Brad Boyle’s Wordpress Blog Journey (1/2012)

I had some requests to show how I developed the website that I will actually use from

http://www.wordpress.com. This is my very sketchy attempt to illustrate what I did. I would have some proficiency with School Center before going down this journey. Now that I know the program, I much prefer it to Google….

My personal website can be found at http://www.chatphys.wordpress.com

(By the way, there is http://www.wordpress.org that requires a dedicated server and pay. The free site (wordpress.com) is not very customizable and rigid, but it provides professional results.)

Sign Up for Your Website

1. Go to http:/www.wordpress.com2. Sign up for a domain name that will serve as your homepage. Keep in mind that each

sub-page will actually be a separate blog. They are all managed from the same login. For example, my blogs are

chatphys.wordpress.com (Home Page)chatphyscon2.wordpress.com (Semester 2 Conceptual Physics)chatphysreg2.wordpress.com (Semester 2 Regular Physics)phollieschaos.wordpress.com (Phollies and Chaos)

Selection of theme1. After you login, there should be a black bar at the top of the screen, where all editing

menus can be found.

2. On the left hand side, this is where the “Dashboard” can be found from this dropdown menu.

3. After, you select the Dashboard, there should be a set of editing menus on the left hand side. With this select Appearance and then Themes.

4. There are several themes to choose from. Some of them work better than others for school purposes. I like those that have a two column (content and widget) format.

I chose the Vigilance theme because it allowed me to customize my own header and it is the school colors.

Vigilance in the search boxWhen the theme comes up, select Activate.After the theme is selected, you now need to place a header file. I used this one,but there might be a better one out there. (The file must be 920 X 180 pixels)

In this custom header menu, turn off the display text button.

If you find it useful, I also found a CSH logo that would be helpful to install on your page as well.

Widgets1. This theme comes with many preinstalled widgets. (This is nowhere near as

customizable as google, but it results in a clean, standardized look. Plus, you cannotbeat the price!). Click on Widgets from the Appearance Menu (right below Themes).

2. Clear all the existing widgets from the Wide Sidebar. Select calendar (that shows whenyou make a post…not an editable calendar), links (that show a link to both other wordpress blogs), and Blog stats (so that you can keep track of how many visitors you have to your website.)

Subpages1. Wordpress is quite a bit different in building subpages than other programs. You actually

create a separate blog managed from the same login.2. To do this you have to access the other side of menus on the right hand side of the

screen. 3. The menu is found here. Select Manage my blogs.

3. On the bottom right corner of the screen that comes up, there is an Add Another Blog button. You have to set up each subpage in the same manner that you set up the homepage. (You can set up with any theme you desire, however.)

This is my final set up of my blogs.

Links1. This allows you to navigate between your blogs (or subpages.) This process needs to be

done on both your home page and your sub-pages.2. Go to the links menu at the left hand side of the screen. Click on All Links.3. Delete all preset links.4. Type in your links to all your subpages by using the Add Link menu. Type the name of

your link and the web address of your link.5. You can link to external sites as well. For example, I have a link to my You-Tube

presence at http://www.youtube.com/chatphys.6. You may want to change the category of links from the default Blogroll to Links. To do

this, click on Link Categories and edit the name through this menu. Hover over the wordLink to have the submenu come up.

Building Page Content1. Your homepage will be static and will the navigated through the links on the right. Here is

a screenshot of my homepage.

Here is one of my postings for my class. Everything underlined is an active link.

The editor in Wordpress1. The editor in Wordpress is a bit more rigid than typical word processing. It does not

recognize tabbing for example. All files that you want to link have to uploaded in thesame way as School Center through the button on the top left of the Add Post screen.

2. The Upload/Insert Screen looks like this. Note that scanned files (jpg or pic) will appear actual images on the screen. I shrink them down to thumbnails and have the students

click on them to make them larger.

3. When you are finished, make sure you click on Publish to make it active.

To disable commenting1. We are trying to make a website out of a blog. One of the essential features of blogging

is the ability to make comments. For students, they could have a field day with un-moderated “love notes” to their teacher and the class. To turn this feature off, go tothe Settings menu on the left hand side of the screen and select Discussion. Turn all the check boxes off. Save Changes.

2. Do the same thing in the Sharing menu.