Category: Help

  • The WordPress Toolbar

    After you’ve logged into a WordPress site, the WordPress toolbar appears above the top of all of the pages in the site, including Administration Screens, like the Dashboard.

    The Toolbar looks a little different on smaller screens, to help mobile device users:

    • the icons are bigger (easier to tap)
    • a menu “burger” appears on the left to navigate the WordPressAdministration Screens
    • Depending on the size of the screen, some of the standard menu items may move under the menu burger.

    You can experiment with this using your favorite desktop browser. Simply shrink the window size by dragging the corner of the browser window, and watch how the Toolbar automatically resizes to display on smaller screen widths.

    Toolbar: Administration Screens

    The Toolbar includes some handy menus:

    • The WordPress menu, with links to
      • WordPress.org
      • Documentation
      • Support Forums
      • Feedback
    • The Site menu (Home icon) that allows you to visit your site’s front end when you’re viewing administration screens.
    • The Update menu is really just a button (there are no submenu items). The desktop version of this menu displays the number of updates available. Clicking this menu item takes you to the WordPress Updates page where you can update the WordPress core files, plus plugins and themes.
    • The Comments menu (again, really just a button) takes you to the Comments administration page, where you can approve, spam or trash new comments.
    • The New menu (+) is a shortcut to create or add a new:
      • Post
      • Media
      • Page
      • User

    Some plugins, like WP Super Cache, will add their own menus to the Toolbar. For example, WP Super Cache adds a Delete Cache menu item. These menu items appear to the right of the default items, but only on the wider desktop Toolbar.

    Depending what you’re doing on the Administration Screens, you may see other menu items on the Toolbar. When you are editing a post, for instance, a new menu, View Post, appears on the Toolbar to the right of the default menus.

    Toolbar: Public Site

    When you’re viewing your site’s front end, the site menu icon changes to a speedometer, and displays links to the:

    • Dashboard
    • Themes
    • Widgets
    • Menus

    More information about the Toolbar

  • Update an Existing WordPress Page

    To update an existing WordPress page on your site, first log in using your favorite browser.

    You can edit your site’s pages using a smaller screen device, like a tablet or a smart phone, but it’s much easier using a browser on your computer, or on a device with a larger screen, with a keyboard and a mouse. These instructions and screen images apply to that kind of setup.

    Find the Existing Page You Want to Edit

    To find an existing page to edit, from the Dashboard, select Pages : All Pages

    Pages are often organized by how they appear in your site menus. Pages with a dash prefix (like this: — Sample Subpage) appear as sub-menu items under the parent page’s menu item, which is listed above, with no dash next to the title (like this: Sample Page).

    If your site contains a lot of pages, you can also use the search box in the upper right corner to locate a page quickly by typing a search term. Type your search text in the box and click [Search Pages]. Shorter search terms will match more pages. Matching pages appear in the page listing below.

    To edit your page, mouse over the page title in the page listing and click Edit.

    Update the Page Contents

    On the Edit Page, you can update and format your selected page’s text, formatting, images, media, and page attributes.

    Page Editing Tips

    • Use the Visual editor to update the content on your page. The Visual editor is fast, accurate, and shows you a formatted version of your page. It creates pages that are quick to load and optimized for SEO. You can use other WordPress editing tools besides the Visual editor on your page, but the Visual editor is the first and best choice.
    • When you paste text into your page from other sources (like Word or other word processors) be sure to paste clean text to avoid formatting problems, and improve performance and SEO.
    • Format your text in WordPress so it’s easier to read, This will also improve your page’s SEO performance.

    Publish and Review Changes to Your Page

    After you’ve updated your page, you’ll need to save your changes so that they are visible to visitors to your site.

    To save and update your page, in the Publish box (top of the right hand column), click the [Update] button.

    Important: you must click [Update] to save your changes and see your changes appear on your site.

    After your page saves (updates), a message appears right below the Edit Page title:

    Page updated. View page

    Click the View page link to see your changes as they appear to visitors to your site.

