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This basic manual will first show you how to create both a username and a blog on Blogs@Baruch, and then will introduce you to Wordpress by guiding you through the Wordpress Administrative Panel. It is important to note that practically everything you do with Wordpress can be undone, so you shouldn't be shy about practicing steps in creating and managing your own blog.
Contents |
Registering for a Username/Creating a Blog
Click here to be taken to the Blogs@Baruch sign up page. Once you're there, you will be asked to create a username, to enter your email address (right now, only email addresses that end @baruch.cuny.edu are accepted!), and to select whether you just want a username or also want a blog of your very own.
To own or participate as an author on a blog, you must have your own username. In addition, as the owner of a blog, you can choose to limit participation in a discussion ("comments") to registered users of your blog, or leave it open to the public. Faculty members who will require their students to author posts, or who wish to limit participation in discussions on the blog to members of the course, must have students create a username for Blogs@Baruch.
Once you create a username, that account will work across the entire Blogs@Baruch system. The account will allow you to be added as a user to any blog that begins blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/.
Getting around the Administrative Area
The back end or administrative area of the blog is where you log in to add, edit, or delete content on your site, and manage its appearance and users. If you own your blog as an administrator, you'll see each of the items listed and detailed below. If you are participating on a blog as an editor, author, contributor, or subscriber you will see a more limited set of options when you log in to Wordpress.
If you are a participant on more than one Blogs@Baruch weblog, you will see a list of your blogs across the top of the administrative area. Merely click on whichever blog you wish to work to make it active.
The Dashboard
The Dashboard, where you land after you log in, tells you about recent activity both at your site and in the WordPress community at large.
The Dashboard SubPanel provides you a number of links to start writing Posts or Pages, statistics and links on the number of Posts, Pages, Categories, and Tags. A Recent Comments box shows the number of Comments awaiting moderation, as well as a list of the recent comments. Configurable boxes of Incoming Links, and RSS feeds from the WordPress Development Blog, the Plugins blog, and Planet WordPress are also displayed. The Dashboard also will tell you what percentage of your initial 15mb disk allotment you have used.
Write Tab
The Write Tab is used to add content to a blog.
Write Post SubPanel
Posts are the principle content of a blog. Here, you can give your Post a title, write it, use the visual content editor to style your text (click here to learn more about the visual editor). You can also create a hyperlink by selecting text, then clicking the link icon and entering the desired web address.
Through this page you can also upload images, video, audio, and files by clicking on the “Add Media” link below the title field, and following the on-screen instructions to insert the item directly into your Post.
When you’re ready to publish your Post, click “Publish” on the right side of the page. To save a draft for later, click “save.” If you are registered as a Contributor rather than an Author, you will be able to "Submit for Review" rather than "Publish" your post. Your editor will have to approve the content and post it.
Categories and Tags
Beneath the “Write” field are fields for entering Tags and Categories. Every Post in WordPress is filed under at least one Category. Categories allow the classification of Posts into groups and subgroups, thereby aiding viewers in the navigation and use of your site. Someone viewing your blog can click on a list of Categories on your sidebar, and all Posts belonging to that Category will be displayed.
Tags are keywords you might assign to each Post, and provide another means to aid your readers in accessing information on your blog. All Posts must be categorized, but Posts do not necessarily need to be tagged. Tags are displayed beneath each Post to which they are are assigned. Someone viewing your blog can click on one of those Tag links, and an archive page with all the Posts belonging to that Tag will be displayed.
Write Page SubPanel
A Page is another tool to add content to a WordPress site and is often used to present "static" information about the site; Pages are typically "timeless" in nature. A good example of a Page is the information contained in "About" or "Contact" Pages. A faculty member using a blog for her course may, for instance, choose to place a copy of the syllabus on a Page so that students can always access it. A Page should not be confused with the time-oriented objects called Posts. Pages reside outside of the normal blog chronology, and as such are not displayed with the rest of your Posts.
Write Link SubPanel
This panel will allow you to build your links library, which can be displayed on the sidebar of your blog. In the “Related” section of this subpanel, links are offered to navigate to pages to Manage All Links, Manage All Link Categories, and Import Links. Note, the Import Links function allows you to import links from other blogs, or aggregators. The Import Links SubPanel will describe the import process for you.
Manage Tab
The Manage Tab is used to edit content on a blog.
Manage Posts SubPanel
On this subpanel you can select a Post to edit or delete. Multiple Posts can be selected for deletion. Various search and filtering options allow you to find the Posts that you want to work with.
Manage Pages SubPanel
On this subpanel you can select a Page to edit or delete. Multiple Pages can be selected for deletion. Various search and filtering options allow you to find the Pages you want to work with.
Links SubPanel
On this subpanel you can select a Link to edit or delete. Multiple Links can be selected for deletion. Various search and filtering options allow you to find the Links you want to work with.
Categories SubPanel
On this subpanel you can select a Category to edit or delete. Multiple Categories can be selected for deletion. Various search and filtering options allow you to find the Categories you want to work with.
Tags SubPanel
On this subpanel you can select a Tag to edit or delete. Multiple Tags can be selected for deletion. Various search and filtering options allow you to find the Tags you want to work with.
Link Categories SubPanel
Links, like Posts, can be categorized. Categorizing Links aids your audience in navigating your Links. Each Link Category may be assigned to a Link Category Parent so that you may set up a hierarchy within the Category structure. In creating Categories, recognize that each Category name must be unique, regardless of hierarchy.
