Microsoft :We have no arrangements to present a Xbox One without Kinect

As per another report, Microsoft has no arrangements on discharging a Xbox One support without anyone else present. Rather, Microsoft "accepts" in the Kinect and will be putting forth it with the Xbox One amusement reassure in November for a sticker of $499. Those wishing to buy the Xbox One without anyone else present ought not keep their trusts up.

We have faith in Kinect and the quality it carries to both amusements and amusement, and accept $499 is an incredible worth for what purchasers get with their Xbox One," a Microsoft agent expressed. Microsoft imparted this reaction to gossip that was coursing on the web asserting that Microsoft might actually be discharging a without kinect Xbox One throughout the June through August timeframe of 2014.

Microsoft: We have no arrangements to present a Xbox One without Kinect

Sadly, that is not incident. Nonetheless, Microsoft might alter their opinions later in the future. Afterall, Microsoft as of late altered their opinions on the Xbox One DRM approach, besides everything else, after a huge clamor from furious gamers. The present arrangement includes each Xbox One diversion support to come packed with a Kinect, which is supposedly ten times more effective than the first ever Kinect.

Do you accept the Xbox One + Kinect cluster is an extraordinary arrangement for $499? Might you rather just buy the Xbox One without anyone else's input?

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Google has a different set-top T

We heard reports that Google was finalizing another set-top box, however when the Chromecast was reported, the unanticipated supposition was that this was the unit. Evidently there is an additional mechanism in the pipeline, however shockingly we don't know whether it will ever turn out. It was really alluded to as a "silly" set-top box a few months back. The Wall Street Journal is presently reporting that Google truly demonstrated the model in private again at CES 2013.

It was fueled by Android and demoed by Andy Rubin. It even had a motion picture Polaroid and movement sensor for Hangouts. The definitive arrange was to start this apparatus at Google I/o, however clearly that didn't happen. Did Google scrap anticipates the unit energetic about the Chromecast or is there space for the two apparatuses. Of course Google didn't make a remark on this theme, yet one thing they did say was that Google TV isn't dead. Indeed, the arrangement is to carry the Chromecast characteristic to Google Tvs soon.

The Chromecast appears as though an astounding apparatus, however to me its not the sacred vessel. It doesn't have nearby media streaming and it doesn't have HDMI pass through like Google TV boxes. Notwithstanding, at $35 it is an exceptionally urging item for generally individuals. I still think Google is running to turn out with yet a different item that has more characteristics to fulfill the force eager clients.

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Content

The first pillar of my daily action on the Web is content. Although the Web has seen a growing shift away from content to community, I still believe

that content is king. Communities based around common interests fall flat unless they have the content there for people to gravitate around. Facebook groups, for example, dominate because of the wealth of content they offer: the posts, links, videos, and other media people create within that group. Without the content, the group wouldn’t exist.

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Using the tag for images

When you use the WordPress image uploader to include an image in your
post or page, a Description text box appears, in which you can enter a
description of the image. (We cover using the WordPress image uploader
in detail in Book IV, Chapter 3.) This text automatically becomes what’s
referred to as the <ALT> tag.

The <ALT> tag’s real purpose is to provide a description of the image for

people who, for some reason or another, can’t actually see the image. In a
text-based browser that doesn’t display images, for example, visitors see the
description, or <ALT> text, telling them what image would be there if they
could see it. Also, the tag helps people who have impaired vision and rely on
screen-reading technology because the screen reader reads the <ALT> text
from the image. You can read more about Web site accessibility for people
with disabilities at http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-web.
php.
An extra benefit of <ALT> tags is that search engines gather data from them
to further classify the content of your site. The following code inserts an
image, with the <ALT> tag of the code in bold to demonstrate what we’re
talking about:

<img src=”http://yourdomain.com/image.jpg” alt=”This is an ALT tag within an
image” />

Search engines harvest those <ALT> tags as keywords. The WordPress
image uploader gives you an easy way to include those <ALT> tags without
having to worry about inserting them into the image code yourself. Just fill
out the Description text box before you upload and add the image to your
post. Book IV, Chapter 3 covers in-depth information on adding images to
your site content, including how to add descriptive text for the ALT tag and
keywords.

