Quick Guide

This is the outline of the introductory course. Although the courses are held in german, you may use this as a quick guide to our WordPress.

  • As soon as you are logged in and used to the interface you can create your first page.
  • Add text, pictures and a table of contents to the center of your page.
  • Define the design of the right-handed column (specific or generally)
  • Create menus and assign your pages to them
  • Create posts and assign them to categories

Login

Add „wp-admin“ to the end of the web address you would like to edit.

Example: https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/schulung/wp-admin/

More: How to get a website

User interface

At the top of the interface you can find the admin menu bar that enables you to switch between elements and create new elements. The dashboard menu serves for the administration of all contents.

Creating pages

You can create a page by using the device at the admin bar ''+Neu – Seite''. The title of your page will then become part of the web adress of this page.

We recommend to use words within the page title that are likely to be found by search engines (e.g. instead of using ''Welcome to our page'' rather ''Institute for XY'')

More: Seite erstellen

If you receive texts from other authors make sure that they are not formatted because formattings are likely to get lost during the transmission process.

More: Importing texts from other devices

Try to write short and simple. Use the language that corresponds best with your target group.

Table of content (shortcode)

The entire content of your page should be clear at first sight. As you do not know what kind of device is used by your recipients (Smartphone, Screenreader etc.) we recommend you to work with automatic table of contents (=shortcodes). Also, the use of long pages might be helpful as some pages might get printed by your recipients.

Shortcodes are intelligent abbreviations in square brackets. The shortcode [toc] creates an automatic table of content by using all headings used on the respective page.

Links

Keep in mind that links within a text might distract readers. Make sure that important advices do not appear at the end of a text that is crowded with links. A separate list with links below the text can avoid this problem.

Link titles should represent their content short and precisely. The heading of the linked page could be an appropriate title. Make sure that links title are only used once within a page. For example, instead of writing “Click here” one could use an alternative title such as “News from the Institute XY”.

In order to create a link, highlight the relevant text parts and then select the icon with the chain on it.

More: Creating links

Pictures

Importing pictures might be a nice option in order to liven up a page dominated by text.

Beispielbild für Einführungsunterlagen

Put your cursor at the spot where you want the picture to appear. Choose the icon“ AddMedia” that is to be found above the icon bar of the text editor and then follow the subsequent steps.

Choose the display size (rather choose small sizes so that smartphones can handle it as well) and the way it should be linked (file attachment or display setting). Add an alternative text to the picture in case that users might want to listen to the page content instead of reading it by themselves.

Please mind copy and personality rights.

More: Adding pictures

More: Pictures from the web

Right-hand column

With the standard setting of WordPress, random posts will be displayed in the right-handed column. You can replace these display programs (widgets) with a right-hand column that is exclusively related to your page. In order to do this, write the following shortcode within the editor screen at the end of your text:

[rechtespalte]all dies steht rechts[/rechtespalte]

In addition, choose Rechte Spalte spezifisch at the drop-down menu Template (to be found at the right-hand of the text editor). These two options enable you to control the right-handed column and allows you to add texts and pictures.

More: Specific right-handed column

Structuring pages

Structure the contents on your page by using keywords, categories and a navigation structure.

Keywords and categories

We recommend to use keywords and categories on every page. Start with the creation of keywords and keep an eye on the list of keywords. Keywords that appear quite frequently can then be grouped in categories.

By using this procedure, the structure of your page will develop as contents and the need for structure increase.

Creating and assigning menus

As soon as you have created some pages you can build your navigation structure accordingly.

On the dashboard there is a menu item called Design. Select create a new menu at this menu and then choose a name for the menu (this name will appear for administration purposes only). Then check the boxes that shall be part of the menu and then click on Menü hinzufügen. Having created a new menu, you can then drag the menu items where you want to place them. For example, a sub-point has to be dragged below the page that is supposed to be the main point.

By checking the respective box you can choose as well whether your menu appears left-handed or at the top of the page.

(Note: As every menu exists only once in each blog it might get slightly chaotic in the tutorial by now but that is absolutely normal so don´t panic!)

More: Navigation menus

Posts

Contents that are news-related should be published by posts instead of pages. The web address of these posts automatically contains the date of creation.

Widgets

As soon as some posts that contain keywords and categories exist you can manage them by using the menu Design – Widgets.

The area is threefold: At the left top you will find all existing Widgets and at the right top shows all activated widgets within the display areas.

(Note: As every menu exists only once in each blog it might get slightly chaotic in the tutorial by now but that is absolutely normal so don´t panic!)