{"id":223,"date":"2012-09-13T14:28:37","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T14:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/?p=223"},"modified":"2023-04-09T05:01:40","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T12:01:40","slug":"how-to-set-up-a-blog-and-forum-posts-pages-and-defaults-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffwoodonline.com\/blog\/223\/how-to-set-up-a-blog-and-forum-posts-pages-and-defaults-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Set Up A Blog And Forum \u2013 Posts, Pages, and Defaults"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a list of articles in this series, go here: How To Set Up A Blog and Forum Article Index<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome to part ten (and the end of section one) of How To Set Up A Blog And Forum.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today we will set up Posts, Pages, and a couple of last Defaults for our WordPress blog.<\/p>\n

The first thing we should do is to create some categories (general topics) that our blog posts would go under. This will help us later as well. So on the Dashboard under \u2018Posts\u2019 you will see \u2018Categories\u2019:<\/p>\n

\n

\"categories<\/p>\n

categories 1<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The category creation screen (sounds impressive doesn\u2019t it? I made that up), as with many screens, is actually reasonably self-explanatory:<\/p>\n

\n

\"categories<\/p>\n

categories 2<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

So what are good categories for this blog? Anemones is one of the first things I think of along with coral. So do I want a category called anemones and another called coral?<\/p>\n

If you know anything about the hobby, you know that a category about coral is a good idea, but not necessarily about anemones. I don\u2019t want to leave anemones out, so what to do? Well, I simply add a category for all invertebrate and I choose to call it \u2018Invertebrate\u2019. I know, I\u2019m very original. The point is to have something meaningful and this is meaningful to both the hobbyists, or enthusiasts if you prefer, AND the search engines, so there.<\/p>\n

\n

\"categories<\/p>\n

categories 3<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The category name is pretty obvious, but what about the slug? It\u2019s the same thing isn\u2019t it? Well, if you\u2019ve read the fine print you see that it\u2019s not. The category name is for people, the category slug is part of the URL.<\/p>\n

The slug needs to be made up of nothing but all lower-case letters, numbers, hyphens, and it needs to be one word. So if your category name was \u2018This is where my posts about poems are\u2019 the slug would be \u2018thisiswheremypostsaboutpoemsare\u2019<\/p>\n

Technically the slug doesn\u2019t have to be the category name, but I don\u2019t know why you wouldn\u2019t want it the same. In our example however, the category name is\u2026um\u2026awkward at best and the slug could simply be \u2018poems\u2019 which does make the url shorter.<\/p>\n

\n

\"categories<\/p>\n

categories 4<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A description is optional, but good to have if your chosen theme supports it (not all do). Sometimes a category is so painfully obvious that a description is redundant, but it might make a difference to a search engine somewhere.<\/p>\n

It also gives you a chance to expand on something. For example, in our fictional-yet-awkward category we could have the category name be \u2018Poems\u2019, the slug be \u2018poem\u2019, and the description as \u2018This is where my posts about poems are\u2019<\/p>\n

We click on \u2018add category\u2019 for our real category and the screen is updated for us to reflect the fact that we have a new category:<\/p>\n

\n

\"categories<\/p>\n

categories 5<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I have not forgotten about \u2018Category Parent\u2019. That\u2019s one of those annoying things that took me a while to figure out what I would want it for. It basically allows a category to be a subcategory instead of a main category.<\/p>\n

I rarely have had a need for a subcategory, but that\u2019s me, you may need them, they can help keep things straight. For example, we could have a category called \u2018anemones\u2019 under invertebrate and \u2018corals\u2019 could be either a parent category (main category) or we could put it under \u2018invertebrate\u2019 as well.<\/p>\n

I created a category\/subcategory for this tutorial, I chose to create a category called \u2018aquarium setup\u2019 for posts related to (surprisingly enough) setting up your aquarium. Some people prefer the term \u2018tank\u2019 so I created a subcategory \u2018tank setup\u2019 to be under \u2018aquarium setup\u2019 for those who like to be difficult (don\u2019t roll your eyes at me).<\/p>\n

Why didn\u2019t I use the above \u2018anemones\u2019 and \u2018corals\u2019 under \u2018invertebrate\u2019 example to demonstrate this? I\u2019m so glad you asked. It was an afterthought. I went through the steps, took screenshots as I went, and then wrote the post after I had the screenshots.<\/p>\n

So at the time, that \u2018tank\u2019 idea is what came to me while I was doing the screenshots and when I wrote this post and came up with the \u2018anemone\u2019 idea I simply didn\u2019t want to go back, get more screenshots and do the whole upload, insert, name the picture ordeal again.<\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m lazy, but I\u2019m a helpful sort of lazy\u2026. Anyway, the next screenshot is what I was talking about. You create the parent category and then when you create a subcategory, it\u2019s exactly the same except you use the \u2018parent category\u2019 dropdown to pick the category your new category should go under.<\/p>\n

\n

\"categories<\/p>\n

categories 6<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And this is what it looks like after you click \u2018add category\u2019:<\/p>\n

\n

\"categories<\/p>\n

categories 7<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You can (and should) also add categories for your links. Under your Dashboard, find your links menu and click on \u2018link categories\u2019:<\/p>\n

\n

\"links<\/p>\n

links 1<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Below is the screenshot of the menu. It\u2019s almost identical to the \u2018posts\u2019 category creation screen:<\/p>\n

\n

\"links<\/p>\n

links 2<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Instead of \u2018blogroll\u2019 I want something a little more obvious. What\u2019s a blogroll? A collection of website links. So here\u2019s my chosen new category:<\/p>\n

