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Wordpress. How to start for very beginners.
chealsycat
Posts: 2,974 Member
So yesterday I registered on Wordpress. But I feel myself absolutely dumb there. 
Have spend several hours to post 2 pages. But I still don't understand how to write a book. The pages I posted look separated and I have no idea how to make them parts of one story. The letters on the first page look enormous but I can't make them smaller (When I write - they are small. When I publish - they are enormous.)
Could anyone give instructions (step by step) with pictures for the very beginners like me.
The instructions given by Wordpress don't help me much. I'm poor at reading instructions, even when they're written in my mother tongue (reading them in English is even harder). Like cave people, I prefer pictures to words. That's why IKEA instructions are my favourite.
@SilentWolf101 has made a very useful guide. But I still don't understand most of simple things. Clever words like "Domain" etc. make my poor head square. I need loads of pictures with arrows saying: "press this", "print this here" etc.
Btw, the funniest thing is - I was told on Wordpress that I follow chealsycat
I have no idea how that happened. But now I follow myself like my cats follow their tails
One more thing. Why is this cloned?
I wasted two days reading instructions, guides, googling, searching YouTube... and trying, trying, trying...
My current state is:
You can see here what my site (blog?) looks like. It's terrible.
https://chealsycat.wordpress.com/
I'd like it to be more compact and informative.
Like these sites, for example:
https://mastressalita.wordpress.com/
https://cathytea.wordpress.com/
Could anyone help me, please?
My questions are "How?" From the very beginning. Maybe like SilentWolf's guide but less words and more pictures.
I even don't know what theme to choose. I don't understand their difference from each other.
I would like my thread look like a book with the "cover" with title, the main picture, some introductory words and the contents.
And the important thing: I can afford only free plans.
Have spend several hours to post 2 pages. But I still don't understand how to write a book. The pages I posted look separated and I have no idea how to make them parts of one story. The letters on the first page look enormous but I can't make them smaller (When I write - they are small. When I publish - they are enormous.)
Could anyone give instructions (step by step) with pictures for the very beginners like me.
The instructions given by Wordpress don't help me much. I'm poor at reading instructions, even when they're written in my mother tongue (reading them in English is even harder). Like cave people, I prefer pictures to words. That's why IKEA instructions are my favourite.
@SilentWolf101 has made a very useful guide. But I still don't understand most of simple things. Clever words like "Domain" etc. make my poor head square. I need loads of pictures with arrows saying: "press this", "print this here" etc.
Btw, the funniest thing is - I was told on Wordpress that I follow chealsycat
I have no idea how that happened. But now I follow myself like my cats follow their tails
One more thing. Why is this cloned?
I wasted two days reading instructions, guides, googling, searching YouTube... and trying, trying, trying...
My current state is:
You can see here what my site (blog?) looks like. It's terrible.
https://chealsycat.wordpress.com/
I'd like it to be more compact and informative.
Like these sites, for example:
https://mastressalita.wordpress.com/
https://cathytea.wordpress.com/
Could anyone help me, please?
My questions are "How?" From the very beginning. Maybe like SilentWolf's guide but less words and more pictures.
I even don't know what theme to choose. I don't understand their difference from each other.
I would like my thread look like a book with the "cover" with title, the main picture, some introductory words and the contents.
And the important thing: I can afford only free plans.
Post edited by EA_Solaire on
4
Comments
So, let's go through step-by-step, and we'll address your questions and work with this until we get it just the way you want it! And then when you want to change it, we can work with it to make the changes you want!
Let's start with your question:
It looks like with your theme, two widgets are showing up. You can get rid of them!
1. Hover over the W in the upper left > Click "Customize."
2. Click Widgets.
3. The page will show up in "Customize" view. Click the pencil for one of the things you want to hide.
4. Click "Remove" to remove that Widget.
Keep "removing" everything until you get rid of the extras.
(If someone else has a better technique, please chime in!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
(I bet we get your site really close to the way you want it by the weekend! Whee!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
So, I did it.
Clone deleted.
Then I decided to do some extra homework.
I added Widgets to Sidebar Right
And removed them from the other Footer.
Voila!
1. how to add a picture to the post on my front page like this:
2. I'd like to have only introduction to my story on my front page and something like Contents leading to the chapters. How to make that?
