In these instructions we go through how you create a blog post to HAMK’s blog.
Sign in and create a new article
Go to blog.hamk.fi/yrli/wp-admin/ and sign in with your HAMK username. When you have signed in, you will see the dashboard (ohjausnäkymä). If you want to change the language, click ”Asetukset” on the left panel and change the language from the “Sivuston kieli” dropdown list and save the changes (“Tallenna muutokset”).
Click “Posts” on the left panel and then “Add new”.
Adding the content
First you see a field where you add the title of the post. Below that you can see the www address which will lead to the final post. You can edit this as well.
The first big field under the title is the one where you add the text. If you are copying your text from another text editor (Word etc.), use the “paste as plain text” option. You’ll find it by clicking the right button of the mouse or you can use control+shift+v.
Save your text as a draft (on the right panel). Also, on the right panel you’ll find the preview button and you can preview you text before publishing.
Formatting the content
In the blog post first add an introduction paragraph (don’t add any heading before the first paragraph). In the blog publication it stands out with bigger font than regular body text. This is something WordPress does automatically.
With subheadings you can use the H2 heading level. Choose the text you want to change as a heading and click the right heading level on the dropping list you see in the editor toolbar above the font.
The body text is automatically in the right format but if you accidentally change the body text for example as a heading, you can change it back by choosing the text and clicking “paragraph” on the same dropping list.
You can use bullet points or numbered lists if you want to structure your content. And you can include text with formatting – such as italic, bold, and underline. But don’t overdo with these and use them only when they make it easier to read the text.
Links
You can create a link by choosing the text you want to assign as a link and clicking the link icon in the editor toolbar. Add the link of the target site to the field which opened. Then click the link options (the gear icon) and then choose the “Open link in a new tab” and then “Update”.
If you want to remove the link, choose the link and click the “remove the link” icon in the editor toolbar.
Images
Each blog post has a featured image which is the main image and it is shown above the text. Images size is 740 x 360 pixels. You can crop the image beforehand with Canva for example.
You can add the featured image by scrolling down the right panel and at the bottom you see a link “Set featured image”. When you click it, the media library will be opened. It you need to add a new picture, click “Upload new files” and find the right file in your computer’s files. Click “Set featured image”. Use preview to check if the image is okay.
When you want to add an image among the text, click the place where you want to add it and then click “Add new media” which you find above the title field. Upload the image to the media library. If you want, you can add a caption for the image. This text will be shown in the blog post below the image. Click “Insert into post”. It will align the image to the left side, but it is recommended to be aligned to the centre because it works better when reading the blog post with mobile devices. So, click the image and you will see the align options. Click “align center”.
Categories and tags
On the right panel you will see different categories. Choose one/several categories that fit to your blog post. Below that there is tags field where you can add some keywords to you post. When you start typing something you will see some previous used tags. Also, there is a link “Choose from the most used tags”. This helps you to find suitable tags for your text.
Finishing and publishing the text
WordPress tells you how readable your text is (green=good, orange=OK, red= needs improvement). If you are using the correct formatting (heading levels) readability should be good. If it’s not, you may have too long sentences in your text. So, try to avoid those and keep the text structured.
When the post is ready, you can publish it by clicking “Publish” on the right panel. Then the post will then be the latest publication in this blog. You can also adjust the publishing time and schedule the publishing in the future or set the publish date to the past.
As a default, the post will be public but if you want to hide the post later, you can change it “private” when it’s only visible for those who are logged in.
You can edit the text after publishing for example by clicking “Edit post”. You see it on the upper panel when you are viewing the published post. Also, on the dashboard you can see “Posts” à “All posts” where you can choose the post and edit it.
Remember to update the post to save the changes!
