I have done the 5-minute installation. Now what?

You’ve just completed the 5-Minute Installation of WordPress or the one-click install from your web host. So what is your next step?

Let’s take a step-by-step tour through your WordPress site and see how the different functions work and how to make your new site your own. During the first part of this tutorial, please don’t change anything within the program unless it is part of the tutorial. After following these steps, you’ll soon be changing everything.

Log In

Begin by logging into the administration area, or the back end, of your website. Visit your site’s login page by placing wp-admin after your domain name (e.g., http://example.com/wp-admin). Some themes provide a login link or form on the front end as well. Now log in to WordPress using the username and password you created in the 5-minute install.

Start at the Top

After logging in you are on the main Administration Screen called the Dashboard. This is where the organization of your site begins.

At the top of the screen is the area called the toolbar. Click on your site name; it’s a link and it will take you to a view of your new WordPress site. Like it? Don’t like it? Doesn’t matter, just look at it. This is where you are going to be spending a lot of time!

Test Drive Your WordPress Site

Take time to look at the site before you get into changing it and figuring out how it all works; it’s important to see how the WordPress Twenty Nineteen theme is laid out and how it works. Consider this the test drive before you start adding all the special features.

The layout you are looking at is defined by a WordPress Theme. It is the appearance of your website, styling the look of the site and the framing of the content. The WordPress Twenty Nineteen theme features a “header” at the top with the title and tagline for your site. Below this is your Menu, if you have one. Along the side you will see some titles and links. This is the Sidebar. The different items inside a Sidebar are called Widgets. The main middle section of the page is the content area.

Scroll down the page and notice the bar at the end of the page. This is called the “footer.” It says “Proudly powered by WordPress.”

Back to the sidebar, you will see different sections with information. Among these you may find a list of Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Archives, Categories, links to the Administration Screens, Log Out, and RSS feeds. This is part of the menu or navigation Screen that people will use to move around your site, visiting posts from different categories or time periods.

Take a Quick Trip Around

For now you only have one post. It is residing within a page that is laid out as your home page or the front page. If you click on the title of the post, it will take you to the specific page for that post. The first page or home page of your site features the most recent posts on your site. Each post title will link to the actual page of the post. Some Theme designers design their single post pages to look different from the home page.

In the single post, pay attention to the layout and notice what is different about the design elements. Is the header different? Smaller, larger, or a different color? Is there a sidebar?

All of these changes are created from a few files called template files. You can learn more about how they work in Theme Developer Handbook. For now, however, let’s get on with how the rest of WordPress works.

Test Drive the WordPress Administration Screens

Now that you have an idea of how your site looks and what the different layout sections are called, it’s time to test drive the WordPress Administration. This is like familiarizing yourself with the backend of your new website. In fact, the first page you see after logging in is called the Dashboard, a collection of information and data about the activities and actions on your WordPress site.

The Dashboard features a list of the most recent activity you’ve accomplished on your site and it helps to keep you up to date on new and interesting bits of information from the many WordPress resources.

On the left side of the screen is the main navigation menu detailing each of the administrative functions you can perform. Move your mouse down the list and the sub-menus will “fly out” for you to move your mouse to and click. Once you choose a “parent” navigation section, it will open up to reveal the options within that section.

The various menu items are as follows:

• Dashboard
• Posts
• Media
• Pages
• Comments
• Appearance
• Plugins
• Users
• Tools
• Settings

Let’s start with the User screen

Click on the Users tab. The screen will change and you will see the Screen called All Users that shows a list of all your users; from here you can add or change existing users and authors accounts. In the navigation menu, click on the Your Profile menu choice. This is where you will enter information about you, the author and administrator of the site. Fill in the information and click Update Profile when done.

Now, let’s look at some other powerful features of the WordPress Admin.

Changing the Look

The Appearance, Themes Screen allows you to change the look of your site using different Themes. Themes are presentation styles that completely change the look of your site. Designed by developers and users, there are hundreds of themes available for you to choose from. In your Appearance Screen, you will see a list of currently installed themes, including the WordPress Twenty Nineteen theme. To quickly change the theme, simply click on the Activate button under one of the themes listed, then click on your site name in the top toolbar to see how it looks. Wow, you have another look. It’s that easy. Go back to Appearance > Theme and click the Activate button under the WordPress Twenty Nineteen theme to bring the design back to what you had. To see it again, click your site name in the toolbar, and there it is.

Creating a post

Back in the Administration Screen, take a look at the Posts Screen. You can use the tabs under the Posts Menu to write and manage your posts. Let’s start by making your first test post in the Add New tab.

Simply fill in the blanks, one by one, in the post beginning with the title and then write a little test message in the post window. This is just for a test, so you can write anything you want. When you are done, click the Publish button that is to the right of the post entry window and it is done. There’s more exciting work ahead! Now that you’ve gotten a feel for writing posts, you can view your posts by clicking your site name in the toolbar at top of the screen.

Comments

Part of the fun of WordPress is the ability to have viewers leave comments on your site. It creates a dynamic interchange between you and the viewer. Do you want comments on your posts? Comments on posts come in a variety of forms, from pats on the back (Good job! Like the post!) to extensive conversations and commentary about the posts. Or maybe you are seeking comments that add to the information you’ve posted. Responding to comments and moderating them can also take up a lot of time. If they are critical to your site, then include them and consider how you want them presented. You can make a few comments yourself on the post you created. Take a look at how they are laid out and consider how you might want them to look to fit into the design and layout of your site. When you have reached your decision about how you want to handle comments, take time to read through the article on comments and WordPress discussion options to help you set those features.

Preventing Spam

There is more to think about when it comes to having comments on your site. Unfortunately we live in a world where spam is a fact of life. It is recommended that you begin battling the comment spammers with the helpful article, Introduction to Dealing with Comment Spam.

Create Categories

Posts are usually stored in Categories and/or Tags so you can keep related topics together. Right now you only have one category, but that will soon want more. In the Posts > Categories tab, in the Add New Category area, fill in the information about your category. Continue to add your parent categories, going down the list. Hold off on entering subcategories until all the main categories are entered. 

NOTE:You can add any new category at any time, but make a note of the fact that categories can be sorted in WordPress in two ways: by name (alphabetically) or by ID number. As you enter the categories, they are assigned an ID number. It is difficult to change this, so if you don’t want your categories sorted alphabetically, enter them in the order you want to see them presented on the screen.

Setting Up Your Site

Before you get to the graphic look of your site, let’s do a little more administration to your site to set it up. You may want to install plugins to supercharge your website, and don’t forget to activate the Akismet WordPress Plugin that is available with all WordPress sites to help protect it from comment spam. When you have the parent categories entered, enter your subcategories. In the pull down menu for Parent Category, you can select the parent to the subcategory you are adding. When you view your categories in the Manage > Categories Screen, you will see the categories listed like this:

• Computer Tips
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Mac
• Internet News
• Web Page Design
  • Web Standards
• WordPress
  • Plugins
  • Themes

Put Posts in Categories

Let’s put some of your test posts into categories so you can see how this works. From the Posts > Category Screen, click on the tab for All Posts. You should see the test posts you entered here. When you hover your mouse over each post title, under the title, you should see the Edit | Quick Edit | Trash | View links. Click on Edit to edit one of the posts. On the right side of the Edit Post screen you will now see your Categories. Choose one of them by clicking in the box next to it. Then in the Publish module above, click the Update button. Repeat this for your other test posts, putting each one in a different category. Now view your page by clicking on your site name in the toolbar at the top of your Administration Screen. Do you see the categories listed in the sidebar now? Great. If you are missing a category, that usually means that there are no posts in it. This is the default function of WordPress, so not to worry. When you add a post to the “missing” category, it will appear on your web pages. Click on one of the categories and you will be taken to a page for just that category. You should see the posts that went into that category. This is a generated Category page. Now, click on the Archives for the month showing. Now you are visiting a generated page of your posts listed in chronological order for this month – well, specifically for today only. Two methods of finding the same information.

What Is Next

You’ve now done all the basics for your new WordPress website. You know how to write a post, create a category, and how to view your site’s information by category and archive. You can start the customization process, and when you are done, don’t forget to delete your test posts! Then start writing some wonderful information to share with your new-found public!

Using WordPress Themes

There are hundreds of WordPress Themes to choose from. All do basically the same thing but graphically present the information in a myriad of ways. Choose a few that look interesting to you, and meet your audience’s needs and your desires, and then test drive them following the test drive instructions above. Click through the whole site, the categories and archives as well as the individual posts to see how the Theme handles each one. The look may be nice on the front page, but if it handles things in a way you don’t like on the single post, then you will have to dig into the code and make changes. Not ready for that, try another theme.

