Managing Your Specialty Area Website:

A What’s What and How-To Guide

Welcome!The website for your C&I Specialty Area is finally complete! Now you must learn to manage the content of your site using your WordPress Dashboard. You’ll learn:

How to access your Specialty Area WebsiteHow to navigate through your WordPress DashboardHow to add, delete, and update pages in WordPressWhat text & image widgets are, and how to manage their contentHow to add & update media in your website’s media library

Click the “Next” button to learn how to navigate through the tutorial.

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NavigationNext: Advances to the next page or question

Back: Navigates back to the previous page

Index: Return to the Index

Exit: Temporarily exit the tutorialEXIT

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This tutorial is designed for those who are new to WordPress.

Know a little about WordPress, but not sure if you can manage your site on your own? Find out if this tutorial is right for you.

If you know you need to learn more about WordPress in order to effectively manage your Specialty Area website, click the “Next” button below to get started.

You’ll need to be connected to the internet to access some of the material. It will take about an hour to complete all of the lessons in this tutorial.

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Is This Tutorial Right for You?

Ask yourself the following questions to see if you’re ready to manage your Specialty Area Site.

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True or False:

You know what steps must be taken to access the Dashboard of your Specialty Area’s website.

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True or False:

You know how to add a new page from the Dashboard, and assign the page’s position within the organization of the site.

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True or False:

You know how to access and update your site’s widgets using WordPress.

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If you answered “True” to ALL of these questions, then your knowledge of WordPress is further advanced than the content presented in this tutorial. Press “Esc” on your keyboard to exit the tutorial.

If you answered “False” to any of these questions, you’ll benefit from the information provided in this tutorial. Click “Next” to get started.

Lesson 1: Accessing Your Specialty Area Site

To access your Specialty Area Website, type the following URL into the address bar of your web browser:

http://ci.siu.edu/specialty/test/wp-admin/

Replace /test/ with the appropriate abbreviation for your Specialty Area. (Example: Social Science Education = /sse/)*

*Your Specialty Area’s abbreviation has been provided to you by the C&I website administrator.

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Enter the Username and Password provided to you by the C&I website administrator.

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Lesson 2: Your WordPress Dashboard

After you log in to your Specialty Area Website, you’ll see the Dashboard.

The WordPress Dashboard is a tool used to quickly access the most used areas of your blog's Administration.*

*Definition adapted from WordPress Semantics and the WordPress Codex Glossary. For a more comprehensive list of terms associated with WordPress, please visit those sites.

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View your site’s pages; add a new page; manage organization of pages within your site.

Link to view your site live online.

Here’s a short overview of the features you’ll be using most on the Dashboard.

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View your media library; upload new media to your site.

Next, Take a video tour of your WordPress Dashboard. Click “Play” below, and view the video in full screen mode.

When the video is complete, press “Esc” in your browser window to exit the video’s full screen mode, close your browser window, and return to this screen in the tutorial. Then, click “Next” to assess what you’ve learned.

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Test Your Knowledge: Lessons 1&2

Click on the appropriate answer to each question to assess what you’ve learned.

1. When accessing your Specialty Area Website, which portion of the URL shown in the lesson must be replaced with the abbreviation for your specific Specialty Area?

/specialty/

ci.siu.edu/

/test/

/wp-admin

A

B

C

D

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Oops!

If you removed the /specialty/ section of the URL, you’d get an error message.

Try AgainEXIT

Oops!

If you removed the ci.siu.edu/ section of the URL, you’d get an error message.

Try AgainEXIT

Oops!

If you removed the /wp-admin section of the URL, you would be directed to the Homepage of the Test Site. Featured on the Test site are the examples created in this tutorial.

Try AgainEXIT

Correct!

To access the WordPress Login screen, replace the /test/ portion of the URL with the abbreviation for your Specialty Area Website. If you don’t know your site’s abbreviation, check with the C&I website administrator.

Click “Next” to proceed to the next question.

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Test Your Knowledge: Lessons 1&2

2. If you need to log out of your account after updating your Specialty Area Website, to which section of the WordPress Dashboard would you navigate?

“Right Now”

Appearances

Screen Options

Dashboard Header

A

B

C

D

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Oops!

The “Right Now” section of the Dashboard is a snapshot of each element that makes up your site (pages, posts, etc). You can get access the “Pages” menu from here, but you must navigate elsewhere to log out.

Try AgainEXIT

Oops!

The Appearances > Widgets navigation path will take you to the screen where you can add, update, or remove widgets from your WordPress site, but you must navigate elsewhere to log out.

Try AgainEXIT

Oops!

From the Screen Options dropdown, you can add or remove helpful information feeds from your WordPress Dashboard, but you must navigate elsewhere to log out.

Try AgainEXIT

Correct!

Navigate to the far right of your Dashboard Header to log out of your Specialty Area Website’s WordPress Dashboard.

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Congratulations!

You’ve learned about accessing your Specialty Area website and how to navigate through your WordPress Dashboard.

You can decide which Lesson you’d like to complete next. Click the Index button to return to the Index screen and review your options.

Or, to proceed directly to Lesson 3 on how to Add, Delete, and Update the content of WordPress pages on your site, click “Next.”

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Lesson 3: Adding, Deleting, and Updating Content on WordPress

PagesNext, watch the video lesson on working with Pages in WordPress.

When the video is complete, press “Esc” in your browser window to exit the video’s full screen mode, close your browser window, and return to this screen in the tutorial. Then, click “Next” to assess what you’ve learned.

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Congratulations!

You’ve successfully completed this tutorial on managing your Specialty Area website!

If you’d like to review any portion of the tutorial, click the Index button.

Press “Esc” on your keyboard to exit the tutorial.

Are you sure?

If you’re sure you’d like to Exit the tutorial, press “Esc” on your keyboard. You can come back to complete the tutorial at your convenience. When you return, navigate to the “Index” screen and select the Lesson you were working on.

If you’ve clicked on the “Exit” button by mistake, click on the “Index” button below to navigate back to the Lesson you were working on.

Index

Lesson 1: Accessing Your Specialty Area Site

Lesson 2: Navigating your WordPress Dashboard

Lesson 3: Adding, Deleting, and Updating Content on WordPress pages

Working with Widgets in WordPress

Your Media Library: Adding and Updating Media

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