A quick video about updating a plugin. There’s not much to say about it, it’s quite easy, but I wanted to cover the spectrum of plugins from installing, to updating. This is the last in the plugins series for a bit.
The second part of the install video is actually more about Google and getting API codes, but there are some plugins that require the use of an API key so that you hook into third party sites and use their functionality, such as Google Maps (the example in this video) as well as Flickr etc. So, the example of getting the Google Maps API Key can serve as a model should you need to get one for a plugin that you are using, or want to use.
I’m taking a little break from the videos about posts etc. and putting out a video about installing plugins. This is the first in a two part series about installing plugins (the second involves acquiring an API Key to enable the plugin to work — something that’s fairly common, and not difficult to do). Later, I’ll post a video about updating plugins.
I demonstrate the install from within the WordPress admin interface because this is a video series for the novice and I’m not sure that novices want to get involved with FTP. It’s not hard to install via FTP, but, by and large, most people’s installs of WordPress will permit them to install via the admin tool. It’s quite simple, as the video will, hopefully, demonstrate. As always, please send me your feedback.
When I hand off a WordPress site I always have a tutorial on how to use the platform and walk the new owners through some of the basics — sort of like I’m doing with this video series. This video covers how to add a link to a WordPress post (it’s the same for a page) when using the WYSIWYG editor. I cover adding a link to text, and to an image. Additionally, I talk briefly about opening a link in the same window, and opening a link in a new window, or tab. It is meant for the WordPress novice.
In this WordPress video tutorial I show users how to paste content from a text document. Some folks feel more comfortable writing content outside of the WordPress editor, and that’s fine. If using a word processing document like Word, I recommend saving the file as a straight text document with no formatting. This will make it easier to format and control styles in your posts. Working in word processing programs, and copying data from them, in their native format, often leads to messy transitions, and weird styles that then take time to sort out and clean up. This video will help save users much time and frustration if they do work in an editor outside of WordPress.
Another video in the how-to-use-WordPress series in which I cover some of the basics of editing, and changing content in a post. I’m focusing on posts right now because they are the most basic content in the WordPress universe, and all of the things I show in these post videos also applies to creating pages — the interface and the tools are almost identical. I’ll cover the differences between posts and pages — which have to do with tags, categories and page order — in a subsequent video.
This video is intended for the WordPress novice.
Thanks for watching, and as always, send me your comments so I can try and improve these videos.
Here’s the second installment in our WordPress tutorial series. This video covers creating a post with a brief overview of the editing tool bar. Another topic covered in this video is the Publish/Preview/Save a Draft module as well as permalinks (slugs) and how to edit them. This is intended as a primer for the WordPress newcomer.
Just to reiterate, these videos are being created in conjunction with a project in which the end users will have varying levels of knowledge and comfort with WordPress. As always, I welcome your feedback.
Today marks the launch of a new series of videos (well, our first series, actually) on how to use WordPress.
These videos come out of a WordPress site build that we’re in the process of completing for a K-8 school. The user-base is quite diverse and with differing levels of comfort with technology. Part of my bid for this job included the creation of how-to screen casts. The one below, “Introduction to WordPress Dashboard” is the first in the series. I’ve got some more in the can, so to speak, and am learning as I do each one, and hopefully getting better as a screencaster.
This video is basic, and intended for a user with no knowledge of WordPress. Subsequent videos will show more complicated scenarios. I hope to cover as many use cases inside of the WordPress admin as I can. I’ll be categorizing these as WordPress How-to, and also by what they cover like, WordPress Posts, etc. Thanks for watching, please send me your feedback so I can continue to hone my screencasting skills.
Personal Critique: I should probably zoom in more on this one than I do, but I am a fan of the steady camera position. In other videos, where it might be/is more important to do so, I’ll move in for close-ups.