Category: Wordpress Beginner

How to Find Id Of A Category, Post, User, or Comments in WordPress

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WordPress assign a unique number to each and every item in the site. For example, the User ID is a unique number generated by the WordPress system to help you to identify each user on a website. Sometimes while installing a new theme or arranging multiple items in your WordPress site, you will need to find a user ID , post ID or category ID.  There are different ways to find the ID.

How to find Category Id in wordpress

From your wordpress admin, Go to Posts » Categories 

Method1:

Move the mouse over the Category title (without clicking) and notice the URL that shows up at the bottom left corner of the browser, as shown in the above screenshot. On the link look for the part tag_ID=a, where ‘a’ is the WordPress category ID.

Method2:

Click on the category name. WordPress will open the category editor page. Look at the browser address bar. You will be able to see the category ID in your browser’s address bar.

Method3:

.

Simply move the mouse cursor over the WordPress Category name and right click on it . Select Copy Link Location’ or ‘Copy Link Address’ from the right click menu and paste the URL to a text editor such as notepad

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How to Add Navigation Menu in WP

How to Add Navigation Menu in WordPress

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Since Navigation menu guide your visitors to important sections of your website, it is the most important design element on any page.  

In most wordpress themes, this menu is placed as  a horizontal menu  close to the header. Of course, the menu location can vary depending on your theme and some themes support more than one menu locations.

When you install wordpress, it automatically creates a default Navigation menu. This menu contains a list of your  top-level pages.  It’s generally a bad idea to include a list of  all page titles in menu. Keep your Navigation Short and  List the Most Important Pages First. 

Fortunately wordPress provides a user friendly interface which let you  add and manage any any page  including category and tag archives, posts, pages and custom links. 

  • Step 1:Login to the WordPress Dashboard.
  • Step 2: From the ‘Appearance’ menu on the left-hand side of the Dashboard, select the ‘Menus’ option to bring up the Menu Editor. 
  • Step 3: Create Your Navigation Menu
  • Step 4: Assign Your Menu To The Desired Location
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WordPress functions.php File

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Functions.php is a file found in your Theme’s folder. To understand the file location, look at the following wordpress theme hierarchy.

Adding Code to the Functions File

The functions file is where you put various features and functionality within your wordpress theme. You can achieve this by defining your own functions or by calling built-in WordPress functions. For example, you can control :

  • Use of featured images
  • The image sizes supported by your theme
  • Widgetized areas
  • Decide whether to show post from a particular category in home page or not
  • And  more ….

You can produce the same results by using a WordPress Plugin. In other words the functions file behaves like a WordPress Plugin. But using lots of plugins can slow down your blog’s performance.

When You Shouldn’t Use functions.php

Functions.php is a theme-specific file, which means each theme has its own functions file and any code/function added there strictly related to that particular theme. As soon as you update theme or change your theme, your changes will be wiped out.  See how to use a child theme to add code without worrying about losing your changes.

How do I move WordPress from a sub directory to the root directory

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Most website creators using WordPress today to create website. You can easily build and manage your  site with WordPress. When you convert your  your existing business website(.html / .php/ .aspx files)  to wordpress, it’s a good idea to set up a blog and test a new version in a subfolder (example.com/WordPress) so that it does not affect their main domain.  Once completed, you can move the new site over to the root directory for the domain.

This tutorial assumes you have already created, tested your site in a subfolder called “wordpress”. Refer following articles if you need help on how to install wordpress.

  1. How To Install WordPress on the Best WordPress Hosting Providers
  2. How to install a WordPress blog in 1and1?
  3. How To Install WordPress Using Fantastico

Now let us see how to move your site to root.

Step1: Change site URL

  1. Log into your WordPress Admin, go to  Settings -> General.
  2. Change WordPress address (URI) from (example.com/WordPress to example.com)
  3. Change Site Address address (URL) from (example.com/WordPress to example.com)

Step2: Physically move the files from a sub folder to your main folder

Before moving the wordpress files to root, take a backup of your site in root folder. After you have made your backup, it is time to move your WordPress to the primary folder. You can use the cPanel File manager, an FTP program, Shell using SSH, or  HTML editor like DreamWeaver.

Moving Files Using Cpanel

  1. Log into your cPanel  dashboard.
  2. From the main cPanel area, look for the Files category and then click on the File Manager tool.
  3. Once inside the File Manager, you will want to navigate to the folder you have the WordPress site in. (For example, a folder named WordPress.)
  4. You will see a list of all the WordPress files and folders in the right hand panel. Highlight them all and click on the Move File icon from the menu toolbar across the top of the page.
  5. A popup will appear so you can enter the destination folder. Continuing with our WordPress folder example, it should show as public_html/WordPress. Remove the /WordPress from the destination path so that it simply displays as public_html. Click the Move Files button.
  6. This will move the files up to the public_html folder. You should now see the same files as you have in your WordPress folder.
  7. You can now delete the old WordPress folder.

Moving Files Using FTP

Open your FTP program. Select files from “WordPress ” folder.Drag files to root folder.

Your site is ready now.

Display Different Sidebar for Each Post and Page for WordPress

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In this article I will show you how to choose display different sidebar for each post and page for WordPress. There’s several different plugins that help you gain this type of flexibility with your site.

Easy Custom Sidebars

custom-sidebar
This plugin allows you to replace any sidebar/widget area in any WordPress theme without any coding.

  1. Go to your wordpress admin >> Plugins >> Add new . In the search box type “Easy Custom Sidebars” and hit enter key to search. Install and activate the Easy Custom Sidebars plugin.
  2. custom-sidebar-02 You will see new menu item “Theme Sidebars” under “Appearence” menu. Click on it.
  3. custom-sidebar-03Create new side bar here.
  4. custom-sidebar-04 Replace your old side bar with new side bar.
  5. custom-sidebar-05 Select posts/pages/categories where you want to display this new side bar. Save your side bar.
  6. custom-sidebar-06 Go to Appearance >> Widgets. Drag a widget to side bar. Edit and save it.

Per Page Sidebars Plugin

Content Aware Sidebars

How to Have Different Sidebar Content On Different Pages of Your WordPress Site

Now when you are writing a post or a page, and you want to display a custom sidebar all you need to do is add the custom field “Sidebar” and include the name of the sidebar file. For example if you insert “wpbpage”, it will display sidebar-wpbpage.php as your sidebar.

Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Widget Area Manager

How to Split a long WordPress Post into Multiple Pages – post pagination

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You wrote a very long post and have some issues with load times on your posts, it is better to split that long WordPress post into multiple pages. Reading long posts can be hectic or boring for users. This can increase the bounce rate of your site. So for better presentation and readability, divide along post into several pages. This also will improve the look and feel of your site and increase the number of page views on your site.

Dividing your posts into two or more pages is simple in WordPress.

split-post

  • In the post editor, click on “Text” tab to switch to “Text” editor mode.
  • Add the following tag wherever you want to split your post.

    <!–nextpage–>

    You can add this tag anywhere you want as many times as you want.

  • Save your post.
  • Now you can see post pagination.split-post2

Best WordPress Backup Plugins

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It is really important to take regular back up of your blog to guard against losing all your data. Luckily, there are plenty of excellent WordPress plugins available that will back up your posts, pages, and whatever else you have on your site. Let’s take a look at some free WordPress backup plugins! Installing plugins from the WordPress Dashboard is so easy. This guide will show you how to install a WordPress plugin.