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Creating categories that attract search engines

One little-known SEO tip for WordPress users: The names you give the
categories you create for your blog provide rich keywords that attract
search engines like bees to honey. A few services — Technorati (http://
technorati.com) being one of the biggest — treat categories in WordPress like tags. These services use those categories to classify recent blog posts on any given topic. The names you give your categories in WordPress can serve as topic tags for Technorati and similar services.
Search engines also see your categories as keywords that are relevant to the content on your site. So, make sure that you’re giving your categories names that are relevant to the content you’re providing on your site.
If you sometimes blog about your favorite recipes, you can make it easier for search engines to find your recipes if you create categories specific to the recipes you’re blogging about. Instead of having one Favorite Recipes category, you can create multiple category names that correspond to the types of recipes you blog about — Casserole Recipes, Dessert Recipes, Beef Recipes, and Chicken Recipes, for example.

Creating specific category titles not only helps search engines, but also
helps your readers discover content that is related to topics they are inter-
ested in.
You can also consider having one category called Favorite Recipes and creating subcategories (also known as child categories) that give a few more details on the types of recipes you’ve written about. (See Book III, Chapter 7, for information on creating Categories and child categories.)
Categories use the custom permalink structure, just like posts do. So, links
to your WordPress categories also become keyword tools within your site
to help the search engines — and, ultimately, search engine users — find
the content. Using custom permalinks creates category page URLs that look
something like this:

http://yourdomain.com/category/category_name

The category_name portion of that URL puts the keywords right into the hands of search engines.

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Writing content with readers in mind

When you write your posts and pages, and want to make sure that your con-
tent appears in the first page of search results so that people will find your
site, you need to keep those people in mind when you’re composing the
content.

When search engines visit your site to crawl through your content, they
don’t see how nicely you’ve designed your site. They’re looking for words — which they’re grabbing to include in their databases. You, the site owner, want to make sure that your posts and pages use the words and phrases that you want to include in search engines.
If your post is about a recipe for fried green tomatoes, for example, you need
to add a keyword or phrase that you think people will use when they search
for the topic. If you think people would use the phrase recipe for fried green
tomatoes as a search term, you may want to include that phrase in the con-
tent and title of your post.
A title such as A Recipe I Like isn’t as effective as a title such as A Recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes, right? Including it in your post or page content gives the search engines a double-keyword whammy.

Here’s another example: Lisa once wrote a post about a rash that she devel-
oped on her finger, under her ring. She wrote that post well over a year Book IV
ago, not really meaning to attract a bunch of people to that particular post. Chapter 6
However, it seems that many women around the world suffer from the same
rash because, a year later, that post still gets at least one comment a week.
When people do a Google search by using the keywords rash under my wed-
ding ring, out of a possible 743,000 results returned, Lisa’s blog post appears
in the top five slots.
This is how great blogs are! Lisa was actually able to solve her problem with the rash under her finger because one woman from Australia found Lisa’s blog through Google, visited her blog post, and left a comment with a solution that worked. Who says blogs aren’t useful?

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Planting keywords in your Web site

If you’re interested in a higher ranking for your site, we strongly recommend using custom permalinks. By using custom permalinks, you’re automatically inserting keywords into the URLs of your posts and pages, letting search

engines include those posts and pages in their databases of information on those topics. If a provider that has the Apache mod_rewrite module enabled hosts your site, you can use the custom permalink structure for your WordPress-powered site.

Keywords are the first step on your journey toward great search engine
results. Search engines depend on keywords, and people use keywords to look for content.
The default permalink structure in WordPress is pretty ugly. When you’re
looking at the default permalink for any post, you see a URL something like
this:

http://yourdomain.com/p?=105

This URL contains no keywords of worth. If you change to a custom permalink structure, your post URLs automatically include the titles of your posts to provide keywords, which search engines absolutely love. A custom permalink may appear in this format:

http://yourdomain.com/2007/02/01/your-post-title

We explain setting up and using custom permalinks in full detail in Book III,
Chapter 3.
Optimizing your post titles for search engine success
Search engine optimization doesn’t completely depend on how you set up
your site. It also depends on you, the site owner, and how you present your
content.
You can present your content in a way that lets search engines catalog your
site easily by giving your blog posts and pages titles that make sense and
coordinate with the actual content being presented. If you’re doing a post
on a certain topic, make sure that the title of the post contains at least one
or two keywords about that particular topic. This practice gives the search
engines even more ammunition to list your site in searches relevant to the
topic of your post.
While your site’s presence in the search engines grows, more people will find your site, and your readership will increase as a result.
A blog post with the title A Book I’m Reading doesn’t tell anyone what book you’re reading, making it difficult for people searching for information on that particular book to find the post.

