1. Studio 2WordPress
Introduction to the Digital Liberal Arts
MDST 3703 / 7703Fall 2010

2. Recap
How do computers change the properties of text?
In what sense are computers textual?
3. Alan Turings Universal Machine
4. Goals
Introduction to WordPress
Overview of basic features
Getting started with customization
Discussion in light of Seminar
Think about WordPress as a literary machine
Keep Nelsons Fantics in mind
5. WordPress
2003 (6 AG)
Open Source
A personal publishing system
AKA Content Management System (CMS)
6. Plan
A quick overview of WordPress layout
Form groups
PCs and Macs
Distribute the knowledge!
Specific exercises
7. Your Site
Server
http://pages.shanti.virginia.edu
Resource
/mdst3703_f10_rca2t
Does everyone have a site?
8. The Administration Page
Admin bar (can be disabled)
Header
Left menu
Main area
9. Admin Menu
Admin Menu
10. Important Admin Stuff
Users
Your Profile
Settings
General
Writing
Reading
Privacy
Permalinks
11. Exercise: Change Your Profile
Go to Users Your Profile
Cant change name
Add a web site if you want to
Add some biographical info
12. Exercise: Change Site Settings
General
Site name, tagline, email for admin, date/time/week format
Writing
Enable Atom and XML-RPC
Reading
Note Front Page Displays (well come back to this)
Discussion
Comment settings
13. Exercise: Change Site Settings
Privacy
Set to I would like my blog to be visible only to registered members of this blog.
Permalinks
Set Category Base to category
Set Tag Base to tag
14. Exercise: Pick a Theme
Themes define the look and feel of your site
They also provide different functions
Configurability
Regions to park things (widgets)
Go to Appearance Themes
Suggestions:
Constructor highly configurable, but advanced
Misty Look-- can change header (also SHANTI #1)
P2 Twitter-like, good for ideas
Tarski
15. Exercise: Add Widgets
Go to Appearance Widgets
Drag widgets to regions on right
Regions vary by theme
Add Links, Categories, and the Tag List Widget
Configure widgets as necessary
Drag off to remove
Some themes have hard-coded widgets
e.g. iNove
16. Pages and Posts
The basic units of information in WP:
Pages
Static content
Organized into a menu tree
Posts
Dynamic content
Organized by date, tag, and category
17. Exercise: Create a Welcome Page
Go to Pages Add New
Use the title Welcome
Add some content and save
Also Create a News page, with no content
Go to Settings Reading
SetFront page to Welcome
Set Posts page to News
18. Exercise: Create a Child Page
Create a Page called Child
Just for demo purposes
Before saving, choose Welcome as its parent
19. Exercise: Add a Link to the Course Site
Go Links Add New
Create new link
View in widget
20. Exercise: Add a Post
Go to Posts Add New
Create some content
21. Categories and Tags
Categories are hierarchical
Tags are rhizomic
What kinds of things are appropriate to each?
22. Comments
Comments can be turned on or off per post
Default settings can be made in the Discussion section of Settings
23. Media, Links, and Plugins
To be discussed next time
24. How does WordPress compare to the Memex?
to Nelsons dream machines?
How would you describe its fantics?
Connections