BackWPup

wp-backup3The BackWPup Free version can be used to save your complete installation including /wp-content/ and push them to an external Backup Service, like Dropbox, S3, FTP, Microsoft Azure, RackSpaceCloud or to Sugar. With a single backup .zip file you are able to easily restore an installation. This plugin is available via the WordPress Plugins Directory. Type “BackWPup” in Search Plugins box and install it.

BackupBuddy

wp-backup6BackupBuddy Premium is a WordPress backup tool that can handle file and database backups easily. However, BackupBuddy Premium isn’t free. For $75 you’ll get 2 site license, and that’s it. No monthly fees, and this license last a lifetime. Get BackupBuddy

VaultPress

wp-backup7VaultPress is a subscription-based protection, security and backup service for WordPress blogs and sites. VaultPress makes it easy to keep an up-to-date backup of your site with both daily and real time syncing of all your WordPress content. Get VaultPress

BackUpWordPress

wp-backup4 BackUpWordPress will back up your entire site including your database and all your files on a schedule and store in your hosting server. Backups are stored on your server in /wp-content/backups. Option are available to email the backup file to you. You can exclude files and folders from your backups. This plugin works on Linux & Windows Server. This plugin is available via the WordPress Plugins Directory. Type “BackUpWordPress ” in Search Plugins box and install it.

Duplicator

wp-backup2 The Duplicator let you create back up of your site. Using this plugin you can also Duplicate, clone, move and transfer an entire site from one location to another. This plugin works on Linux & Windows Server. This plugin is available via the WordPress Plugins Directory. Type “Duplicator” in Search Plugins box and install it.

WP-DB-Backup

wp-backup5WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables. This plugin is available via the WordPress Plugins Directory. Type “WP-DB-Backup” in Search Plugins box and install it.

UpdraftPlus Backup and Restoration

wp-backup1 Backup into the cloud (Amazon S3), Dropbox, Google Drive, Rackspace Cloud, DreamObjects, FTP, Microsoft OneDrive, SFTP, SCP, WebDAV, OpenStack Swift and email.Features icnlude Backup automatically on a repeating schedule, Files and database backups can have separate schedules, Large sites can be split into multiple archives, Select which files to backup (plugins, themes, content, other), Download backup archives direct from your WordPress dashboard, Failed uploads are automatically resumed/retried.

Dropbox Backup & Restore

wp-backup8Create Full Backup (Files + Database) of your blog and save locally at your shared hosting / server of your site or upload to dropbox. Using this, you can easily Backup, Restore, Duplicate, Clone or Migrate of your Website. This plugin is available via the WordPress Plugins Directory. Type “Dropbox Backup & Restore” in Search Plugins box and install it.

WordPress Backup to Dropbox

wp-backup9Keep your blogs back up in Dropbox. Choose a day, time and how often you wish your backup to be performed. Your websites files and a SQL dump of its database will be dropped in your Dropbox! This plugin is available via the WordPress Plugins Directory. Type “WordPress Backup to Dropbox” in Search Plugins box and install it.

10 Essential Things To Do After Installing WordPress

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There are few basic settings and configurations to do after installing WordPress to ensure reliability, and top of the line performance.

  1. Change The Title, Tagline and Time zone

    • To change these, go to your Settings in your dashboard and choose General.wp-basic-step2
    • Change both your site title and tagline to something that relates to your site. Now scroll down the page to update your timezone.Change The Title, Tagline, Time zone
    • Scroll down the page click on save changes.

  2. Delete the Default WP Admin Account

    By default WordPress Creates ‘Admin’ as a username for your Blog. Hackers know this and has half the equation to try to get your password. To avoid this, use a different admin username.

    • Login using your admin user account. Once logged in goto Users > Add New wp-basic-user-add1 Fill in all the details for a new user account. Choose the Administrator privileges for this new account .wp-basic-user-add
    • Once that new account is created, log out of your “admin” user account and log back in using your new user account that you just created.
    • Once logged in under the new user account, go to to all User list. Pass the mouse over use “admin” and click on “delete” link.wp-basic-user-delete When you do this WordPress will prompt you to reassign all the posts associated with “admin” to another account. Choose your new account from the drop down list.wp-basic-user-delete2
    • Once you have completed the step of deleting your own “admin” account all the posts previously posted under “admin” will be associated with your new account and you are no longer using the default username.

  3. Delete default Posts and page:

    WordPress install comes with default post and pages. Click on Posts from left menu. Hover over the sample post and select Delete. wp-basic-step3You can delete the sample Page in the same way via Admin -> Pages.

  4. Rename Uncategorized Category

    WordPress install comes with 1 default category named Uncategorized. Unlike the post and the comment this category cannot be deleted. When an editor forgets to select a category, WordPress automatically selects Uncategorized category for that article before it is published. When you have blog posts listed as “Uncategorized,” It makes you seem careless, resulting a symbolic black mark against your blog’s reputation. wp-basic-category3
    To rename the uncategorized category Click on the tab Posts > Categories. Bring your mouse over to Uncategorized and an Edit option will appear. Click Quick edit and change your category name and slug to Other.

  5. Set up WordPress Permalink

    By default, WordPress offers permalinks like this:https://wordpressluv.com/?p=123. This type of permalink is not search engine friendly and not very user friendly. More descriptive URL with keywords may boost your rankings.Other than this, permalinks will give a brief idea of what your post or page is about without looking at the content and can affect a reader’s decision whether or not to click links to your site. You can change the structure of your permalinks at any time, however doing this changes the URL of your pages. You should set your permalink when setting up your blog for the first time.

    You can find various permalink settings under WordPress dashboard > Settings > Permalink.wp-basic-permalink1wp-basic-permalink2

  6. Activate Akismet

    Akismet comes with WordPress which eliminates comment and Trackback spams without your interaction.

    • To activate that, you need API key from Akismet It is free you can get it from Akismet.com/get.
    • Click the Plugins link on the left navigation menu of the Dashboard to load the Plugins page.
    • Click the Activate link below the Akismet plugin name and description. A yellow box appears at the top of the page, saying Akismet is almost ready. Go to Akismet Configuration and enter API key to activate it.

  7. Update your Profile

    From your wordpress admin left menu, click on Users and update your profile.wp-basic-user-profile

  8. Install new theme

    Give unique look to your blog. Change default style to any of the best WordPress theme that suits your blog. There are plenty of free and premium themes available.
    Elegant Themes – Elegant Themes looks great, is easy to use and as plenty of options to make your site uniquely you. It is also a bit cheaper than most premium themes. Browse more themes from StudioPress.com
    These steps will help you install and select a WordPress theme for your blog..

  9. Delete Unused Themes and Plugins

    After you have installed your WordPress theme and Plugins, Delete all unused Themes and Plugins. It will improve your WordPress Performance, security purpose as well as to reduce the server load. Hacker might discover an exploit those unused themes and plugins.

    Delete Unused Themes

    • From your WordPress dashboard go to Appearance > Themes. Here you can see available themes. This include active theme and other unused themes. You can’t delete an active theme. Pass the mouse over unused themes and click on theme details button. Click on it.
      wp-basic-theme-delete1
    • In the preview screen, click Delete button in the right bottom corner of it. Now your theme is successfully removed.wp-basic-theme-delete2

    Delete Unused Plugins

    • From your WordPress dashboard go to Plugins.
    • wp-basic-plugin-delete1wp-basic-plugin-delete2

  10. Install the Essential Plugins

    It is important to install some plugins for better performance of your website. Thousands of plugins are available in the wordpress plugin directory. You can search and see if there is a plugin that fits your need. Refer the article: How to install a WordPress Plugin. Here is a list of 27+ best plugins for a successful wordPress blog.