• WordPress Theme Directory
• Using Theme

Creating your own Theme

If you are familiar with CSS, HTML, and even PHP and MySQL, consider either customizing the Theme to your own needs, or creating your own Theme.

• WordPress Theme Developer Handbook

Using WordPress Plugins

Plugin ScreenWordPress Plugins are also known as add-ons or extensions. They are software scripts that add functions and events to your website. They cover the gamut from up-to-date weather reports to simple organization of your posts and categories. Plugins are designed by volunteer contributors and enthusiasts who like challenges and problem solving. They are usually fairly simple to install through the WordPress Admin Plugin Screen, just follow the instructions provided by the plugin author. Remember, these are free and non-essential. If you have any problems with plugins, contact the plugin author’s website or plugin source first, then search the Internet for help with that specific plugin, and if you haven’t found a solution, then visit the WordPress forums for more help.

• WordPress Plugin Directory
• Managing Plugins

Creating your own Plugin

If you are familiar with PHP, HTML, and maybe even MySQL, you may be able to customize WordPress to work the way you want by creating your own Plugin.

• WordPress Plugin Developer Handbook

Above and Beyond the Basics

The exciting thing about WordPress is that there are few limits. Thousands of people are using WordPress for blogging and for running their websites. For example, look at some of the entries under the WordPress.org Theme Showcase. All have a different look and different functions on their sites. What you do from here is up to you, but here are a few places to take that first step beyond the basics:

• WordPress Features
• Working with WordPress
• WordPress Semantics
• Using Pages
• Troubleshooting
• Using Permalinks
• Getting More Help
• Using the Support Forums

How to use List View

How to find List View

You can find List View in the top toolbar of the editor:

How to open and close List View

To open list view, select the List View icon as shown above. This will cause the view to open and stay open until you close it once more. You can close List View by either selecting the “x” or by selecting the List View icon once more.

How to select blocks

List View allows you to both see all of your content at once and select any block you’d like. To select a block and bring it into focus, click on the name of the block in List View. This will select that layer of content for you to then customize to your liking.

How to drag and drop blocks

After opening List View, select the block or section of blocks you want to drag and drop. After selecting, you can then drag and drop the content wherever you’d like within the List View sidebar. You are not able to drag and drop within the Editor itself.

How to make changes to individual blocks

Each block within List View has a three dot menu that you can click on to take further action on the block itself. You can also select a block and delete it with ease using your keyboard controls.

How to collapse sections

Next to each section of blocks, you’ll see an arrow icon that you can click to collapse or expand sections of blocks. This is helpful if you’re trying to navigate between complex content in order to more readily focus on different sections.

How to help distinguish between blocks

If a block has an ID/anchor set, it’s displayed in List View so it’s easier to distinguish between other blocks and reference as you want. Here’s an example with a portfolio anchor:

Demonstration of List View

Resources

• Improve your workflow with List View

Posts are entries that display in reverse order on your home page and/or blog page. Posts usually have comment fields beneath them and are included in your site’s RSS feed.

To write a post:

1. Log in to your WordPress Administration Screen (Dashboard).
2. Click the ‘Posts’ tab.
3. Click the ‘Add New’ sub-tab.
4. Start filling in the blanks: enter your post title in the upper field, and enter your post body content in the main post editing box below it.
5. As needed, select a category, add tags, and make other selections from the sections below the post. (Each of these sections is explained below.)
6. When you are ready, click Publish.

Screen Options

There are more editing fields available to you than you see on first login. The Screen Options area allows you to choose which Post Fields are displayed or hidden from your editing area, which allows you to minimize clutter and customize according to your needs.

You’ll find the Screen Options tab at the very top of your screen, and if you click on it, you’ll see a list of available editing boxes that you can use. Check the box for each Post Field you want displayed, or uncheck the box to hide that module. Click the Screen Options tab again to close the tab.

Once you’ve customized how editing screen, your options are saved so you don’t have to select or hide them again next time you log in.

Post Field Descriptions

Classic Editor – Top of Page

Title/Headline Box

This box should contain the title of your post. You can use any phrase, words, or characters. (Avoid using the same title on more than one page.) You can use commas, apostrophes, quotes, hyphens/dashes, and other typical symbols in the post like “My Site – Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid.” WordPress will then clean it up to generate a user-friendly and URL-valid name of the post (also called the “post slug”) to create the permalink for the post.

Permalink

Permalink stands for “permanent link.” That means a post URL that does not expose the post ID which could be subject to a change (e.g. when moving to different blogging system), but it rather contains a user-friendly post name derived from the post title which could also change, although not recommended, but in a more controllable way. This post name (also referred to as “post slug” or just “slug”) can be edited, depending on your Permalinks settings, using the “Edit” button. (To change your settings, go to Administration Screens > Settings > Permalinks). The permalink is automatically generated based on the title you set to the post and is shown below the title field. Punctuation such as commas, quotes, apostrophes, and invalid URL characters are removed and spaces are substituted with dashes to separate each word. If your title is “My Site – Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid”, it will be cleaned up to create the slug “my-site-heres-lookin-at-you-kid”. You can manually change this, maybe shortening it to “my-site-lookin-at-you-kid”.

Body Copy Box

The blank box where you enter your writing, links, images, links to images, and any information you want to display on your site. You can use either the visual (WYSIWYG) editor or the text view to compose your posts. For more on the text view, see the section below, Visual Versus Text Editor.

Publish Box

Contains buttons that control the state of your post. The main states are Draft and Published. Draft means the post has not been published and remains in draft status for the post creator. A Published status means the post has been published and is live on your site.

Preview Button
Allows you to view the post before publishing.

Save Draft
Allows you to save your post as a draft rather than immediately publishing it. To return to your drafts later, visit Posts – Edit in the menu bar, then select your post from the list.

Status
If you select a specific publish status (click Edit next to Status:Draft) and click the update post or “Publish” button, that status is applied to the post. For example, to save a post in the Pending Review status, select Pending Review from the Publish Status drop-down box, and click Save As Pending. (You will see all posts organized by status by going to Administration Screens > Posts > Edit).

Visibility
This determines how your post appears to the world. (click Edit next to Visibility) Public posts will be visible by all website visitors once published. Password Protected posts are published to all, but visitors must know the password to view the post content. Private posts are visible only to you (and to other editors or admins within your site).

Revisions
Click Browse to see all of the changes you’ve made to your post.

Scheduling
To schedule a post for publication on a future time or date, click Edit next to the words “Publish immediately.” You can also change the publish date to a date in the past to back-date posts. Change the settings to the desired time and date. You must also click the Publish button when you have completed the post to publish at the desired time and date.

Format Box

Allows you to choose a format for a post. Styling and appearance are handled by the individual themes.

Categories Box

The general topic of the post. It is typical for a blog to have 7-10 categories for content. Readers can browse specific categories to see all posts in the category. You can manage your categories by going to Administration Screens > Posts > Categories.

Tags Box

These are micro-categories for the post, similar to including index entries for a page. Posts with similar tags are linked together when a user clicks one of the tags. Tags have to be enabled with the right code in your theme for them to appear in your post. Add new tags to the post by typing the tag into the box and clicking “Add.” You can also click on the “Choose from the most-used tags” link to see all of the tags used by the site.

Excerpt

A summary or brief teaser of your post that may appear on the front page of your site as well as on the category, archives, and search non-single post pages. Note: the Excerpt does not usually appear by default. It only appears in your post if you have modified the template file listing the post to use the_excerpt() instead of the_content() to display the Excerpt instead of the full content of a post. If so, WordPress will automatically use as the Excerpt the first 55 words of your post content or the content before the <!–more–> quicktag. If you use the “Excerpt” field when editing the post, this will be used no matter what. For more information, see Excerpt.

Send Trackbacks

A way to notify legacy blog systems that you’ve linked to them. If you link other WordPress blogs, they’ll be notified automatically using pingbacks. No other action is necessary. For those blogs that don’t recognize pingbacks, you can send a trackback to the blog by entering the website address(es) in this box, separating each one by a space. See Trackbacks and Pingbacks for more information.

Custom Fields

Custom Fields offer a way to add information to your site. In conjunction with extra code in your template files or plugins, Custom Fields can modify the way a post is displayed. These are primarily used by plugins, but you can manually edit that information in this section.

