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CREATING A POST IN WORDPRESS
Whether you’re writing original content, grabbing a story from the AP Wire, or publishing something from our sister stations/Nexstar Media Wire, bringing the story to life on fox4kc.com involves publishing a post.
Most posts should have significant written content, though you may have some that contain a brief summary with a video, photo gallery, or other multi-media content.
In this guide:
Create the Post
There are actually a couple of ways to start the Post creation process, depending on whether you are on the Dashboard of the platform (or anywhere in any of the platform tools, actually) or whether you’re on your site and logged into the system.
Create a Post within the platform
When you’re logged into the platform (on the Dashboard or other tool) you can create a post using either of these methods:
1. When you mouse over the Posts tool on the left, you can click on the Add New link to start the process of creating a new Post (if you’re doing this, skip ahead to Step 6).
2. You can also mouse over the +New link at the top of the screen and then select the Post option to start the process (if you’re doing this, skip ahead to Step 6).
3. Similarly, you can click on the Posts tool on the left, which shows you all the latest Posts. There’s now an Add New link in the left-hand menu that will start the process (if you’re doing this, skip ahead to Step 6).
4. Or, if you’re already on this screen, you can also click on the Add New button near the top (if you’re doing this, skip ahead to Step 6).
Note that Steps 1 and 2 require only one click, while 3 and 4 may require two clicks if you are not already on the Posts screen.
Create a Post from your site
If you are logged into the platform (and your permissions are set to do this) you will always see a toolbar across the top of the screen whenever you’re on your site:
5. The toolbar at the top of the screen also has a +New option at the top. When mousing over it, the options appear and you can select Post to begin the process (which we will start covering in the next step, Step 6).
Add/Edit Blocks
Regardless of how you choose to create your new Post above, the screen will refresh and will display and screen like the one below. First, let’s take a quick look around to understand what we’re seeing:
6. The big area in the middle is where you will be creating your post using Blocks. We’ll have more on that in just a moment, but know that every paragraph, video, gallery and other page element can be contained in a Block. There are a couple of default blogs to get you started -- a Title block and a Video block, but you can add more Blocks as needed (and the system will automatically add blocks as you type or paste content into this area).
7. You still have all the standard menu on the left-hand side, though we won’t really need any of those while creating a post (and clicking on any of the tools will prompt you to save your work before leaving the Post screen).
8. You also still have the toolbar at the top of the screen in case you need to take any other actions. Here, too, clicking away from your post will cause the system to prompt you to save your work.
9. We’ll get more into the Blocks in just a moment, but it’s important to note that the right-hand toolbar changes depending on the Block you’re in, or the Document (Post) as a whole. You can toggle between Block-specific settings, or Document settings using these tabs on the right. Similarly, you can collapse the right-hand menu entirely with the little X icon, however that’s not advisable as there are many settings you may want to control.
10. At any point in your work, you can click the Save Draft link to save your work (the system will automatically save your work about every 10 minutes). You can also use the Preview button and/or the Publish button to preview or publish your work, respectively. By default, the Publish button spawns an optional additional sidebar that includes some publication controls, like delayed publishing.
11. Each Post is made up of individual Blocks. In this example, we simply clicked in the space below the Video block and pasted a pre-written story. The system automatically converted the story into a series of Paragraph blocks.
12. Each Block type has its own unique toolbar at the top. Depending on the Block, you will see different options. However, there are also a couple of standard options that we’ll cover in just a moment (Steps 15-18).
13. In addition to the settings within the block (Step 12), there are also Block settings in the right-hand menu. While most of these settings can be left to their defaults, you may find helpful customizations here for more advanced formatting.
14. Placing your mouse above or below an existing Block shows the Add Block option.
Note that each Block has some custom settings and some settings that are common to every Block:
15. This middle area of the toolbar contains the settings that are unique to this Block type. Since this is a Paragraph Block, it has some basic text formatting elements like justification, bold, and creating a link. There’s also a little drop-down arrow that reveals more options. Different Block types will have different options here.
16. Every Block, regardless of type (except the Title) has options on the left to move the block up or down (using the little up and down arrows), or you can click on the little icon of six dots and drag the block up or down the Post.
