10 years ago

Wordpress. How to start for very beginners.

So yesterday I registered on Wordpress. But I feel myself absolutely dumb there. :(
Have spend several hours to post 2 pages. But I still don't understand how to write a book. The pages I posted look separated and I have no idea how to make them parts of one story. The letters on the first page look enormous but I can't make them smaller (When I write - they are small. When I publish - they are enormous.)

Could anyone give instructions (step by step) with pictures for the very beginners like me.
The instructions given by Wordpress don't help me much. I'm poor at reading instructions, even when they're written in my mother tongue (reading them in English is even harder). Like cave people, I prefer pictures to words. That's why IKEA instructions are my favourite. :D

@SilentWolf101 has made a very useful guide. But I still don't understand most of simple things. Clever words like "Domain" etc. make my poor head square. I need loads of pictures with arrows saying: "press this", "print this here" etc. :D

Btw, the funniest thing is - I was told on Wordpress that I follow chealsycat
I have no idea how that happened. But now I follow myself like my cats follow their tails :joy:

One more thing. Why is this cloned?

I wasted two days reading instructions, guides, googling, searching YouTube... and trying, trying, trying... :triumph:
My current state is:
http://ruwix.com/pics/trolls/please-kill-meeee.jpg
You can see here what my site (blog?) looks like. It's terrible.
https://chealsycat.wordpress.com/
I'd like it to be more compact and informative.
Like these sites, for example:
https://mastressalita.wordpress.com/
https://cathytea.wordpress.com/

Could anyone help me, please?
My questions are "How?" From the very beginning. Maybe like SilentWolf's guide but less words and more pictures.
I even don't know what theme to choose. I don't understand their difference from each other.
I would like my thread look like a book with the "cover" with title, the main picture, some introductory words and the contents.
And the important thing: I can afford only free plans.

77 Replies

CathyTea
Legend
10 years ago
First of all, you're doing awesome. When I looked at your site, I saw, "Wow! You've done so much so quickly!" You've even got your awesome banner on your homepage!

So, let's go through step-by-step, and we'll address your questions and work with this until we get it just the way you want it! And then when you want to change it, we can work with it to make the changes you want!

Let's start with your question:

One more thing. Why is this cloned?

It looks like with your theme, two widgets are showing up. You can get rid of them!

https://simlittutorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/click1.png

1. Hover over the W in the upper left > Click "Customize."

https://simlittutorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/click2.png

2. Click Widgets.

https://simlittutorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/click3.png

3. The page will show up in "Customize" view. Click the pencil for one of the things you want to hide.

https://simlittutorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/click4.png

4. Click "Remove" to remove that Widget.

Keep "removing" everything until you get rid of the extras.

(If someone else has a better technique, please chime in! :)
CathyTea
Legend
10 years ago
Play with that, and then next, we can work on creating your "cover" for you home page!

(I bet we get your site really close to the way you want it by the weekend! Whee! :) )
chealsycat
10 years ago
Thank you @CathyTea <3 You're awesome at explanations! :star:
So, I did it. :)
Clone deleted. :relaxed:

Then I decided to do some extra homework. o:)
I added Widgets to Sidebar Right

And removed them from the other Footer.

Voila!
chealsycat
10 years ago
Now I have more questions.
1. how to add a picture to the post on my front page like this:

2. I'd like to have only introduction to my story on my front page and something like Contents leading to the chapters. How to make that?

For your information - this is the Theme I'm using now.

If it is not suitable for what I want, which other free Theme would you advise?
CathyTea
Legend
10 years ago
@chealsycat AWESOME! That's fantastic! You really did well. And also, you discovered that experimenting is one of the very, very, very best ways to learn WordPress! :)
chealsycat
10 years ago
@CathyTea Yes, you're right, Cathy. It's really exciting. :)
Thank you for the help! <3
CathyTea
Legend
10 years ago
"chealsycat;14732304" wrote:
Now I have more questions.
1. how to add a picture to the post on my front page like this:

2. I'd like to have only introduction to my story on my front page and something like Contents leading to the chapters. How to make that?

For your information - this is the Theme I'm using now.

If it is not suitable for what I want, which other free Theme would you advise?

1) First, Themes. I REALLY like the theme you're currently using. Unless it's not doing something you want it to do, I don't suggest switching. You can always choose something else later. I started using Blaskan and I really liked it a lot--used it for about 16 months and enjoyed it a lot! One thing I suggest is to check out other people's themes to see what you like. I use different ones on my other blogs, so you can look at them to see what they're like. I also always love the themes that @ra3rei , @Meggles , and @eXokamikaze use--so you can take a look at theirs, too. When you see a theme you like, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, then you'll see which theme they're using.

Sometimes, I try different themes. I always write down the names of them so I can go back if I like them--and I write down the name of the one I'm starting with, in case I need to go back to the very beginning! It's another time when experimenting really, really helps!

2) Ok! Your other question. This sounds like it's working on getting your "cover" page set up for your blog.

This will be your Home page.

I'm going to create a new message that addresses this, because I want to get a few screenshots. I'll have it posted in a few! :)
ra3rei
Seasoned Ace
10 years ago
Ah Wordpress! - Looks like you're in good hands @chealsycat ! But if you get stuck or anything, I'm pretty good at knowing how to bend wordpress to do what I want it to. So if you find yourself interested in custom menus, or anything on the wp-admin section. Give me a shout.

As for themes...I look at them ALL the time to see what new ones have come out - but I'm pretty strict with my critera. Just remember you can click around the theme tester and change all sorts of things to see how it would look with your content. Even go look at posts and pages without actually activating the theme. (Especially once you've got a bunch). I was looking at a fairly interesting theme the other day, but all my pictures would have been cropped funny if I used it. Didn't notice it right away, but once I did, I had to toss it out. Luckily even if you change a bunch of stuff on the customizer, if you never click "activate" it's not saved.
CathyTea
Legend
10 years ago
To create the type of "cover" page that you want, here are the steps.

1) First you'll need to have two pages created. One will be your home page, and one will be where your recent posts will be displayed. If you haven't yet created a page, now is when you'll do that.

https://simlittutorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/click5a.png

(If you want more instructions about creating the pages, let me know, and I'll be happy to write a post just on that! :) )

2) Next, in customize, you will set your site to have a "Static Home Page".

Note: Not all themes allow a static home page. Yours does, so you're in good shape! :)

A. Click "Customize"

B. Click "Static Home Page."

https://simlittutorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/click5.png

3) Now, you will select the page that will be your home page. (I titled my home page "Welcome!")

https://simlittutorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/click6.png

Then select the page for your Recent Posts page. (I titled mine "Recent Posts.")

https://simlittutorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/click7.png

Once this is done, you will edit your home page so that it's set up the way you want it!

We can talk about this when you're ready! Ask lots of questions! Play, explore, have fun! :)
chealsycat
10 years ago
"ra3rei;14732369" wrote:
...

As for themes... ... Just remember you can click around the theme tester and change all sorts of things to see how it would look with your content. Even go look at posts and pages without actually activating the theme. (Especially once you've got a bunch). I was looking at a fairly interesting theme the other day, but all my pictures would have been cropped funny if I used it. Didn't notice it right away, but once I did, I had to toss it out. Luckily even if you change a bunch of stuff on the customizer, if you never click "activate" it's not saved.

*Highlighted by me.
@ra3rei It's a really helpful tip! Thank you very much! <3