Discussion

Options to enable interactivity and notification of your posts. This section hosts two check boxes: Allow Comments on this post and Allow trackbacks and pingbacks on this post. If Allowing Comments is unchecked, no one can post comments to this particular post. If Allowing Pings is unchecked, no one can post pingbacks or trackbacks to this particular post.

Post Author

A list of all blog authors you can select from to attribute as the post author. This section only shows if you have multiple users with authoring rights in your blog. To view your list of users, see Administration Screens > Users. For more information, see Users and Authors.

Classic Editor – Bottom of Page

Note: You can set basic options for writing, such as the size of the post box, how smiley tags are converted, and other details by going to Administration Screens > Settings > Writing.

Best Practices For Posting

You can say or show the world anything you like on your WordPress site. Here are some tips you need to know to help you write your posts in WordPress.

Practice Accessibility

To be compliant with web standards for accessibility, be sure to include ALT and TITLE descriptions on links and images to help your users, such as <a title=”WordPress.ORG” href=”https://wordpress.org/“>WordPress.ORG</a>.

Use Paragraphs

No one likes to read writing that never pauses for a line break. To break your writing up into paragraphs, use double spaces between your paragraphs. WordPress will automatically detect these and insert <p> HTML paragraph tags into your writing.

Use Headings

If you are writing long posts, break up the sections by using headings, small titles to highlight a change of subject. In HTML, headings are set by the use of h1, h2, h3, h4, and so on.

Use HTML

You don’t have to use HTML when writing your posts. WordPress will automatically add it to your site, but if you do want control over different elements like boxes, headings, and other additional containers or elements, use HTML.

Spell Check and Proofread

There are spell check Plugins available, but even those can’t check for everything. Some serious writers will write their posts in a text editor with spell check, check all the spelling and proof it thoroughly before copying and pasting into WordPress.

Visual Versus Text Editor

When writing your post, you have the option of using the Visual or Text mode of the editor. The visual mode lets you see your post as is, while the Text mode shows you the code and replaces the WYSIWYG editor buttons with quicktags. These quicktags are explained as follows.

• b – <strong></strong> HTML tag for strong emphasis of text (i.e. bold).
• i – <em></em> HTML tag for emphasis of text (i.e. italicize).
• b-quote – <blockquote></blockquote> HTML tag to distinguish quoted or cited text.
• del – <del></del> HTML tag to label text considered deleted from a post. Most browsers display as striked through text.
• link – <a href="http://example.com"></a> HTML tag to create a hyperlink.
• ins – <ins></ins> HTML tag to label text considered inserted into a post. Most browsers display as underlined text.
• ul – <ul></ul> HTML tag will insert an unordered list, or wrap the selected text in same. An unordered list will typically be a bulleted list of items.
• ol – <ol></ol> HTML tag will insert a numbered list, or wrap the selected text in same. Each item in an ordered list is typically numbered.
• li – <li></li> HTML tag will insert or make the selected text a list item. Used in conjunction with the ul or ol tag.
• code – <code></code> HTML tag for preformatted styling of text. Generally sets text in a monospaced font, such as Courier.
• more – <!--more--> WordPress tag that breaks a post into “teaser” and content sections. Type a few paragraphs, insert this tag, then compose the rest of your post. On your blog’s home page you’ll see only those first paragraphs with a hyperlink ((more...)), which when followed displays the rest of the post’s content.
• page – <!--nextpage--> WordPress tag similar to the more tag, except it can be used any number of times in a post, and each insert will “break” and paginate the post at that location. Hyperlinks to the paginated sections of the post are then generated in combination with the wp_link_pages() or link_pages() template tag.
• lookup – Opens a JavaScript dialogue box that prompts for a word to search for through the online dictionary at answers.com. You can use this to check spelling on individual words.
• Close Tags – Closes any open HTML tags left open–but pay attention to the closing tags. WordPress is not a mind reader (!), so make sure the tags enclose what you want, and in the proper way.

Workflow Note – With Quicktag buttons that insert HTML tags, you can for example click i to insert the opening <em> tag, type the text to be enclosed, and click /i or Close Tags to insert the closing tag. However, you can eliminate the need for this ‘close’ step by changing your workflow a bit: type your text, select the portion to be emphasized (that is, italicized), then click i and your highlighted text will be wrapped in the opening and closing tags.

More Information and Resources

• About Weblogs – What is Blogging all about?
• First Steps With WordPress

See also Administration Screens.

• You can read more about how to block patterns here.
• If you created patterns yourself, you can learn how to submit Your Pattern to the directory

How to use the Block Directory 

How to search for patterns

1. Navigate to wordpress.org/patterns.
2. You can then use either the categories available to narrow down options or use the “Search patterns” box to search for a specific pattern.

How to use a pattern on your site

1. After searching and finding a pattern you like, hover over the pattern and select “Copy”.
2. It will then be saved to your clipboard.
3. From there, return to your page or post and use the paste functionality to add the pattern into your content.
4. You can then customize the pattern as you see fit.

If you’re logged into your WordPress.org account, you can also mark items as favorite by selecting the heart icon.

Report a Pattern

If you find a pattern unusable or broken, has trademark issues or is inappropriate you can report the pattern, once you login with your WordPress.org user account.

• On the bottom of each pattern, there is a “Report this pattern” link.
• Click on the link and below form shows in an overlay window
• Check one of the offered reasons that is the closest to your cause
• provide details in the comment
• Click on the blue Report button.

Reporting will not be

You will see a message on screen.

Resource Links

• Intro to Block Patterns Learn WordPress course
• Block Patterns support article
• Submit a pattern to the directory

When you’re writing a regular blog entry, you write a Post. Posts, in a default setup, appear in reverse chronological order on your blog’s home page.

In contrast, Pages are for non-chronological content. Pages live outside of the normal blog chronology and are often used to present timeless information about yourself or your site – information that is always relevant.

You can use Pages to organize and manage the structure of your website content. You can add as many pages to your site as you would like, and you can update your pages as many times as you want.

After you create a page, you can add it to your site’s navigation menu so your visitors can find it.

Here are a few examples for Pages:

• About
• Contact
• Privacy Policy
• Copyright
• Disclosure
• Legal Information
• Reprint Permissions
• Company Information
• Accessibility Statement

In general, Pages are very similar to Posts in that they both have titles and content. WordPress Theme template files maintain a consistent look throughout your site. Pages, though, have several key distinctions that make them different from Posts.

What Pages are

• Pages are for content that isn’t time-dependent, or which is not part of the blog content.
• Pages can be organized into parent pages and subpages.
• Pages can use different page templates, including template files, and Template Tags.
• Some themes may provide different display options for individual Pages.
• You can have a WordPress website with only Pages.

What Pages are not

• Pages don’t appear in the chronological view in the blog of a website.
• Pages by default do not allow taxonomy (categories, tags, and any custom taxonomies). You can enhance it via plugins.
• Pages are not files. They are stored in your database, just like Posts.
• Pages are not included in your site’s feeds. (e.g. RSS or Atom.)
• Pages and Posts can be interpreted differently by site visitors and by search engines. Search engines place more relevance on Posts because a newer post on a topic may be more relevant than a static page.
• A specific page (or a specific post) can be set as a static front page. Websites that are set up this way have a blog page that displays the latest blog posts.

Pages screen

To view all the Pages in your site:

• Log in to your WordPress admin screen.
• Click Pages in the left sidebar. This will show the Pages screen with a list of all the pages you have in your site.

1. You can easily search for a Page based on the Page Title.
2. You can get a list of all the Published Pages or Draft Pages.
3. You can filter Pages based on dates.
4. You can perform Bulk actions > Edit or Move to Trash by selecting multiple Pages from the list.
5. You can sort the Pages list based on Title, Date, Author etc by clicking the Header columns.

Organizing Pages

You can organize your Pages into parent and child pages and create a hierarchy.

For example, you can have an About Page as a parent page and create subpages under it for Careers, Board of Directors, Locations, Company Culture, Press etc. You can also have a Services Page as a parent page and create subpages for each of the services such as Web Design, Web Development, Stationery Design etc

The structure of the pages on the site would then look like this.

• About Us
  • Board of Directors
  • Company Culture
  • Press
  • Careers
  • Locations
• Services
  • Web Design
  • Web Development
  • Stationery Design

Creating a new Page

To create a new Page:

1. Log in to your WordPress admin screen.
2. Click the Pages > Add New in the left sidebar.
3. Alternatively, you can also click the Add New button in the Pages screen.

