How-tos

Start here

Short answers to the questions that come up while you build your learning guide on this site. You do not need to use every feature of the template: a clear, simple site with working links does well.

Nothing you do here is permanent. Every change can be undone, and every page keeps its earlier versions (Revisions in the editor sidebar). Work on the pages that are already here, replace the text, and delete the notes like this one before you submit.

What goes where

  • Home: the guide title, your names, a description of the guide, its scope and audience. Keywords are optional here.
  • Resources: 25 to 30 resources grouped by type, each with an MLA citation and a short annotation. The five pages are suggestions; use the categories that fit your topic.
  • Search strategies (optional): the keywords and sources that worked. You can hand this in as a separate document instead and delete the page.
  • Contact: the date last updated, your names and emails, an email link and a link home.

Before you submit

First tidy up the site, then check it against the assignment.

Tidy up the site

  • Delete the notes. Every page starts with a “How to use this page” note; delete each one. How: Deleting the notes before you submit.
  • Take How-tos and Patterns Gallery out of the menu, and Search strategies too if you handed that in separately. How: Appearance → Menus, open the item, click Remove, then Save Menu (The menu). The pages stay on the site; only the links go. If you would rather delete the pages as well, see Adding, renaming or deleting a page.
  • Replace the worked example on Books with a resource of your own, and delete any entry you did not fill in.
  • Replace or delete the placeholder picture (the round portrait on Home). How: Adding or replacing an image.
  • Update the Contact page: today’s date in “Last updated”, and your names and email addresses.
  • Set the site title to your guide’s name in Customize → Site Identity, and change the heading in the banner on Home to match.
  • The template’s own pages (Home v1, Home v2, About Me, Project 1 to 3) are not in the menu and can be left alone.

Check the assignment

The checks from the assignment document:

  • All the parts are there: home page, resource pages, contact information, and search strategies on the site or in a separate document.
  • You have the required number of resources (25 to 30), in a variety of categories (five or more is best).
  • Every resource has a citation in MLA style and an annotation.
  • All the links on the site work: open every page and click every link, including the menu.
  • The site has enough white space and some images.
  • Your names are included.
  • It is easy to move between the pages.
  • You have read the rubric at the end of the assignment document.

Changing the look of the whole site: Customize

Editing a page changes that page. To change the look of the whole site at once, open Appearance → Customize in the dashboard, or click Customize in the black bar at the top of any page while you are logged in. The left-hand panel lists what you can change; the right-hand side shows a live preview. Nothing is saved until you click Publish at the top of the panel, so you can try things freely and close the window to discard them.

What the panels do on this template:

  • Site Identity: the site title (the words in the dark bar at the top of every page), the tagline, a logo and the small icon in the browser tab. This is where to put your guide’s name.
  • Colors & Fonts: the colour palette every page uses (background, text, links, buttons) and the fonts for headings and body text. Change one palette colour and the whole site follows. Keep the text clearly readable against its background.
  • Header: what sits in the top bar, such as the logo, the menu and a search box, and whether the bar is light or dark.
  • Footer: the bottom of every page, including the copyright line.
  • Menus: the same menu as Appearance → Menus, with a live preview while you drag items about.
  • Homepage Settings: which page is the front page. It is already set to Home.
  • General and Posts/Pages Layout: page width, sidebars and what shows on posts. You can leave these as they are.

A few changes are plenty: the site title, perhaps one colour, perhaps a font. The template’s colours and fonts already work together, and the rubric’s “theme features” point is met by a working menu and tidy pages, not by changing everything. If you change colours, check that text is still easy to read, especially links.

Everyday editing

Click into any text and type. To make a link, select the words and press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows), then paste the address. Buttons work a little differently: click the button, then change its text and its link in the toolbar. Click Update when you are done.

For more, see Creating posts and pages with the WordPress block editor (opens in a new tab) on Learn WordPress.

Each resource page has three entries in the same shape: a heading, a citation and an annotation. Click in a heading, open the List View (the stacked-lines icon at the top left), select those three blocks, click the three dots in the toolbar and choose Duplicate. Then type over the copy.

Click where the picture should go, click the + and choose Image, then upload a file. To replace a picture that is already there, click it and choose Replace in the toolbar. Fill in the Alt text field with a short description of the picture. Use JPEG or PNG files.

For more, see Using the Media Library (opens in a new tab) on Learn WordPress.

To add a page with the same shape as a resource page, open that page, click Copy to a new draft in the black bar at the top, change the title and the text, and click Publish. To rename a page, change its title in the editor. To delete one, hover over it in Pages and click Trash. After any of these, update the menu.

Go to Appearance → Menus. Tick a page on the left and click Add to Menu; drag items up or down to reorder them, and drag one slightly to the right to tuck it under the item above (that is how the resource pages sit under Resources). To take something out, open it and click Remove. Click Save Menu when you are done.

For more, see the Appearance Menus Screen (opens in a new tab) article in the WordPress documentation.

Every page starts with a note like “How to use this page”. They are for you, not your readers. Click inside the note, open the List View, click the Section block that holds it, and press Delete. You can leave this How-tos page and the Patterns Gallery in the menu or remove them; either is fine.

Patterns

A pattern is a ready-made section of a page: a banner, a row of cards, a note box like the ones on this site. The Patterns Gallery shows every pattern on this template and what it is for. To use one, click the + in the editor, choose Patterns, pick one, and type over its text. You do not need any of them to finish the assignment. Patterns change one page; to change colours, fonts, the header or the site title everywhere, use Customize instead.

More help

Ask your instructor if you are unsure about anything, from the topic to the layout.