Pages, Posts, and Media
The three main types of content on WordPress: posts, pages, and media. Media is any image, video, or audio file you want to store on your site. Posts and pages may seem similar at first, but they do have a few key differences. Pages are meant to be static pieces of information (although they can be modified). This makes pages great for “about” information about your project. Posts are more like blogs in that they have date information associated with them, and they can be categorized and tagged. Posts are great for news items, articles, or other pieces of information you want to date and categorize. You can learn more about posts and pages through Learn WordPress.
Understanding the Block Editor
WordPress currently uses the Block Editor on posts and pages to easily allow you to author content, insert media, and style your pages. The block editor allows you to insert different content types and customize those content types (such as modifying size, color, alignment) using the right sidebar. You can also use the Block Editor’s list view feature to easily see an outline of your content and easily drag-and-drop content elements to different places on the page. We encourage you to read WordPress’ documentation on the block editor so you can feel confident in using this feature.
Setting the front page
By default, WordPress sets your homepage to be a list of recent posts. To customize the homepage, you can create and publish a new page. Once the page is live, navigate to “Settings” on your wordPress dashboard and select the “Reading” setting. Here, you can change the front page to display as a page of your choosing.
Creating menus
These instructions assume you are using the default WordPress theme upon installation. Your menu locations may change if you modify the theme on your site.
To edit the main menu at the top of your site, go to Appearance > Editor in the dashboard. You should see the homepage of your site in this view.
Select the top menu, and the frame around the page should change. You should now be in an interface that looks much more like the block editor (see above). You can now select the “list view” icon in the top left corner (represented by three horizontal lines). Dig down in the “header” section until you reach a section that reads “navigation.” Select “navigation” and you should see a block editor in the right bar. You can use this block editor to add, delete, and reorder links. “Page Link” will allow you to add pages from your CreateFSU site, and “Custom Link” will allow you to add links to external sites.
Once the menu is to your liking, hit save and the menu will be reflected in your live site. You can read more about menus in the WordPress documentation.
Title and Tagline
Your site’s title and tagline dictates what text appears at the top of your site. Depending on what theme you use, the title and taglines will show up in various places. In the case of some themes, they might not show up at all depending on whether they allow custom configurations.
To edit your site’s title and tagline, go to the WordPress dashboard and navigate to Settings > General. Once you’re on the General Settings page, you can give your site any title you want. You can also give your site a tagline, which can be a short description of the site.
Adding collaborators
To add collaborators to your site, you will navigate to the WordPress dashboard and select Users > Add New. From here, you can create a username and password for your collaborators (they will be able to modify these later). You will want to ensure that the box for sending the new user an email is selected. Then you will select their role, which determines the level of permissions they have in the site. Make sure to read up on WordPress’s user roles and permissions so you can select the right level of access for your collaborators and site editors.