If you give the post the title WordPress All-in-One For Dummies: My Review, you provide keywords in the title, and (if you’re using custom permalinks) WordPress automatically inserts those keywords into the URL, giving the search engines a triple keyword play:

✦ Keywords exist in your blog post title.
✦ Keywords exist in your blog post URL.
✦ Keywords exist in the content of your post.

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Optimizing Your WordPress Blog

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of preparing your site to
make it as easy as possible for the major search engines to crawl and cache
your data in their systems so that your site appears as high as possible in
the search returns. Book V contains more information on search engine opti-
mization, as well as marketing your blog and tracking its presence in search
engines and social media by using analytics. This section gives you a brief
introduction to SEO practices with WordPress, and from here, you can move
on to Book V to take a real hard look at some of the things you can do to
improve and increase traffic to your Web site.

If you visit Google’s search engine page at www.google.com and do a

search for the keywords WordPress blog design, Lisa’s site at E.Webscapes
is in the top-ten search results for those keywords (at least, it is while we’re
writing this chapter). Those results can change from day to day, so by the
time you read this book, someone else may very well have taken over that
coveted position. The reality of chasing those high-ranking search engine
positions is that they’re here today, gone tomorrow. The goal of search
engine optimization is to make sure that your site ranks as high as possible
for the keywords that you think people will use to find your site. After you
attain those high-ranking positions, the next goal is to keep them. Check out
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies, by Peter Kent (Wiley), for some
valuable information on keeping those high rankings through ongoing opti-
mization of your site.
WordPress is equipped to create an environment that’s friendly to search
engines, giving them easy navigation through your archives, categories,
and pages. WordPress provides this environment with a clean code base,
content that’s easily updated through the WordPress interface, and a solid
navigation structure.
To extend search engine optimization even further, you can tweak five elements of your WordPress posts, pages, and templates:
✦ Custom permalinks: Use custom permalinks, rather than the default
WordPress permalinks, to fill your post and page URLs with valuable
keywords. Check out Book III, Chapter 3 for information on WordPress
permalinks.
✦ Posts and page titles: Create descriptive titles for your blog posts and
pages to provide rich keywords in your site.
✦ Text: Fill your blog posts and pages with keywords for search engines
to find and index. Keeping your site updated with descriptive text and
phrases helps the search engines find keywords to associate with your
site.

✦ Category names: Use descriptive names for the categories you create in
WordPress to place great keywords right in the URL for those category
pages, if you use custom permalinks.
✦ Images and ALT tags: Place <ALT> tags in your images to further define
and describe the images on your site. You can accomplish this task
easily by using the description field in the WordPress image upload

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Working with Custom Post Types

A new feature in WordPress (new as of version 3.0) is a feature called
custom post types. This feature allows you, the site owner, to create different content types for your WordPress site that give you more creative control over how different types of content are entered, published, and displayed on your WordPress Web site.
Personally, we wish WordPress had called this feature custom content types so that people didn’t incorrectly think that custom post types pertain to posts only. Custom post types aren’t really the posts that you know as blog posts. Custom post types are a different way of managing content on your blog, by defining what type of content it is, how it is displayed on your site, and how it operates — but they’re not necessarily posts.
By default, WordPress already has different post types built into the software, ready for you to use. These default post types include

✦ Blog posts
✦ Pages
✦ Navigation menus (see Book VI) ✦ Attachments
✦ Revisions

Custom post types give you the ability to create new and useful types of
content on your Web site, including a smart and easy way to publish those content types to your site.
You really have endless possibilities for how to use custom post types, but
here are a few ideas that can kick-start your imagination (they’re some of the
most popular and useful ideas that others have implemented on their sites):

