How to get started with WordPress.
Once you’ve created your site, you can administer content changes and more through the WordPress dashboard. To access the dashboard simply add /wp-admin to the end of your site’s url.
Pages
Pages are typically static content that provide information to visitors of your site. Each page gets its own spot within your site and a unique URL. About and Contact pages are common Pages within sites, and may be something you want to add to your own.
To add a new page: Pages > Add New
To clone a page: Pages > hover your cursor over the page you would like to clone > Clone
Posts
Posts are dynamic pieces of content used for blogs, articles, and updates. They are often featured on the homepage of your site, and can be updated regularly. Unlike Pages, they can be added to categories and tagged, which allows visitors to sort and find information quickly.
To add a new post: Posts > Add New > enter a title > add content > add a category and/or tags
Saving a new post: If you don’t want to publish the page to the live site yet, you can click “Save Draft.” Once you’re ready to publish, click the “Publish” button
Categories and Tags
One of the many features of Posts is their ability to be sorted using Categories and Tags. Categories act as a broad grouping of posts and help readers who want to view multiple similar posts, while tags help narrow down the topic to a few specific posts that match certain criteria.
As an example, you may want to create blog posts on your site that feature current and former students from your program and their accomplishments. The overall category would be students while the tags could relate to their student status (current or graduate), their accomplishment, the semester or year, or other relevant details.
Categories and tags apply to posts, but not pages.
Menu
Menus allow visitors the ability to find and navigate to information quickly. Top-level menus, like the ones found in website headers, will lead users to pages and posts within your site that you may want to highlight. Submenus such as dropdowns or sidebar menus will typically link to additional pages or posts that complement the main highlighted information.
Editing the menu: Appearance > Menus > ‘Select a menu to edit’ dropdown box > select ‘Main Menu’ if it’s not already selected > Select
You’ll see two columns with the headings ‘Add Menu Items’ and ‘Menu Structure.
Menu Structure: Drag each menu item to desired location > drop with the mouse > Save Menu
Add to Menu: Select checkbox for desired element > organize in Menu structure > Save Menu
Edit page from the front end
Editing your site on the front end is not only easier, but it also helps you visualize how your site might look when published. Navigate to the page you want to edit and click on the Edit Page button to open the Visual Editor to start editing on the front end.
Adding blocks
The Flex Theme is based off of WordPress’s Gutenberg editor. By hovering over a blank space the page you are editing, you will trigger a “+” icon. This affordance is used to add the preexisting blocks to your page (Example A). You can also add blocks by clicking on the large blue “+” icon in the upper left corner (Example B).
Example A
Example B
Adding block patterns
Patterns are predesigned components that mimic those found in the Kernl theme. The Northeastern templates use block patterns to help you quickly build pages that fit design best practices and Northeastern’s branding guidelines.
To add a Northeastern block pattern, click either the blue “+” in the upper-left corner or by hovering over a blank space in the page you are editing until you see the “+” icon. Then click “Browse All.” A sidebar panel will open on the left of your screen. Click “Patterns”. Click either the “Headers” and “Text” options and you will see a vertical list of thumbnails for Northeastern block patterns which you can click to add to your page.
Previewing your work
Designing on the front end using the block editor is the best way to see how your site will look once published, but some components will vary between the editor and the live page. Before publishing your page, use the preview feature to see how it will look on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones.
A note on Editor vs Live views
The editor view can quite often be a much different visual representation of the design block than what you will see on the public facing site.
Saving your page
Your webpage draft will automatically save as you make edits, but it will not be published and publicly viewable until you click “Publish” (or “Update” if editing an existing page).
