Understanding User Roles and Capabilities

Before you start adding new users to your site, you need to understand the
differences among the user roles because each user role is assigned a differ-
ent level of access and grouping of capabilities to your blog, as follows:
✦ Subscriber: The default role. Maintain this role as the one assigned to
new users, particularly if you don’t know who’s registering. Subscribers
get access to the Dashboard page, and they can view and change the
options in their profiles on the Your Profile and Personal Options page.

(They don’t have access to your account settings, however — only to

their own.) Each user can change her username, e-mail address, pass-
word, bio, and other descriptors in her user profile. The WordPress
database stores subscribers’ profile information, and your blog remem-
bers them each time they visit, so they don’t have to complete the pro-
file information each time they leave comments on your blog.
✦ Contributor: In addition to the access Subscribers have, Contributors
can upload files and write, edit, and manage their own posts. Contributors
can write posts, but they can’t publish the posts; the administrator
reviews all Contributor posts and decides whether to publish them. This
setting is a nice way to moderate content written by new authors.
✦ Author: In addition to the access Contributors have, Authors can pub-
lish and edit their own posts.
✦ Editor: In addition to the access Authors have, Editors can moderate
comments, manage categories, manage links, edit pages, and edit other Authors’ posts.
✦ Administrator: Administrators can edit all the options and settings in
the WordPress blog.
✦ Super Admin: This role exists only when you have the Multisite feature
activated in WordPress — see Book VIII for more about the Multisite
feature.

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Tools

The last item in the navigation menu (and subsequently in this chapter!) is
Tools. Click Tools to open a drop-down list of links that includes Book III
Chapter 3
✦ Tools: Opens the Tools page in your Dashboard. WordPress comes pack-
aged with two extra features that you can use on your blog, if needed.
They’re Press This and Category/Tag Conversion.
✦ Import: Clicking this link opens the Import page in your Dashboard.
WordPress gives you the ability to import from a different blog platform. This feature is covered in depth in Book II, Chapter 7.
✦ Export: Clicking this menu item opens the Export page in your
Dashboard. WordPress allows you to export your content from
WordPress so that you can import it into a different platform or to another WordPress blog.

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Users

The Users drop-down list has three links:

✦ Users: Go to the Users page, where you can view, edit, and delete users
on your WordPress blog. Each user has a unique login name and pass-
word, as well as an e-mail address assigned to his account. You can view
and edit a user’s information on the Users page.
✦ Add New: Opens the Add New User page, where you can add new users
to your WordPress blog. Simply type the user’s username, first name,
last name, e-mail (required), Web site, and a password in the fields pro-
vided and click the Add User button. You can also select whether you
want WordPress to send login information to the new user by e-mail. If
you want, you can also assign a new role for the new user. Turn to the
section “Configuring the Settings,” earlier in this chapter, for more info
about user roles.
✦ Your Profile: Turn to the “Creating Your Personal Profile” section, ear-
lier in this chapter, for more information about creating a profile page.

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Plugins

The next item in the navigation menu is Plugins. Click Plugins to expand the drop-down list:
✦ Plugins: Opens the Plugins page, where you can view all the plugins cur-
rently installed on your blog. On this page, you also have the ability to
activate, deactivate, and delete plugins on your blog (see Book VII).
✦ Add New: Opens the Install Plugins page, where you can search for
plugins from the official WordPress Plugin Directory by keyword,
author, or tag. You can also install plugins directly to your blog from the WordPress Plugin Directory — you can find out all about this exciting feature in Book VII, Chapter 1.
✦ Editor: Opens the Edit Plugins page, where you can edit the plugin files
in a text editor. We very strongly advise against editing plugin files
unless you know what you’re doing (meaning that you’re familiar with
PHP and WordPress functions). Head over to Book VII, Chapter 4 to read
more information on editing plugin files.