4. Add a title for the page.
5. Add body content for the page. If you are using the WordPress block editor, you can use the different blocks available in the WordPress block editor to design the Page.
6. Customize the sidebar settings for the page.
7. When the page is completed, click Publish.

If you are using a classic editor, refer to this support article for details about the Add new screen in the Classic editor.

Creating a subpage

Using Parent Pages is a good way to organize your site’s Pages into hierarchies. A parent page is a top-level page, with sub pages nested under it.

To create a subpage under a parent page:

1. Log in to your WordPress admin screen.
2. Click the Pages > Add New in the left sidebar. Alternatively, you can also click the Add New button in the Pages screen.
3. In the sidebar settings for the page, under Page Attributes, open the Parent Page drop-down menu. This will list all the Pages already created in your site.

4. Select the desired page from the drop-down menu that you want to be the parent page for the current you are creating. The current page you are creating now becomes the sub page for the parent page you choose.

5. You can change the order that your pages are displayed when using a default menu, by using the Order field of the Page Attributes module. Put the number 1 in the box for Order. This tells WordPress to display this page first on your site.
6. Add a title for the sub page.
7. Add body content for the sub page.
8. Click Publish when ready.

Repeat the process for your other sub pages you want to be disapled under a Parent page, but use higher numbers for the Order field: 2, 3, etc. This tells WordPress to display these pages second and third on your site.

When your Pages are listed, the child Page will be nested under the parent Page. The Permalinks of your Pages will also reflect this page hierarchy. In the above example, the Permalink for the Board of Directors Page would be:

http://example.com/about/board-of-directors/

Changing the URL of a Page

Using the Edit option

To change the URL (also referred to as “slug”) containing the name of your Page, hover over the Page title of the Page in the Pages screen and select Edit.

In the Page Sidebar settings, under Summary click the URL link to open the URL popup. Change the Permalink entry to change the URL of the page.

As you type in a new URL in the Permalink field, you can view the updated Page URL under View Page.

Select Update to save the new URL changes.

Using the Quick Edit option

To change the URL (also referred to as “slug”) containing the name of your Page, hover over the Page title of the Page in the Pages screen and select Quick Edit.

This will open a Quick Edit Panel while you are still in the Pages screen. The Quick Edit panel allows you to modify page details such as Title, Slug, Date, Author. You can also Password protect the page or mark the page as Private. You can also change the Parent page, page order, template for the page and the Status of the page between Published, Pending Review and Draft.

Select Update button to save the changes.

Page Templates

A template controls the layout of your pages. Not to be confused with Themes (that set the design of your entire site), the template affects the look and feel of an individual page (or post) or groups of pages (or posts.)

Individual pages can be set to use a specific Page Template created within your theme. You can also create custom Page Templates that can be used for a page. These custom Page Templates will then override the default Page Template included with your Theme.

The dynamic nature of Pages

A web page can be static or dynamic.

Static pages, such as a regular HTML page created with Dreamweaver, do not have to be regenerated every time a person visits the page.

An example of a static page might be an HTML document (without any PHP code). The problem with purely static pages is that they are difficult to maintain.

In contrast, dynamic pages, such as those created with WordPress, need to be regenerated every time they are viewed. The code for what needs to be generated on the page has been specified by the theme author, and not the actual page itself. They use extensive PHP code which is evaluated each time the page is visited, and the entire page is generated upon each new visit.

Almost everything in WordPress is generated dynamically, including Pages. Everything published in WordPress (Posts, Pages, Comments, Blogrolls, Categories, etc…) is stored in the MySQL database. When the site is accessed, the database information is used by your WordPress Templates from your current Theme to generate the web page being requested.

Changes you make to your WordPress settings, Themes, and Templates will not be propagated to pages coded only in HTML. The Page feature of WordPress was developed to alleviate this problem. By using Pages, you no longer have to update your static pages every time you change the style of your site. If written properly, your dynamic Pages will update along with the rest of your blog.

Despite the dynamic nature of Pages, many people refer to them as being static. They are actually called “pseudo-static” web pages. In other words, a Page contains static information but is generated dynamically. Thus, either “static,” “dynamic,” or “pseudo-static” may be validly used to describe the nature of the WordPress Page feature.

Media consists of the images, video, recordings, and files that you upload and use in your blog. Media is typically uploaded and inserted into the content when writing a Post or writing a Page. Note that the Uploading Setting in the Settings Media Screen describes the location and structure of the upload directory (where your media files are stored). If you do need to upload Media, even if that Media is not related to a Post or Page, then you need to use the Media Add New Screen.

Visit the Media add new screen to install new media by clicking the Add New link at the top of this screen or Select Media > Add New from the left side menu.

Media library

The Media Library Screen allows you to edit, view, and delete Media previously uploaded to your blog. Multiple Media objects can be selected for deletion. Search and filtering ability is also provided to allow you to find the desired Media.

Media Library provides two type of views. One is simple visual Grid View and another is conventional List View. Switch between these views using the icons to the left above the screen.

Media library grid view

In Media Library Grid View, thumbnails of image, Audio icons and Movie icons are arranged in the grid.

Filtering options

At the top of Grid View, you can filter the media by media type and date:

All media items

This dropdown allows you to select, by media types such as Images, Audio and Video or Unattached to any Posts nor Pages, which Media are displayed in the Table of Media. By default, “All media items” are selected and all of your Media are displayed.

All dates

This dropdown allows you to select, by date, which Media are displayed in the Grid View. By default, “Show all dates” is selected and all of your Media are displayed.

To the right, is a Search box where you can enter a word, or series of words to search and display all the Media meeting your search words. The search results will be updated as you type.

Delete media

To delete media items, click the Bulk Select button at the top of the screen. Select any items you wish to delete, then click the Delete Selected button. Clicking the Cancel Selection button takes you back to viewing your media.

Attachment details

In Media Library Grid View, clicking an Image thumbnail, Audio icon or Video icon will display an Attachment Details dialog, which allows you to preview media and make quick edits. Any changes you make to the attachment details will be automatically saved. You can also delete individual items and access the extended edit screen from the details dialog.
Use the arrow buttons at the top of the dialog, or the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard, to navigate between media items quickly.

Attachment Details changes its appearance and information by media type. The left side of this dialog shows the Image, Audio player or Video player. The right side lists the following media file attributes and optional data. Some of them are editable from this dialog.

• Uploaded on – The date when the media file was uploaded
• Uploaded by – author who uploaded the Media.
• Uploaded to – Title of the Post or Page that contains this Media. Click on the title to view that Post or Page in an edit Screen. If the Media was unattached to any Post or Page, this line does not appear.
• File name – The name of the media file
• File type – The MIME Type of media file
• File size – The file size of the media file
• Dimensions – (Image files only) The dimensions of image media
• Alt Text – (Image files only) The alt text for the image, e.g. “The Mona Lisa” to describe the media. Used for accessibility.
• Title – The name of the media. A title is often shown on attachment pages and galleries if themes or plugins are designed to display it.
• Caption – A brief explanation of the media.
• Description – An explanation of this particular media.
• File URL – Read-only display of a direct link to the media file.
• Copy URL to clipboard – Click to copy the URL of the file into the clipboard.
• Artist – (Voice files only) Singer, composer or producer of this media.
• Album – (Voice files only) Album title that includes this media.

At the bottom there are three link menus:

View attachment page

Shows the media in a simulated view of how the image would look when displayed in your Theme.

Edit more details

Displays the Edit Media Screen. See the Edit Media for details on editing Media information.

Delete permanently

Deletes the media.

Edit image

(Image files only) Allows you to make edits such as rotate, scale, and crop. See the Edit Image Screen.

Media library list view

In Media Library List View, a table lists all of your Media, by row. The Media are listed with the newest uploaded Media first.