  11. Start Scheduling Regular Backups

    It is important to take regular backup of your site. It helps to recover your site in case of server crash or when you need a new host. There are so many free and premium backup plugins available that creates backup of your website and keep your site safe and secure.backup buddy

  12. Add Contact me page

    Use plugin Contact Form 7 to add contact page to your site.

How To copy a single post From One WordPress Website to Another

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There may be a number of reasons for copying your post or page. For example, you own two WordPress blogs, and you have written some pre-configured post/page with some basic look and want to use same format in another site without worrying about how to format everything. Let us see how to copy specific posts and pages from one of your WordPress site  to another WordPress site.

You can do this in 4 steps.

  1. Create a new category with unique name
  2. Find the post you want to move and put that post in new category.
  3. Export the post in new category.
  4. Import it to new site.

#1: Create a new category

  • From your blog’s dashboard go to Posts » Categories

    add category
    add category
  • Just fill the fields and click Add category button. For eg. here I am going to create a new category called ‘Export’.

    add-category
    create category

    Note: You can leave the slug, Parent and description blank.

#2: Edit the post, assign new category

  • From your blog’s dashboard go to Posts –> All Posts.
  • Find the post you want to copy.

    post-quick-edit
    edit post

    Hover your cursor over the title of that post. Click the small Quick Edit link beneath the post’s name.The post title will expand to become an editing pane:

  • post-quick-edit
    add category here

    Here select the newly created category. Click Update.

#3: Export the post

  • export
    Tools- export

    From your blog’s dashboard, find the “Tools” menu on the left hand side, near the bottom of the dashboard.Choose the “Export”from the list of options.

  • Here you will have and option to decide what you want to export. In step 1 we created a new category and in step 2 we selected the post you want to move and put it in new category. Now we are going to export the post in that category. Click on post and you will see more options.

    export
    select export category

    Select newly crated category here. Click “Download Export File” to create an “XML” file of your entire blog on your computer.

  • export3
    Save XML file

    Save the file in an easy to access folder, or on your desktop. You will need this file in order to import it later.

#4: Import Post to new site

  • tools-import
    tools >> import

    Log into your wordpress blog and find the “Tools” menu on the left hand side, near the bottom of the dashboard.Choose the “Import”from the list of options.

  • Choose the WordPress option.

    choose wordpress
    choose wordpress

    If you haven’t yet installed the importer plugin on This will bring up a popup to install the plugin. Click “Install Now.”

    install plugin
    install plugin
  • After installing and activating the plugin, browse for your XML file on your computer.

    upload file
    upload file

    Click “Upload” to upload the XML file to the new blog.

  • In the next screen, it would ask if you need to create a new user or if you want to assign the posts to existing user.

    assign author
    assign author

    Just select to assign the posts to the existing author user on the destination blog so that she would be author of the WordPress posts imported. Select “Download & import file attachments” to move your media along with the post.

  • Now you are done exporting a single post on the WordPress site. You can open the post in edit mode to make changes.

    edit post
    edit post

    Note: If you do not want to keep the newly created category, you can remove it from post categories or delete it from categories list(go to Post>>categories and delete it).

 

What is the difference between the hierarchical and Non-Hierarchical Taxonomies?

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When I was using a plugin to create #custom post type and #custom taxonomy, I came across following situation.

After creating custom taxonomy, I was hoping for was a simple option where I could uses the check box UI for selecting categories on each post.

checkbox UI
check box UI

Instead of that I got comma-separated text input.

text box
text box

I did some research and found out that, that plugin use a setting “Hierarchical ==>> false” when registering custom taxonomy.
‘hierarchical’=>false you get the metabox   format WordPress uses for Post Tags:

hierarchical=>false
hierarchical=>false

‘hierarchical’=>true you get the meta box format that WordPress uses for Categories:

hierarchical=>true

A Guide to WordPress Custom Fields

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When you write a post/content on your blog, in you post writing page you will see the fields for entering  title and body content. If you take a look at the WordPress post writing page you’ll notice a section below the post content text area is titled Custom Fields.

custom fields
custom fields

What if I don’t see Custom Fields section in post writing page?

There’s a chance you won’t see this feature. If not, look to the top right of your window and click Screen Options.

Screen Options
Screen Options

From there make sure the Custom Fields option is selected.

select custom fields
select custom fields

Once selected you should see it at the bottom of your screen like I have above.

Custom fields

Custom fields allow you to add little bits of data to posts. The custom fields section contains two input fields labelled Name and Value. The key identifies the specific field and the value is the information that will be displayed.

For examples if you are writing a post about a tourist place you can add Custom field like “Today’s Weather”, and then add the value “Sunny”.

custom fields
custom fields

This extra information is known as meta-data. Now this information related to your post can be displayed anywhere within your WordPress theme.

Make your Theme ready with Custom Fields

Custom fields don’t display by default unless your theme has been customized to do so. In order to get these values to display we need to add a small amount of PHP to our WordPress loop function inside our theme’s code. Let’s do that now.

To start you’ll need a code editor and access to your theme directory which is located at wp-content/themes/themename.

Open single.php file inside a code editor. Find where your main WordPress Loop starts.

WordPress Loop starts
WordPress Loop starts

Add this code inside the WordPress loop to display all custom fields associated with that post.

Call the_meta()
the_meta()

“the_meta” function will display all fields associated with that post.If you have 10 different fields that you want to display at 10 different locations, then we will have to use “get_post_meta” function.

use get_post_meta hook
use get_post_meta function

How to Update WordPress Releases, Plugins and Themes automatically

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So, what do you do if you see an update message (“#wordpress xx.x is available! Please update now”) in your WordPress Admin Screens? Never ignore that message. There are enormous variety of Scams and other malicious activities circulating around the internet. When wordpress notice a new malicious activity, they add updates to defend against them. WordPress constantly add new features, improvements and release ‘updates’ at regular intervals. Well, not just the WordPress core, but also plugins and themes providers also release ‘updates’ at regular intervals.

Check current site for updates
To check your website for WordPress Core, plugin, or theme updates, log into your wordpress admin and click Dashboard>>Updates.

Updates menu
Updates menu

You can see list of updates there.

updates available
updates available

Note: If a WordPress Plugin update is available, it also will be shown on the Plugin’s menu title, and on the Plugin List Page. If a WordPress theme update is available, it also will be shown on the theme List Page(Appearance>>Themes). You should always update WordPress Releases, Plugins and Themes to the latest version to make sure your website is also up-to-date with new features and security updates.

Version 3.7 onwards WordPress introduced automatic updates for minor releases (For example, it will automatically update itself from WordPress 3.7 to 3.7.1.). But this Auto update is not enabled for major releases like 3.7 to 3.8.

Update/upgrade your WordPress core, themes and plugins easily

Sure, updating can be a pain, but now you are able to update/upgrade your WordPress and plugins to a newer version easily and users never even realize that WordPress has updated. If your site is hosted with a managed WordPress hosting, the host usually takes care of automatic updates. For other users, you can enable automatic updates in 2 different ways.