The Manage Link Categories SubPanel allows you to add, edit, and delete Link Categories, as well as organize your Link Categories hierarchically. Multiple Link Categories can be selected for deletion. A search option allows you to find the Link Categories you want to edit or delete. Also remember Link Categories can be added when adding or editing Links.
Media Library SubPanel
This subpanel allows you to access the images, video, recordings, and files, you upload and use in your blog. Media is typically uploaded and inserted into the content when writing a Post or Page.
The Manage Media Library SubPanel allows you to delete media previously uploaded to your blog. Multiple media objects can be selected for deletion. Search and filtering ability is also provided to allow you to find the desired media.
Import
The Import subpanel allows you to easily import posts from other blogs.
Export
The Export subpanel allows you to easily create a file that will allow you to import the contents of your current blog into a blog that has a "import from Wordpress" feature.
Design Tab
The Design Tab is used to change the Theme, or design template, of the blog, and also to manage the Widgets that add functionality to the sidebar of a blog.
Themes SubPanel
A Theme is the overall design of a site and encompasses color, graphics, and text. A Theme is sometimes called the “skin.” WordPress blog owners have available a long list of Themes to choose from in the Themes SubPanel.
Widgets SubPanel
Widgets add various pieces of information to your Theme's sidebar content. Widgets, for example, can be used to add Categories, Archives, Blogroll, Recent Posts, and Recent Comments to your sidebar.
From the Widgets SubPanel you can add, delete, and configure the Widgets on your site.
Header Image and Color SubPanel
The Header Image and Color feature allows you to manage the look and feel of a Theme's header. This option will only be present if the Theme allows this capability.
For instance, the WordPress Default Theme (sometimes called Kubrick, this is one of the two themes delivered with WordPress) allows you to set the font color, the lower color (lower part of the header), the upper color, the whole header color.
Comments Tab
In the Comments SubPanel you can edit and delete as well as mark comments as spam. Comments that are awaiting moderation can be marked as approved or previously approved comments can be unapproved. Multiple comments can be selected and approved, marked as spam, unapproved, or deleted. A section at the top of the Comments SubPanel displays the number of comments awaiting moderation and the number of approved comments. A search box allows you to find specific comments you want to edit.
You can manage limit participation as a commenter on your site by selecting the "Users must be registered and logged in to comment" box in the Settings->General tab.
Settings Administrative Panel
All of the settings you've encountered in the other Administration Panels have dealt with very specific parts of your site, or have been of limited scope (only applying to one Category, for example). In the Settings Administration Panel are all of the settings that define your blog as a whole: settings that determine how your site behaves, how you interact with your site, and how the rest of the world interacts with your site.
The following subpanels control these settings.
General
The General SubPanel is the default subpanel in the Settings Administration Panel and controls some of the most basic configuration settings for your site: your site's title and location, who may register an account at your blog, whether a visitor must be registered and logged in to comment, and how dates and times are calculated and displayed.
Writing
Using the Writing SubPanel you can control the interface with which you write new posts. These settings control the size of the 'post box' in the Write Post SubPanel, the default Category, the default Link Category, the default image sizes, and the optional Post via e-mail feature.
Reading
The settings in the Reading SubPanel are few in number, but still important. You can decide if you want Posts or a "static" Page, displayed as your blog's front (main) page. You can also adjust how many posts are displayed on that main page. In addition, you can adjust syndication feed features to determine how the information from your site is sent to a reader's web browser or other applications, and you can decide if your blog should show Gravatars and their ratings.
Discussion
The Discussion SubPanel allows you to control settings concerning incoming and outgoing comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks (which allow blogs to communicate with one another). You can also control from this subpanel the circumstances under which your blog sends you e-mail notifying you about the goings on at your site.
Privacy
The Privacy SubPanel controls your blog visibility to search engines such as Google and Technorati. You can decide if you would like your blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers. If you don't want your blog available to the search engines you can block search engines, but allow normal visitors to see your site.
Permalinks
By default WordPress uses web URIs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them, however WordPress offers you the ability to create a custom URI structure for your permalinks and archives. This can improve the aesthetics, usability, and longevity of your links.
Miscellaneous
WordPress has so many features, that some of them defy categorization. Features like file uploads, link tracking and support for custom "hacks" can be controlled from the Settings Miscellaneous SubPanel.
Plugins Link
Plugins extend and expand the functionality of WordPress. Once a Plugin is installed, you may activate it or deactivate it in this panel. A detailed list of Plugin functionality is on the Wordpress for Intermediate Users page.
Users Link
Users can change their Profile Settings by clicking on Users>Your Profile link. Here, you can change your password, enter contact information, your full name, and also choose (after updating changes to this page) how you want your identity to be displayed on the front end of the blog. This is useful for authors who wish to write blog posts under an alias.
At the Users Administration Panel, you can manage users on your blog by clicking on the Authors & Users link. An important administrative feature here is the Roles feature. Depending on their Role, different users have different capabilities. Briefly, a user can be assigned the following Roles: Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, or Subscriber.
The following chart (borrowed stolen from the Wordpress Codex) shows the differing capabilities of the User Roles.
Capability vs. Role
| Capability | admin | editor | author | contributor | subscriber |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switch Themes | |||||
| Edit Themes | |||||
| Activate Plugins | |||||
| Edit Plugins | |||||
| Edit Users | |||||
| Edit Files | |||||
| Manage Options | |||||
| Import | |||||
| Moderate Comments | |||||
| Manage Categories | |||||
| Manage Links | |||||
| Edit Published Posts | |||||
| Edit Others Posts | |||||
| Edit Pages | |||||
| Upload Files | |||||
| Publish Posts | |||||
| Edit Posts | |||||
| Read |