17. Every Block (except the Title) will show a little icon in the upper left-hand corner here to tell you what type of Block it is. Again, this is a Paragraph Block so it has a paragraph icon. For some Block types, you can click on this icon to convert the block to a different type. For example, a Paragraph Block can be converted into a Pullquote, a List or a Heading (among other options).
18. Every Block (except the Title) has a little three-dot icon here on the right that allows you do things like add a new Block above or below this one, remove this one, convert it to HTML (rare) or turn it into a Reusable Block. Reusable Blocks are rare and more information about them will be coming soon.
When it comes to adding Blocks, we’ve already seen a couple of methods. One common way to add Blocks is to simply paste story text into the first Paragraph Block. That will automatically spawn a new block at every Paragraph. You’ve also seen the little + icon at Step 14 and the Block options at Step 18. There are a couple of other methods to adding Blocks:
19. When you hit the Enter key on your keyboard at the end of the last Paragraph Block, you’ll see the options for adding a new block type below the Paragraph (hitting Enter on Paragraph Blocks higher in the post will spawn a new Paragraph Block by default).
20. If you want another Paragraph, you can simply start typing. Or, if you want a different kind of block you can type / and then the block name. For example, here are some common block types:
· /image
· /list
· /gallery
· /slideshow
· /video
· /youtube
· etc.
21. Similarly, you can click on the little + icon on the left to see a list of all the available block types.
22. Some of the most common block types are listed here on the right, including images, Headings and Lists. This selection changes to your most common block types, so you may see different icons here.
For more information about all the block types, please check back later for a document on the various options.
Don’t forget the extra bits
23. There are many important settings over on the right-hand side of your post. As you’ll recall from Steps 9 and 13, there’s a right-hand column of settings that can toggle between settings for the individual Block you’re on, or the Document as a whole. For this sectio, we will be focusing on the Document settings.
24. As a general rule, you will want to leave these Status and Visibility settings as their defaults. However, if you want to make the Post private, or schedule your Post to be published at a future time, this is where it’s done.
25. As a general rule, you will want to leave the URL Slug and Permalink as their defaults. However, if you have reason to edit the URL, this is where that is done.
26. Important: It is very important that you select Categories that are appropriate to your post. This is what pushes the content around onto the various site pages so your viewers can find it. As a general rule, only site administrators should be adding new categories.
27. When selecting Categories, you’ll want to identify one that will be the Primary Category, which determines the URL segment.
28. Add whatever Tags are appropriate to your Post. Tags should be any keywords that are appropriate to the content of the post. While Categories are only created by site administrators, Tags are created any time anyone enters one in this field (for the purposes of this screengrab, the Tags field is actually collapsed).
29. Select (or upload a new) Featured Image. This image will be the one that appears on the homepage, or wherever there’s a link to the Post. If your Post does not have a featured video as one of its first blocks, the Featured Image will appear at the top of the post.
30. The Excerpt is a little blurb intended to encourage viewers to click into your story. Other systems refer to this as a Teaser, Blurb, Summary or Abstract.
31. Unless instructed to do so by a site administrator or newsroom manager, the Advertising Settings should always be unchecked (enabled).
Save, Preview, and Publish
When you’re satisfied with your Post, it’s time to think about Publishing it. In some newsrooms, you may need to have another producer or web manager proofread your work, in which case you’ll likely use the Pending Review checkbox and then work with those managers on the next steps.
If you’re okay to publish the post, however, there are a few steps and options in the upper right-hand corner of your post.
32. Chances are, you’ve been using the Save Draft link to save your work along the way. There is an autosave that will kick in every 10 minutes or so but it’s good to save it as a draft manually, especially if you are going to Preview your work.
33. The Preview button spawns a new tab where you can see what your Post will look like once it’s published. It is strongly recommended that you always Preview your work before publishing it.
34. When you’re ready for your post to go live, the Publish button opens a little window with a couple of last confirmations. A second click of the Publish button will make the Post live. Note that you can disable the second Publish requirement by unchecking the Always show pre-publish checks option (not really recommended, but it’s up to you).
35. There are a couple of other tool options here on the right that, for the most part, you can leave default. More information about those tools will be discussed in a separate training document.
Once your Post is published, it is live the viewers and should be appearing on the site shortly. If you have the edit screen still open in a tab, it’s typically a good idea to close the tab in case another user needs to get into your Post to make any edits.
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