1.   Go to WordPress.com.

2.   Click on the “Sign Up Now” button.

3.   Add the information requested, go to your e-mail, and click on the link.

4.   Make sure you send your sign-on information and password to your e-mail or save it on the password keeper of your cell phone so that you don’t forget it.

Customize Your Blog

Go to the top of the page and you will see a gray bar with “My Account,”  “My Dashboard,” “New Post,” and “Blog Info” on it.

1.   Click on “My Dashboard.”

2.  There is a column on your far left hand side.  Go all the way down to the bottom of that column, and you will see the word “Appearance.”  Click on it.

3.  The first category under “Appearance” is “Theme.”  Click on Theme.

4.  You are given various options for viewing themes for your blog.  I like to look at themes A-Z.

Choose a Theme

1.  Don’t choose a theme only for what it looks like.  Look for a theme with tabs or drop-down menus for pages.  This will be the easiest type of theme to use for your portfolio.

2.  Click on the theme you have chosen.  Now click on your blog title to view what your page looks like.

3.  If you don’t like how the theme looks, go back to “Appearance,” choose “Theme,” and start again.  It is very simple to change themes on WordPress.

Create Pages

In order to use WordPress as an electronic portfolio, it is important to know how to create pages.  Each class will require a page of it’s own.  You do not want to make blog posts because they cannot be organized easily.

1.  In your dashboard, in the left-hand column, click on “pages.”

2.  Choose “Add New.”

3.  Create a Page for English by typing “English” in the title area.

4.  Now go to the right-hand column and click the “Update” button.

Make a Subpage

1.  Find “pages” in the left column and click the “add new” button.

2.  Put “105WS” in the title section.

3.  In the right hand column, look at the second section “Page Attributes.”

4.  Under “Parent” use the pull-down menu to choose “English.”  This will make “English” the parent page of “105 WS.”  In other words, “105WS” will be located under “English” in your menus.

5.  Now click “update.”

6.  Check your work.  Click on your page title in the left hand top corner of your screen to view your website.  See if there is a tab or pull down menu labled “English,” and that, under that tab or pull-down menu is “105WS.”

7.  If your pages and subpages are not appearing correctly, you may need to choose a different theme.  Not all themes will display pages and subpages.

8.  Make new pages for history.

Change Blog Name and/or Blog Tagline

1. Sign on to your blog.  Open the Dashboard.
2. Go to “Settings.” (You will find it in the list on the left side, near the bottom).
3. Choose “General.”
4. After opening “General,” change the “Site Title” and “Tagline” of your blog. (This will NOT change the address.)  Save changes.

Use Wigets

1.   Sign onto your blog.

2.   Go to your dashboard.

3.   Go to the bottom of the dashboard to “appearance.”

4.   Choose “widgets.”

5.   You will see a list of widgets and, below that, a section entitled “inactive widgets.”  Look through the list of widgets and decide if there are any widgets you would like to include on the side of your blog.

6.   Choose a widget by placing your cursor on it and “dragging” it up into the sidebar or footer area of your blog. (This has changed for some themes.  In those themes you must give the widget a “position” on the page by assigning it a number.)

7.   After the widget is placed, open it by clicking on the arrow on the side of the widget to customize.

8.   Save your changes and click on “close.”

9.   Now take a look at how your widget looks by clicking on the name of your blog, which should take you to the home page.  If the widget does not look like you want it to, or if it needs to be moved, return to the dashboard and fix your widget.

Links

 

1. Go to the dashboard.
2. Find “links.”
3. Click on “All Links” and delete any links you don’t want by checking the boxes next to the links then going to the top of the list to the “bulk actions” pull-down menu and choosing “delete” and then “apply.”
4. Now click “Link Categories” and make categories for your links. On http://Drkblog.wordpress.com you will see that my categories include class times, other instructors, and past students.
5. Save “link categories.”
6. Go to “Links.”
7. Enter the title you want to give a link.
8. Add the URL (http address).
9. Save link.

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