For your information - this is the Theme I'm using now.
If it is not suitable for what I want, which other free Theme would you advise?
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Thank you for the help!
1) First, Themes. I REALLY like the theme you're currently using. Unless it's not doing something you want it to do, I don't suggest switching. You can always choose something else later. I started using Blaskan and I really liked it a lot--used it for about 16 months and enjoyed it a lot! One thing I suggest is to check out other people's themes to see what you like. I use different ones on my other blogs, so you can look at them to see what they're like. I also always love the themes that @ra3rei , @Meggles , and @eXokamikaze use--so you can take a look at theirs, too. When you see a theme you like, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, then you'll see which theme they're using.
Sometimes, I try different themes. I always write down the names of them so I can go back if I like them--and I write down the name of the one I'm starting with, in case I need to go back to the very beginning! It's another time when experimenting really, really helps!
2) Ok! Your other question. This sounds like it's working on getting your "cover" page set up for your blog.
This will be your Home page.
I'm going to create a new message that addresses this, because I want to get a few screenshots. I'll have it posted in a few!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
As for themes...I look at them ALL the time to see what new ones have come out - but I'm pretty strict with my critera. Just remember you can click around the theme tester and change all sorts of things to see how it would look with your content. Even go look at posts and pages without actually activating the theme. (Especially once you've got a bunch). I was looking at a fairly interesting theme the other day, but all my pictures would have been cropped funny if I used it. Didn't notice it right away, but once I did, I had to toss it out. Luckily even if you change a bunch of stuff on the customizer, if you never click "activate" it's not saved.
1) First you'll need to have two pages created. One will be your home page, and one will be where your recent posts will be displayed. If you haven't yet created a page, now is when you'll do that.
(If you want more instructions about creating the pages, let me know, and I'll be happy to write a post just on that!
2) Next, in customize, you will set your site to have a "Static Home Page".
Note: Not all themes allow a static home page. Yours does, so you're in good shape!
A. Click "Customize"
B. Click "Static Home Page."
3) Now, you will select the page that will be your home page. (I titled my home page "Welcome!")
Then select the page for your Recent Posts page. (I titled mine "Recent Posts.")
Once this is done, you will edit your home page so that it's set up the way you want it!
We can talk about this when you're ready! Ask lots of questions! Play, explore, have fun!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
@ra3rei It's a really helpful tip! Thank you very much!
First, I wasn't given any choice on choosing Posts page:
I tried this and that, creates posts, deleted them:
I was even going to delete everything.
But some gods of Wordpress must have felt pity for me. They waved their magic wands and:
And I don't know what will happen to my next posts. (or pages?)
So -- THANK YOU to the blog gods who have come forward to help @chealsycat with hers!!
My Twitch Channel
YouTube
1. What's the difference between Pages and Blog posts?
2. What should I do now to publish updates to the story?
3. I still don't understand why I'm following myself.
4. What is Press This button for?
5. I'm still dreaming of making Contents for my story.
You needn't hurry to answer the questions.
Frankly I'm feeling really exhausted now.
Thank you @CathyTea and everyone for support and advice!
Wow! You're doing great! Never feel like you have to delete everything. You can always check with me and @ra3rei and others, and we'll help! Sometimes, like you're discovering, it takes some playing around and trying different things. You're really doing great! So big pat on the back!
Also, I really like the text you wrote on your "cover" page!
And now! Onto the questions!
So my current questions are:
1. What's the difference between Pages and Blog posts?
Posts show up in your "Recent Posts" page in reverse chronological order. So when you write a new one, it's at the top, and then the one you wrote before that is below it, and so on.
You can assign "tags" to posts to help people find them better, for example #Bear and #BearClub and #CrazyDancingBears and so on!
You can also assign posts to "categories" as another way of organizing them. (Some WordPress authors use categories, rather than Table of Contents pages).
Pages are static, meaning that they won't show up on a "Recent Posts" page. You determine where the pages show up.. They don't use "tags" or "categories" .
I use "Posts" for my chapters. When I write a new chapter of my story "Wonder," for example, I write it as a new post.
I use "Pages" for my table of contents. Each story I have has its own page. So, my story "Wonder" has its own Table of Contents page, and when I write a new post, I always make sure that I add the new post to the Table of Contents page for that story. I do this by hand because I'm old school!
