This lesson will demonstrate in the most simply manner possible how to update a web post or page on WordPress. I will also be posting a video tutorial on how to use the editor shortly.
The first step is to open your website in your browser (I recommend Firefox.)
From the Home page, type in the following after the domain name in the address bar /wp-admin this will open up a login screen. Enter your Username and Password in the spaces provided.
This will open the Dashboard.
Once you have logged in you can add media, edit pages and posts, respond to comments etc… We are going to log into a post, in order to demonstrate how the editor works.
First we click on All posts under the Posts Tab on the left.
Posts and Pages are very similar. The big distinction between the two is that Posts are organized by Categories and Pages are not. Posts are great for News letters, blogs, succinct focused articles on specific targets that can be organized by multiple criteria. To edit a page simply mouse over the space under the page or post you want to edit and select Edit. This will bring up an editing window that will look something like this. (Your content will be different…)
Something very important to note that as a new user you will probably make some changes that you will regret later. At the top right of the screen you will see a drop down menu tab in grey called Screen Options you should click on this and check the Revisions box. This will enable you to revert the page to a prior version when you make a mistake and to compare changes if you want to compare versions or recover information from an older one.
Now you will have access to all the earlier versions of the page at the bottom.
OK so now the fun part. The page editor is very simple to use the various buttons in the editor bar do pretty much what you expect. Bold, Italic, Line Through, Underline, Unordered list, Ordered list, Indent etc. Play around with it and if you find it too limiting hit the button on the right for the kitchen sink. It has a lot more options and with the appropriate plugins can be configured to have even more.
If you click on the Upload/Insert Media button (which is probably the most hard to decipher icon on the page.) You can upload media to, or select it from, your library. To upload a file simply drag it onto the Drop files here or select it from your computer via the file browser.
If you have already loaded the media select it from your library.
Once you’ve chosen the media you will be given options for size, position and more.
If you right click on any image on your page you can edit it or remove it. And if you are using Firefox you can hold the shift key and scale the image directly in the edit window when you are in visual mode.
One last note and something that catches me every once in a while. When you click the “Preview Changes” button you will only see the page as it is right now. Any changes you make after this will not appear unless you click the preview button again and they will not be saved unless you click the “Update” button below it. I’ve found myself on a number of occasions looking at a page wondering why the content hasn’t updated. Close them when your done previewing the page, they can be confusing.
One more thing…. Once you’ve logged into the editor, you can edit any page you are on by clicking the edit button. This is much easier than navigating through the back end searching for a page or post to edit.
Hope you find this very short tutorial helpful in getting you started. I’ll be posting more, soon.