    Click Edit Page on the WordPress Toolbar to return to the page editor quickly. Once you’re done editing your page, click [Update], then click any menu item on the left menu to leave the page editor. You can always go to the Dashboard, or click Pages : All Pages to view the list of pages in your site and select another page to update.

  • Creative Commons (defined)

    The Creative Commons organization is a non-profit that:

    provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses to make a simple and standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work–on conditions of your choice.

    What this means for web developers and designers is:

    • a wealth of high quality content
    • available mostly free of charge

    Just be sure to adhere to the licensing conditions specified by the artist or contributor, which often means including

    • attribution
    • not making changes to the original
    • only using the image for personal or non-profit uses.

    You can use the Creative Commons search tool to find:

    • Images
    • Music
    • Video
    • Other Media

    You can also specify how restrictive the license is for your use, by finding stuff you can:

    • use for commercial purposes
    • modify, adapt, or build upon

    Be sure to Add CC Search to your browser’s bookmark bar, or you can even use CC Search in the Firefox Search field.

  • Add Creative Commons Images to Your WordPress Posts

    What are Creative Commons images? They are images you can use freely on your WordPress site, provided you adhere to the image’s licensing agreement. Read our glossary entry for Creative Commons for more details and tips.

    Use these instructions to find, modify and add images to your WordPress site when you are on a web browser on your computer. These steps don’t apply if you are using a tablet or a smart phone.

    Find Images to Use on Your Site

    Before you use Creative Commons images, you need to find some images to use. Here are the best Creative Commons search tools:

    Use CC Search and Google Image Search to Find Images

    Follow these steps to find images licensed for reuse without modification, the most permissive license.

    1. Go to the CC Search page.
    2. In the search field, type your search query. Start with the most general term, then you can refine it. For example, use cars instead of antique cars
    3. Next to I want something that I can…, check I use for commercial purposes and modify, adapt, or build upon (see the Search Tips below for more information on these licensing terms)
    4. Click on the [Google Images / Image] button, which will turn blue when selected.
    5. Press the Enter key.

    Google Image search will appear with your search results. From here, you can modify and refine your search results, and select images for your site.

    CC Search Tips

    • The CC Search page remembers your settings from one browser visit to another by setting a cookie. This means your settings are saved when you use the same browser, but not if you switch browsers or computers, or clear your browser cache.
    • Uncheck use for commercial purposes if you are using the image for your personal or non-profit web site. If you sell anything on your site, including ads, affiliate links, or any other items that make money, or if your site advertises or markets your business, that’s commercial use, so leave this option checked in those cases.
    • Uncheck modify, adapt, or build upon if you are OK with using the images exactly as presented. If you want to crop, edit, or modify the images in any way, keep this box checked.

    Google Image Search Tips

    Select An Image for Use

    Once you’ve found an image you want to use, go to the site where the image resides to read the detailed licensing conditions.

    Select an Image in Google Image Search

    Google Image presents images that match your search criteria in a grid. When you find an image you want to use,

    1. Click on the image thumbnail. A black background appears with a larger thumbnail of the image.
    2. Click [Visit Page] to see the image. Read the page for information licensing details.
    3. Download the image. In some cases, you can download the image using a Download button, or right-click on the image.

    Although you can incorporate images into your WordPress site, it’s better to download them so you can optimize them. Also, your images won’t disappear from your site if you upload them, even if the site where you found the image is unavailable in the future.

    Add Your New Image to WordPress

    Here’s how to add your image to WordPress.

    1. Open the WordPress page or post where you want your image to appear in the editor.
    2. Position your cursor in the text of the post where you want your image to appear. Tip: place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph.
    3. Click [Add Media] above the editor tool bar (upper right)
    4. Click the Upload Files tab (just below the heading ) to upload your new image.
    5. Edit the image information in the Media Manager.
    6. Insert the image into your post.

    Adding Attribution Links

    Even though it’s not always necessary, I like to include attribution for Creative Commons images, because it helps the artists who have offered to share their work with you.

