Manuals and such

Writing a new post is a bit more difficult than writing a reply or a comment. The difficulty is not in the method… but in the vast amount of possibilities. This manual will deal with the easiest way to write a post first and go in depth in following chapters.

This website is built in WordPress. On WordPress and this, its latest version, there is an enormous amount of manuals available. If you want to read all that and underestand what is possible in-depth, feel free to Google ‘WordPress documentation’.

This Website also makes use of the Divi Elegant Theme with its Divi Builder. This is a WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get) front-end builder that allows for an enormous amount of flexibility. But as always, more options means more learning means more difficult. So let’s go for the easiest way to post. Also the laziest and least beautiful way:

Step 1: You are logged in so you can see a W-icon with a circle around it in the top left corner of the screen. Find it and click it. The Dashboard menu opens. This is a control menu that lets you write stuff… but also gives access to your profile and lets you find out all kind of stuff. Remember you can always go back here to nose through all the options and info. For now we will select the menu item ‘Dashboard’ on the left.

Step 2: Find on the main page a section that says: Quick draft.

Step 3: Write your title and write your content. Then click ‘Save draft’.

Step 4: On the left side menu, click ‘Posts’. Your unpublished post is there and you can ‘Quick edit’ it. Just hover over the title and select ‘Quick edit’.

Step 5: You can still tweak the title here. If you want to read the whole post, instead of Quick edit, select edit.

Step 6: In the next box, select the categories that are applicable. Uncheck ‘Uncategorised’.

Step 7: Decide if you want people to comment and such. Check and uncheck what you decide.

Step 8: Change the status to ‘Published’. There is no reason to have it reviewed by an editor; you are a Nescio  member and have the power (oh yes).

Step 9: Go to the blog and see your published post. If you rethink the post, simply edit it on the page or on the back-end with the WordPress standard editor.

This website is built in WordPress. On WordPress and this, its latest version, there is an enormous amount of manuals available. If you want to read all that and underestand what is possible in-depth, feel free to Google ‘WordPress documentation’.

This Website also makes use of the Divi Elegant Theme with its Divi Builder. This is a WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get) front-end builder that allows for an enormous amount of flexibility. But as always, more options means more learning means more difficult. So let’s go for the easiest way to post.

Step 1: You are logged in so you can see a W-icon with a circle around it in the top left corner of the screen. Find it and click it. The Dashboard opens. This is a control menu that lets you write stuff… but also gives access to your profile and lets you find out all kind of stuff. Remember you can always go back here to nose through all the options and info. For now we will select under Posts -> Add new.

Step 1.1: In the same top bar you also see a ‘+ New’ menu item. Move the mouse over it and select ‘Post’. It will bring you to the same spot as Step 1 does. Just faster.

Step 2: In the appropriate section that asks for it, write the title of your post. Then click ‘Use default editor’.

Step 3: Type your text. You just created a paragraph block, but this is already too deep. We are not adding images and such, this is about the easy post.

Step 4: Decide who gets to read your post. If you look below at the bottom of the page, you can even only give the administrator access to your post. There is however an easier way if you want your post to be read by all Nescio members: check the right side of the page… You will see two menu items: Document and Block. Select Document. The first item you find is ‘Visibility’ and standard is set to ‘public’. This means everyone visiting the site will be able to read your post. If you set it to ‘private’ only Nescio members will be able to see your post. Leave the other options here alone and close the ‘Status and visibility’ section by clicking the title again.

Step 5: ‘Categories’, go there and click it. When it opens you will see a list of categories your post may be fitting in. You can even pick more than one category. Pick one and if you want more, please try to restrict yourself to maximum 3 categories. We are skipping ‘Tags’ and ‘Permalink’ resp. below and above ‘Categories’. Your post will be automatically produced when you click ‘Publish’ and the search option is excellent, so it can be found back in many ways. Close the ‘Categories’ tab.

Step 6: ‘Featured image’. This is probably the easiest image you will ever add to a post. It only shows a frame, click it. Welcome to the picture library. The upload button is top left. Select or drop a media file you want to use as featured image above or even as background for your post. This all goes automatically. Your image may not be larger than 1 Mbyte so make sure it is smaller. You can easily resize a mobile camera photo with Paint. Once your image is uploaded it will automatically be selected. If you uploaded more than one, select the image you want as featured image for your post and click the button way down right bottom, ‘Upload featured image’.

Step 7: Go to ‘Discussion’ and decide if you want people to comment (a regular post) or not. I recommend turning off the pingbacks option.

Step 8: You can click preview or simply hit the ‘Publish’ button. A Draft post is not yet visible to anyone else than the Admin and the Editors. A Published post is visible to the groups you made it visible to. Public means all visitors, private means Nescio members only. Regardless of whether a post is draft or published, as the author you can always edit it, change it, add images etcetera. There is no time limit. Not to orphan it later however, you need the assistance of an editor to remove the post, and with that the entire thread or just part of it. Editors will make a decision for the best of the clan and may decide to add a new top post or make the first comment the top post of the thread. You however are always entitled to have your entries removed.

