Welcome to the Chapter 6 of our Ultimate WordPress Guide on Creating a WordPress website.
So you have a beautiful themed WordPress site ready for you, so what is the next step? Writing the first post, of course. Well, although this seems like such an easy task, I have often seen people not utilizing all of the main features made available to them. Some people even find all of the function on the interface difficult to work with. While we have dealt with another niche of beginners WordPress guide, today we are dealing with the most basics of writing a post on WordPress detailing each feature on the Add New post screen.
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For the text tutorial, continue reading the post.
Although this is not a step by step guide, this post will feature the introduction of each and every feature that you can use to add a new post to your WordPress site. You can go through each one to get the details of how and why each one can be used. WordPress posts function differently depending on the type of editor you have. In this article, we are going to show you both, the new Gutenberg Editor, as well as the old Classic Editor.
1. Add New WordPress Post using the Gutenberg Editor
To get to the page to add a new post login with your WordPress credentials. You will be redirected to the Dashboard. Click on the Posts options on the sidebar, then on Add New. You will now see a screen to add a new post with the following features.
Title and Content Sections
The top part of the page is reserved for the Title. Underneath that, you have the option to insert all kinds of Content. The interface is actually pretty clean and easy to understand.
Adding Blocks
In the Gutenberg Editor, the content is placed in blocks. There are different types of blocks for different types of content. For example, a paragraph of text requires a Paragraph Block, image requires an Image Block, and so on. In order to add a block, you can click on one of the plus icons that are visible.
Doing so will bring up the option to select the type of block to insert. They have been conveniently arranged into different sections. To insert a block, just open one of these sections and click on the block you want.
If you want to insert an image gallery, for example, you will need to go to Common Blocks and click on Gallery. From here, you can either upload an image from your computer or directly import one from the media library.
When a block is selected, you can bring out some additional options by clicking on the three vertical dots just above it. You can Hide Block Settings to clear out the options section in the right. Below that, you have the option to duplicate the current block. You can also add another block right above or below the current one.
The Gutenberg editor also allows you to directly edit the block as an HTML. It can be very helpful for those who have the appropriate technical knowledge. You can also save the current block as a Reusable Block to be used later on. Finally, you can delete the cureent block entirely by clicking on the Remove Block button.
Saving and Publishing the Post
In order to the save the current draft, all you need to do is click on the Save Draft button in the top right corner. Beside that is the Preview button, which allows you to check how the current post would look to your visitors. Finally, the Publish button will publish this post to your site.
If you click on the gear icon to the right of the Publish button, it will bring out the additional options. In the Status and Visibility panel, you can find the option to set the visbility of the post. You can choose whether the post is public, private or password protected. Underneath that, you can choose whether the post is published immediately or scheduled it to be published at a later date. Similarly, you can choose to stick it to the front page, above all other posts. You can even set your post to be pending a review. Finally, just click on the Move to trash button if you want to delete your post.
Underneath that, you might find the useful Revisions option. If you want to undo certain changes, revert your post to a previous version or just make comparisons to a old version of the post then you can click on button that shows your number of revisions. Below that, you can see the permalink for the post. You change the URL of this post from there.
Categories and Tags
If you scroll down from Permalink, you can find more panels containing more options. You can select the categories that your post falls under by checking the boxes. If you do not have any categories yet or just want to add new ones, you can simply click on the Add New Category button to create a category. You can even assign one of your existing categories to be the parent for the category you’ve just created.
Below that, you can add tags for your post. Just type in your tags seperated by a comma.
Featured Image, Excerpt, and Discussion
Another convenient option that the Gutenberg Editor provides is the ability to set a featured image easily. Just click on Set Featured Image button and select your image from the media library. You can also write a short summary or description of the post to be displayed as an Excerpt.
You can also choose to enable or disable the comments for that post by checking or un-checking the box below. It is also possible to do the same for Pingbacks & Trackbacks. If you weren’t aware, Pingbacks & Trackbacks are basically features that allow you to know when your content has been linked to by another site.
Block Options
You can also access a separate set of options for each block by selecting a block and clicking on the Block tab on the right.
