Uploading and downloading

Adding Content to a WordPress Blog

Once you’ve created your WordPress blog, you will need to add content to it. Chances are you have something brilliant to share with the world but just don’t know how to add it to your WordPress blog in a compelling, engaging and accurate way. Although uploading to WordPress may seem complicated at first, it’s like snapping your fingers once you get the hang of it.

Content that is posted to WordPress may be in the form of text, links, images or video. To get started, you will need to know how to access posts in the dashboard in order to create a new one.

Add a New Post

Once you’re logged in as the administrator of your WordPress blog, you will be able to view the dashboard panel on the left. At this point, you may either decide to create a new page or a post. A post will simply be added to the page that you have selected. If you run a traditional blog, it will in a linear fashion and posts will simply be added above the previous post on a single page. In order to add a new post hover over the posts option in order to reveal a menu. Click on Add New to create new post.

Edit the Post

WordPress has a WYSIWG editor which means that the manner in which you format within the editor will be the final product that will be displayed on the blog. You can also simply copy text from an Ms Word document into the editor.

Links

Links can be added to posts within the editor. Make note that the link option does not become visible until you have highlighted the text to be hyperlinked.

The next screen will ask for the URL that the text will create a path to along with a title. Click on Add Link in order to create a link within your blog post.

The link to existing content allows you to link to previous blog posts made to the blog.

Images

To add images to your content, click on the Add Media button. This will open up a window which will allow you to add all kinds of media into the blog post.

At this point, you can select from existing media that you had previously uploaded, add a link to an image on the internet or upload one from your computer.

Drag and drop the files into the window or click the Select files button in order to upload them to WordPress. Once uploaded, click on Insert into Post, in order to add the image to the post.

Installing Drupal Themes

One of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS), Drupal provides flexibility and versatility to users who have no specific knowledge when it comes to blog or sit creation, enabling them o make professional looking pages in no time. This ability and user friendliness is what attributes to the rise in the success of Drupal.

Once you’ve created a blog on Drupal, it would be looking a little forlorn with the default blue and white colors of the site. In order to customize it, you will need to install a theme according to your preferences and the nature of the content that you will be uploading to the page.

Locate themes

You can search for a theme in Drupal’s own directory where a multitude of themes have been installed. You can either browse through or select the theme that you prefer or enter a search query according to your requirements.

Once you’ve selected the theme that you would like to install onto your Drupal blog, click on the zip file to download it to a location onto your computer.

Make sure that the version is compatible with the Drupal version that you are using.

Log In as Admin

Once you have obtained the file for the theme that you are going to install, you need to up-load it to Drupal in order to apply it to the blog. Log in to your Drupal site as admin and click on the Dashboard. Click on ‘Appearance’ and then on ‘Install new themes’.

At this point you will be prompted to either provide a URL linking to the desired theme or to upload a file. Since we’ve downloaded a theme to the computer, we’ll select the second option. Click Browse to locate the file and click the Install button at the bottom of the page.

Enable the Theme

Once installed, a message will be displayed on screen notifying you of the successful installation of the theme. The next two steps will also be outlined within the window.

Visit the ‘themes’ page on your dashboard and locate the Disabled themes. The recently installed theme should now show within the list

Click the Enable and Set Default link in order to apply the theme to the blog.

Drupal is highly flexible an easy to use when it comes to customization. With this feature you can change the look of your blog whenever you choose. You can always disable the theme; install a new one or even enable a previously installed theme.

Posting Content on Drupal

Once you’ve created a blog using Drupal and customized it according to a particular theme, you need to add content to it in order to drive traffic towards your blog. Content is the most important aspect of any blog, site or page. The importance of content has also been realized by marketers who try to create compelling and engaging content that will drive customers towards their site. Even if you are a personal blogger, the motive of your blog would be to get your thought to a certain audience. This audience can only be gathered by posting quality content.

Add a Page

Make sure that you are signed in as an administrator on your Drupal blog. On the main page, under the dashboard you will see a button stating, ‘Add Content’.

A display window will then pop up prompting you to select between two options. You will be asked to either create an article or a basic page.

Although the choice of content depends solely upon you and what you have to say, it’s best to create a basic page for your very first entry. This is because the site does not have any basic structure as yet which will have to be created from scratch. The procedure however is much easier than it sounds.

The article option is more suitable for an update which may pertain to a blog post, news item or other time-sensitive information. A basic page on the other hand will allow you to create a static page similar to a webpage.

Adding Text

The text that is usually entered onto a page consists of the title and a description or an article. The WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor in Drupal allows you to format the content as you create it. This is different from HTML formatting where you’re required to enter plain unformatted text.

Add Images and Video

In order to customize the article or description that you enter into the page using an image or video, you can simply add it within the WYSIWYG editor. This can be done by clicking on the Add Media option.

When adding media to your content, you can either select and upload a file from your computer, paste a link to one on a website or select one form Drupal’s image library. If you’re uploading a file from the computer, you will be required to establish the pathway to the file by clicking the Browse button next to the field. Once the image has been selected click Upload to add the image to your content.

Publish the Page

If you’re satisfied with the content that you have entered onto the page, then you can publish it for display on the website. Alternatively, you may even save a work in progress as a Draft and continue to work on it later. In order to publish the page, you can simply click on the Publish button at the bottom of the options window.