Table of media

The table of Media contains the following columns:

• [ ] – This checkbox, when clicked (checked), ‘selects’ that particular Media to be processed by a Bulk Action.
• “thumbnail” – There is no column heading for “thumbnail”, but a small image of the actual media is displayed in this column
• File – Displayed in the form of a link, this is Title, the name of the media. Clicking the title link opens Edit Media Screen. See the Edit Media for details on editing Media information. Below the Title, the actual name of the file that holds this particular Media is displayed.
• Author – Displayed in the form of a link, this is the author who uploaded the Media. Clicking the author link causes all the Media authored by that user to be displayed in the Table of Media (thus allowing a Bulk Action to be applied to all Media for a given author).
• Uploaded to – Uploaded to describes the title of the Post or Page that contains this Media and the date of that Post or Page. Click on the title to view that Post or Page in an edit Screen. If the Media was unattached to any Post or Page, an “Attach” link will appear and when clicked this Media can be attached to selected Posts or Pages. For more detail about selecting, see Find Posts or Pages. If the Media has been attached to more than one Post or Page, only the details of the first Post or Page will be displayed.
• Comment bubble – Each Media row has a comment bubble with the number of comments for that Media. If a Media has any comments, then the number of comments is displayed in a bubble. Clicking on a blue comment bubble causes the Comments Screen to be displayed to allow moderation of those comments.
• Date – The date the Media was uploaded.

Sortable columns

Some column headings, such as the File, Author, Uploaded to, and Date headings, can be clicked to sort the Table of Media in ascending or descending order. Hover over the column title, e.g. File, to see the up arrow or down arrow. Click the heading to change the sort order.

Page navigation

Under the Screen Options, the number of Media displayed per page is determined. If more than one page of Media is available, two double-arrow boxes to move to the first and last page are provided. Also two single-arrow boxes are displayed to move one page backward or forward. Finally, a box showing the current page number can be used to enter a page to directly display.

Screen options

The Screen Options allow you to choose which columns are displayed, or not displayed, in the underlying Table. Clicking on the Screen Options tab shows a list of the columns with a check-box next to each column. Check the box for each column you want displayed in the Table, or uncheck the box to not display that column. In addition, the number of Media items to display in the Table of Media can be set. Click the Screen Options tab again to close the Screen Options.

Search

Above the Table, to the right, is a Search box where you can enter a word, or series of words, and hit the Enter key to search and display all the Media meeting your search words.

Filtering options

At the top of List view, you can filter the media by media type and date:

All

This dropdown allows you to select, by media type such as Images, Audio and Video or Unattached to any Posts nor Pages, which Media are displayed in the Table of Media. By default, “All” is selected and all of your Media are displayed.

All dates

This dropdown allows you to select, by date, which Media are displayed in the Table of Media. By default, “All dates” is selected and all of your Media are displayed.

Filter

Clicking this button applies the settings you select in the dropdown.

Using selection, actions, and apply

Selection

This Screen allows Bulk Actions to be performed on one or more Media selected in the Table. For Bulk Actions to be performed on multiple Media at once, those Media must be first selected via one of these methods:

• Select one Media at a time – To select a Media, the checkbox to the left of the Media entry must be checked (clicked). It is possible to keep selecting more Media by checking their respective checkbox.
• Select all Media in given Table – All Media in a given table can be selected by checking the checkbox in the Table’s title, or footer bar. Of course, unchecking the header or footer title bar checkbox will cause all entries in that Table to be unchecked (NOT selected).
• Reverse Selection – A Reverse Selection means checked items become unchecked, and unchecked items become checked. A Reverse Selection is accomplished by holding the Shift key on the keyboard and clicking the header or footer title bar checkbox.

Actions

Actions describe the process to be performed on particular Media. There are two styles of Actions that will be referred to as Bulk Actions and Immediate Actions. The follow describes these Actions:

• Bulk actions – These Actions can be performed on one, or more Media, at one time, if those Media have been previously selected. Bulk Actions are available, when appropriate, as choices in the Bulk Actions pulldown box, above the Table. The only Bulk Action allowed is Delete Permanently.
• Immediate actions – Immediate Actions are performed immediately, on an individual Media. Hovering the mouse cursor over the Media row reveals the Edit, Delete Permanently, and View options under the File column, in that Media row. Clicking on a Media Title will also initiate the Edit Action.

The available Actions are described below:

• Edit – This Immediate Action displays the Edit Media Screen. This Action can be initiated by click on the Media Title. See the Edit Media for details on editing Media information.
• Delete permanently – This Action deletes the Media. Delete Permanently is available both as a Bulk Action, and an Immediate Action.
• View – This Action presents the Media in a simulated view of how the image would look when displayed in your Theme. View is available only as an Immediate Action.
• Copy URL to clipboard – When clicked, copies the absolute URL to clipboard. Tooltip will appear on success.
• Attach – In Unattached filtered view, “Attach” action is displayed. By clicking this link, the media can be attached to selected Posts or Pages. For more detail about selecting, see Find Posts or Pages.

Find posts or pages

Clicking Attach link in the “Attached to” column or “Media” column when Unattached filtered view appears Find Posts or Pages dialogue box. From this dialogue box, you can select a Posts or Pages that the media should be attached to. Follow the steps:

1. Search posts or Pages by keyword.
2. Select the post/Page one wants to attach the media.
3. Click the Select button.

Apply

After one or more Media are selected, and after a Bulk Action is specified, the Apply button performs the given Action on the selected Media.

• Apply – Click the Apply button to execute the Bulk Action, specified in the Actions pulldown, on the selected Media. Remember, prior to executing Actions, one or more Media must be selected, as described before.

Comment Screen

All comments on a WordPress website are displayed on the Comments dashboard in your WordPress admin area. It displays all comments by default

You can switch the view to see Pending, Approved, Spam, and Trash comments:

• Pending: comments submitted by your visitors, but won’t be visible on your blog posts unless you approve them.
• Approved: comments published and are publicly visible on your blog posts by all your website visitors.
• Spam: comments flagged as possibly unwanted or irrelevant, and aren’t visible to your site visitors.
• Trash: comments marked as unwanted and will be automatically deleted for good after 30 days.
  
  

Moving your mouse over to a comment will display the action links for it. You can approve a comment to make it visible to all your site visitors, or unapprove it to put it in pending status again.

You can also reply to comments. By replying to a specific comment, your reply will appear right under that comment. This is called “threaded” or “nested” comments.

You can also choose to edit anyone’s comments on your own site. The Quick Edit option opens a text area so you can edit the comment without reloading the page. Edit, on the other hand, gives you more options to edit the name, user email, and more.

Once a visitor submits his or her comment, WordPress follows your preferences and either hold the comment for your approval or posts it immediately.

If you see a comment marked as spam that’s actually a real comment, then you can mark it as Not Spam by hovering your mouse over it.

Comments in the trash section are comments that have been deleted by you. Any comment in the trash can be restored by clicking on Restore. Comments in trash remain there for 30 days after this time WordPress deletes them permanently.

Discussion Settings

Before you enable comments on posts or Pages, reviewing the options under Settings > Discussion can help make your life as a moderator easier. Use these settings to restrict comments and reduce the amount of spam you receive.

Notification

If you link another site post on your site, Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the post will enable your site to notify the website owners that you have linked to them. They can then choose to tell their users that another site linked to them through a trackback or pingback.

Just like the option above, you can enable your site to accept pingbacks and trackbacks from other websites by checking Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks) on new posts.

Comment Rules

Allow people to post comments on new articles will enable you to disable comments if you don’t need comments on your websites.

Comment author must fill out name and e-mail prevents people from leaving anonymous comments.

Users must be registered and logged in to comment will only allow registered users of your site to post comments.

Automatically close comments on articles older than _____ days will close comments on a post that have reached a set time. This is a good way to limit spam comments.

Comment display

Enable threaded (nested) comments _____ levels deep: will allow your users to reply to one another. A reply to a comment is shown “nested” underneath the original comments. You can limit how many levels (a reply to a reply) of replies your site will allow by changing the number of levels.

Break comments into Pages with _____top level comments per Page and the _____ Page displayed by default will change how your comments are displayed. You can set how many comments you see per Page and if the oldest or newest comments are displayed first.

Comments should be displayed with the _____ comments at the top of each Page will place newer or older comments at the top of each page.

Comment administration

Email me whenever … Anyone posts a comment and/or A comment is held for moderation will help you stay up to date on your comments. If you don’t check your site often.

Comment must be manually approved will help you moderate the comments published on your site.

Comment author must have a previously approved comment will help moderate the comments published on your site.

Comment spam

Hold a comment in the queue if it contains _____ links, Spam comments are designed to get users to click on links in order to drive traffic to other sites. As a result, many spam comments contain multiple links. Setting this option to hold all comments that contain 2 or more links will help catch more spam.

You can experiment with Comment Moderation and Comment Blacklist to catch spam that contains certain words or is posted from a particular IP address. Comments caught through blacklisting are not deleted but instead moved to your spam folder.

