’re happy with it, select the save button at the top (D).
