Registering yourself as a WordPress user, with your own username, and your own blog website.
1) Make sure you have an email you can check right now. This means you need a web-based email like hotmail, gmail, yahoo mail, etc.
2) Go to a web search engine (eg. Google) and type in WordPress.
3) Click on the link “WordPress.com – Get a Free Blog Here” at WordPress.com .
4) Click on ‘Get Started’ in the red box.
5) On the next screen:
- type in your email address,
- then choose a username that you like which doesn’t have to be your real name. This will have to be one that nobody else has used, so for example if you can’t have “john” you might have to have “johnperry”, or if that is also not possible you might try “johnperry112233”, and so on.
- then choose a password you will definitely remember (Kooj will suggest one if you are not sure). This does NOT have to be one that nobody else has used, you can choose anything as long as it is at least 8 characters long and contains a mixture of letters and numbers. WordPress will not let you use one that it thinks might be easy for someone else to guess.
- finally choose a web address name for your blog website, which will be yourwebaddressname.wordpress.com . This will have to be one that nobody else has used, so again you will have to try a few until you find one that is ok for you.
6) Double-check all is absolutely correct, then click on ‘Sign Up’.
7) Check your emails! WordPress will send you an email to verify you are the right person who wanted that username and blog. You will have to click on the ‘verify’ link in that email.
8) This will take you to your general wordpress users page. On this page you should click on ‘My Blogs’ at the top, and then on the name of your blog website.
9) You should click on any ‘next’ buttons as you will be able to alter any settings later on. You will now be on the Dashboard of your blog website.
Logging in to your WordPress blog website
- Go to the blog website, and click on ‘Log In’ on the right hand side lower down.
- Type in your username and password and click ‘Log In’.
- You’ll then see a big menu-style screen (called a dashboard). Set up two tabs so that the website can be seen in another tab.
Setting up two ‘tabs’ to work with.
A web browser is either Firefox, or Chrome, or Internet Explorer, and so on. A window is the outside FRAME of the web browser. A page is the main area of words and pictures inside this window.
- When you log in to your blog website, you will usually find yourself on the dashboard page for the website. At the top of the dashboard page is a black bar, and at the very left is a ‘W’ in a circle.
- Next to the ‘W’ at the top left is the title of your website. Move the mouse pointer ove this title, and RIGHT-click the mouse. A small menu box will open up. Click on the ‘Open in new tab’ option.
- You will now have two tabs at the top of your web-browser window, one with the dashboard in it and the other with the home page of the website in it. Click on each tab at the top to see its page.
- The dashboard tab is used to make changes to the website. The website tab is used to see if the changes have worked. You will have to press the ‘F5’ key on the keyboard to ‘refresh’ the page, this will then show you the changes you have made.
Themes.
A ‘Theme’ in WordPress is a design template for your website blog that you can customise. Each one has its own look and style, its own functions and features, and each will work for different people’s websites. Some are more customisable than others. There are free themes, and then there are ‘Premium’ themes which you have to buy.
During the first training workshop you will all set yourselves up with the ‘Twenty Eleven’ theme, which is great for training and also has plenty of useful features. After the course when you have become more confident you can try out other themes if you wish, but bear in mind things like the header image and widgets may have to be re-installed.