2. What should I do now to publish updates to the story?
Yay! To publish updates, click new post. That's the little pencil icon in the upper right.
Click that, and the editor will open and you can write your update!
It will save automatically.
Click Preview to preview, and Publish to publish!
Once you click Publish, it will show up on your Recent Posts page, and all your followers will receive email notification that it's there!
3. I still don't understand why I'm following myself.
LOL! Me, neither! I follow myself, too. It's a WordPress thing, I guess!
4. What is Press This button for?
Here's what it says about this in WordPress help:
"Press This provides a lightning-fast way to grab text, images, or video from any website and post it to your blog without ever visiting WordPress.com. You can also use Press This to quickly share a link on your blog."
I've never used it once, so I don't know about it. If you want to use it, maybe another WordPress user can explain how they use it, why to use it, and when to use it!
5. I'm still dreaming of making Contents for my story.
Yay! Let's do it!
Your Table of Contents will be a page.
So create a new page. Title it Table of Contents, or Contents.
Then, you can add links to the posts in the order that you want them to be in!
Ask more when you want more specific help!
Remember, don't give up and don't delete! If it's not working the way you want it, take screen shots and share them with us, or try something else, or come back later, and ask a bunch of questions!
We can figure out everything!
You're doing great, and your website looks awesome already!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
I still have questions. But not today.
How did Scarlett O'Hara say? "I shall think about that tomorrow"?
As for why you're following yourself...I don't see and option on my screen to follow myself so I can think of only a few options. (Down where "follow" is for other blogs I have a "customize" link so it knows I'm looking at my own blog.
1. You secretly have two emails attached to wordpress and are following another version of yourself. Or another version of you is following the new you.
2. It's like the facebook 'like' where you can 'follow' anything that's published (since I don't see this on my blog I only see customize or edit it might have happened when you were logged out.
3. You are following yourself via email rather than in your wordpress reader. I turned that off on my blog, so I can't check that myself to see if that's possible.
4. You are actually a cat and that is your tail.
So today was better for wordpressing than yesterday.
In the end I understood that to make everything you publish into one story, you should use posts, NOT pages. And don't forget to create the category where you will put all the posts of one story.
Thank you for explanations @CathyTea
And I managed to start Contents of my story.
For those who maybe don't know:
Press this to insert links to your chapters in the Contents \/
As for Press This button - all I got that it's useless (at least till anyone proves me that it's really handy button for doing something important
Yay! I'm not alone! Three cheers to self-followers!
@ra3rei Number 4 is the most reasonable answer.
But I've found where I can unfollow myself:
Here's the secret place where all people you follow hide.
Also many thanks @Julyvee94 for creating a very useful thread and especially for the advice about <img src=""/> which is really priceless for picture people like me.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/14724022/#Comment_14724022
If I decide to start other story, will I be able to add similar introduction (picture, text, link to the contents) to my homepage?
Thanks again for the help!
Others make a new blog for each new story so they have dedicated sites. If you used the same theme you could even make both blogs feel very similar.
I use categories for each story to help separate them on my blog. So my legacy category is Huffman Legacy and then a sub category for each generation. For non generational stories I just make the category the title of the story.
Yes! You sure can!
You can see on my homepage how I have a picture and text for each story, with links to the Table of Contents.
This way has worked out well for me! I like having so many stories at the same blog. It feels like a garden with lots of plants!
Some bloggers like to have a separate blog for each story, and that's also effective! Readers like it both ways, and there are pluses and minuses to each, so it seems like you can do whichever you like best!
And also... Yay! Your blog is looking GREAT!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Well, now I'm going to be busy - I'll have about 40 pages to move.
Another important thing to note about Pages and Posts from your local librarian archivist... new "Pages" will not show up in the Wordpress Reader, so if someone is following your site to automatically get your updates through their Reader, if you make a new page for every chapter of your story, that will by-pass the Wordpress Reader (this is quite awful for me when I'm managing the Stories and Legacies Index, since I use the Wordpress Reader heavily to get new story updates!) But if you post a new chapter as a Post, they will appear in the Wordpress Reader! I only use Pages for "static" content, such as table of contents. Every new chapter for a story I always put up as a Post.
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
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