  • Review the Public WHOIS Info for Your Domain

    Do you control your domain record? You can check to see who has control over your domain with a free WHOIS search. The WHOIS search displays information about:

    • your domain registrar
    • The domain contacts: Registrant or Billing, Admin, and Technical

    If you or someone who works with you isn’t listed as one of the three domain contacts, you may need to contact the person listed to determine how to update your domain. The public WHOIS record for your domain will always display a current (active) email address for each of the three domain contacts.

    Sometimes domains (like cadent.com) are privately registered and display only generic contact information, although the listed email address will allow you to contact the domain holder.

    Search WHOIS with a Browser

    You can use the ICANN WHOIS service with your favorite browser. Simply enter your domain in the field in the form example.com (without adding anything before or after your basic domain).

    Then, click Lookup, fill out the captcha form, and the site will display your domain WHOIS information, neatly formatted. You can also view the raw results further down the page.

    Search WHOIS from the Command Line

    If you want to look up WHOIS information from your computer’s command line, you can do that too. At a command prompt, enter 

    whois example.com

    where “example.com” is the domain you want to review. The raw WHOIS data will appear in your terminal window.

    Related Articles

    Other Links

  • Set up a Secure Account at a Domain Registrar for Your Domain

    Your domain is your brand and identity on the Internet. You need to protect your domain by registering it securely with a domain registrar, like Namecheap or Hover. The domain registrar you select will maintain a public record of your domain, and important technical information about your domain required for your web site(s) and email server — plus many other Internet services — to function correctly.

    Not sure if you control your domain registration? Follow these steps to Review the Public WHOIS Info for Your Domain.

    What You Need to Set Up a Secure Domain Registrar Account

    To create an account at a domain registrar, you must provide:

    • a valid email address (not in the domain you want to register)
    • credit card
    • a user name
    • a strong password.

    IMPORTANT: You do not want to use an email address that is part of the domain you are registering. For example, if I was registering the domain “cadent.com,” I would not want to use an email address in the “cadent.com” domain to set up the domain registration account. Why? Because if there is any problem with your domain registration, your emails associated with that domain may also stop working correctly, which means you won’t be able to fix your domain.

    To avoid this, set up your domain registrar account with a secure email address on a different domain. An easy way to do this is to create a “company” Gmail address. Then use this email to set up your domain registrar account. Since this email account is literally the key to your Internet kingdom, make sure it’s secure by setting up 2-factor authentication. This means if someone steals your password, they still won’t be able to get into your Gmail account.

    Once you’ve set up your company Gmail account, you can set up auto-forwarding to send any emails on to your work email, so you don’t have to check yet another email account.

    Protect Your New Account with 2-Factor Authentication

    Once you’ve set up your new account, you should turn on 2-factor authentication, if possible, with your domain registrar. This will ensure that your domain registrar account will also be secure even if someone steals your password.

    Adding Domains to Your New Account

    Now that you’ve set up a secure account with your domain registrar, you can purchase your domain if it’s not already taken, or transfer it to your account from the account of the current owner. Read Transfer Your Domain to Your Secure Domain Registrar Account for detailed instructions on the transfer process.

    Related Articles

  • Transfer Your Domain to Your Secure Domain Registrar Account

    Before you transfer your domain to your domain registrar, you need to Set up a Secure Account at a Domain Registrar for Your Domain.

    To contact the current owner of a domain, Review the Public WHOIS Info for Your Domain.

    To transfer a domain from one account to another, you need to:

    1. Ensure the domain is ready to be transferred (the current owner needs to unlock the domain and make sure it isn’t set up as a private or protected registration) and verify the contact information for the current owner.
    2. Purchase a domain name transfer from your registrar.
    3. Your registrar will prompt you to unlock the domain and enter an authorization code (provided by the current domain owner).
    4. Wait for the confirmation email (sent to the address you specified when you created the account) and click the Approve button.

    This process ensures that the current domain owner is transferring the domain willingly to another legitimate account with a working email address.