\n

\"links<\/p>\n

links 4<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You can add as many categories for links as you\u2019d like. You can have a category for \u2018My Websites\u2019 and one for \u2018Blogs I read\u2019 and even one for \u2018Jeffery is the greatest and here\u2019s his blog\u2019\u2026..<\/p>\n

Ahem, here\u2019s the updated screen:<\/p>\n

\n

\"links<\/p>\n

links 5<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The default category for posts is \u2018uncategorized\u2019 and the default category for links is \u2018blogroll\u2019. These defaults should be changed which is part of the reason we just went through all of that.<\/p>\n

Under your Dashboard, under \u2018Settings\u2019 click on \u2018Writing\u2019. Here\u2019s the screen you will see:<\/p>\n

\n

\"default<\/p>\n

default links<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Use the dropdown menues to change the default post and link categories and click on the save button, and here\u2019s what you get (if you used the exact names I did anyway):<\/p>\n

\n

\"default<\/p>\n

default general<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Let\u2019s go through our first post. Now the post is somewhat obvious, but that pesky \u201call-in-one seo pack\u2019 plugin which we configured a couple of posts ago also gets configured for each and every single post and page we create.<\/p>\n

Go to your posts menu and click on \u2018add new\u2019:<\/p>\n

\n

\"post<\/p>\n

post 1<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Below you see that I\u2019ve entered a title, tags, and a real post (not just made up for this tutorial). You will also note that the posts screen has a visual tab and an html tab. They are exactly that. The visual tab gives you the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and the html tab is where you can enter html code. Personally, I tend to flip between the two depending on what I\u2019m doing:<\/p>\n

\n

\"post<\/p>\n

post 2<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Below is a screenshot of what you see after you\u2019ve entered your tags (keywords) and clicked on \u2018add\u2019. I recommend you do this last, I\u2019ll explain in a moment.<\/p>\n

\n

\"post<\/p>\n

post 3<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Okay, below is more of the post (give me a break, I can\u2019t take a screenshot of the entire page). Trackbacks are for sending a notice to another blog that you\u2019ve referenced them. The excerpt is a summary of what your post is, just a few lines will do, put a checkmark in the appropriate categories (you can pick as many as apply), I have auto tagger set to add tags on save.<\/p>\n

The excerpt is not a straight copy from the post. It\u2019s been edited\/modified to whatever makes sense to me. It will definately have less than the post and can have things in it that are not in the post. You may, for example, reword several sentances into one or two added what is needed to give the idea but they still need to read the post for the details.<\/p>\n

\n

\"post<\/p>\n

post 4<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Add custom fields if you wish to help the search engines along by adding extra metadate to your post. I usually leave this alone, but again, that\u2019s me. Check or uncheck the comments and pingback spots (unless you have a specific reason not to, I\u2019d leave them checked), change the author if need be (if you are manually adding a post for a guest author for example):<\/p>\n

\n

\"post<\/p>\n

post 5<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And here\u2019s the important part: Copy\/paste your title into the \u201cAll-in-one SEO Pack\u201d title, your exerpt into it\u2019s description and enter your tags. Now remember when I said up above to do those tags last? Here\u2019s why, if you enter them up there and click \u2018add\u2019 you cannot easily copy\/paste them here.<\/p>\n

Enter them here, then copy\/paste them up there and then click on \u2018add\u2019.<\/p>\n

\n

\"post<\/p>\n

post 6<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Check the disable box if you have a reason that you don\u2019t want your post SEO optimized, go to the top left of the page and look for this box:<\/p>\n

\n

\"post<\/p>\n

post 7<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Click on publish and you will see that box turn into:<\/p>\n

\n

\"post<\/p>\n

post 8<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Congratulations on not only your first post, but your first SEO optimized post.<\/p>\n

Editing an already published post isn\u2019t a big deal. You click on \u2018edit\u2019 instead of \u2018add new\u2019, make your changes, then click on \u2018update post\u2019.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s redo my static Welcome page. I\u2019m doing this because I want the visitors to have something more helpful than what they have and I liked how I worded things in my first post much better, so I can copy\/paste from the post to the page.<\/p>\n

On your Dashboard under \u2018Pages\u2019 we click on \u2018edit\u2019 (or \u2018add new\u2019 if you\u2019re creating a new page)<\/p>\n

\n

\"page<\/p>\n

page 1<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We pick the page to edit (there\u2019s several, I only did a snapshot of the one title)<\/p>\n

\n

\"page<\/p>\n

page 2<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And here it is for our editing purposes:<\/p>\n

\n

\"page<\/p>\n

page 3<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There\u2019s so little difference between the \u2018posts\u2019 and \u2018pages\u2019 that I\u2019m not going to go over it any more than that. Click on \u2018publish\u2019 or on \u2018update\u2019 when you are done.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a screenshot of the latest and greatest from the visitor\u2019s point of view:<\/p>\n

\n

\"welcome\"<\/p>\n

welcome<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I still need to fix that overwrite problem. Anytime you are not done writing a new post or page, just click on \u2018Save Draft\u2019 and go back to it later.<\/p>\n

Next time, unless I need to add to the blog part of this series, we will start on our two forums. Yes, I said two, there\u2019s two (at least) different ways of doing a forum and I\u2019m going over both (one at a time).<\/p>\n

So go forth and blog to your hearts content, or until your mom tells you it\u2019s dinner time\u2026.<\/p>\n

– Jeffery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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