How to Create a Post in WordPress

Here’s how to put an article in the blog.

  • Log in to your WordPress blog. This is done by going to www.yourwebsitename.com/wp-login.php.
  • Click Posts in the left hand column.
  • Click Add New (either in the left hand column or using the large white button near the middle).
  • Enter the title of the article, where it says Enter Title Here. To be consistent with the rest of the blog, use mixed case for the title. Try to remember to put the title in right away. Otherwise the page gets saved with a numeric URL, and we want a URL that has the title in it.
  • Copy all the text of your article into Notepad (or another ASCII text editor) first. This removes all of the HTML formatting, so that the formatting of the original article is not carried over into the blog. Notepad is accessed by clicking Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Notepad.
  • Now copy the text from Notepad into the blog editor. You can now use the editor to bold or italic text, align text, or create bullet and number lists. You can also insert images or links. Most of the editor buttons are self-explanatory if you’ve used Word or formatted emails before. I’ll explain a few techniques down below.
  • Often WordPress is configured to show full or partial blog posts on the home page. To indicate which bit of the blog post is supposed to show up on the home page, click the mouse once at the end of the last paragraph you want on the home page. Then press Enter on your keyboard once. Then click the Insert More tag button, which is shown to the right. A grey line will show up in your post in the editor; this will not show on the live blog.
  • Now you need to tell the blog what category this post goes in. You put an article in a category by ticking off that category name in the right hand column under the heading Categories.
  • Now click the big blue Publish button on the right hand side. It will rename itself Update.
  • If you want to change the date of the post, you can now do that using the Edit link just above the big blue Publish/Update button, to the right of the date of the post.
  • Visit the live blog at the address your visitors will use to visit your blog (e.g. www.yourwebsitename.com). This is called the front end or the live blog page. If you are already there in another window, refresh the screen using the browser control that looks like a recycle symbol or circular arrow (or use the F5 key on your keyboard if you are on a PC). This forces the browser to get the changes you’ve made to the blog so you are looking at the most recent version of the post.
  • Check the post that you’ve just created to make sure it displays as you wanted.
  • If you need to edit it, go back into the WordPress back end. If you are no longer on the page for editing that post, just click Posts in the left column. You will see a list of posts that exist. Click the title of the post you want to edit. Make your changes and then click Publish/Update. Then double check the live blog page. Don’t forget to refresh it before you check it.
  • When you’re done, click the Log Out link at the top right corner of the back end.

Further instructions are available in other posts:

How to Insert an Image in WordPress

How to Create a Link in WordPress.

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