How to include images in a blog post

(This also works for pages. The same mechanics hold for both blog posts and pages. The only difference is that blog posts are displayed on the “front page”, whereas pages, at least in this layout, are listed off to the side and at the top.)

This assumes you are using the Visual editor. If you are using the HTML editor, then you probably don’t need this how-to guide. If you don’t know what I’m talking about in this paragraph, don’t worry about it.

Make sure the cursor is in the location where you want the image to go. That done, click on the appropriate icon below the space for the post title. (You may first want to click the Save Draft button in the Publish rectangle to the right, especially if you’re on a slow Internet connection or an old computer.)

It may take a little to load, but a dialog will appear, hovering over your unfinished post. If you decide you don’t want an image at the moment after all, there should be an X in the right corner of a gray bar at the top of the dialog that will cancel the image addition process. Otherwise, click the Select File button.

You will be presented with a standard “Open File” sort of dialog box. Use it in a standard sort of way. When the uploading of the image(s) is finished, you will be given various choices. Don’t worry about them, just scroll to the bottom and click the Insert Into Post button. The image should appear in the visual editor. The image will probably look smaller than it should. This should not be a problem: if people want to view the image at actual size, they can click on it.

That’s really all you need to know about inserting images into posts. Inserting images into pages works the same way.

How to post a blog entry

This is a brief explanation for how to post an entry to this blog.

Note that, in order to do so, you MUST have a WordPress account and have been granted posting access to this blog. For instructions on meeting these requirements, see http://rockroadumcs.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/hello-all/ .

Step 1

You must be logged in. If you go to wordpress.com and the webpage does not display “My Account” in the upper-left corner, you are not logged in. To log in, enter your WordPress username and password in the corresponding spaces in the upper-left corner:

(If the screenshots are too small, you should be able to click on them and see the full-sized version. If not, sorry.)

Step 2

If you are logged in to WordPress and you are on the WordPress website, there should be a gray bar at the top of the webpage. Somewhere on that bar should be the words “New Post”. Hover your mouse cursor over those words, and you should see “harmonyumc” displayed below it. Click on “harmonyumc”.

You should now see something like the following:

Step 3

If you’ve used a word processor such as Microsoft Word, you can probably guess what most of the buttons do. If you haven’t, don’t worry, as you don’t have to use any formatting if you don’t want to. I’ll just point out a few of them:

Section #1 — these little unassuming icons are what you use for inserting multi-media into your post. We can’t insert video or audio, so you’ll only be interested in the first one, for images. I may address images in a future post.

Button #2 — This is the button to bring up the second row of formatting buttons.

Button #3 — This is sort of a “panic button”. The Visual post entry system (what I’m using to type this) of WordPress is kinda wonky, and you may see formatting pop up where you don’t want it. Select the text that’s wonky and press this button, and it’ll go back to normal.

Anyway, now you’re ready to write the post. The post title goes in the rectangle below “Add New Post” and the content of the post goes in the white rectangle beneath all the buttons I’ve been talking about.

Step 4

If you think you’re done writing your post, check it over for mistakes and the like, and then click the blue Publish button to the right of the page. When the post has been published, a highlighted line of text will appear near the top of the page, inviting you to click on a link to view your post.

You are now DONE.

Editing Your Post

You may notice afterwards that you have made a mistake in your post. To edit your post, look at the gray bar at the top of the page. “Edit Post” should be there somewhere. If not, click on the title of the post you want to edit, then check the gray bar for “Edit Post” when the individual post has loaded. Click on “Edit Post”, then, and you will be taken to basically the same page as when you made the post, except the text will already be there and the Publish button will read Update instead. Make your changes and click the Update button.