Because spam is pervasive on the Web, some of the comments you receive will most likely be spam. However, WordPress developers and administrators have already developed a number of successful strategies to help you prevent spam comments from appearing on your site. In addition to experimenting with different options in Settings > Discussion, you can install a WordPress Plugin like Akismet or make other changes to help you keep spam comments under control.

Avatars

The settings under “Avatars” control the images your site displays next to comments. For an introduction to Gravatars, read the WordPress Lesson about How to Use Gravatars in WordPress.

Enabling Comments on Your Site

Once you have decided on your discussion options, you are ready to enable comments. If you chose not to enable comments on all articles automatically, you can turn on comments for a specific post or Page in several ways.

Turning on Comments for a Single Post or Page

On the post or page you wish to add comments to, find the “Discussion” box, and check “Allow Comments.” (If you do not see the “Discussion” box on the Edit Page, click “Screen Options” in the upper right corner of the browser window. Make sure the box next to “Discussion” is checked.) Save your changes by clicking “Publish”, “Save Draft” or “Update.

Turning on Comments from the Posts or Pages Screen

Navigate to the Posts/Pages screen. In the list of pages or posts, find the one you want and hover your cursor over the title of the post. You will see several links appear underneath the title. Click “Quick Edit” and check “Allow Comments.” Click “Update” to turn comments on for that post.

Turning on Comments for Multiple Posts or Pages

From the Posts/Pages screen, check the boxes next to the posts or Pages on which you want to enable comments. Select “Edit” from the “Bulk Edit” Dropdown box and click Apply. Then, select “Allow” next in the Comments dropdown box and finish by clicking “update.”

Managing Incoming Comments

Once you start receiving comments on your site, you can check the status of comments quickly by looking at the dashboard, the admin bar, or the left navigation menu. When you log in, the dashboard’s “Activity” box will show you the status of your comments. Hover over a comment to see your moderation options. From “Activity – Comments” you can approve, reply, edit, mark as spam, or trash comments. Alternatively, you can look to see if there is a number next to the comment bubble in the admin bar or “Comments” in the left navigation. This number represents how many pending comments require your attention.

Moderating Comments with the Comment Screen

WordPress makes moderating your users’ comments a simple process. The Comments Screen lays out the basic information about each comment and lets you decide what to do with it.

1. Commenter Gravatar
2. Commenter Name
3. Commenter Website URL
4. Commenter Email Address
5. Commenter IP Address
6. Time and Date Comment was submitted
7. Comment Text
8. Comment Moderation Options. You can approve, spam or trash a comment with one click. Reply, Quick Edit or Edit will open up a new screen for you to write a reply to the comment or edit the comment.
9. Post Name
10. Number of Comments on the Post, Link to View Post

Bulk Edit Comments

Like the posts and Pages screens, the Comments screen supplies a Bulk Action drop-down box. Select the comments you want to edit, and then select Unapprove, Approve, Mark as Spam, or Move to Trash from the drop-down and click “Apply.”

Supporting Resources

• Moderating Your Recent Comments from the Dashboard
• Comments are King (WordPress.tv talk by Matt Browne about fostering a community of commenters)
• Comment Moderation
• Comment Spam
• Spam FAQ

The Your Profile Screen is accessible from both the main navigation menu under Users and by clicking on your name link at the top of the WordPress screen. Here you can specify your name and how it will be displayed on your site, your e-mail address (for administrative purposes), other personal information, and personal options.

Your Profile and Personal Options

The only pieces of information WordPress requires you to include in your Profile are your e-mail address and a nickname. It should be noted that WordPress requires your email address only for your blog’s administration purposes. The email address is never sent to any other site (not even to the people at WordPress headquarters), and it is never displayed on your site (unless you put it there manually). Only the other registered users of your blog have access to the e-mail address you provide. Also, remember that each user’s email address must be unique.

Note: it is possible for a theme to display your e-mail address (and the e-mail addresses of your other registered users) on your site, since the the_author_meta('user_email') template tag can be used for such purposes. This would be a poorly conceived theme, however, if it didn’t inform you of that before you downloaded it. None of the themes included with WordPress display any e-mail address anywhere on the public side of your site by default.

All of the other personal information asked for here is optional, and, again, it is never sent to any other site or person. It may be displayed on your site, however, depending on the theme you use, so you should test things out with your particular theme if you’re at all paranoid (and a bit of paranoia regarding your personal information is healthy). See the_author and related template tags for information on how to display this information on your site (and, consequently, how to ensure the theme you use does/does not display any of this information). Typically, themes only display the information you enter in the Display name publicly as field, however the Authors username is also often included in the URL (for Author Archives) and in the CSS classes for per-author targeted stylings.

Personal Options :

• Visual Editor – Checking this box Disables the visual editor when writing, and uses the plain HTML editor.
• Syntax Highlighting – Checking this box Disable syntax highlighting when editing code.
• Admin Color Scheme – Check this radio button next to the color scheme desired for the Administration Screens. The left two colors are menu background colors and the right two are roll-over colors.

• Keyboard Shortcuts – Checking this box Enables keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation. Keyboard shortcuts are designed to allow you to rapidly navigate and perform actions on comments. The Keyboard Shortcuts article describes the various shortcuts in detail.
• Toolbar – Check the box to display the Toolbar when you are viewing your site.
• Language – You can select the language you wish to use while using the Administration Screen without affecting the language site visitors see.

Name :

• Username – You cannot edit your Username because it is used as your Username during the login process. Even an Administrator cannot change your Username. Usually, no one else ever needs to see your Username.
• First name – Enter your first name in this text box.
• Last name – Enter your last name in this text box.
• Nickname – Enter the nickname as it is a required for every user. It may be the same as your User Name or it can be different. If you don’t supply a Nickname, then the User Name will be placed in this field.
• Display name publicly as – Select, from the drop-down, how your name is cited on your blog. This defaults to your first and last name. You can choose from several of the above pieces of information: Nickname, Login name, First Name, Last Name, “First Last“, or “Last First“. If you prefer “Last, First“, insert a comma after your last name in the Last Name text box above and choose the last option from this dropdown.

Contact Info :

• E-mail – All users are required to list an e-mail address in their respective Profiles. The E-mail address must be unique for each user. Your blog will use this address to notify you of new comments to your posts and for other administrative purposes. To reiterate what was said above, only other registered users of your blog will have access to this e-mail address. It is never sent anywhere.
• Website – Enter your website address.

About Yourself :

• Biographical Info – Enter a short description or profile of yourself here. This optional information can be displayed by your theme if so configured by the theme author. See the_author_meta('description') template tag.
• Profile Picture – Your picture in Gravatar is shown here. To change it, access to the https://en.gravatar.com/. See also Using Gravatars.

Account Management :

• Generate Password – You can click this button to generate a new password for the account. This will show you a new field with the generated password. If you choose to change this password, a checkbox will appear to confirm that you want to use a weak password. You can check this box to confirm that you want to use your own password instead of a secure one.
• Strength Indicator This indicates if the password you entered is Very Weak, Weak, Medium, or Strong (displayed in green). The stronger the password the more secure your login. Hint: The password should be at least seven characters long. To make it stronger, use upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols like !”?$%^&).
• Log Out Everywhere Else – You can click this button to log out of other devices, such as your phone or a public computer.

Update Profile

Remember to click this button to save the changes you have made to your Profile and Personal Options. After clicking this button you should see a splash message at the top of the screen saying User Updated. If you don’t see that message, then your changes are not saved!

From the Dashboard Screen, you can quickly access your site’s content and get glimpses into other areas of the WordPress community.

The Dashboard screen presents information in blocks called widgets. By default, WordPress delivers five widgets on this page: At a Glance, Activity, Quick Draft, WordPress Events and News, and Welcome.

Default Dashboard Widgets

The following dashboard widgets are included by default with WordPress:

At a Glance

The At a Glance widget provides a summary of the number of posts, pages, and comments on your site. Each of these content types are displayed in the form of a link and, when clicked upon, direct you to the specific area to manage that content.

A statement at the bottom of this widget tells you what WordPress version you’re running on, as well as the current theme that you have activated on your site.

Activity

This widget shows the upcoming scheduled posts, recently published posts, and the most recent comments on your posts–and allows you to moderate them.

A list of the most recent comments on your blog is detailed in this widget. Each comment that is listed has a link to the related post title–clicking this link allows you to edit the post. Hovering the mouse over each comment activates a menu of choices: to approve (or unapprove) the comment, edit the comment, reply to the comment, mark the comment as spam, or delete the comment.