Method1: Using Advanced Automatic Updates plugin

Method2: Edit your wp-config.php file

  • Login to the Cpanel and then click on the File Manager icon in the Files section.

    click on the File Manager icon
    click on the File Manager icon
  • You’ll see a pop-up window. Select your site and click on GO in order to proceed.

    click Go
    click Go
  • The wp-config.php is the file contained in the root of your WordPress file directory. Click on it and from the top menu choose “Edit”.

    Open file to edit
    Open file to edit
  • Add the following to enable major WordPress Releases updates
    Add the following line of code in your site’s wp-config.php file.
    automatic-update4
    Add the following to enable plugins updates
    Add the following line of code in your site’s wp-config.php file.

    Plugin update
    Plugin update

    Add the following to enable themes updates
    Add the following line of code in your site’s wp-config.php file.

    theme update
    theme update
  • Once you’ve finished editing the file click on SAVE CHANGES in the top right hand corner.

 

How to Duplicate / Copy a Post or Page in WordPress

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There are times you like content elements on a blog post (perhaps a table design, some styling, or some layout which remains consistent) and you want to create another post with same configuration including all its widgets, template settings ect. Well, an easy way to do this, without having to know how to format anything, is by duplicating the post and making changes.

You can easily create a #duplicate post by using a plugin called  duplicate post.

Duplicate Post plug-in
Duplicate Post plug-in

  1. Install and activate Duplicate Post plug-in (refer the article >> How to install a WordPress Plugin)
  2. Duplicate Post plug-in Settings
    The plugin comes with a number of settings. Avoid this step if you want to use default settings.Go to Settings >> Duplicate Post. There you can decide whether you’d like to do things like copy the original date, the original status (draft, published, pending), the original excerpt, the original attachments, children of the original page, and taxonomies and more.

    Duplicate Post Settings
    Duplicate Post Settings
  3. Create Duplicate
    There are two ways to duplicate a post or a page.
    Method 1:
    Go to Posts > All Posts (or Pages > All Pages). Mouse over the title of the post(page) you want to duplicate. You will see two new links there – Clone or New Draft.

    Duplicate Post
    Duplicate Post

    Clicking “Clone” will copy the post/page without opening it. Clicking “New Draft” will copy the post/page and also open it in the editor for you.
    Method 2:
    Open the post you can to duplicate in edit mode.

    Open post in edit mode
    Open post in edit mode

    On the post writing screen, you can click the link that says, “Copy to a new draft.” This will open a duplicate of the post or page in a new edit screen.

    Duplicate post
    Duplicate post

How To Insert Images into WordPress Posts and Pages

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Including images in an article is the best way to illustrate your ideas. Adding Images make your content interesting and make readers more engaging. WordPress makes it really easy to add images to your posts. In this article we will discuss how to insert images into WordPress posts (or) pages.

  1. Create a New Post/(Page), or Open an existing Post/(Page)

    To create new Post, from your wordpress Dashboard go to Posts>>Add New (To create new page, go to Pages>>Add New ).

    Add New
    Add New

    Note: If you want to add image to an existing post, open your  post. Go to  Posts>>All Posts>>click on the post’s title to view the edit page.

    Edit Post
    Edit Post

  2. Click the Add Media button

    Now you are in the post-write screen. Place your cursor where you want the image to appear and click the ‘Add Media’ button.

    Add Media
    Add Media

    Now you will see insert media screen. To insert image, you have following 3 options.

    insert image
    insert image

  3. Insert Your Image

    • Upload From Computer
      First let us see how to upload images that are already saved on your computer. Click on upload files>> Click on the ‘Select Files’ button.

      Select files

      Find image file from your PC and click on Open button. Wait for WordPress to upload and crunch  the image. Click on the blue Insert into post button to add the image to your post.

      Insert
      Insert

      Note: After uploading an image from your PC, You will see a number of options(attachment details and attachment display settings) on the right hand side. You can either use the default setting displayed there >> Click on the blue Insert into post button or see how to use these settings .

    • Insert from Media Library – If you already have uploaded images and have a Media Library in your blog, select from any  images in the media library by clicking on it, click on the blue Insert into post button to add the image to your post.

      Insert from Media Library
      Insert from Media Library

      Note: After selecting an image from media library, you will see a number of options(attachment details and attachment display settings) on the right hand side. You can either use the default setting displayed there >> Click on the blue Insert into post button or see how to use these settings.

    • Insert from URL

      Insert from URL
      Insert from URL
  4. Different settings for uploaded image – after uploading an image from your PC (or selecting an image from media library), You will see attachment details and display settings on the right hand side of the media up loader interface.
    Attachment details:
    Attachment Details section displays:

    • A small thumbnail of the image
    • File details
    • A links that allow you to Edit Image
    • A links that allow you to Delete image from your site.
    • Enter the title of this media.
    • Enter a caption that will be displayed below the image.
    • Enter the Alt text for the image to describe the media.
    • A description for this particular media.

    Image details
    Image details

    Attachment Display settings

    Display settings
    Display settings

    Alignment

    The Alignment setting controls where your image will be displayed and how it interacts with content on the page.

    Align
    Align

    Link To You can create different types of image links here.

    • Media File: This is default option.This will automatically link to full-size version of the file.
    • Attachment Page: Links your inserted image to its WordPress media attachment page.
    • Custom URL: Allows you to set a custom link URL for your inserted image
    • None: This setting will remove the link completely.

    Image size – The Size settings determine the size of the image you are adding to your site.

    Image Size
    Image Size

How to edit Image Attributes in an existing WordPress Post

You can always edit different image attributes such as the alignment of an image or alt/title/caption/description text of an image that already inserted in a post. Open the post in the post-write screen(follow step 1 on this page). Make sure that visual editor tab is selected. Click on the image you want to edit. You can see two icons over the image. The left icon (pencil Image) allows you to edit the image properties and the right icon (X Image) will delete the image from your content.

edit image
edit image

Click the edit image icon to edit the image properties. A  pop-up window will appear and you can edit the various image  properties there. The Edit Original button allows you to do some simple manipulations such as Crop, Rotate, Scale, and Flip Images. The Replace button allows you to replace the image entirely.

edit attributes
edit attributes

After making changes, click the Update button to save your changes. If you do not want to make any changes, click the small ‘x’ in the top-right of the pop-up window to close the pop-up.

How to Add a New Post in WordPress

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WordPress blog comes with a great visual editor to #write a post mixed with images, links, and other html elements. Here is a step-by-step process for writing a new post in WordPress.  Log into your WordPress administration panel(e.g. use URL: http://www.yoursitename.org/wp-admin). From your sidebar on left side, go to Posts > Add New

Add new Post
Add new Post


Now you can see Add New Post screen –  following fig illustrate 6 simple steps to write a post.

Write a Post
Write a Post

  1. Write your title

    Enter a title in the first line of the form. Always choose titles that will interest people and indicate what your article is about.

  2. Write your article

    Start writing your post in the wordpress text editor. The WordPress text editor can be used in 2 forms – the Visual Editor and the HTML Editor.  The visual editor is the default editing mode for WordPress. Click the “text” tab at the top of the text editor box to go to text editor mode and “Visual” tab to go to visual editor mode .

    Visual Tab
    Visual Tab

    Visual editor allows you to easily create, edit, and format your blog content similar to that of a word processor. Let us see some editing icons contained within the visual editor. Make yourself familiar with the options available. Pass your mouse over the icon and a small tooltip will appear describing the icon and its purpose.

    editing icons
    editing icons

    • Create bold, underlined, italic, strike-through  text: Highlight the text and click on bold, underlined, italic, strike-through icon.

      bold, underlined, italic, strike-through text
      highlight the text and click on bold, underlined, italic, strike-through icon
    • Add, Edit & Remove Links
      To add a link, highlight the text you want to add link and then click on insert/edit  link icon. To edit a link, highlight the link you want to edit  and then click on insert/edit  link icon.

