Adding and editing pages on WordPress
Adding and Editing Pages on WordPress
This week’s blog is the second post in our series of WordPress tutorials. Last week, we introduced the back end of a WordPress website, the “dashboard.” This week, we’d like to explain one of the most important features on your dashboard, the “pages” tab.
Simply put, the Pages tab gives you access to add to or edit the various pages on your website – you know, your website’s Home page, the About page, the Contact page, etc.
To add to or edit a page on your website, begin by – you guessed it – clicking on the “Pages” tab on the left side of your dashboard (where the red arrow is pointing below).
If you hover over the “pages” tab, both an “all pages” and an “add new” link will appear. These links are also more or less self-explanatory. Clicking “all pages” will allow you to view a list of every page on your site. Clicking “add new” will link you directly to WordPress’s Add New Page screen.
This is the screen where you can add and edit text and images on your WordPress website.
The toolbar of buttons contains editing functions, many of which you’re hopefully already familiar with – e.g. bold, italics, page alignment, underlining, etc. If you hover your mouse over each button, an explanation for each button will appear.
The “Kitchen Sink” button (the button on the upper right side of the toolbar) allows you to show or hide a second row of editing buttons. The Kitchen Sink is already selected in the image above, so the second row of buttons is currently displayed.
You can add photos and images to each page by clicking the “Add Media” button in the upper left corner of your screen. Clicking this will give you the option of uploading a new media file or selecting one from your existing library of files, as seen in the image below.
The drop-down menu on the bottom left of the toolbar (in the image below) allows you to change the format of each line of text on your page. This allows for each page’s headers, paragraphs, and other text to be uniform throughout your website.
WordPress also allows you to include links right within the text of your pages. To do this, type the text that you’d like to display as a link and select it so it’s highlighted. Once you highlight your text, go to the “insert/edit link” button – it’s roughly in the top middle of the toolbar, and looks like a gold chain link.
Once you click on the insert/edit link button, the insert/edit link screen will display. This screen allows you to enter the destination of the website to which you’d like to link, or to select a link to another page of your website. You can also give the link a title, which will display when the mouse hovers over the link on a page. You can also select a box to choose whether to open the link in the same window/tab, or a new one.
To unlink a link, simply click the button to the right of the link button (the one that looks like a broken chain link). If you highlight your link and click on this, the link will be turned back into non-linked text.
Once you’ve added text, photos, and content, you can then publish your page. On the right hand side of your screen, you’ll see a big blue “publish” button. Click this to publish; to make your page live on your website. You’ll also notice a “Preview” button, which allows you to preview what the page will look like before you actually publish. You’ll also notice a “Save Draft” page, which allows you to save your page as a draft on the back end of your website if you aren’t yet ready to publish.
These are just a few of the page editing and formatting capabilities of your WordPress website. Take some time to get familiar with the Pages screen. After a little practice, it’ll hopefully become second nature for you. Of course, if you ever have any questions about your WordPress site, contact O2 today!