Yesterday, I showed you how to set up your WordPress blog and how to do some simple customizations to the look and feel. Today we're going to actually write a post and publish it.

Go to wordpress.com.

The blog I created yesterday now appears on the home page.

Click the New Post button at the top.

Note that if you have more than one blog in your account, that button will have a dropdown box that lists them all.

This is where you'll be writing your posts. You have the option to actually write the HTML code yourself by choosing that tab but, for our purposes, I'm going to stick to the visual editor.

Note: I highly recommend you check out this WordPress Help file: Writing Posts. Not only does it describe the various features of this page, it offers best practices tips for posting to your blog and other useful information.

The single-line text box is for the title of your post. As you enter text there, WordPress will automatically create the post's URL below it. You can use the Edit button to create a different URL if you like.

Writing and formatting the post.

The large text box is for the body of your post. The buttons along the top give you basic formatting options, like bold, italic, lists, alignment, etc. In most cases, you can either click the button first and the text you write will use that formatting, or you can select existing text and click the button to apply it that way.

While some of the attributes, like bold and bullets, will display in the text box, others, like the formatting for a quote, will not. You can click the Preview button, near the top right, to open a new window that will show you what your post will look like within your template and with full formatting. Note that the formatting styles are determined by the theme you chose. So, for example, the way the quote looks in this theme will be different than in another one.

Important: I highly recommend you click the Save Draft button frequently as you're working on your post. There's nothing more frustrating than to write a lengthy entry with lots of images and then accidentally click the Back button in your browser, causing you to lose all the work you just did. Trust me.

To add a link in your post, you will have to select the text first, and then click the Link button. This will bring up a dialog box where you can enter the URL to link to and whether you want the link to open a new window or not. I wouldn't worry about the other two options.

If you want to unlink it later, just click on the text and use the Unlink button above in the toolbar.

The button that looks like a page cut in two is used to enter a break in the post so that the text above it will appear on your blog's home page with a link to read the full post. WordPress calls the section on the home page a "teaser." If you don't use this, the full post will appear on your home page.

The last button in the toolbar opens a second line of buttons with additional formatting options that you can try out, like using paragraph styles for predefined headings, changing the text color, and indenting paragraphs.

Adding media to your entries.

The buttons above the text box allow you to add rich content, like photos, videos, PDF files, Word documents, etc. to your post. The weird thing is that the first four buttons all bring up the exact same dialog box. (The fifth one, for polls, is different.)

The first tab is where you actually upload files to the WordPress server. The second tab is where you can link to a video on YouTube or Google or other locations. (You need to pay for a upgrade if you want to upload your own videos directly to WordPress.) The third tab, Media Library, lets you insert files you've previously uploaded to the server.

Since the most common media people upload is photos, here are the steps to do that:

• Place your cursor where you want the image to appear.
• Click the Add an Image button.
• Click Select Files.
• Browse to the folder where your images are, select as many as you want to upload, and click Open. The dialog box will now show the image(s) and provide some display options. (If you have more than one image, click the Show button beside each one to see the options.)
  
  The Title and Description are for identification purposes—they won't appear in the blog. The Caption will be under the image. Link URL refers to what page you will be taken to if you click the image in the post. File URL is a good option if it's a large picture where you want a smaller thumbnail to appear in the post, but clicking on it shows you the full size. Alignment refers to where the image will appear relative to the text around it—if you want the picture on its own line, with no text wrapping around it, choose None.
• Once you've set everything the way you want, click Insert Into Post. You can now see the image in your post and, of course, you can click Preview again to see how it will look when published.
  
  If you don't like anything about it, click on the image in the text box and two buttons will appear to edit or delete the image. Note: The Edit option actually provides some additional settings you don't get when you first upload the image, like adding a border to it or putting extra space between it and the text around it.

Now that you've seen how to write your post and include photos in it, we're ready to...

Prepare your post for publishing.

In the Post Tags box, enter some keywords that describe what's in your post. These will help search engines find it.

Write a brief summary of the post in the Excerpt box. This is used in a number of places that I'll discuss in tomorrow's post. If you leave this blank, WordPress will either use your teaser as an excerpt or, if you don't have one, will use the first 55 words of your post.

In the Category box, create any categories you want to use for this post. This will help people find related posts on your blog. If you added a Category widget to your blog, these names will appear there.

Ignore the Trackbacks box.

In the Discussions box, check the Allow Comments option if you want people to be able to leave comments. Re. pingbacks and trackbacks, I suggest you read the explanation from the linked text. I don't think it matters much either way whether you have that option checked or not.

Whew... almost there!

Publish that post!

In the Publish box at the top right, leave the Status and Visibility options as is.

If you want to publish the post at a specified date in the future, click the Edit link beside Publish Immediately, set the date, and click the Publish button.

If you're ready to go now... click Publish!

You've now posted your first blog entry. Click Visit Site to see it in all its glory. :)

Note: To delete the default Hello World entry, use the Edit link in the left-hand nav bar.

Tomorrow I'll go over some additional features and functions available for managing your blog. In the meantime, if you have any questions, shoot me an e-mail.

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