      Click on icon
      Click on icon

      A pop-up box will appear. Enter the fields and click on Add link button.

      Insert link
      Insert link

      To Remove Links, select the link text and click on ‘Remove link’ icon.

      Remove link
      Remove link
    • Lists and Block quotes

      Lists and Blockquotes
      Lists and Blockquotes

      To create ordered list or unordered list, click on icon as shown in figure. Type your fist entry and hitting enter will create another list element.

    • Headings & Paragraph

      Headings
      Headings

      Click on the drop down box labelled “Paragraph.” to view different headings and paragraph formatting

    • To change text color

      text color
      text color
    • Adding images

      Add images
      Add images
    • Text Alignment

      Text Alignment
      Text Alignment
    • Insert More tag
      Instead of displaying entire post on your home page, it is a good idea to extract the first part of your post followed by a “more…” link. This will give visitors a good overview of your content without making them scroll forever and they can read full content by clicking on the ‘ more..’ link.

      more..
      more..

      You can accomplish this by using insert more tag. See the fig below. Insert your cursor in the place where you want to display ‘more..’ link and click on “Insert read More tag” icon.

      insert more tag
      insert more tag
    • Write your posts in HTML – If you’re ready to write your posts in HTML, click on text tab and write your article in the post content area.

    text tab
    text tab

  3. Select Categories

    Now select in which category your article belongs to. Categories tie related posts. Categories help the search engines and readers find related articles on your blog. If you do not see relevant category there, you can add a category by clicking on “Add New Category” link.

    There are two ways to add Categories. They can be added while adding/ editing your Post or they can be added via the Categories menu option.

    categories
    categories

  4. Add Tags.

    Tags are another way to tie related posts. While categories are general, tags are specific.

    tags
    tags

  5. Preview your article.

    Preview
    Preview

  6. Publish your article.

    See the fig above. WordPress offers additional option while publishing a post.

    Publish
    Publish

    Click on the Edit link next to “Visibility: Public”:You can make your post public and make it a sticky on the front page or you can choose to password protect it or make it completely invisible to people that are not logged in to your blog.

    Click on the Edit link next to “Publish immediately“. You can also setup your post to be published in the future. Just set the date/time you want your post to be published.

How to create a sortable table in WordPress?

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Last week,  I did a wordpress article that does a Speed comparison of Best ThemeForest WordPress Themes.

Initially I collected and compiled my data in a Google drive spreadsheet. Once data was ready, I wanted to present the data in a wordpress post, in a way that reader should be able to sort the data by any column(ascending or descending). So I was in search of a good plugin that can help me do so.

There are couple of good plugins for fancy table display in wordpress posts. But I chose Easy Table Plugin, based on its features as well as user ratings and reviews in wordpress.org site.

At the end of this article, we’ll also have a quick look at Posts Table Pro. This plugin is an interesting alternative to Easy Tables because instead of entering data to your WordPress tables manually, it automatically creates tables listing content already stored on your website.

Easy Table Plugin

easy-table-screenshot

 

Idea behind this plugin is to generate table data using CSV(Comma Seperated Values) format. With simple additions, you table data is ready for display in your wordpress page or  post or even inside a widget. Good thing is this is very simple to use and you don’t need advanced skills to use it.

Let me illustrate this with a simple table example here. Now, if you mouse over any column, a sort icon appears. You can click this icon to sort that column in ascending or descending order. So simple.

Year Make Model Length
1997 Ford E350 2.34
2000 Mercury Cougar 2.38

 

So let us see how to install this plugin and then how to use it.

Install Easy Table Plugin.

  1. Log into your wordpress admin.
  2. Go to Plugins >> Add New.
  3. In the search box enter ‘Easy Table’ and search.
  4. Select ‘Easy Table’ from search results and click on the link ‘Install Now’.
  5. Go to Plugins >> Installed Plugins. Find Easy Table and activate the plugin.

How to use Easy Table. A full example :

Generate table data using CSV(Comma Separated Values) format.

Table data in CSV format means text that is separated with a comma. You can create a CSV using a text editor such as Notepad, Microsoft Excel and Google Docs. Here we are using Google docs for demo purpose.
Open Google Drive >>Click on Create >> Spreadsheet.

Create CSV
Create CSV

Enter data and and click File, Download as, and then select CSV (current sheet).

easy-table-steps1
Generate table data using CSV(Comma Separated Values)format

Open CSV in Notepad.

Open CSV
Open CSV

Step 2: Embedd CSV data between <table> and </table> tags

Create a new post and embed table data. Actually you can embed csv data in 2 ways.

Method 1: Copy and paste CSV from notepad.

embedded
Embed table data

Look at the table data here. The entire table data is embedded between<table> and </table>.  First row is reserved for table titles(Note: you can also create table with no heading using table parameter.). And you see that next 2 rows in the example are data rows. So simple.

Method 2: Upload CSV file and insert the file path

Easy table
Embed file path

Look at the table data here.  Save and upload the CSV(Comma Separated Values) . Insert the location of your file  between<table> and </table>( See fig above).

The result:

Year Make Model Length
1997 Ford E350 2.34
2000 Mercury Cougar 2.38

Other Features

You can add additional parameter to this <table> tag and use cell attribute to control other features of table.

Table with initial sort order on load

You can control sort order on load in 2 ways. Add sort=”desc” or sort=”asc” to <table> tag.
Method 1: Using table parameter Table with initial sort order using table parameter. See the table example below. First column is sorted descending on load.

Year Make Model Length
1997 Ford E350 2.34
2000 Mercury Cougar 2.38
2010 Nissan Micra 4.38

Table with initial sort order
Table with initial sort order

Method 2: Using cell attribute

Initial sort order
Initial sort order

Table with first column descending, second column ascending
For example, the following table on load sort first column descending and then sort second column ascending.

Year Make Model Length
1997 Ford E350 2.34
1998 Maruthy Zen 3.38
2000 Mercury Cougar 2.38
2000 Nissan Micra 4.38
2000 Maruthy Zen 3.38
2000 BMW Micra 4.38

Table with initial sort
Table with initial sort

Disable sort for any column

Look at the table below. Sort for third column is disabled here.

no Item Kg Price
1 Orange 2 100.00
2 Grapes 1 75.25
3 Pinapple 5 130.00
4 Mango 8 250.00

You can do this 2 ways.
Method 1: Add a table parameter  ‘sort=,,false’.

table parameter
table parameter

Method 2: Add a cell attr  ‘sort=false’.

cell attr
disable sort by adding a cell attr

Set index to table

For example see following table with auto index, start from number 2

No.head1 head2 head3
2row1col1 row1col2 row1col3
3row2col1 row2col2 row2col3
4row3col1 row3col2 row3col3
5row4col1 row4col2 row4col3

 

initial sort order
initial Index

In addition to setting auto index to a table, you can give a title to that column and you can set width of that column.

auto index
auto index

Other features

For example see following code shows how to add table parameter to create a table with specific width, style etc.