    Configure Your New Domain with Separate Contacts

    Once your domain is set up in your secure domain registrar account, you can configure your domain so your web sites, emails, and other Internet services work correctly. You should also use separate contacts for the three domain contacts. The billing contact (or registrant) has the ultimate power over the domain, because they pay the bills. Using a separate admin and technical account means that you can still manage your domain if the billing contact isn’t immediately available, but the admin and technical accounts can’t cancel the domain or transfer it — only the billing contact can do this.

    Obviously, select the people you assign to these roles carefully, and ideally, don’t use email addresses that are in the domain you are managing.

    Tips

    • Always use an email from a different domain to register your new domain. Pro tip: set up a “company” Gmail account to manage your domains which will be available even if there’s a problem with your domain.
    • It’s best to register your domain with a different company than the company that hosts your web site. That way if your hosting company has a problem (and this does happen occasionally) you can still update your domain. So, if you want to host your site at, say, HostGator, then register your domain at different registrar (like GoDaddy or Hover). While it’s convenient to register your domain at the same company that hosts your web site, it also means that a single problem at that one company will take you completely off the Internet.

    Related Pages

    Transfer Your Domain

    Domain Name Registration Process | ICANN WHOIS

  • Protocol (defined)

    In the world of computers and networks, a protocol is an agreed-upon set of rules or procedures for transferring data between different devices. When two computers use the same protocol to communicate, it means they’ve agreed to use the same structure for the data they are exchanging, and that they will follow the same steps when they are sending or receiving information.

    Since all digital devices (computers, smartphones, tablets, routers, and so on) manipulate numbers (digits), any information they work with must be encoded as numbers. When is encoded on one computer, it must be decoded on the other to communicate. A protocol is essentially an agreed upon way to encode and decode data, and then also set of rules on how to communicate between digital devices. By using the same communication protocols, two very different computers (say, an iPhone and a Windows computer) can exchange data accurately, even if they each encode that data differently.

    Think of the postal system: we address envelopes using a set of conventions that make it easier, even possible, to direct the envelope to the correct destination. For example, the address on the middle of the envelope is the destination address, and the address in the upper left (or back) of the envelope is the return address. If there’s an error in the destination address, the postal service uses the return address to send the envelope back to the sender, with “address unknown” stamped over the original destination. This is an example of how postal protocols make it possible to deliver mail and how to handle errors in addresses.

    Computers use similar rules (where to put the address and return address, what format to use) and similar procedures (what to do when the address is incorrect, and how to notify the sender) but these networking protocols are much stricter and complex.

    Some examples of common Internet Protocols include:

    • TCP/IP
    • HTTP
    • HTTPS
    • SMTP
    • IMAP
    • FTP

  • Internet (defined)

    The Internet is a network of computer networks that uses the same computer networking language (or protocol), TCP/IP. Before the wide adoption of TCP/IP as a common language that most computer systems understood, many computer networks used proprietary protocols owned by specific corporations.

    In practical terms, this meant that you could only communicate with the other people who used the same proprietary network. Whether this was IBM’s TokenRing or AppleShare at the office, or Compuserve at home, you could only reach, at most, other people or network resources (like printers, email servers, or shared databases) that used the same company’s networking products.

    Since no one company owns the TCP/IP protocol, or any of the other protocols in the Internet protocol suite, any computer or software company can use these protocols to connect their devices, programs, or products to the rest of the world. You use some of these protocols every day, including HTTP (for browsing the World Wide Web) or SMTP, POP and IMAP (for sending and receiving email).

    Notice that the World Wide Web — the web sites you visit using a browser on your computer, tablet or smartphone — is just one part of the Internet. Also, the Internet can operate over all kinds of connections, including wired (i.e., Cat 5 or fiber optic cable) or wireless (i.e., WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular) networks.

    Because of this flexibility and openness, the Internet has grown to become the largest shared network in history, much larger than the original (landline) telephone network or any private computer network.

    More from Wikipedia

    The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.

    — Internet – Wikipedia