Now that you have a working WordPress site, it is time to start creating some content. WordPress has two main types of content – posts and pages. Of course you can also have images and many other types content by using WordPress plugins and widgets (see later session). But understanding the difference between a post and a page, and when to use them on your church site is the most important and sometimes difficult concept for a newcomer to get their heads around.
Post and Pages – What’s the difference?
WordPress was originally developed for the blogging community, though it has become much more. The regular content of a blog is made up of articles that are called Posts in WordPress. You are currently reading a post on this blog. In a church web site, these posts might include news of a recent event, information about a forthcoming event, some news about the church, latest information about your cell groups or even a podcast of your sermon.
In WordPress though, you can also create another type of content called a Page. Writing a page is almost identical to writing a post. The main difference is that Pages are generally reserved for information that does not change over time. For a church site, you might use a page to present contact information, give general information about the church, its life and where to find it.
I find that people who are new to blogging and WordPress jump into creating lots pages because this type of content is actually most like their existing old static church website.
Use Posts to tell Your Story
The most powerful aspect of a church website running with WordPress is the ability to share your church’s story. You can create lots of static pages about where your church is, what your elders look like on a good day and what you think your church’s doctrinal position is. But while these things are useful, they are not very interesting, especially to people coming across your church for the first time. Get into the habit of using posts to regularly post snippets of the unfolding story of your church life. This way you create a window into your church’s life.
Creating a post
Creating posts and pages
Post and Pages are created in much the same way. Using the menu down the left hand side of the dashboard, you can choose to add a new post or page, or edit existing content. The editor used to create and edit the content of posts and pages is much like a simple wordprocessor. Spend some time getting used to the the options in the editor’s tool bar, and have a go at adding an image to your post.
The editor has two modes, a wysiwyg visual mode and a html mode. The html mode lets you add your own markup, which can be useful from time to time. Many advanced users stick to the html mode.
A note about formatting your post and page content
When you add content using the post or page editor, the way in which you add the content can have a big influence on the design and layout of your site. The best advice is to avoid pasting text that includes formatting such as fonts and font size changes into the wysywig editor. The theme will style your content if you don’t override it with custom settings. Newcomers often destroy their beautifully designed theme by styling their content in the editor.
The best way is to enable the extra toolbar icons and use the Paste Plain Text button when copying text from another application. Let the theme do the work with your text.
Layout your images with care too and choose an appropriate size for them. The Add Image options are quite flexible and allow you to align image left or right, letting text wrap round. Always preview your post before moving on, and make sure your layout is in keeping with your theme.
Now it’s time to add some additional content and functionality to your site using widgets and plugins.