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Appearance

When you click Appearance in the navigation menu, a drop-down list opens,
displaying the following links:
✦ Themes: Opens the Manage Themes page, where you can manage the
themes available on your blog. Check out Book VI, Chapter 2 to find out
about using themes on your WordPress blog and managing themes on
this page.
✦ Widgets: Opens the Widgets page, where you can add, delete, edit, and
manage the widgets that you use on your blog.
✦ Menus: Opens the Menus page, where you can build navigation menus
that will appear on your site. Book VI, Chapter 1 provides information
on creating menus by using this feature.
✦ Background: Opens the Custom Background page, where you can
upload an image to use as the background of your WordPress blog
design. Like the Custom Header option (discussed in the next bullet),
the Custom Background option exists in the Appearances menu only
if you have a theme that has activated the custom background feature

✦ Header: Opens the Your Header Image page, where you can upload an
image to use in the header (or top) of your WordPress blog; however,
this menu item and page exist only if you are using a theme that has acti-
vated the custom header feature (covered in Book VI). The Twenty Ten
theme is activated by default on all new WordPress blogs, which is why
we include this menu item in this list. Not all WordPress themes use the
Customize Header feature, so you don’t see this menu item if your theme
doesn’t take advantage of that feature.
✦ Editor: Opens the Theme Editor page, where you can edit your theme
templates. Book VI has extensive information on themes and templates.
Uploading custom header and background images helps you individualize
the visual design of your blog or Web site. You can find more information
on tweaking and customizing your WordPress theme in Book VI, as well as
a great deal of information about how to use WordPress themes (includ-
ing where to find, install, and activate them in your WordPress blog) and
detailed information about using WordPress widgets to display the content
you want.
The previous posts provides information about WordPress themes and templates. You
can dig deep into WordPress template tags and tweak an existing WordPress
theme by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to customize your theme a bit
more to your liking.

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Comments

Comments in the navigation menu don’t have a drop-down list of links. You simply click Comments to open the Comments page, where WordPress gives you the options to view
✦ All: Shows all comments that currently exist on your blog, including
approved, pending, and spam comments
✦ Pending: Shows comments that you haven’t yet approved but are
pending in the moderation queue
✦ Approved: Shows all comments that you previously approved ✦ Spam: Shows all the comments that are marked as spam
✦ Trash: Shows comments that you marked as Trash but haven’t deleted
permanently from your blog
In Book III, Chapter 5, we give you details on how to use the Comments section of your WordPress Dashboard.

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Pages

People use this feature to create pages on their sites such as an About Me or Contact Me page. Flip to Book IV, Chapter 2 for more information on pages. Click Pages to reveal the drop-down list:
✦ Pages: Opens the Pages page, where you can search, view, edit, and
delete pages in your WordPress blog.
✦ Add New: Opens the Add New Page page, where you can compose, save,
and publish a new page on your blog. Book IV, Chapter 2 describes the
difference between a post and a page — it’s subtle, but posts and pages
are very different from one another!
You can also get to the Add New Page page by clicking the Add New button on the Pages page.

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Links

The next item in the navigation menu is Links. Expand the Links drop-down list by clicking the down arrow to the right of Links:

✦ Links: Opens the Links page, where you can view, search, edit, and
delete existing links in your WordPress blog. Book III, Chapter 6 gives you detailed information about links, link lists, and blogrolls.
✦ Add New: Opens the Add New Link page, where you can add new links
to your link lists. (You can find more information about creating and
managing link lists in Book III, Chapter 6.)
You can also get to the Add New Link page by clicking the Links menu.
✦ Link Categories: Opens the Link Categories page, where you can add
new and view, edit, and delete existing link categories

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Media

Click Media to expand the drop-down list of links for this section:

✦ Library: Opens the Media Library page. On this page, you can view,
search, and manage all the media files you’ve ever uploaded to your
WordPress blog.

✦ Add New: Opens the Upload New Media page, where you can use the
built-in uploader to transfer media files from your computer to the
media directory in WordPress. Book IV, Chapters 3 and 4 take you
through the details of how to upload images, videos, and audio files
by using the WordPress upload feature.
You can also get to the Upload New Media page by clicking Add New button on the Media Library page.