Adding table parameter
Adding table parameter

Following code shows how to use attribute in some cells.

attribute in cells
attribute in cells

Posts Table Pro

Alternative table plugin – Create instant WordPress tables with Posts Table Pro

As you can see, Easy Tables is a neat plugin that lets you display static data in a table on your WordPress site. Before we finish, I’ll tell you about another WordPress table plugin that lets you create instant tables without having to enter data manually.
Posts Table Pro works by generating tables of information already stored on your WordPress website. It’s a great alternative to Easy Tables if you want tables that will automatically update with the latest data. Here are some examples of websites that would benefit from this type of WordPress table plugin:
  • Index of blog posts or articles – It doesn’t take long for a WordPress blog to become so big that it’s hard for visitors to find your older posts. No one wants to scroll through multiple pages of posts! Use Posts Table Pro to create a blog post index or article directory, which will automatically update when you add a new post.
  • Document library or knowledge base – If you want to create a WordPress document library then you can create a ‘Documents’ post type and use Posts Table Pro to list your documents in a table view. Your visitors can either download the document directly from the table, or click through to a single page for each document. You can categorize documents and add filters to help customers find the documents they need. 
  • List of events or e-commerce products – Amazingly, Posts Table Pro can list any WordPress post type in a table. This opens the door to many other possible use cases. For example, if you’re using a WordPress events plugin or e-commerce plugin then you can list your events or products in a table layout too. 
The dynamic table plugin is easy to set up and comes with lots of options. There’s a detailed plugin knowledge base to help you configure your WordPress tables in any way you like. 

So we have seen how to use “Easy Table” plugin to create a nice sortable table. Have you created sortable tables using other plugins? Share your experience below.

 

How to create a wordpress blog – Step by Step Guide

How to create a wordpress blog – Step by Step Guide

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So whats’s your reason to start a blog?
People create blogs for many reasons. Some people start a blog to teach others about a topic while others start blogging simply to have fun.  Everyone has their own reason.

How to start a blog?

There are many free blogging platforms are available to set up a blog and begin writing within minutes. But if you are using hosted blogging platforms like blogger, tumbler, Facebook etc., you need to #create blog under their terms and conditions. A self hosted blog will give you complete control over how your blog site looks and works.

Do you know that #wordpress is the most popular blogging platform that powers more than 60 million websites  worldwide?

Why WordPress?
WordPress is the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world. WordPress has many features like custom design templates, plugin, automatic spam protection and a strong community to get support. It is very flexible and user-friendly. You can start a #wordpress blog on your own host extremely cheaply and get on the way within 20 minutes.

So how do you install it in less than 5 minutes and start blogging?

  1. Sign up for web hosting
  2. Install WordPress
  3. Write your first blog post using the WordPress Editor
  4. Change how your WordPress blog looks using a “theme”
  5. Add functionality to your blog using tools called “plugins”

  • Step 1: Sign up with Hosting

    Sign up for WordPress hosting

    In order to start a wordpress blog website, you need a domain name and a web hosting account. Bluehost is one of the best and most reliable WordPress web hosting providers.

    You will receive a welcome email with control panel login details. Login to your newly created Hosting Account.

  • Step 2: Log into hosting control Panel

    Log into your newly created Hosting Account. Once you are logged in, just scroll down to the bottom of the screen, and you will see WordPress available for installation right from the control panel. Click on the icon.

    wp-install1
    Click on WordPress

  • Step 3: Click on Install

    install wordpress
    install wordpress

    Then, you’ll be redirected to a page, where you can see more details about WordPress. Click on Install button on top of the page.

  • Step 4: Type in blog settings

    wp-install3Type in your WordPress blog settings. Fill the fields such as the site or the folder of your site to which it will be installed, site name/title, the admin username and password. If you wish the WordPress blog to be the main page of your website, make sure the ‘In Directory’ field is empty. When you are done, click ‘Install’. And you’re basically almost done.

  • Step 5: Visit default WordPress page

    Installation will take less than 1 min. Your new blog is ready to use and you can see the default WordPress page. 
    Go to site home to see default WordPress page.

  • Step 6:Log into Admin


    Down the left-hand side of the Dashboard and on every page you will see your main admin navigation menu. This is where you’ll find all the options to update and configure your site. Pass mouse over each item, then you can see the various choices for that particular menu option.

    • Dashboard – This will display some brief summary about your site.
    • 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/files are stored. You can browse /edit / update the files.
    • Pages – This is where you create and maintain all your Pages.
    • Comments – You can manage all your Comments within this section,
    • Appearance – This menu is where you control how your site looks.
    • Plugins – 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.
    • Tools – This section gives you access to various convenient tools.
    • Settings – This is where your site is configured.

    How to add new post?

    In this post, I’ll highlight essential steps only. So take a look at the detailed post, “How to write a Post in wordpress blog“.

    After log into your site admin, click ‘Posts’ then click ‘Add New’.
    Then you’ll be directed to the writing screen. Enter your post title in the upper field, enter your post body content in the main post editing box below it, select a category, add tags and when you are ready, click ‘Preview’ to see how it looks when readers read your post. Click ‘Publish’ to let the world see your post.

    How to create category

    Click ‘Posts’ >> ‘Categories’. Then you’ll be directed to category page. Here you can see existing categories and option to add new category.
    How to add photos, videos and music to your posts

    Click on the text where you want to add the content and click on the Add Media button in the top left part of the editor. Click on the Select files button in the insert Media pop-up screen. Once you upload the file, fill the attachment settings of the image. Then click the Insert into post button and you will see the image added to your editor window.

    How to customize the Look of your Blog

    In this post, I’ll highlight essential steps only. So take a look at the detailed post, How to install a WordPress Theme the right way.

    You Can change the look and feel of your blog by visiting Appearance>>themes link. Here, you will see your current theme and all other themes you have currently installed in your server. You can preview and activate any theme from this list.To add another one, simply click on the Install Themes tab.There are lots of free and paid WordPress themes available. On this page you can either search for a free theme from the WordPress.org theme directory or you can upload a theme from your local hard drive.

    1. If you are upload a theme follow these steps: click on the Upload link at the top of the page >> click the Choose File button >> select the archive of your theme from your local computer >>Press the Install Now button >> click the Activate link on the next page you will be redirected to.
    2. If you are searching for a free theme follow these steps: Browse through the results >> choose a theme for your site >> click on the Install Now link under it >> click the Activate link on the next page you will be redirected to.

    Plugins

    In this post, I’ll highlight essential steps only. So take a look at the detailed post, How to install wordpress plugin.

    Many plugins are available to add additional functionality to your Blog. Plugins improve the performance of a website, the search engine optimization, and the overall user experience. For eg. comment spam filter, display related posts, t, add contact form add more SEO features, add eCommerce features, etc. For example comment spam filter, or related posts, they are all plugins.

    Here are some must have plugins:

    • Akismet – To protect you from web spam
    • WordPress SEO by Yoast – To increase your search engine traffic by improving your WordPress SEO.
    • W3 Total Cache – To reduce the download times and increase server performance.
    • Contact Form 7 – To add contact page in you blog
    • Google XML Sitemaps – To generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog.
    • WordPress Related Posts – To display related posts in the footer of your content and increase your readers’ engagement with your posts
    • Digg Digg – To display all social sharing buttons nicely on your blog.

    Other WordPress settings: Simply navigate to the sidebar on the left.