QuickDraft

The QuickDraft widget allows you to quickly and easily write a new draft. Enter a post title, upload/insert media, enter the post content, add tags, and click the Publish button or click the Save Draft button. It’s that easy!

WordPress Events and News

This Dashboard widget lists upcoming local events and the latest news from the official WordPress blog.

Here you can find out an upcoming event near you, or, what WordPress developers have been up to recently, and you can also keep up with the latest WordPress related news. In addition to software developments–such as version announcements and security notices–news about the WordPress community in general is periodically posted.

Welcome

The Welcome widget shows links for some of the most common tasks when setting up a new site.

Screen Options

The Screen Options panel allows you to choose which widgets are displayed or not displayed.

When you click on the Screen Options tab, the resulting panel shows the various Dashboard widgets, with a checkbox next to each widget. Check the box to display a specific widget, or uncheck the box to hide that widget.

Click the Screen Options tab again to close the Screen Options panel.

Expanding, Collapsing, and Rearranging Widgets

Each widget can be expanded or contracted by clicking on the widget title bar.

Widgets can be moved by hovering the mouse cursor over the widget title bar. When the mouse cursor changes to four arrows, hold the left mouse button down, drag the widget to where you want to place it, and then release the mouse button (this cursor motion is called drag and drop).

Adding new Dashboard Widgets

Plugin or theme developers can make new Dashboard widgets available through the plugin (or functions.php) code. For more information, see the Dashboard Widgets API.

There are also various post launch versions with improvements for security, bug fixes and stability. Please review the full WordPress Release Archive for details or check out the version announcements!

2022 – Announcement(s): 5.9, 6.0, 6.1

Version 6.1 (Misha): (800 contributors) Say hello to “Misha,” the WordPress 6.1 release, inspired by Mikhail “Misha” Alperin acclaimed jazz ensemblist and composer. Site owners and administrators should upgrade today to take full advantage of the many stability, performance, and usability enhancements. Furthermore, WordPress content creators will enjoy a suite of new features geared toward improving the writing and designing experiences.

Version 6.0 (Arturo): (500 contributors) Say hello to “Arturo” and WordPress 6.0, inspired by Grammy-winning jazz musician, Arturo O’Farrill. With nearly 1,000 enhancements and bug fixes, the second major release of 2022 is here. Site owners and administrators should upgrade to take full advantage of the many stability, performance, and usability enhancements today. WordPress content creators will enjoy a suite of new features geared toward improving the writing and designing experiences.

Version 5.9 (Joséphine): (624 contributors) Full site editing arrives and puts you in control of your whole site, right in the WordPress Admin. A new default block theme, Twenty Twenty-Two, shows off the wide array of visual choices all from the Site Editor. The new Navigation block provides an always-on responsive menu, one that adapts to your user’s screen size. Better block controls, the new Pattern Directory, a revamped List View, and a better Gallery block round out the new tweaks to the publishing flow to help you say more, faster.

2021 – Announcements: 5.7, 5.8

Version 5.8 (Tatum): (530 contributors) The power of blocks has come to both the Block Widgets Editor and the Customizer. The Query Loop Block makes it possible to display posts based on specified parameters. You can also use the familiar block editor to edit templates that hold your content. Worth noting that support for Internet Explorer 11 has been dropped as of this release. WordPress 5.8 also adds support for WebP images.

Version 5.7 (Esperanza): (481 contributors) With this new version, WordPress brings you fresh colors. The editor helps you work in a few places you couldn’t before without getting into code or hiring a pro. The controls you use most are right where you need them. Layout changes that should be simple, are even simpler to make.

2020 – Announcements: 5.4, 5.5, 5.6

Version 5.6 (Simone): (605 contributors) brings you countless ways to set your ideas free and bring them to life. With a brand-new default theme as your canvas, it supports an ever-growing collection of blocks as your brushes. Paint with words. Pictures. Sound. Or rich embedded media.

Version 5.5 (Eckstine): (809 contributors) added speed, search and security improvements to WordPress. The block editor also received a lot of improvements with blocks patterns, inline image editing, and a brand new block directory. In addition to that, this release also made big changes for developers; in the REST API, to the dashicons, environment variables, etc.

Version 5.4 (Adderley): (595 contributors) added more ways to make posts and pages come alive with your best images, to bring your visitors in, and keep them engaged, with the richness of embedded media from the web’s top services. This version also added more speed everywhere within the administration dashboard and websites frontend.

2019 – Announcements: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

Version 5.3 (Kirk): (711 contributors) expanded and refined the block editor introduced in WordPress 5.0 with new blocks, more intuitive interactions, and improved accessibility. New features in the editor increase design freedoms, provide additional layout options and style variations to allow designers complete control over the look of a site. This release also introduces the Twenty Twenty theme giving the user more design flexibility and integration with the block editor.

Version 5.2 (Jaco): (389 contributors) added more robust tools for identifying and fixing configuration issues and fatal errors. For both websites developers and people managing their sites by themselves, these tools can help get the right information about a website when needed.

Version 5.1 (Betty): (552 contributors) focused on polish, in particular by improving performance of the editor. In addition, this release paves the way for a better, faster, and more secure WordPress with some essential tools for site administrators and developers.

2018 – Announcement: 5.0

Version 5.0 (Bebo): (432 Contributors) introduced a new block based editor with a showcase theme (Twenty Nineteen). Support for the classic editor was maintained and the community translated the release to support a total of 37 languages.

2017 – Announcements: 4.8, 4.9

Version 4.9 (Tipton) (443 Contributors) focused on user experience and introduced the ability to save design drafts for review and alteration prior to publishing. Design locking rolled out, protecting two multiple designers to override changes in progress. This was also the introduction point of code syntax checking and error reporting within the Admin experience. An official callout for contributors and testers went out for the Gutenberg project.

Version 4.8 (Evans) (346 Contributors) brought an array of new widgets (image, video, audio and rich text). Adding links improved greatly setting boundaries around groupings of text to avoid mismatching. WordPress event streams became visible in the Admin Dashboard. Developer enhancements were introduced for added accessibility, API introduction to make the editor more portable to different areas via plugins.

2016 – Announcements: 4.5, 4.6, 4.7

Version 4.7 (Vaughan) (482 Contributors) arrived along side a new theme with modern elements (including starter content) with video header support. New Customizer features allow editing CSS with live previewing. REST API endpoints allow for machine-readable external access for enhanced third party interaction. Page template functionality was opened up to all post types. Bulk actions additionally were branched out with custom option support. The Customizer continued extension to support auto saving of drafts. This was an exciting release for WordPress as the number of contributors significantly increased with this release.

Version 4.6 (Pepper) (272 Contributors) brought significant speed changes to Multisite with cached and comprehensive site queries to improve the network admin experience. Theme addition, activation and plugin updates were adapted to a one screen process. Local draft saving to browser was introduced. Native fonts were also made available to be used from the operating system for speed enhancement.

Version 4.5 (Coleman) (298 Contributors) added inline links, added formatting shortcuts and responsive previews in Customizer to preview on mobile, tablet or desktop. Additionally, support was added for Custom Logos, smart image resizing for speed improvement and script loading improvements for dependent scripts from the header and footer.

2015 – Announcements: 4.2, 4.3, 4.4

Winner of CMS Critic Award’s “Best CMS for Personal Websites.”

Version 4.4 (Clifford) (471 Contributors) added responsive images, embeddable posts, and a new default theme, “Twenty Sixteen.” oEmbed support was added for WordPress posts with rich previews and display as well as five new providers (Cloudup, Reddit Comments, ReverbNation, Speaker Deck, and VideoPress). Developer improvements included integration of the REST API structure, query improvements for comments, Term Metadata and two new Objects (Term and Network) for more predictable added interaction capability within code.

Version 4.3 (Billie) (246 Contributors) added built-in site icons support and introduced formatting shortcuts in the visual editor. Live Menu previews became available from the Customizer. Password processes were improved for security as well as List Views in the Admin panel.

Version 4.2 (Powell) (283 Contributors) added emoji support, add extended character support and switched database encoding from utf8 to utf8mb4. Plugin updates became dynamic from one page without reloading. Two new oEmbed providers were added (Tumblr, Kickstarter). Theme switching became available through the Customizer. This version also included developer query improvements.

2014 – Announcements: 3.9, 4.0, 4.1

Version 4.1 (Dinah) (283 Contributors) introduced a refreshed Distraction Free Writing mode, language installation from the Settings screen (to switch between 40 different languages with support from Google’s Noto font family), and a beautiful new default theme, “Twenty Fifteen.” Developer improvements included addition of advanced metadata query conditional logic.