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Setting Your Blog’s Format

In addition to setting your personal settings in the Dashboard, you can
manage the day-to-day maintenance of your blog. The following sections take
you through the links to these pages in the Dashboard navigation menus.
Posts
Click the down arrow to the right of Pages in the navigation menu to open a drop-down list with four links: Posts, Add New, Tags, and Categories. Each link gives you the tools you need to publish content to your blog:
✦ Posts: Opens the Posts page, where a listing appears of all the saved posts
you’ve written on your blog. On this page, you can search for posts by
date, category, or keyword. You can view all posts, only posts that have
been published, or just posts that you’ve saved but haven’t published
(drafts). You can also edit and delete posts from this page. Check out
Book IV, Chapter 1 for more information on editing posts on your blog.
✦ Add New: Opens the Add New Post page, where you can compose your
blog posts, set the options for each post (such as assigning a post to a
category, or making it a private or public post), and publish the post to
your blog. You can find more information on posts, post options, and
You can also get to the Add New Post page by clicking the Add New button on the Posts page.
✦ Categories: Opens the Categories page, where you can view, edit, add,
and delete categories on your blog. Find more information on creating
categories in Book III, Chapter 7.
✦ Post Tags: Opens the Post Tags page in your WordPress Dashboard,
where you can view, add, edit, and delete tags on your blog. Book III,
Chapter 7 provides you with more information about tags and using them on your blog.

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Creating Your Personal Profile

To personalize your blog, visit your Profile page in your WordPress Dashboard.

To access your Profile page, click the down arrow to the right of Users to open the Users menu list, and then click the Your Profile link. The Profile page appears, as shown in Figure 3-10.

Here are the settings on this page:

✦ Personal Options: In the Personal Options section, you can set three
preferences for your blog:
• Visual Editor: Select this check box to indicate that you want to use
the Visual Editor when writing your posts. The Visual Editor refers
to the formatting options you find in the Write Post page (discussed
in detail in Book IV, Chapter 1). By default, the check box is selected,
which means that the Visual Editor is on. To turn it off, clear the
check box.

 

• Admin Color Scheme: These options set the colors in your

Dashboard. The default is the Gray color scheme. If you’ve been
using WordPress since before March 2007, the Blue color scheme
will be familiar to you because previous versions of the Dashboard
used those colors.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Enables you to use keyboard shortcuts for com-
ment moderation. To find out more about keyboard shortcuts, click
the More Information link; you’re taken to the Keyboard Shortcuts
page (http://codex.wordpress.org/Keyboard_Shortcuts) in
the WordPress Codex, which offers some helpful information.
• Show Admin Bar: Allows you to control where the admin bar (see
Book III, Chapter 1) is shown on your site. By default, the admin bar
displays on the top of every page of your site when you are viewing
it in your browser. You can also set it to display on the top of every
Dashboard page by checking the In Dashboard check box. You can
completely disable the admin bar by removing the checks in the
check boxes.

✦ Name: Input personal information, such as your first name, last name,
and nickname, and specify how you want your name to appear publicly.
Fill in the text boxes with the requested information.
✦ Contact Info: Provide your e-mail address and other contact information
to tell your visitors who you are and where they can contact you. Aside
from e-mail, you can provide your username for various Internet chat
programs such as Yahoo! IM, AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), and Jabber/
Google Talk.
Your e-mail address is the only required entry in this section. This
address is the one WordPress uses to notify you when you have new comments or new user registrations on your blog. Make sure to use a real e-mail address so that you get these notifications.
✦ About Yourself: Provide a little bio for yourself and change the
password for your blog, if you want, including
• Biographical Info: Type a short bio in the Biographical Info text box.
This information can appear publicly if you’re using a theme that
displays your bio, so be creative!
• New Password: When you want to change the password for your blog,
type your new password in the first text box in the New Password
section. To confirm your new password, type it again in the second
text box.

When your profile is published to your Web site, not only can anyone view
it, but also search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, can pick it up. Always be careful with the information in your profile. Think hard about the information you want to share with the rest of the world!
Directly below the two New Password text boxes is a little password helper. WordPress helps you create a secure password. It alerts you if the password you chose is too short or not secure enough by telling you that it’s Bad.
When creating a new password, use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols to make it hard for anyone to guess (for example, aty89!#4j).
When you create a password that WordPress thinks is a good one, it lets you know by saying that the password is Strong.

Change your password frequently. We can’t recommend this practice
strongly enough. Some people on the Internet make it their business to
attempt to hijack blogs for their own malicious purposes. If you change your password monthly, you lower your risk by keeping hackers guessing.
When you finish setting all the options on the Profile page, don’t forget to click the Update Profile button to save your changes.