    Dashboard


    Dashboard is the first screen you see when you log into the administration area of your blog. The Dashboard is the information Central. The Dashboard Screen provides an overview of what’s happening with your blog. It shows the number of posts, pages, Categories, and Tags, a list of the recent comments, links to start writing Posts or Pages and provide access to updating WordPress, plugins, and themes.
    Posts – When you click on it you can see all posts from your blog. Here you will get options to edit and delete the existing posts. Under the post menu category you have several links: “Edit”, “Add new”, “Post tags” and “Categories”.
    Media – is the images, video, and files, you upload and use in your blog.
    Page – is another tool to add static content to a WordPress site.
    Comments – you can manage user’s comments here.
    Appearance – Customize the Look of your Blog
    WordPressis highly customizable. You Can change the look and feel of your blog by visiting themes link. There are lots of free and paid WordPress themes are available. Under Appearance you will see another section called Widgets. Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. For example, if you want to show latest posts, categories and tag cloud, just drag and drop the respective boxes to the sidebar where you want them to appear.

    Users : You can add/manage new and existing users here.
    Settings : Here you can change general configuration of your WordPress blog.

Now that you are familiar with the basic features and functions of WordPress, you can start writing content.

How to install a WordPress Theme the right way?

How to install a WordPress Theme the right way?

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Themes determine how content is displayed on your WordPress Powered website. They are simply HTML pages with specific PHP embedded code. A theme can be as simple as index.php page, or it might contain additional files linked to Posts, Pages, Archives & a number of included images (Leary, 2010).

WordPress is designed to let you switch themes without changing the underlying content. For the novice user, it is very easy to install a theme right from your site dashboard. WordPress Content Management System uses its powerful graphical interface to help you through the steps of installing a theme.

How to install a WordPress Theme?

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps of installing and activating a Theme on your WordPress Powered blog.

We can install a wordpress theme using any of following 3 methods:

  • Method 1: Locating Themes interface on your WordPress Site dashboard and then Installing a theme from WordPress Official Theme Directory. This step is ideal if you want to make use of free wordpress themes created by loyal wordpress developers and it is 100% free. This step would the fastest way for you to get started and is very easy to follow.
  • Method 2: Installing a downloaded theme from your local drive using Upload feature. This step is ideal if you downloaded a theme as a zip file from a popular theme provider.
  • Method 3: Installing a downloaded theme traditional way (FTP Upload). This is the least preferred method, but will be useful, if you don’t have a theme zip file or if Upload feature in method 2 does not work due to server getting timed out. This step involves using a FTP client to upload your theme to your server.

A strong and reliable web host can make sure your wordpress blog is available 24/7. BlueHost is a Good one and makes a great choice.

Method 1: Installing a theme from WordPress Official Theme Directory

Free and Beautiful WordPress themes can be located right from your WordPress DashBoard. Let us get started with Locating Themes menu on your WordPress dashboard. Follow steps below.
Steps:

  • Login to your wordpress site, and locate Dashboard. From your sidebar on left side, Click on Appearance.

Dashboard 1

  • Click on Appearance>>Themes. A list appears with all your current installed Themes, if you have any. To add or install a new theme, simply click on add new link. Basically, what we will do here is, search the WordPress Theme Directory for available Themes, select one , install and then Activate the Theme.

New Picture (6)

 

Installing a theme from WordPress Official web directory

Steps:

  • Search and install a Theme from WP Official Theme Directory. This feature lets you search for themes in the WP directory and display them for you to install. The listing is huge with Featured, Popular, Latest themes so you would want to specify type of theme that suits your site for example, if your site is sporty, magazine etc, type “sporty” in the search text box. If you know the theme’s name, type that directly and search.

search

  • Redefine your search by accessing the *feature filter. It lets you put more advanced search criteria on your themes to choose the theme with the best matching criteria. It does so by enabling a search criteria of: Colours, Layout, Features and Subject

search criteria

  • Once you have selected a theme, Click install theme, then wait until the installation is complete. Then continue to Activate your Theme. Note:It will be a good practice to always preview themes before activating them. In case your site is already customized with widgets, plugins, headers, posts or pages, test the theme on your data by previewing it. Some themes may override your settings when activated.

 

install

Method 2: Installing a downloaded theme from your local drive using Upload feature

You can follow this method if you downloaded a theme as a zip file. Many premium theme providers create beautiful themes and let you download the theme as a zip file. Please follow steps below if this is the case.

Login to your wordpress site, and locate Dashboard. On the drop down menu, Click on Appearance.

Add New WordPress Theme
“Add New” WordPress Theme Step

Then click on Themes. You will now see Themes page. Click on Add New link

Click on “Upload Themes” . This feature allows you to upload your downloaded theme with .zip extension. After you click upload theme, a window is displayed for uploading the theme.

Upload A WordPress Theme
Upload A WordPress Theme

Click on the “browse” button and select the theme from your computer.

Upload WordPress Theme. Select Zip File
Upload WordPress Theme. Select Zip File

Once you have located your zipped theme, click install now. Wait until installation is complete, Preview your theme and then Activate it. Optional step: Go on to customize the theme, if you would like.

Once you activated your theme, the blog will now reflect the theme design. This completes method 2.

If you looking for elegant and advanced themes, then Elegant themes would be a great place to find best ones.

Method 3: Installing a downloaded theme traditional way (FTP Upload)

There are times when you just don’t have a theme zip file or Upload feature in DashBoard does not work due to server getting timed out. Or sometimes, if you happen to your wordpress blog in a windows hosting plan, you might have issues. In these cases, this method will become handy.

FTP client

Basically, a FTP client lets you move files to your website Host. FTP Clients connect to the hosts by use of internet protocols (File Transfer Protocol) specifically for that purpose. Personally, i use “FileZilla FTP Client” and it works for me. FTP is insecure in that it transmits your password in plain text. The good news is that FileZilla supports FTP and SFTP and you can use these secure versions of FTP to transfer your files.

Steps to install a FTP Client(FileZilla – free):

fileZilla1

  • Run and install the software after the download is complete.
  • At the top, there is Host, Username, Password and Port.

Host is your internet company that hosts your blog or website. Some popular Hosting companies are BlueHost, Hostgator, Blue Host and Arvixe . Many Hosts can let you type your domain name instead of the host’s domain.

  • Username & Password. These are login details you use to communicate with the Host via FTP Client. Note: You can set your username and password after logging in to your host control panel.

I’ll use 1and1 FTP Account through the process, which is easy and strikingly similar in almost all the hosts mentioned above.

 

Setting up FTP Password and Username at 1and1 Host:

Steps:

  • Login to your host control panel. Scroll down until you see Hosting

New Picture (2)

  • You will see your username, destination directory and description of the FTP account here. For security reasons, the password will not be displayed in the Control Panel. If you do not remember your password, it will have to be reset by following the next steps.

New Picture (1)

  • Optional: If you have forgotten your password, you will have to reset it. To do so, click the edit button next to the account in question.

ftp cp3

  • Click ok to save your settings. Please take note of the password change as the current password will not be available via the Control Panel in the future.

Steps: Extracting & Uploading Themes via FTP:

The next step will be locating your downloaded Themes. Mostly the Themes are zipped therefore you’ll have to extract them in a separate folder.

  • Launch FileZilla, type your domain name in the Host textbox i.e. myblog.com, username and password you created above. Many Hosts enable port 3306 for FTP connections. Type the port although you can still leave this blank. Click “Quick Connect”.
  • After a successful connection, FileZilla opens in 2 split screens, Local & Remote Sites.

Local Site displays data from your local machine.