Version 4.0 (Benny) (275 Contributors) introduced a grid view for the media library and for installing plugins. Previews for embedded content such as Twitter and YouTube became available from within the editor while preparing content. Editor writing improvements included expanding the editor with content for an easier experience. The Plugin section was enhanced to show more detail and provide a better search experience.

Version 3.9 (Smith) (267 Contributors) improved the media experience and introduced live widget and header previews. The Visual Editor was improved for speed, accessibility and mobile use. Image and media improvements included adding the ability to upload images via drag and drop from desktop and image editing enhancement. Audio and video playlist support was added as well as Gallery previews from within the editor. Themes became browsable from the Appearance section.

2013 – Announcements: 3.6, 3.7, 3.8

Version 3.8 (Parker) (188 Contributors) introduced a new magazine style default theme called “Twenty Fourteen.”  The Admin panel was completely overhauled with a fresh modern look and new vector icons. Color schemes were also made available to be applied to the Admin experience. The Widget section was also streamlined for easier use.

Version 3.7 (Basie) (211 Contributors) introduced automatic updates for maintenance and security updates, a stronger password meter and enhanced language support and auto installation of language files.

Version 3.6 (Oscar) introduced a new default theme called “Twenty Thirteen,” built-in Audio and Video support, dynamic and scalable Revisions, improved Autosave and Post Locking. Audio and video improvements included native support for audio and video embeds, a built-in HTML5 media player, a new API for supporting metadata (such as ID3 tags) and enhancement to existing oEmbed providers Spotify, Rdio and SoundCloud.

2012 – Announcements: 3.4, 3.5

Version 3.5 (Elvin) introduced the new media manager and the new default theme called “Twenty Twelve” with focus on mobile display. Focus was also placed on the flow for uploading photos and creating galleries.  The Admin Dashboard saw the coming of a Retina-ready display with high resolution graphics.

Version 3.4 (Green) introduced the Theme Customizer and previewer, allowing to test and check theme revisions prior to applying them. The Media Library was extended to support using images to populate custom headers and to choose the height and width of the images. Image captioning saw improvements to support HTML. With this release, Twitter “Tweets” were made to format a nice display by dropping the URL into the editor. There were many developer improvements, including XML-RPC, a custom header API and performance improvements to WP_Query.

2011 – Announcements: 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

Winner of Infoworld’s “Bossie award for Best Open Source Software.”

Version 3.3 (Sonny) made WordPress more friendly for beginners with welcome messages and feature pointers. Improvements included a new drag and drop uploader, improved co-editing support, navigation and toolbar improvements and better touch support for iPad and other tablets.

Version 3.2 (Gershwin) made WordPress faster and lighter, this version upgraded minimum requirements to PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0.15, and introduced a new fully HTML5 default theme called “Twenty Eleven.” The Dashboard design was refreshed and the previously introduced Admin Bar saw additions. This release featured introduction of a Distraction Free Writing mode. The Comments Moderation screen was improved for approvals and replies. The update process was streamlined, making updates much faster with added stability.

Version 3.1 (Reinhardt) (180+ Contributors) introduced Post Formats and the Admin Bar.  A redesigned linking workflow was added to more easily work with existing posts and pages.  The beginnings of a streamlined writing interface were introduced. The import/export system was overhauled and there were many query improvements to enable performing perform advanced taxonomy and custom fields queries.

2010 – Announcement: 3.0

Winner of digitalsynergy’s “Hall of Fame CMS category in the 2010 Open Source.”

Version 3.0 (Thelonious) (218 Contributors) was a major release, it introduced custom post types, made custom taxonomies simpler, added custom menu management, added new API’s for custom headers and custom backgrounds, introduced a new default theme called “Twenty Ten” and merged former WordPress MU (allowing the management of multiple sites) to be part of WordPress Core, renamed to Multisite. Bulk plugin updates were further streamlined from the previous release. Theme developers saw introduction of new APIs allowing implementation of custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus, post types, and taxonomies without file editing. An initiative to add contextual help going forward saw its start.

2009 – Announcements: 2.8, 2.9

Winner of Open Source CMS Awards’s “Overall Best Open Source CMS.”

Version 2.9 (Carmen) (140+ Contributors) was a development intensive release introducing image editing, a Trash/Undo feature, bulk plugin updating, and oEmbed support allowing integrated 3rd party provider content to seamlessly integrate with content. There were also significant batch updating compatibility improvements, comment framework enhancement, editor upgrades, user profile, registration and automation improvements, gallery items usage across multiple posts introduction and better hooks and filters for excerpts, smilies, HTTP requests, user profiles, author links, taxonomies, SSL support, tag clouds, query_posts and WP_Query.

Version 2.8 (Baker) introduced a built-in theme installer and improvements to themes, widgets, taxonomies, and overall speed (including a new Widget API) (and drag and drop). There were significant speed enhancements relative to style and scripting. A new CodePress editor added syntax highlighting to the Dashboard based code editor. Screen Options were added to the Admin in order to customize user interaction with the items being used and the ability to filter out the others.

2008 – Announcements: 2.5, 2.6, 2.7

Winner of Infoworld’s “Best of open source software awards: Collaboration.”

Version 2.7 (Coltrane) which redesigned the administration UI to improve usability and make the admin tool more customizable. Version 2.7 also introduced automatic upgrading, built-in plugin installation, sticky posts, comment threading/paging/replies and a new API, bulk management, and inline documentation.

Version 2.6 (Tyner) built on 2.5 and introduced post revisions and Press This. A usability study was done on 2.5 over the summer, leading to the development of the Crazyhorse prototype, and the following release.

Version 2.5 (Brecker) was released with a new administration UI design by Happy Cog, and introduced the dashboard widget system and the shortcode API.

2007 – Announcements: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

Version 2.3 (Dexter) offered tagging, update notifications, pretty URLs and a new taxonomy system. Core update notifications were introduced allowing users to better keep track of when new release updates were available. The jQuery version was updated bringing speed increases. canonical URL fixes were added and a new $wpdb->prepare() syntax support rolled out allowing for safer MySQL queries.

Version 2.2 (Getz) brought better Atom feed support and speed optimizations for plugins and filters. Widgets introduction laid the groundwork for moving additional features into design, which provided a base for plugin features extension. Protection was added on activating plugins, checking for errors prior to successful activation. phpMailer was added which also provided support for SMTP Mail. Database collation control and many code notation improvements were also part of this release.

Version 2.1 (Ella) introduced a new UI, autosave, spell check and other new features. Enhancements added ability to switch between content and code editor, setting pages as the front page, adding no-indexing to the entire site for search engine privacy, XML importing improvements and the addition of the private pages feature. MySQL queries saw an aggressive optimization and re-write. Other developer additions included new hooks and APIs, language improvements and pseudo-cron scheduling.

2005 – Announcements: 1.5, 2.0

Version 2.0 (Duke) was introduced with persistent caching, a new user role system and a new backend UI. WYSIWYG editing brought a better experience producing content which also included inline image, video and file uploads. Post previewing allowed to review posts before being made live on sites. Plugin hooks were enhanced to allow for features extension by plugin developers. Theme functions were introduced to enhance themes with code, similar to plugins.

Version 1.5 (Strayhorn) introduced a Theme system and featured the introduction of static pages, bring WordPress to be poised as a content management system. A new theme became available to showcase how the newly deployed Theme system could be extended and utilized. Hundreds of hooks were made available, allowing for integration of plugins to key parts of WordPress. The WordPress Plugin Repository was created allowing for a collaborative environment between Plugin Developers and users.

2004 – Announcements: 1.0, 1.2

Version 1.2 (Mingus) introduced plugins, hierarchically category support, OPML import and export as well as introductory language support. Features like automatic thumbnail creation, multiple update service pinging and password encryption also were highlights.

Version 1.0 (Davis) was the official 1.0 bringing browser installation, search engine permalinks, multiple category support, an intelligent upgrade process and import enhancement for moving from other systems to WordPress. Support was added to the Admin experience for editing posts and comments as well as the start of many other features to be improved on in the future.

2003 – Announcement: 0.7 (initial)

Version 0.7  Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little fork b2 and create WordPress. This initial release included a texturize engine, links manager, XHTML 1.1 compliant templates, a new administration interface, the ability to do manual excerpts and new templates.

2001:

b2 cafelog launched by Michel Valdrighi.