Equinet Academy

Wordpress Manual

25-Page Online Manual on How to Get Started Building a Wordpress Website From Scratch.

Equinet AcademyWordpress Manual

Table of Contents:

1) Installing Wordpressi. Installing Fantastico through cPanelii. Logging in to Wordpress

2) General Settingsi. Keeping Updatedii. Setting Permalinks

3) Creating Postsi. Adding a New Postii. Adding an Image to Your Postiii. Managing Categories and Tags

4) Creating Pagesi. Adding a New Pageii. Selecting Page Templatesiii. Organizing Page Hierarchy

5) Text Formattingi. Adding Text Hyperlinksii. Basic Text Formatting Walk Through

6) Customizing Appearancei. Customizing Navigation Menuii. Customizing Widgetsiii. Installing a New Theme

7) Plugins Extending the Functionality of Wordpressi. Installing a New Pluginii. Updating a Pluginiii. 5 Plugins to Install for Every Wordpress Site

At Equinet Academy, we provide the most comprehensive hands-on Website Creation and Internet Marketing courses in Singapore.

Installing Wordpress

i. Installing Fantastico through QuickInstall

Login to your cPanel Account by going to: www.yourdomain.com/cPanel

Navigate to the Fantastico icon and click on it.

Click on Wordpress on the left and click New installation

Fill in the required details as shown below and hit Install

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Click on the link: www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin

ii. Logging in to Wordpress: Login to your Wordpress backadmin (www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin)

View your Wordpress Dashboard

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General Settings

i. Keeping updated

From the sidebar menu, click Updates and update accordingly.

ii. Setting Permalinks

Click on Permalinks under the Settings header, select Post name and click Save Changes.

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Creating Postsi. Adding a New Post

Click on All Posts to see a list of all your posts. Click on Add New to create a post.

You should see this screen.

Enter a Post title and some content in the Post body and click Publish.

4Click on View Post to view your post from the front end.

You should see your post displayed nicely on the front end.

Go back to edit your post by click the Edit Post link on the top of your page.

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ii. Adding an Image to Your PostClick on Add Media to add a new picture

Select photos from your computer or drag and drop them into this box.

Configure image settings.

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Your image is now aligned. Click Update to save your changes.

Click on view page to see you changes

Your image is now aligned nicely to the left.

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iii. Managing Categories and TagsClick Add New Category

Type in a Category Name and click Add New Category.

Your Category will be added.

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To add a post tag, type in your new tag and click Add

Your new tag has been added. You may choose to add new tags or remove existing ones.

Click on the Categories link under the Posts heading. You may manage your categories here.

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Creating Pagesi. Creating a New Page

Click on All Pages from the left sidebar menu. Click on Add New.

Add a new page title and add some content in the page body.

Select page template (i.e. Full Width Page) or leave it at default. Hit publish.

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ii. Selecting Page TemplatesThis is a default page template

To select a different page template i.e. Full Width, select Full-width Page Template, No Sidebar.

Hit update and you will see a full-width page template

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iii. Organizing Page Hierarchy

In the following screenshot we have (no parent) selected.

The following url structure is displayed when (no parent) is selected.

In the next screenshot we have Sample Page selected as the Parent page.

The following url structure is displayed with Sample Page selected as the Parent Page.

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Text Formattingi. Adding a Text Hyperlink

Highlight the text you wish to link out and click on the link button as show below.

Fill in the url you want to link out to and click Add Link.

Your text becomes clickable and it is now an anchor text. Clicking it will link to an external page.

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ii. Basic Text Formatting Walk Through

The visual WYSIWYG Editor allows you to format text without HTML knowledge. WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get.

Text/HTML Editor

If you are proficient in HTML, you may select the Text tab and edit with HTML.

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Customizing Appearancei. Customizing Navigation Menu

Under the Appearance heading in the sidebar menu, click on Menus.

Type Main Navigation in the Menu Name box. Click Create Menu.

Select Main Navigation in the Theme Locations Box. Click Save.

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Type in your Home page URL in the Custom Links Box. Type Home in the Label box and Click Add to Menu.Checkmark the pages you wish to add to your navigation menu. Click Add to Menu.

You may reorder the menu by dragging and dropping the boxes around. Click Save Menu.

The menu will be displayed in the order you arranged it to be.

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Let's change the order of the menu and create a Drop Down Menu.

Now when we preview the page, and hover our mouse over the Sample Page we get a drop down.

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ii. Customizing WidgetsNavigate over to the Widgets Section. Appearance => Widgets

Let's drag a Text Widget box over to the Main Sidebar.

Type some stuff into the text widget and click Save.

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You may preview your site. Notice that you've added a new text widget on the right sidebar.

Let's rearrange the sidebar widgets.

As you can see, the Search Widget is now above the Text Widget.

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iii. Installing a New ThemeNavigate to Appearance => Themes

You may choose to upload a theme from your computer or choose from the Wordpress Community.

Let's upload a theme. Download a Free theme => www.equinetacademy.com/themorningafter.zipClick on the Uploads link and click Choose File.

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Select theme from your computer hard drive. Click Choose.

Click Install Now and wait for theme to upload to your server.

Click Activate and that's it! Your new theme will be installed and selected.Remember to read the theme's documentation and learn how to customize the theme specifically. The new theme you've just downloaded is by WooThemes - http://docs.woothemes.com/document/the-morning-after/

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Plugins Extending the Functionality of Wordpressi. Installing a Plugin

Navigate to Plugins => Add New and enter Wordpress SEO in the Search box. Hit Search.

Click Install Now. Hit okay on the prompt box.

Click Active Plugin and your plugin installation is complete.

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ii. Updating a PluginIt is important to keep all your plugins updated for security purposes. Navigate to Plugins and click Update Available.

Click on Update Now

Click Activate Plugin and your update will be completed.

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iii. 5 Must-Haves Plugins

Below are the 5 Must-Haves Plugins to install into any Wordpress site.

1) Akismet

Akismet protects your blog from comment and trackback spam.

2) Better WP Security

Better WP Security hardens standard Wordpress security by hiding vital areas of your site, protecting access to important files via htaccess, preventing brute-force login attempts, detecting attack attempts, and more.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/

3) Duplicator

The Duplicator plugin gives WordPress Administrators and Developers the ability to migrate/clone a site from one location to another location.

http://support.lifeinthegrid.com/knowledgebase.php?article=3

4) Formidable Forms

Formidable allows you to quickly build forms including contact forms, via drag-and-drop.

http://formidablepro.com/knowledgebase/

5) Wordpress SEO by Yoast

Wordpress SEO is one of the best SEO plugins that will optimize your Wordpress site internally for search engines. It can even generate an XML sitemap of your site to submit to search engines, ensuring better crawlability.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/

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Resources:

Get your domain name from:

www.namecheap.com

Get your hosting account from:

www.equinethosting.com

Design your logo from:

www.onlinelogomaker.com

Get royalty-free photos from

www.sxc.huwww.morguefile.comwww.findicons.com

Get premium wordpress themes from:

www.themeforest.netwww.woothemes.comwww.equinetacademy.com/woothemes

Conduct competitive keyword research from:

https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool

Outsource your articles from:

www.fiverr.comwww.elance.com

Source for affiliate products from:

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

Earn advertising revenue from:

www.google.com.sg/adsense

Create an Ecommerce Site with WooCommerce

http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/

If you want to learn Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in-depth, we offer a 2-day hands-on internet marketing course covering these two major topics.

Visit www.equinetacademy.com/internet-marketing-course-singapore for more info.

Log on to www.equinetacademy.com to view more available courses.

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