Logging in
After you request your Nipissing University WP (WordPress) Site, you will receive an email with the site URL that others will use to view your site. That URL will be in the following format: https://faculty.nipissingu.ca/yoursitename
The email will also include your username, password and a login URL in this format: https://faculty.nipissingu.ca/yoursitename/wp-login.php. You may want to bookmark your admin login link for future reference.
Choosing this link will allow you to enter your username and password and move directly to the WordPress Dashboard. When you are logged in, the WordPress admin toolbar will be across the top of the page.
The admin toolbar will give you access to a number of tools, including WordPress’s own support documents and forums, all of the sites you are associated with, and the ‘public view’ of what your site looks like to other people. It also provides shortcuts to comments on your site, and the ability to make posts. You can log out of WordPress by clicking on your username at the right. Once you log out, you will need to sign in again to make any edits or changes to your blog.
If this is the first time you have logged into WP, the site will know this and present you with a welcome message on the Dashboard. It is recommended that you take a moment to read and explore some of this information. In particular, they have provided you with resources for how to adjust your basic settings, add real content and customize your site.
Dashboard
Think of the Dashboard as the control panel for your entire WordPress site. The vertical menu at left provides you with all of the access to the tools you need to create and manage your site. The information below will provide a brief outline of the purpose and function of the most frequently used tools to begin using WordPress.
Posts
Most of the content you upload to your site will begin here with the Posts function. Selecting ‘Post’ and then ‘Add New’ will create a new entry to your blog. New entries will always appear on your home page, which populates in reverse chronological order with your most recent post at the top.
After you have created a post, click ‘Publish’ to add it to your blog. You can see how your new entry looks on your site by clicking the ‘Preview’, or ‘View Post’ button. You are always able to edit a post from the Dashboard by selecting ‘Posts’ and then hovering over the entry and choosing edit.
Tags and categories
Word-Press allows you to attach tags and categories to posts. Tags and Categories serve similar functions but are slightly different. Grouping your posts into categories will allow you to display them as a menu on your site. Alternatively, Tags can be used to mark or label posts with a specific word so it’s easier to search for them on your site. To add a Tag or a Category to your site, you can go to ‘Posts’ in your Dashboard and choose either ‘Categories’ or ‘Tags’. You can also input these details while you are creating a post, before you select ‘Publish’
Pages
An alternative way to add content to your site is to use the Pages tool. The difference between pages and posts is that pages will appear in the navigation bar of your site and they are intended for more static content, rather than a continuous thread of posts. Therefore, as an example, the pages tool is well suited for an About Me page.
WordPress automatically creates a page called ‘Sample Page’ to give uses an example of what a page looks like. Select ‘Pages’ in the left menu and hover over a page to reveal editing, preview and delete functions. Choose ‘Add new’ to create a new page on your site.
Media
You can add images, video, audio, and documents to a post or page. The simplest way to do this is while you are creating an entry. Above the textbox in the new post tool is an ‘Upload/Insert’ icon. Choose this to open the drag-and-drop interface. Drag your image, document, video or audio file into that box, or choose ‘Select Files’ to find the file on your computer for uploading. The interface will detect the type of media you are uploading and present you with various options to customize how the media is made available on your site.
Choose ‘Insert into Post’ to add the media and continue with your post.
The maximum file upload size is 10 MB. If you are attempting to upload a large video, you may want to consider storing it on a video sharing service such as YouTube, and simply providing the link in your entry. WordPress will do the rest.
Appearance
By default, your Nipissing University WP site employs a theme called ‘Twenty Eleven’. Themes control the look and feel of your site. By choosing ‘Appearance’ in the left menu, you have the ability to choose a different theme for your site to suit your preference. You can click on a theme to see a preview of how that design will look with your content. Once you have selected a theme, click on the Activate link on the top of the preview window to apply the theme. Please note that if you have configured custom menus or widgets, you will have to re-add them after changing your theme.
Comments
By default, Blog posts that you have made are open to comments from the public. This feature adds an interactive element to your WP site. Users should be aware however that in order for a reply to appear on your site, you are required to accept it. You are considered the moderator of the site and have the authority to accept or reject comments as you see fit. You may also disable commenting altogether on new posts.
WP will send you an email when a comment is posted, and from that email you can choose to accept or reject the comment. Alternatively, if there are many comments awaiting moderation, the quickest way to manage these interactions is to choose the ‘Comments’ button from the dashboard.
Here, you will see every comment awaiting moderation. Hovering over each comment will reveal options to approve, reply, edit or trash the comment. You may also use the checkboxes to perform a ‘bulk action’ to every comment.
It’s also worthwhile to note that you can change the settings that pertain to these comments by choosing from the dashboard ‘Settings’ and then ‘Discussion’. For example, by default, users are required to include their email address with each comment. As well, WP will email you when every comment is posted. These are settings that can be changed from the discussions pane.
Logging out
To log out of your Word-Press site, go to the top left of your screen and click on your username. In the drop down, you will see a menu option for you to log out. Once you log out, you will need to sign in again to make any edits or changes to your blog.
Additional help
This WP site will be used to post support, resources and news about Nipissing University WP sites. Watch for additional posts here.
Another great source of information is the official Word-Press wiki and documentation here: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Quick_Start_Guide