Here are some instructions for how to create the web page for your project.  You will be creating what in WordPress is called a “post”.  It’s actually pretty easy and you don’t have to know any fancy web programming or html coding to be able to create very readable, nicely styled page. I’ve included some screen shots of what you’ll see along the way.  I’ve also annotated those screen shots to make it easier. If you click on a screenshot a larger image will appear. {note: the screenshots aren’t here yet – I’m working on it}

First, you have a choice. You can write and edit directly in WordPress, including saving drafts and revising them before publishing, — or — you can write your project in a word processor or text editor (such as MS Word or Notepad) and then cut-and-paste it into WordPress.  Both ways work. I usually just write in WordPress. As you write it periodically saves a draft.  However, if you write in a word processor (like MS Word) will want to pay close attention to the TIPS below if you want to copy from another word processor into WordPress.

Step 1.  Be sure you are logged in the Commons at
Econhist-commons.econproph.net

This is the same thing you do when you log in to make a post on the commons. Use the login on the front page.

Step 2:  Create a new “page” for your project.

From the homepage go to the black toolbar across the top of the screen. There’s a button called “+ New”. Roll your mouse over that and then click on the “Page” when the drop down menu appears.

You will only need to “Add a New Page” once (assuming you either save-draft or publish your post!).  This “page” is the webpage that will display your project.

Step 3: Create/Edit Your Post

All your work is done here.  There are 4-5 steps to creating and publishing your project webpage.

1. Give it a title.  (see #1 in the screenshot). In the title box, enter the title of your project. It’s better to have a truly descriptive title and not just “Jim’s Project”.  This will automatically display at the top of your webpage. Once you have given it a title and pressed “enter”, a draft will be saved and you will see a line appear just below the title entry box that says “Permalink”. This is the permanent URL or web address to your page. It will be viewable by the world once you hit the red “Publish” button. Until then, only you can view an actual preview of it using the “View Page” button.
2. Write or insert the body of your project.  (see #2 in the screenshot). As you can see, the writing interface is similar to the edit boxes in D2L or a word processor.  There is a toolbar that you can use to style words, insert tables, and generally put your touches on the page. Use the big text area to enter your text.  There’s more information in Step 4 below, but basically it works like any word processor.  Just type.   The enter key (hard return) creates a new paragraph.  For the most part, WordPress takes care of formatting things like font selection, font size, etc.  All you have to change or specify is any special formatting such as bold for a single word or an indenting or bullets. If you roll your mouse cursor over the different toolbar buttons you should see a pop-up description of what each button does. If you are cutting-and-pasting content from a word processor, another text editor, or another webpage be sure to read the “TIPS” below.
3. Publish or save-as-draft your page.  (see #5 in the screenshot) IMPORTANT-before leaving this screen, you should either save or publish your page.  To publish it, simply click the Publish button.  If you want to save it but not publish it yet, click on the “Save Draft” above the publish button.  Either way, you can always come back to the page and further edit it later.  See the tips below for how to get back to edit a saved or published post.

That’s it.  You’re done.  Congratulations, you are now a “blogger”.

TIPS:  Editing your post.

 

• Copying from word-processor or text-editor.  As I mentioned earlier, there are two ways to get stuff into your post.  You type and edit in WordPress itself, or you can copy-and-paste from another program like MS Word or Notepad.  If you copy from another file, it is best to copy what you want in the other program. Then switching to WordPress, click on either the “T” icon button or the “W” icon button on the editor tool bar (see B and C on the screenshot).  These buttons will open a small dialog box.  Click in the box and type Cntl-V to paste your content.  Doing it this way will make sure the formatting is correct.  Microsoft Word formatting in particular doesn’t translate well into a web page. This will clean it up.  Use the W button if you are coming from MS Word. Use the T button if you’re coming from some test editor.
• Don’t add much formatting in Word or a text-editor.  WordPress will take care of font sizes, font styles, etc.  Just worry about the words, paragraphing, etc.
• Quotes:  If you are quoting something, turn on the quote styling by clicking the ” button. See A in screenshot.
• Copying from the Web:  If you are quoting and copying a segment from another web page, just copy the selection you want in your web browser. Then click in the text box in WordPress and type cntrl-V.  Be sure to style it as a quote.
• Make Links: When quoting or otherwise referring to something on the Web, it’s a good idea to link to it.  Highlight the text you want to become a link, then click the link button (E on the screen shot).

• You can embed a Youtube video if you think one is relevant by clicking the Youtube button and entering the URL for the Youtube video.  Easy. (F on screenshot)
• Create a table. (H on the screenshot).
• Insert a Google Map.  Find your Google map in a browser window. Then copy the URL (it’s available through the chain-link button on the Google map page). Go back to WordPress, position where you want the map to appear, and click the map button.  (G on the screenshot). Paste in the URL you had copied.
• Add an image or picture.  Click the little camera icon next to “Upload/Insert” just above the toolbar and to the left.  (see #3 on the screenshot) A dialog box opens.  Choose a tab depending upon whether you want to upload or simply specify a URL on the Web and have WordPress get it.  Follow the instructions, answer the settings (most of the defaults are OK), and be sure to finish by clicking Insert.

That should do it.

Saving and Editing Later

If you want to save your work as a draft and not publish it yet, you can do that by clicking “Save as Draft” instead of “Publish” in Step 3 above. Then, later when you want to come back and edit it again, you go to the dashboard (step 1 above), but instead of clicking on the Posts button >  Add New, you click on Posts button > All Posts.  A list of posts will appear.  Find yours and click on it to edit it.  You’ll be back to step 4.

Finally, here’s a little video about creating and editing a post:

Writing and Publishing a Post