When you go here → https://YOURDOMAIN.COM/wp-admin/

It will bring you to a screen with the login box below, enter your Username and Password

Dashboard

Dashboard menu options are down the left-hand side of the main dashboard page. This is where you’ll find all the options to update and configure your site.

Hovering your cursor over each of the main menu options will display a ‘fly-out’ menu with the various choices for that particular menu option. Once you click each of the main menu options, that particular menu will expand to show all the available options within that section (if there are any).

The main menu options and their usage are:

Dashboard
This will display your main Dashboard ‘homepage’. In the top left of your Dashboard you’ll see some brief stats on the number of Posts, Pages and Comments. If you have the Akismet anti-spam plugin activated, you’ll also see the number of Spam Comments or comments awaiting moderation.

Posts
This is where you can create a new Blog Post. You can also update your Categories and Post Tags.

Media
This is where all your uploaded images, documents or files are stored. You can browse through your Media library, as well as edit and update the files.

Pages
This is where you create and maintain all your Pages.

Comments
You can manage all your Comments within this section, including replying to comments or marking them as spam.

Appearance
This menu is where you control how your site looks. You can choose a new Theme, manage your site Widgets or Menus and even edit your site theme files. Plugins Plugins extend and expand the functionality of WordPress. You can add or delete plugins within here as well as activate or deactivate them.

Users
This screen lists all the existing users for your site. Depending on your Role, you can also add new users as well as manage their Roles.

Tools
This section gives you access to various convenient tools. You can also import data to your WordPress site or export all your WordPress data to a file.

Settings
This is where most of your site is configured. Among other things, it allows you to configure your site name and URL , where your Posts appear, whether people can leave Post Comments or not and numerous other settings. Most times, once your site is setup, there’s no need to change any of the settings within this section.

*Conversations LLC. is not responsible for edits made by the client after the project is over. This includes anything involving loss or corruption to the original design. There will be a fee to restore or correct any WordPress issues.

Posts vs. Pages

WordPress is built around two basic concepts. Posts and Pages. Posts are typically blog entries. Pages are used for more static content (i.e. content that doesn’t change or changes infrequently). An ‘About us’ page is an example of a Page on a typical website. In most cases you’ll find that the content in the ‘About us’ page doesn’t change all that frequently.

Posts

After clicking on the Posts menu option you’ll be shown a list of Posts that your site contains. Among the information displayed is the Post title, the Author, Categories, Tags, No. of Comments and either the Date Published, Date Scheduled or the Date the Post was Last Modified. The Posts screen will look similar to the screen below.

At the top of the page you can view how many Posts in total you have in your site, how many are Published, Scheduled, Sticky, Pending, in Draft or in the Trash.

When hovering your cursor over each row, a few links will appear beneath the Post title.

• Edit – Will allow you to edit your Post. This is the same as clicking on the Post title
• Quick Edit – Allows you to edit basic Post information such as Title, Slug, Date plus a few other options
• Trash – Will send the Post to the Trash. Once the Trash is emptied, the page is deleted
• View – Displays the Post. If the Post hasn’t been published yet, this will say Preview

Next to each Post title is a checkbox. This allows you to perform an action on multiple items at once. You simply check the Posts that you would like to affect and then from the Bulk Actions dropdown select either the Edit option or the Move to Trash option and then click the Apply button. The Edit option will allow you to edit the Categories, Tags, Author, whether to allow Comments and Pings or not, the Status and whether or not the Posts are ‘Sticky’. The Move to Trash option will move the selected items to the Trash.

Pages

After clicking on the Pages menu option you’ll be shown a list of Pages that your site contains. Among the information displayed is the Page title, the Author, No. of Comments and either the Date Published or the Date the Page was Last Modified. The Pages screen will look similar to screen below:

At the top of the page you can view how many Pages in total you have in your site and how many are Published or in Draft.

When hovering your cursor over each row, a few links will appear beneath the Page title.

• Edit – Will allow you to edit your Page. This is the same as clicking on the Page title
• Quick Edit – Allows you to edit basic Page information such as Title, Slug, Date plus a few other options
• Trash – Will send the Page to the Trash. Once the Trash is emptied, the page is deleted
• View – Displays the Page. If the Page hasn’t been published yet, this will say Preview

Next to each Page title is a checkbox. This allows you to perform an action on multiple items at once. You simply check the Pages that you would like to affect and then from the Bulk Actions dropdown select either the Edit option or the Move to Trash option and then click the Apply button. The Edit option will allow you to edit the Author, Parent, Template, whether to allow Comments or not and the Status of each of the checked items. The Move to Trash option will move the selected items to the Trash. You can also filter the pages that are displayed using the dropdown list and the Filter button.

