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Creating a WordPress Website

Oklahoma Conference of The UMC

Department of Communicatio

ns

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Reasons to use WordPresswordpress.com

• Cost

• Quick

• Convenient

• Responsive

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General Terms• Domain name

• Host

• CMS

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General Terms• Dashboard

• Theme

• Plugins

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Using WordPress.com to Create a Website

Host and Domain

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Setting up a free site• https://signup.WordPress.com/signup/

Once you submit this form an email will be sent to you to complete the registration

Type in the name for your website here

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Free Basic —What you get

• A free WordPress.com address http://ourfabulousbusiness.WordPress.com

• Choose from free themes.

• Basic customization

• 3 GB of space

• No video storage.

• Community support

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Login to your account and set up your personal profile information

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Click on your page to access the dashboard.

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To set your website title and some of the main settings go to Settings>>General.

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First - Set up your homepage

• Click on Pages – Add new

• Type in Home in the title area

• IMPORTANT - Click Publish

Now add a second page

• Type in your title

• Click Publish

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In settings go to readingUnder ‘Front page displays’, click

on A static page and select your home page for the front page

Click save changes at the bottom of the page.

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Here a few ideas:

• Create a welcome message

• Use images, text, photos that set the tone for your site.

• Limit the length of the page.

Make your homepage beautiful

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Adding Media

Click on the Add Media Button then under upload files click on the select files and choose an image from your computer

Click on the button on the bottom right to insert image into your page.

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Click on update before leaving the page

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Choose a themeThe WordPress Content Management

System (CMS) is theme-based which means that you can change designs any time you want.

The default theme is installed

To activate a theme go to Appearance >>Themes in the left panel menu.

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Get personality: pick a theme to define the look and feel of your site.

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Check out the available themes: A theme is a layout and visual look for your website.

On your dashboard, head to the Appearance >> Themes menu.

Preview how a theme will look by clicking “Live Preview.”

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If you like what you see, click “Activate”

Pick the right theme that’s right for you:

Themes come in a lot of different styles and offer different functions.

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Add more content with widgets. Choose the widget and drag and drop in sidebar box.

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Upload a custom header and background: Most themes let you tweak the look of the

header and the background. If your site supports custom headers, you’ll see

the option in the Appearance >> Header menu

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Embed video to your siteEmbed a URL from YouTube or VimeoTo quickly embed a YouTube video,

copy the video’s URL from your web browser’s address bar while viewing the video

Then, paste the video’s URL on its own line in the visual editor, and make sure it’s not hyperlinked

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Menus

Adding Custom LinksWant a menu tab to link directly to another website? No problem! Type in the URL where you want to take someone when they click on it, add Link Text to specify what the tab will say, and then click Add to Menu.

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MenusChanging the order and

creating sub-menus

At any time, you can change the order and placement of menu items by simply dragging and dropping the items to change their order.

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To create sub-menus or “drop-down” style menus, drag individual items to the right to “nest” them under a given parent tab.

You can undo this by dragging them to the left.

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Add New Links: To add a new link, click on Add New in the Links menu

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Link CategoriesYou can manage a blogroll (a set of

links) using the Links menu in your Dashboard.

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These links will display on your page if you have added the Links Widget from the Appearance -> Widgets page.

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To manage link categories, click on Link Categories in the Links menu.To add a new category, use the ‘Add Category’ form on the left.

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To modify existing link categories, hover over the category name and then click on the Edit, Quick Edit, Delete, or View options that appear below it.

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The Links column on the far right shows the number links assigned to each category.

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Adding Users

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Important Note about adding new users to your WordPress site

Types of Users:• Administrator: An administrator has

full and complete ownership.• Editor: An editor can view, edit,

publish, and delete any posts/pages, moderate comments, manage categories, manage tags, manage links and upload files/images.

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Types of Users:• Author: An author can edit, publish

and delete their posts, as well as upload files/images.• Contributor: A contributor can edit

their posts but cannot publish them..• Subscriber: Subscribers only have

the ability to leave comments.

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Adding Users: Go to Users → Add New.

Your new user will get their password in the email with instruction on how to log in.

Once logged in they can change their password and any other info by editing their profile.

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Changing User Roles:1.Head to Users → All Users in your

WordPress admin.2.Check the box(es) next to user

avatar(s).3.Using Change role to… dropdown

menu, select the new user role(s) you want to assign.

4.Click Change.

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Here is our beautiful website,--- well ok maybe not beautiful yet,--- but it is a start and it didn’t take very long to create!

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Reading Resources

• Article on WordPress from UMComm• Article Using WordPress.com to

Create a Website• Article Getting the Most from

WordPress.com

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http://www.umcchurches.org/billing/index.php

• UM branded templates• WordPress Based• Email• Unique Domain Name• The free package is intended

and restricted to local United Methodist churches that currently have a Find-A-Church profile.

United Methodist Communications is offering options to local churches

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Thank you for coming to today.Please feel free to contact us with questions

about setting up a Wordpress site.

Department of Communications1501 N.W. 24th St

Oklahoma City, OK 73106405.530.2012