Remote Site displays data from your Host web space directory. You simply drag files across to the Remote Site folder of your choice and drop, and then wait until transfer is complete. You do so and vice versa to your local machine. You can as well delete files.

  • On the right, i.e. Remote Site, locate the directory where your WordPress blog is stored from the main directory. Click and open it.

WordPress has its files arranged in a special directory listing as:

wp-admin/., wp-content/, wp-includes/.

The folders to locate Themes and Plugins are wp-content/themes and wp-content/plugins respectively. Browse through to Themes folder and click to open. Now you’ll have all your themes in their folders.

  • Remember that folder you extracted your Themes in your local machine? Yes, now find it through your “local site” in FileZilla. Once you locate it, open to list all folders with the themes. All you need to do is drag a folder at a time, to the Remote site your themes folder, and drop. Do this for all the other folders, and you should have your themes ready for customization.
  • Now, i need you to login to your WordPress blog. Go to dashboard, under Appearance, you will see all your Themes in place. Click on each as you like, and preview all of them.

 

Note: If you had your blog customised already, automatic theme updates will overwrite your theme customizations, i.e. Header texts, Widgets etc. If you will always update your themes manually, go to Site Manager, Put Off “automatic theme updates”.

 Summary:

So there you go…If you are a beginner and want to get started fast, we recommend Method 1. Dont forget to leave your comments below.  Ciao!

For elegant and advanced themes,  Elegant themes would be a great place to find best ones.

 

How to install a WordPress blog in 1and1?

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WordPress Installation

Why a free Blog or Self Hosted Blog? Well, that depends on your pocket. A free WordPress hosted blog is easy to setup and get it online in no time. You don’t have to pay anything for this kind of a blog. All you need to do is follow these simple steps.

Steps: Free Hosted Blog Installation

  • Choose a cool Domain name. It could be something like “myblog.wordpress.com”. You should be careful about this name since it’s the first impression to your readers. It should be: interesting, short and easy to remember
  • In WordPress, enter the domain name you’ve created on the Blog Address field, enter the other details and select “Create Blog”.
  • Log in, choose your Theme and start posting. On your first use of WordPress, there are limited default free themes you can choose from like “Twenty Thirteen”. Make tweaks here and there, like dragging widgets on sidebars, using plugins, editing posts reading, discussion viewing. Remove the sample post, and then write your first blog post!

Steps: Self Hosted Blog

The site you’ve just created is freely hosted on WordPress servers. Note that free hosted sites tend to be rigid, i.e. you can’t make some changes as you would like to. By doing some stuff you may end up violating Terms and Conditions of WordPress resulting in your blog being suspended or deleted. If you are not interested in your blog being called “myblog.wordpress.com”, you can buy a domain. This would be a unique name on the internet and could be your chosen name, “myblog.com” or “myblog.net”. If you don’t have a domain, order one at 1and1 at an offer of $0.99 for 12-months plus Hosting! Hostgator has an offer as well.

After registering your domain name, log in to 1and1 control panel. Customer ID refers to your newly created domain, “myblog.com” or the long all-digit code. I will assume 1and1 as your blog Host to guide you through the installation.

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Installing WordPress on 1and1.com Host

WordPress can be installed in 2 Modes at 1and1 Host namely: Free and Safe modes.

Safe Mode Installation: This installation is ideal for users looking for a Web hosting solution geared towards security and convenience, as well as less experienced users working within open-source applications. While customization is possible within this mode, it does not offer as much freedom as Free Mode. This mode also offers simple installation that can be completed within just a few clicks through a guided installation wizard.

Free Mode Installation:This installation is best for experienced users working on specific, fully-customized projects. It is fully customizable, offering complete freedom and control to code specific plugins in order to make websites fully unique. The installation is the same as installing directly into a user’s own web space. However, performing maintenance must be conducted by the user – they are responsible for all security updates to applications. The ability for developers to adapt applications with outside, self-made plugins, themes or code is all possible with this installation method. (Blog.1and1.com, 2014)

 

1and1 Host Control Panel

host menu

After successful login, you are directed to a 3 main-column Menu as follows: Domains, My Data & Enhance your 1and1 package. Follow the steps below.

  • Under Domains, another menu Hosting is displayed. Select WordPress on the 1and1 App Centre list. Click install WordPress.

1and1 app centre

  • On “website name”, Fill in your preferred website name.

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  • Under Administrator login, choose a user name, Password and installation type from Safe & Free modes, accept terms & conditions then click install.

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  • On choose your domain; you can select a sub-domain if you wish not to install WordPress in the main domain. If you created a sub-domain, i.e. “blog.myblog.com” select your sub-domain and click on “Assign domain”.

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Note: Creating a sub-domain may take time i.e. 24 hours awaiting approval. The same may apply to your site as a result of database creations and your settings being saved.

After successful installation, login using your installation details (The username and password you created earlier). You just need to type your domain name in the address bar: www.myblog.com/wp-login.php. Replace “myblog” with your real domain name. You should login successfully to WordPress control panel, simply the “Dashboard”

The WordPress Dashboard Menu

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Lets you customize your site as you wish. Note: Free Mode gives you total control over your created blog i.e. you have authority to choose from new themes, plugins, updating themes and plugins and security upgrades, – all done manually. On Dashboard menu or simply Home, a long list of options are available to use during blog customization. They include:

Appearance: Here you can select between themes and activate them. Other options on appearance are: Widgets, Menus, Header and Theme settings.

Posts: Here you can see all Posts including the Sample Post. Delete this post and create a new post. The Post editor lets you create and Edit posts using the editor, preview and to publish posts.

Media: You can add pictures from local uploads to your posts

Pages: Here you can create pages as you like. Pages can be; About Page, Contact Page etc.

Comments: Here you can view the comments posted by users on your posts or pages. You can choose to Approve or Disapprove, Reply and edit comments or move them to Spam folder altogether

Plugins: Plugins are bits of software that can be uploaded to extend and expand the functionality of your WordPress site (iThemes, 2013). To use a plugin, you must activate it, and use it through a widget – Widgets are incorporated by code on core WordPress, Theme or Plugin. If a widget is provided by a plugin or theme, then it will only work as long as that plugin or theme is active. When you deactivate the plugin or theme, all its widgets will disappear.

Users: As the Administrator, you may give someone privileges as a writer to your blog. You do so here by creating a new user with roles like: Contributor, Subscriber, Author, Editor or Administrator. You can edit your profile here as well as Deleting users.

Tools: If you had a blog before and you would wish to transfer posts to your newly created blog, you use the Import Tool and Export Tool to copy your site in another location or to your local storage.

Settings: You use settings to make changes that affect your blog in general. Changes can be made on: Discussion, Reading, Limit login attempts etc

Site manager: This option lets you put Off/On Major updates like adding features, improvements and awesomeness, Theme updates and Plugin updates. Note: Automatic theme updates will overwrite your theme customizations.

 

 

 

 

 

How to install a WordPress Theme the right way?

How To Install a WordPress Theme

wpdev 1 Comment

As a beginner,you have probably heard of various free and paid #wordpress themes available online. You may have tried out a few themes until you’ve found one that meets your needs. In this guide, we’ll show you how to install a WordPress theme.

This guide will cover the three different ways you can install a theme. However, before installing a WordPress theme, keep in mind that once you activated a new theme, it will change how your website looks and functions. If you are switching from an existing theme, then you need to do several checks first before changing to a new WordPress theme.

Here are the different ways to install a WordPress theme. Read More