Adding a simple post

Let's review the process of adding a simple post to your blog, which we carried out in the previous chapter. Whenever you want to add content or carry out a maintenance process on your WordPress website, you have to start by logging in to the WordPress administration panel (wp-admin) of your site. To get to the admin panel, just point your web browser to http://yoursite.com/wp-admin.

When you first log in to the wp-admin, you'll land at the Dashboard. The Dashboard has a lot of information on it, so don't worry about that right now.

The quickest way to get to the Add New Post page at any time is to click on New (link in the top bar of wp-admin) and then on Post. This is the Add New Post panel:

Note that depending on the setup of your computer and your web browser, some of the blocks shown in the preceding screenshot might not be visible by default. However, everything that's crucial for content publication will definitely be on the screen.

To add a new post to your site quickly, all you need to do is the following:

1. Type in a title into the text field under Add New Post (for example, My Top 3 Favorite Dishes).
2. Type the text of your post in the main content box. Note that the default view is Visual, but you have a choice of the Text view as well:

1. Click on the Publish button, which is at the far right. Note that you can choose to save a draft or preview your post as well.

Once you click on the Publish button, you have to wait while WordPress performs its magic. When the process completes, you'll see yourself still on the same screen, but now the following message will have appeared telling you that your post was published and giving you a View post link:

If you view the front page of your site, you'll see that your new post has been added at the top (newest posts are always at the top).