Lorelle on WordPress

In Lorelle’s WordPress School free online course, it is time to start digging into the post content of your test site. In other words, it is time to start loosening the reigns of your imagination.

We are going to start with an article series, a series of posts linked together once completed. It begins with your first post.

Before you begin this assignment you should have:

1. Your test site setup or installed and ready to go
2. Categories from your site plan and category brainstorm assignments
3. Your profile set to identify yourself and your About You bio set in My Profile
4. The WordPress Publishing Checklist printed and by your side through the process

How to Publish a Post in WordPress

To create a post in WordPress:

1. Go to Posts > Add New or any of the other access points in the interface to add a new post.
2. Following the instructions in the WordPress Publishing Checklist, add the title, post content, categories, and tags.
3. To modify the content, use the toolbar buttons. To see more toolbar options, click the last button on the bar called the Toolbar Toggle button. Please note that in these WordPress School Lessons you are to:
   • Not change fonts by size, style, or color
   • Use the drop down box on the second row of the Toolbar to set the headings and other common styles.
4. Save draft and preview the post.
5. Make changes as needed, save draft, and preview again.
6. When the post is ready for publishing, click publish.

Please honor the request to not force styles and fonts onto your posts and Pages during this WordPress School project. When we get to the lessons on WordPress Themes, these forced styles persist, thus not displaying how your site’s content would really look in the new Theme. It also adds work, additional work you don’t need to do or remember every time you publish. We will cover how to use such forced styles later in the course.

Assignment

Your assignment begins today with writing the first of a five part article series in WordPress. There is much to learn, so we’re going to take this slowly, step-by-step.

The article series will consist of a minimum of five posts by the time we complete the exercise. To help you prepare, the articles are:

1. Introduction: Why should we learn about this
2. Tutorial: How to do this
3. Gallery: Photographs of doing this
4. Citations: What others have to say about doing this
5. Resources: More information on how to do this

Do not do all of these now. There are lessons to be learned in each article that we will cover. Do these one at a time.

Today and over the weekend, you are to work on the first two posts and publish the first one when you are ready on your test site. As you work on these two posts, you may collect and prepare material for the others in the series.

Instructions on Choosing a Post Topic: In line with the goal of creating a test site that ties into your passion and interests, choose a topic you could teach, one you could talk about for months without pause, a topic you could demonstrate and show someone how to do it, and do it better.

Write the Introduction Post: The introduction post answers the question of why we should learn this thing, the subject of your article series. Introduce us to the subject and tell us why this matters to you, and why you are the one to teach us.

The introduction post should include the following:

• Properly formed HTML links to external sites that serve as references or resources to back what you are talking about if necessary.
• A minimum of two sections titled with HTML headings.

If you would like to include images, that is fine. Experiment. Images are required in the second post.

When ready, publish the post. If you would like to share the first post with other participants, you may do so in our WordPress School Google+ Community in a reply under this assignment post.

The second post in the article series is a tutorial on the subject. Teach us how to use it, do it, or make it.

This does not need to be published. We will be working on this in the next assignment, but you may start the article.

The tutorial article must include:

1. A minimum of 3 images teaching us how to
2. A minimum of one HTML list (bullet or number)
3. Headings
4. Links to references or resources in properly formed HTML

Ready to publish?

This is a tutorial from Lorelle’s WordPress School. For more information, and to join this free, year-long, online WordPress School, see:

• Lorelle’s WordPress School Introduction
• Lorelle’s WordPress School Description
• WordPress School Tutorials List
• WordPress Publishing Checklist
• How to Give Feedback and Criticism