A last word about excerpts and categories. You can write your own excerpt, but I wouldn’t. The blog pages will give an automatic one of the first 150 characters of your post. If you write one here, it will be used instead of the standard first 150 characters. Categories do not determine the place where your post will appear, just makes it easier to find and groups your post with alike other posts. It is the choice public or private that determines primarily who can read your post.

Note: Why is the first section of this chapter the same as the rpevious one? Because not everyone reads all chapters.

In the previous chapter, if you followed the default editor directions, you probably saw so called ‘blocks’ pop up. I did not and will not discuss those extended options for one simple reason: the Elegant theme comes with the Divi builder that replaces the default blocks. In Divi they are called ‘Modules’. They offer the same or more options than the default blocks and are somewhat easier to handle. Here we go:

Step 1: Find on the top menu bar the ‘+ New’ item, hover over it and select ‘Post’.

Step 2: Type the Title of your post.

Step 3: Select/check the categories you want your post published in.

Step 4: Select a featured image if you have one – you can upload it to the media library, then select it and upload it in the post.

Step 5: You can forget about the other options to make it easy. If you only want Nescio members to read your post, then select visibility and check ‘Private’. This will also ask you to publish the post. No worries, you can still edit or trash it later. The ‘Publish’ button changed into an ‘Update button. (Top right)

Step 6. Click ‘Use Divi builder’. Click ‘Build from scratch’ (there are no library post examples untill you store one). Select ‘single row’. Now you can pick a module. This is where it gets difficult…. due to the vast amount of options. Most options are not suitable however. Select the ‘Text’ module. You can go there fast by typing ‘te’ in the search bar. The text module is all you will need now.

Step 7: Write your text. You can select text and change it into a header or change the appearance of the text. Play with it. You can move the module control window to the left to stick it to the side, so you can see how your post is going to look later.

Step 8: Add images, video, sound etc. at any place you want it to appear. Position your cursor at the spot you want the image (for instance) to appear and click the ‘Media’ button. It will bring you to the media library, where you can select an image. Image not there? Then upload it from your own PC and select it once that is done. Then click ‘Select’ in the lower right corner.

Step 9: You can pick a background in the module ‘Content’ tab or leave it to default. Easiest is, leave it to default. Then go to the ‘Design’ tab if you wish and change fonts, headings and much much more. Or stick to default in which case you are done.

Step 10: Click the green ok (v) button in the lower right corner of the module control box. There are lots of things you can do now, even add more modules, rows etc. For more choices and how to’s, you could take a Divi course. Then just click HERE.

Step 11: Middle bottom of your screen there is a purple circle with dots. Click it. All the way to the right you see ‘Save’. Click it. your post is ready…. To go back you can click the WordPress logo top left and display the website by clicking the website name in the top bar. OR… if you forgot to add a title or categories or decide to make it public or private and maybe add a feature image, you can click the link ‘Edit post’ in the top bar. Now first click ‘update’ then change what you want to add or change and click ‘Update’ again.

There is so much more you can do with the Divi builder. In fact, you can build entire websites in this website, links to your own private pages and posts that refer and link to each other. If you do not want to do all that, skip this chapter and practice the first or second chapter, as you wish.

However if you want to play around with things, there are a few modules you may want to have a look at. Like the Blurb module (requires a top image but is otherwise much like the Text module) or the module used for this manual, the accordeon module. It would be wise to take a tour at the Divi modules tutorial. But also look at how to add columns and rows, sections and how to move, copy and add them, and how to make your post suitable for PC, tablet and mobile. The basics of the Divi builder can be found HERE in a series of easy to follow videos.

Good luck and have fun and do not forget, if you totally mess things up, you can always delete your post or return to a previous version with the purple – go-bacl- button (or CTRL-z).

So what is the difference between a post, a comment, a reply and a page?

A page is a section or several sections that are pre-designed to display either static information, like this page. Pages can be found in menus and sometimes you can only get there if you know the unique identifier of the page or get linked there by another page.

A post is a design with content that can be displayed in several ways, for instance by itself on a post-rendering page, or th excerpt on a blog-page or selection page. Like the excerpts are shown on the so called post-landing page where you get when you select ‘blog’ in the top menu.

A comment is a short reply to a post. Be aware the first comment you make must be approved, after that commenting is direct and immediate.

A reply is a comment to a comment.

Since you saw that you have an enormous amount of freedom in designing your post, shaping it, actually make an entire mini-website inside this website and as such, yes, your own entire blog, the only real difference between a post and a page is that a page is static, a post is dynamic. A page can usually be found in a menu. So if you want your post to be found, make sure it has a category, maybe specific tags and renew it from time to time so it does not disappear in the archives.

If you actually want to write a blog, series or guide, please do get acquainted with  the Divi builder.