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Creating ht access files

You and WordPress work together in glorious harmony to create the
.htaccess file that lets you use a pretty permalink structure in your blog. Follow these steps to create an .htaccess file on your Web server and create a new permalink structure:
1. Using a plain-text editor (such as Notepad for Windows or TextEdit for
a Mac), create a blank file; name it htaccess.txt and upload it to
your Web server via FTP. (See Book II, Chapter 2 for more information
about FTP.)
2. After the file is uploaded to your Web server, rename the file
.htaccess (notice the period at the beginning), and make sure that it is writable by the server by changing permissions to either 755 or 777. (See Book II, Chapter 2 for information on changing permissions on server files.)
If .htaccess already exists, you can find it in the root of your directory on your Web server — that is, the same directory where you find your wp-config.php file. If you don’t see it in the root directory, try changing the options of your FTP client to show hidden files. (Because the .htaccess file starts with a period [.], it may not be visible until you configure your FTP client to show hidden files.)
3. Create the permalink structure in the Customize Permalink Structure Book III
page in your WordPress Dashboard. Chapter 3
4. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the Customize
Permalink Structure page.
WordPress inserts into the .htaccess file the specific rules necessary for making the permalink structure functional in your blog.
If you follow the preceding steps correctly, you have an .htaccess file on
your Web server that has the correct permissions set so that WordPress
can write the correct rules to it. Your pretty permalink structure works
flawlessly. Kudos!
If you open the .htaccess file and look at it now, you see that it’s no longer blank. It should have a set of code in it called rewrite rules, which looks
something like this:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

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Making sure that your permalinks work with your server

After you set the format for the permalinks for your site by using any options other than the default, WordPress writes specific rules, or directives, to the .htaccess file on your Web server. The .htaccess file in turn communicates to your Web server how it should serve up the permalinks, according to the permalink structure you chose to use.

To use an .htaccess file, you need to know the answers to two questions:

✦ Does your Web server configuration use and give you access to
the .htaccess file?
✦ Does your Web server run Apache with the mod_rewrite module?
If you don’t know the answers, contact your hosting provider to find out.
If the answer to both questions is yes, proceed to the following section. If
the answer is no, check out the “Working with servers that don’t use Apache mod_rewrite” sidebar, in this chapter.

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Configuring the Settings

If you want your permalink to show the year, month, day, category, and post

name, select the Custom Structure radio button in the Customize Permalink
Structure page and type the following tags in the Custom Structure text box:

/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%category%/%postname%/

By using this permalink format, the link for a post made on February 1, 2011, called WordPress All in One For Dummies and filed in the Books I Read
category, would look like this:

http://yourdomain.com/2011/02/01/books-i-read/wordpress-all-in-one-for-dummies/

Be sure to include the slashes before tags, between tags, and at the very end of the string of tags. This format ensures that WordPress creates correct, working permalinks by using the correct re_write rules located in the .htaccess file for your site. (See the following section for more information on re_write rules and .htaccess files.)
Changing the structure of your permalinks in the future affects the perma-
links for all the posts on your blog . . . new and old. Keep this fact in mind if
you ever decide to change the permalink structure. An especially important
reason: Search engines (such as Google and Yahoo!) index the posts on
your site by their permalinks, so changing the permalink structure makes
all those indexed links obsolete.
Don’t forget to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the Customize
Permalink Structure page; otherwise, your permalink changes aren’t saved!

 

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Custom Permalinks

Custom Permalinks

Permalink Tag       Results

%year%                  Four-digit year (such as 2007)

%monthnum%      Two-digit month (such as 02 for February)

%day%                   Two-digit day (such as 30)

%hour%                  Two-digit hour of the day (such as 15 for 3 p.m.)

%minute%              Two-digit minute (such as 45)

%second%              Two-digit second (such as 10)

%postname%        Text — usually, the post name — separated by hyphens

(such as making-pretty-permalinks)

%post_id%             The unique numerical ID of the post (such as 344)

%category%           The text of the category name in which you filed the post

(such as books-i-read)

%author%              The text of the post author’s name

(such as lisa-sabin-wilson)

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