How to Use WordPress
Table of Contents
- What is WordPress?
- Logging in
- Adding a new post
- Editing a Post
- Finding help
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a website creation and publication tool. You can create your own website using “blocks” to organize content and uploaded media (no coding experience required).
WordPress.org is the main version of WordPress, but we have our own Bucknell WordPress that you can use for free (with no ads) to create Bucknell-related sites. Your course site is on Bucknell’s WordPress, so make sure you log in here.
Logging in
To add blog posts, you will need to log in to Bucknell WordPress:
- Scroll down to the very bottom of this page, and click on the “User login” link in the blue section of the page.
- Use your Bucknell username and password to log in to WordPress.
- Once you are logged in, you will see a black toolbar at the top of the page with new editing options.
If you hover over the name of the site, you can access the dashboard with all of the editing options.
You can also log in to Bucknell WordPress in general and see all of your sites by going to blogs.bucknell.edu.
Adding a New Blog Post
There are two ways to create a new blog post.
1. Start from the home page:
- Hover over the “New” section of the black editing toolbar at the top of the page.
- Click on “Post.”
2. Start from your site’s dashboard:
- Click on the “Posts” tab in the menu on the left.
- Click on “Add New” at the top of the screen to create a new post, or click on the title of an existing blog post to edit an existing one.
Editing a Post
The WordPress editor is made up of individual “blocks” for different elements of your page. For example, you may have a heading block, a paragraph block, two image blocks, and another paragraph block in your post. Every page needs a title. After that, you can add any blocks you need for your assignment.
To learn more about using the block editor, see these resources:
- Gutenburg: The WordPress block editor (3 minutes)
- WordPress 5 Essential Training video: Create and manage blocks (3 minutes, 37 seconds)
- WordPress documentation: Block Editor
Adding Text
You can add regular text using a paragraph block, which is the default block if you start typing in your blog post.
To add a new text block from the editing view of your post:
- Click on the blue plus button in the top left corner.
- A menu will appear on the left of the screen with all of the different blocks you can add. To add text, click on “Paragraph.”
- Once you have added a paragraph block and typed some text, there are two ways for format your text:
- There is a menu that hovers just above the block with basic editing tools like bold, italics,text color, and links.
- There is a settings menu on the right side of the screen with additional options like background color, font size, and more. If you do not see this menu, click on the square settings icon in the top right corner of the page.
Adding Images
To add a new image block from the editing view of your post:
- Click on the blue plus button in the top left corner.
- Choose the “Image” block from the list.
- Then you can upload an image from your computer to include.
- Similar to the paragraph block, you can format the image using the menu just above the block or in the settings pane on the left of the screen.
- Make sure you include Alt Text, which describes your image to anyone who uses assistive technology or can’t see the image. Alt text can be found in the settings menu on the right.
For more about adding and managing media, watch the LinkedIn Learning Video WordPress 5 Essential Training: Media Library.
Previewing Posts
To see what your post will look like before publishing it, start from the editing view of your post:
- Click on the icon in the top right corner that looks like a laptop.
- Click on “Preview in new tab” and a preview of your post will open in a new browser tab.
Note: this view is a preview and will not publish your post!
The previewed post will likely look slightly different than the version you have been editing because the site’s theme formatting has been applied. If you have specific formatting, sizing, or line breaks in mind, be sure to check the preview.
Publishing your Posts
To publish your post and submit your assignment, click on the blue “Publish” button in the top right corner of your post in the editing view.
If you would like to save your work without publishing, click “Save draft” in the top right of the page to save your post as an unpublished draft.
Finding Help
Contact Claire Cahoon (claire.cahoon@bucknell.edu) from the Bucknell Library with any questions. This could include parts of your blog that aren’t working right, new elements that you aren’t sure how to add, or other questions about how to get started in WordPress.
You can send an email or schedule an appointment with Claire on her scheduling page: Meet with Claire