Adding your Site Content

Adding content to your site is an easy process no matter whether you’re creating a Post or a Page. The procedure for both is almost identical. Apart from how they display on your site, which was described earlier, the other main difference is that Posts allow you to associate Categories and Tags whereas Pages don’t. What’s the difference between categories and tags? Normally, Tags are ad-hoc keywords that identify important information in your Post (names, subjects, etc) that may or may not recur in other Posts, while Categories are pre-determined sections. If you think of your site like a book, the Categories are like the Table of Contents and the Tags are like the terms in the index.

Adding a New Page

To add a new Page, hover your cursor over the Pages menu option in the left-hand navigation menu and in the fly-out menu, click the Add New link. Alternatively, click the Pages menu option and then click the Add New link underneath, or the Add New button at the top of the page. You will be presented with a page similar to the image below.

Adding a New Post

To add a new Post, hover over the Posts menu option in the left-hand navigation menu and in the fly-out menu, click the Add New link. Alternatively, click the Posts menu option and then click the Add New link underneath, or the Add New button at the top of the page. You will be presented with a page similar to the image below.

Click here to view blogging guidelines

Adding Images and Other Media

Adding images and other media files such as videos, documents or PDFs is extremely easy within WordPress. All your images and files are stored in the Media Library. Once they’re uploaded into the Media Library, it’s a very simple matter to insert them into your Page or Post content. In the case of files such as Word Documents or PDFs, if necessary, it’s a simple process to create links to those files so that people can then download them.

Inserting an Image Using the WordPress media manager, it’s extremely simple to insert, align and link your individual images and image galleries. To insert an image into your Page/Post, click the Add Media button  and then simply drag your image from wherever they are on your computer, into the browser window. Your file will be automatically uploaded. Alternatively, click the Select Files button and then select the file that you’d like to upload, using the dialog window that is displayed. It’s also possible to simply drag your image straight into the Visual Editor, rather than clicking the Add Media button.

The properties of the currently highlighted image (i.e. The image with the blue border) will be shown on the right-hand side of the Insert Media window. These properties include the filename, the date the file was uploaded and the image size. It’s at this point you can also change the image Title, Caption, Alt Text and Description for each image, as well as the Alignment, Link and the Size at which the image is inserted.

• Title – is displayed as a tooltip when the mouse cursor hovers over the image in the browser
• Caption – is displayed underneath the image as a short description. How this displays will be dependent on the WordPress theme in use at the time. You can also include basic HTML in your captions
• Alt Text – is displayed when the browser can’t render the image. It’s also used by screen readers for visually impaired users so it’s important to fill out this field with a description of the image. To a small degree, it also plays a part in your website Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Since search engines can’t ‘read’ images they rely on the Alt Text
• Description – is usually displayed on the attachment page for the media, however this is entirely up to the theme that is currently in use
  

Adding / Updating Plugins

To add a new plugin, click on the Add New link in the left-hand navigation menu or the Add New button at the top of the page.

You can also click the Search Plugins input field and enter text to search for a specific plugin.

After clicking the Install Now button, the plugin will be automatically downloaded to your site and installed. You are then given the option to activate the plugin or return to the plugin installer page.

* Conversations advises that you use caution when adding or updating plug ins. Typically speaking the more plugins you have on your site, the more likely you are to find one that conflicts with another. Some plugins do not play well with others and can potentially conflict with wordpress updates. If a problem should arise Conversations can be hired on an hourly basis to troubleshoot and correct issues.

Updating WordPress

While there is a way to do this via the admin panel – There are security risk involved with this as well as possible loss of content.

The suggest (manual) way requires :

• Backing up the database and files through the .htaccess
• Backing up and disabling plugins (then troubleshooting what plugins are no longer compatible with the wordpress update)
• Overwrite files using the FTP
• Upgrade scripts

*Conversations recommends not doing this yourself. Without an in-depth knowledge of the back end of wordpress many problems can occur. Conversations can be hired on an hourly or monthly basis in the event of corrupted files, content loss, server errors.