Step-by-step Guide for WordPress
Logon
Visit your control panel: Type /wp-admin at the end of your website URL
Dashboard
When you login to your wordpress administration panel you see the Dashboard. Here you will get an overview about what is happening in your website: some stats about how many posts and pages do you have, if there are new comments on your wordpress blog posts, with links to edit pages, posts, comments etc. The Dashboard tells you about recent activity both at your site and in the WordPress community at large and provide access to updating WordPress, plugins, and themes.
Posts
In the post menu category you have several links, the most commonly used are: “Edit”, “Add new”, and “Categories”.
Edit
When you follow this link you will go to a page where you can see all posts from your blog page (if you have one). In the posts display table every post is shown in a row. If you go with your mouse over a row, under the post name will appear some links: “Edit”, “Quick Edit”, “Trash”, “View”. If you go to edit, you will go to the edit post page, quick edit will make a box to open in the same page, under the post row, and you can quick change the title, the slug, categories and tags for that post.
Add new
The add new post page has the same features as edit individual post page.
After you add the title, you can add the content with the help of the rich text editor which allows you to add images, embed media, and almost all features you can have in Microsoft word or other text editor.
You have the option to save this post as a draft, preview or publish your post to your website.
Media – Add pictures and movies to your posts
Media is the images, video, recordings, and files, you upload and use in your posts and pages. Media is typically uploaded and inserted into the content when writing a Post or Page.
Library
The Media Library SubPanel allows you edit, delete or view 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.
Add New Media
The Media Add New SubPanel allows you to upload new media to later use with posts and pages. A Flash Uploader is provided and the ability to use a Browser Uploader is supplied if the Flash Uploader does not work.
Links
The Links SubPanel allows you to select the Links (if you use links within your site) 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 edit or delete.
Add New Link
Handles the creation of new links. Give your link a name, provide the full URL and a description (optional). You may wish to select a target, which determines whether the link opens in a new window, or in the same window.
Link Categories
Links, like Posts, can be categorized and categorizing Links aids your audience in navigation of your Links. But Link Categories, unlike post Categories, have no hierarchy (parent/child relationship). In creating categories, recognize that each Category name must be unique.
Pages – Your Static Content
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 Page should not be confused with the time-oriented objects called Posts, nor should a WordPress Page be confused with the word “page” referring to any web page or HTML document on the Web.
Because Pages live outside of the normal blog chronology, and as such, are not displayed with the rest of your Posts, but are displayed individually.
Creating Pages
To create a new Page, log in to your WordPress installation with sufficient admin privileges to create new articles. Select the Administration > Pages > Add New option to begin writing a new Page.
After you add the title, you can add the content with the help of the rich text editor which allows you to add images, embed media, and almost all features you can have in Microsoft word or other text editor.
You have the option to save this page as a draft, preview or publish your page to your website.
You may wish to apply a parent page, which arranges your page in a hierarchy. You can apply various template styles, and order the page within the navigation menu (or exclude it completely).
If you are using SEO (Search engine optimisation) this is where you can apply individual search criteria to your page. Keywords and description fields will help search engines to find your page.
Appearance – Change the Look of your site
From the Presentation Administration Panel you can control how the content of your blog is displayed. I strongly recommend not editing this area, as your website has been designed specifically to meet your needs.
Plugins – Add Functionality to your Blog
Plugins allow you to add new features to your WordPress blog that don’t come standard with the default installation. If you require a new feature, this will need to be manually installed and set-up. I strongly recommend not editing this area, as your website has been designed specifically to meet your needs.
Users
You can manage the accounts of all your site’s users at the Users SubPanel.
Add New User
You can create new users with the Users > Add New SubPanel.
Your Profile
The Users > Your Profile SubPanel allows to change any information related to your user account. Here you can update your password etc.
Tools
I strongly recommend not editing this area.
Settings – Configuration Settings
The following SubPanels are available.
General
The Settings > 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, and how dates and times are calculated and displayed.
Writing
Using the Settings 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 Settings 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.
Discussion
The Settings Discussion SubPanel allows you to control settings concerning incoming and outgoing comments, pingbacks and trackbacks. 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, and you can decide if your blog should show Avatars and their ratings.
Media
The Settings > Media SubPanel allows you to determine where images, documents, and other media files will be linked to when inserted into the body of a post and to specify the maximum dimensions in pixels to use when inserting an image into the body of a post.
Privacy
The Settings > 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
I strongly recommend not editing this area.
Gallery
Add Gallery
This is where you can upload and edit the gallery section of your site (if you have one).
You can add a new gallery, and upload all of your images through a zip-file, folder or individually.
Manage Gallery
You can manage your images, title etc here. The gallery ID on the left is important when adding link to your gallery to the page. Click edit to see the gallery details.
You can delete or exclude photos from showing, you can rename the description etc.
You can sort the order by clicking ‘Sort’ and drag and drop into the correct order. Click ‘save changes’ before navigating away to another page.
After you have created the gallery and uploaded the images you need to create the gallery page. See above for guide to writing pages.
Log Out
The Log Out link is found at the top right corner in the Administration Panels. It is simply a link that will log you out from your website.