For a paragraph block, you can change the font size from there. You can also set the first letter of a paragraph to be large by enabling Drop Cap.
Furthermore, you can also background color as well as the text color for the block below. You can choose between a number of preset colors or select a custom color using the color picker. Finally, you can add additional CSS Class if you know what you’re doing.
You can do similar things for an image block. The Block options allow you to setthe alternative text, image size, and even dimensions easily.
With Gutenberg, you can even choose if the image links to anything. Just click on the drop-down list underneat Link To and you can have it link to the media file, the attachment page, or a custom URL.
In this way, you can alter the options of different blocks to suit your needs. It is can be very use to use with its clean design and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface.
More Tools & Options
In order to show more tools & options, you will need to click on the three vertical dots on the top right corner.
From here, you can change the way the Gutenberg Editor looks, use certain tools and change even more options. By enabling or disabling the Top Toolbar, you can set the position of the formatting toolbar.
If you turn on the Spotlight Mode, only the currently selected block will be highlighted. Similarly, enabling Fullscreen Mode will hide everything except the post editor to help you avoid distractions. The code editor enables you to work directly with the code of your post. This mode should be reserved only for those who know what they are doing.
Clicking on Manage All Reusable Blocks will bring you to a page where you can directly managed the Gutenberg Blocks that you’ve saved. You can also check out the keyboard shortcuts from here, which can be very helpful in the long term. Finally, clicking on Options allows you to set which of the options panels are visible and enable pre-publish checks as well as tips.
2. Add New WordPress Post using the Classic Editor
Title and Content Boxes
One of the first thing that you will notice once you enter the page is the title and content boxes. On the sides, you will notice a visual and text editor option from where you can switch to each one. But we recommend not switching to the text editor as this might mess up your content.
On the top you will see the text area, this is where you can add the post’s title. You will also see the URL area where most of the time, WordPress auto-generates the URL for you. But if you want to edit the URL you can by clicking on the edit button right next to you.
The wide space under it is the area where you can write your new post. There are formatting options on the toolbar above the text pace which can easily use. As you keep writing, WordPress normally automatically saves your progress so that you don’t lose your work.
In addition, to speed up the process, several keyboard shortcuts are available. On the footer of the editor, you can view your word count.
Adding Images or Media
To add media files to your posts you can click on the Add Media that is placed between the title and the content field. After clicking on it, the media uploader will appear in front of your screen.
You can choose an existing image on your WordPress or you can upload a new one. This is entirely up to you. To upload, simply choose the image from your files or drag it to the uploader. You also have access to basic tools to edit, flip, rotate, or even crop your images before adding it to your post.
Publishing and Saving Draft
After completing your post, you have the option to either save it in the draft or to publish it right away. You can view the post setting on the right-hand side of the content editor. There you will see meta boxes labelled Save Draft, Publish, and Preview.
The Save Draft button allows you to save your current unfinished work in the draft. The Preview button alongside it shows you the live preview of your post. This is used to view how your post will look after it is published.
Status shows you the current status of your post whether it is still in the draft or if you have already published it. If you expand the options further you will see that you can password protect it or even stick it to the front page.
Categories and Tags
You can sort out all of your posts into specific categories and tags using the options in the meta boxes on the right-hand-side column. These not only help you organize each of your posts with ease but also boosts the SEO of your posts.
Featured Image
You can use any images that you want to feature on your post using the set featured image button on the box below the categories and tags.
Screen Options
Most of these options are hidden for a more clean and efficient content editing. You can expand the screen option to show editing options. Most of the options are already checked by default, but you can change this anytime. Here you can edit the features like Excerpts, Trackbacks, Custom Fields as well as Slugs and Author options.
Options With Plugins
While adding a plugin, you will notice that most of them add their own settings panel that you can customize and use to your benefit. You can find tutorials along with it most of the time that guides you through the process of using it.
Wrapping Up
Now that you have the basic idea of how each of the features works, you will no doubt easily be able to add a new post to your WordPress. Hope this article helped you out!
Thanks for reading the chapter 6 of our ultimate WordPress guide on creating a WordPress site.
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Chapter 5: WordPress Homepage: How to Set and Change WordPress Front Page
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