How To Use Wordpress Blog Dashboard Features

Approve Comments - Insert Media - Create Pages And Links - Dashboard Features

In the previous section I taught you how to Create And Post An Article, amongst other things, in order to get you started with Wordpress. In this section I will teach you how to import media files, delete or accept comments from the public, create a page, create a link and so on.

Begin by logging into your wordpress blog, if you have logged out of it since viewing the previous section, by taking your web browser to the Administrator URL: http://www.yourwebsite.com/wordpress/wp-admin/. Doing so will take you to the Administrator Login web page where you then need to enter your User Name & Password before clicking on the LOGIN button.

Enter your user name and password before clicking on the LOGIN button to continue

From this point onwards continue learning from the previous section (refer back to it if necessary).

APPROVE / DISALLOW  A  COMMENT

Now that you know how to create, publish and delete posts (articles) the next thing to do is manage their comments. Whenever you publish a post someone is entitled to comment on what has been said in that post. This can lead to people swearing, spamming and so on, destroying your blog experience and its reputation. Fortunately, no one can just post a comment without your permission. They have to wait for your approval of their comment.

Fig 5.10  Oh Dear! Someone is trying to put trashy comments on this blog

To delete one or more comments you must first click on the DASHBOARD heading, to give you an overview of posted comments (active and pending approval), and then click on the COMMENTS link (to the right of the Posts link, above). This will then allow you to approve, delete and generally edit comments.

Fig 5.11  Go back to the Dashboard and click on the COMMENTS link to edit comments

To delete more than one comment put a tick next to each comment you want deleting, select MOVE TO TRASH from the ACTIONS (Bulk Actions, Unapprove, Approve, Mark As Spam or Move To Trash) drop-down menu and then click on the APPLY button. This will place the comment inside the trashcan (dustbin) whereby you can later empty the trash or undelete a comment.

Fig 5.12  Click on the APPLY button to apply your Bulk Action (Move To Trashcan)

CREATE  A  PAGE

As well as creating posts (articles) you can also create Pages. These are aimed at being static. For example. Most blog templates come with an ABOUT page so you can tell people about yourself, but sometimes you want another page that has nothing to do with ABOUT.

You may need an INSTRUCTIONS page or GUIDELINES page. Regardless of this though, to create a static page first click on the PAGES menu, underneath the POSTS menu, and then click on its ADD NEW menu-item. From there, enter your Page Title and Page Text before clicking on the PUBLISH button to publish your page.

Fig 5.13  Enter a Page Title and Page Text and then click on the PUBLISH button to publish your page

In the above example I am creating a page called Special Offers that will be placed next to the About page by default. However, if I want the Special Offers page to be a sub-page of the About page I could select ABOUT in the PARENT drop-down menu, in the Attributes section, before clicking on the PUBLISH button.

This would give the effect that ABOUT is a parent page and SPECIAL OFFERS is a sub-page when displayed under the Pages heading in the blog. All sub-pages would be indented (moved slightly) to the right of the ABOUT page.

If you scroll down the PAGES page you will see other options, such as whether or not to allow comments for this Special Offers page. And whether or not to allow pingbacks (linking to this page - see Trackback/Pingback above). Simply untick any options you do not wish to use or do not wish to allow before clicking on the PUBLISH button. As said. The Parent drop-down menu can be used to create sub-pages or single pages (Main Page - No Parent).

CREATE  A  LINK

The ADD LINKS section allows you to add a list of your favourite website / blog links to your blogroll. Blogroll is just the category title for your favourites list. Click on the LINKS menu, under the POST menu, and then click on the ADD NEW menu-item to begin adding a new link to your blogroll.

Fig 5.14  Enter the details of the website/blog that you want adding to your blogroll (favourites list)

The LINKS section is quite straight forward to fill in. Entering the bare minimum details (Name, Web Address, Description) and then clicking on the ADD LINK button will be sufficient enough to get the link added to the category called blogroll.

If you want to create more categories for your link simply click on the LINK CATEGORIES menu-item, underneath the LINKS menu, or click on the ADD NEW CATEGORY link underneath the Categories section. When you have created more than one category (i.e. Favourites and Gold) you can put a tick next to each category you want your link to go inside. So ticking Gold and Blogroll for example would put your new link inside those categories but not inside the Favourites category.

Other options further down the LINK section include the ability to dictate how a link is opened when clicked on (i.e. in the same window/tab), the relationship between links (i.e. friend, family, romantic) and advanced options such as RSS Address. For standard links just follow the above example and advice. And for advanced features simply read the documentation belonging to those features/options.

ADD  MEDIA  FILES

If you require an image, or other piece of media, in your post (article) you should click on the MEDIA menu, underneath the POST menu, and then click on the ADD NEW menu-item to begin the import (upload) process. From there. Click on the SELECT FILES button to browse for a piece of media, fill in the Caption and Description for it (if need be) and then click on the SAVE ALL CHANGES button to continue.

Fig 5.15  Upload a media file, fill in a caption/description if need be and then click on SAVE ALL CHANGES

To insert that media file into your post, create a post as normal and then click on one of the Media (Image, Video, Audio, Media) buttons next to the UPLOAD/INSERT heading (above the Article Text edit box, below the Add New Post edit box) to bring up the Media Insert requester.

In this example I am inserting an image into a post, therefore the media insert requester is titled ADD AN IMAGE. It gives you three main import/upload options. FROM COMPUTER, FROM URL and from MEDIA LIBRARY. I chose MEDIA LIBRARY because the image I want to use has already been imported/uploaded into the media library. So from there I had clicked on the SHOW link, next to the image, to show the available image options (i.e. Description, Size and Alignment) which can be changed. After that I clicked on the INSERT INTO POST button to have the image inserted into my post.

Fig 5.16  Edit your options, if need be, and then click on the INSERT INTO POST button to continue

With the image now inside my post (below) I can continue with the article text. One thing to note here is that I can see the image because I have the Visual Editor switched ON (see Profile Page - Paragraph after Fig 5.1 in previous section). If I had it switched off all I would see is the HTML code that represents the inserted image. With the visual editor switched on I can switch between the HTML code and the Visual Appearance any time by simply clicking on the VISUAL tab or HTML tab.

Fig 5.17  An inserted image - You only see the HTML Code when the Visual Editor is disabled




Fig 5.18  An inserted image - You see the Image when the Visual Editor is enabled

Theses last two sections have outlined and exampled many of the basic features of Wordpress, enough to get you started with blogging. In the next section I will show you how to change the appearance (Theme) of your wordpress blog to something more attractive than the default blue theme.