WordPress 101 Video Tutorial Series

01-The Dashboard

The first video in this series provides an overview of the WordPress Administration Panel, which provides access to the functions and features of your WordPress-powered website. This video covers:

• Familiarizing yourself with the Dashboard.
• How to customize the WordPress interface.
• Hiding Dashboard modules you rarely use.
• The collapsible navigation menu and functions.
• The default modules available to users.
• How to use QuickPress to create a new Post.

02-Create a New Post

This video demonstrates how to create a “Post” in WordPress. Posts are blog entries that are displayed in chronological order on your homepage, with the newest Post at the top. Unlike Pages, Posts usually have comments beneath them and are included in your site’s RSS feed. Covered in this video:

• The difference between posts and pages.
• How to create a new post.
• Personalizing the Add New Post interface.
• Formatting content using the WYSIWYG editor.
• Pasting content from MSWord into WordPress.
• Understanding Visual and HTML Editor modes.
• How to save and publish posts to your site.

03-Edit an Existing Post

In this video, we’ll talk about how to edit an existing post in WordPress. The Posts > Edit sub-panel enables you to select the post(s) you wish to edit, delete, or view. The Bulk Edit feature allows you to change the details for a group of posts at the same time. Quick Edit allows you to update many fields for an individual post. Covered in this video:

• How to bulk edit or delete multiple posts at once.
• Using the Quick Edit tool to change post details.
• Sticky posts.
• Editing, previewing and updating a post.

04-Using Categories and Tags

In this video, we take a look at how to better organize your posts in WordPress through the use of Tags and Categories. Tags are essentially keywords that you assign to each post. Every post in WordPress is filed under one or more Categories. Categories allow your posts to be classifieds into groups and subgroups. Unlike tags, categories may be assigned to a parent category, enabling you to set up a hierarchy within the category structure. Covered in this video:

• The difference between tags and categories.
• How to add and edit categories.
• Using subcategories to sort content hierarchically.
• How to add and edit tags.

05-Creating and Editing Pages

In his video, we’ll cover how to edit and add new Pages. A Page is another tool to add content to a WordPress site and is often used to present content that doesn’t change often. An example of a page is the information typically contained in “About Us” Pages. Pages are not displayed with the rest of your Posts, but are displayed individually. Covered in this video:

• The difference between Pages and Posts.
• How to edit and delete pages.
• How to bulk edit or delete multiple pages at once.
• Using the Quick Edit tool to change page details.
• Changing the order of your pages.
• How to “nest” pages under a parent page.
• Assigning different page templates.

06-How to Add Photos and Images

In this video we’re going to explore how to embed photos and images into your Posts and Pages. Covered in this video:

• How to upload and insert an image/photo from your computer.
• Formatting images using the Image Editor and CSS.
• Editing images that have been previously embedded.

07-How to Embed Video

In this video, we demonstrate how to embed a video into a post or page. The easiest way to embed video on your own site is to first upload your video to a video hosting service, such as YouTube or Vimeo.com. Once your video has been uploaded and converted successfully, it can be embedded within a post or page on your site with just a couple of clicks. Covered in this video:

• Best practices for inserting video into your site.
• Using Auto-Embed to easily embed videos and other content with just a couple of clicks.
• Embedding other types of content, besides video.

08-Using the Media Library

In this video, we’ll examine how to use the Media Library to manage uploaded files, and upload other file types (such as PDFs or Word documents) for use in future posts or pages. Covered in this video:

• How to upload new files using the Media > Library sub-panel.
• How to bulk-edit or delete media files.
• How to crop, rotate, or flip images using the built-in Image Editor.

09-Managing Comments

In this video, we’ll take a look at how to enable and moderate comments on your WordPress site. Comments are an important feature of a modern site, because they allow your readers to respond to your content and interact with you. Covered in this video:

• How to enable Comments and Discussions.
• Best practices and settings for allowing comments.
• Filtering comments for language and content.
• How to approve, edit, delete or mark a comment as spam using the Comments sub-panel.

10-How to Create a Link

In this video, we’ll discuss how to add links to your WordPress site. Often, you’ll be creating links within your posts and pages, which will enable you to share related and useful content with your readers. But, you can also build a list of links that you’d like your readers to check out, and this list of links can be displayed in your site’s sidebar. Covered in this video:

• How to easily create a link within a post or page.
• How to add new links to your sidebar.
• Choosing the target or destination when your visitor clicks on a link.
• Organize your links into related link categories for easy navigation.
• Editing or deleting multiple links at once.

11-Changing Your Theme

From time to time, you might like to update the look and feel of your WordPress site. This video demonstrates how to change the look of your site by installing a new Theme. A theme is actually a bundle of files that determine the overall design of a site, including colors, graphics, layout, and fonts. Covered in this video:

• How to find and install new themes.
• Updating the look of your site with one click using the Appearance sub-panel.
• Previewing changes before you activate a new theme.
• Editing the background and header in the default WordPress Theme, Twenty Eleven.

12-Adding Widgets

In this video, we’ll learn what Widgets are, and how they can be used to easily add blocks of content to your site’s sidebar or footer. Widgets can be used to display your most recent posts and comments, archives, categories, or links in your sidebar or footer. Covered in this video:

• What are widgets, and how do they appear on your website?
• How to add and edit widgets using the Appearance > Widgets sub-panel.
• How to rearrange the order of widgets in the sidebar of your site.
• Making the most of multiple widget areas.

13-Building Custom Menus

In this video, you’ll learn how to use build custom navigation menus, including drop-down menu items. In the Menus sub-panel, you can create one or more custom menus, for use in your site’s primary navigation menu, or other areas in our site. Custom menus may contain links to individual pages, categories archives, or even external URLs. Covered in this video:

• How to create a new custom menu.
• Adding pages, categories and custom links to your menu.
• How to rearrange menu items.
• Creating nested, or drop-down menus.
• How to build multiple custom menus, and why.

14-Installing Plugins

This video demonstrates how to find, install, and configure third-party plugins to add new functions and features to your WordPress site. Plugins allow you to add new features to your WordPress blog that don’t come standard with the default installation. There are thousands of plugins available for WordPress. Covered in this video:

• What are plugins, and what do they do?
• How to activate and deactivate plugins.
• How to find new plugins directly from your dashboard.
• Using the automatic plugin installer.
• Configuring a sample plugin.

15-Adding New Users

This video demonstrates how to add new users to your WordPress site, and assign permissions based on roles. The Authors & Users sub-panel enables you to set up new user accounts, as well as change user information, or delete users. Covered in this video:

• How to add a new user.
• How to edit or delete existing users.
• How to set individual permissions for each user.
• What roles and capabilities are available to each permission level?
• Editing your own profile and login information.

16-Useful Tools

This video demonstrates some of the tools that WordPress provides to manage your blog, including importing and exporting your entire site. Covered in this video:

• Quick publishing via the Press This bookmarklet.
• The Category/Tag conversion tool.
• How to import posts and comments from other blog services.
• How to easily backup or export your WordPress content at any time.

17-Configuration Settings

In the final video in this series, we’ll discuss how to configure the settings to optimize and get the most out of your WordPress site. The Settings sub-panel contains all of the settings that determine how your site behaves, how you interact with your site, and how the rest of the world interacts with your site.