✦ Photo gallery
✦ Podcast or video

✦ Book reviews

✦ Coupons and special offers ✦ Events calendar
In order to create and use custom post types on your site, you need to be
sure that your WordPress theme contains the correct code and functions. In
the following steps, we create a very basic custom post type called Generic
Content. Follow these steps to create the Generic Content basic custom post
type:
1. Click Editor in the Appearances drop-down list to open the Theme
Editor page.
2. Click the Theme Functions template link to open the functions.php
file in the text editor on the left side of the page.
3. Add the custom post types code to the bottom of the Theme Functions
template file.
Scroll down to the bottom of the functions.php file and include the
following code to add a Generic Content custom post type to your site:
add_action( ‘init’, ‘create_my_post_types’ );

function create_my_post_types() {
register_post_type( ‘generic_content’,
array(
‘label’ => __( ‘Generic Content’ ),
‘singular_label’ => __( ‘Generic Content’ ),
‘description’ => __( ‘This is a description of the Generic Content type’
),
‘public’ => true,
);
}
4. Click the Update File button to save the changes made to the func-
tions.php file.

The function register_post_type can accept several different arguments and parameters, which are detailed in Table 6-2. You can use a variety and combination of different arguments and parameters to create a specific
post type. You can find more information on custom post types and using the register_post_types function in the official WordPress Codex at http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_
post_type.
After you complete the preceding steps to add the Generic Content custom post type to your site, a new post type labeled Generic appears in the left navigation menu of the Dashboard.

 

You can add and publish new content by using the new custom post type,
just like when you write and publish blog posts (see Book IV, Chapter 1).
The published content isn’t added to the chronological listing of blog posts,
but rather, it’s treated like separate content from your blog (just like static
pages).
View the permalink for it, and you see that it adopts the post type name
Generic Content and uses it as part of the permalink structure, creating a
permalink that looks like http://yourdomain.com/generic-content/
new-article.

✦ Custom Post Types UI: Written by the folks at WebDevStudios (http://
webdevstudios.com), this plugin gives you a clean interface within
your WordPress Dashboard that can help you easily and quickly build
custom post types on your Web site. It eliminates the need to add the
code (discussed earlier in this section) to your functions.php file
by giving you options and settings so that you can configure and build
the custom post type that you want.
✦ Verve Meta Boxes: Available from Magento Developers in the
WordPress Plugin Directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/
plugins/verve-meta-boxes), this plugin provides an interface
in your Dashboard that you can use to create meta boxes, or special
custom fields (see Book IV, Chapter 5) for the custom post types that
you build. As an example, Figure 6-7 shows some custom meta boxes
built by using custom post types. This Web site features theater produc-
tions and the custom post types for those shows.
The Purchase Link boxes were created by using custom meta
boxes and give the Web site owner a quick and easy field to fill out so
that he or she can include information on where to purchase show tick-
ets in every show post published.

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Custom Styles for Sticky, Category, and Tag Posts

The method for putting a very basic WordPress
theme together, which includes a Main Index template that uses the
WordPress Loop. You can use a custom tag to display custom styles for
sticky posts, categories, and tags on your blog. That special tag looks like
this:

<div <?php post_class() ?> id=”post-<?php the_ID(); ?>”>

The post_class() section is the coolest part of the template. This tem-
plate tag tells WordPress to insert specific HTML markup in your template
that allows you to use CSS to make custom styles for sticky posts, catego-
ries, and tags.
In Book IV, Chapter 1, we tell you all about how to publish new posts to your blog, including the different options you can set for your blog posts, such as categories, tags, and publishing settings. One of the settings is the Stick This Post to the Front Page setting. In this chapter, we show you how to customstyle those sticky posts — it’s not as messy as it sounds!
For example, say that you publish a post that has the following options set: ✦ Stick this post to the front page.
✦ Filed in a category called WordPress. ✦ Tagged with News.

By having the post_class() tag in the template, WordPress inserts HTML markup that allows you to use CSS to style sticky posts, or posts assigned to specific tags or categories, with different styling than the rest of your posts. WordPress inserts the following HTML markup for your post:

<div class=”post sticky category-wordpress tag-news”>

In Book VI, you can discover CSS selectors and HTML markup, and how they work together to create style and format for your WordPress theme. With the post_class() tag in place, You can now go to your CSS file and define styles for the following CSS selectors:
✦ .post: Use this as the generic style for all posts on your blog. The CSS
for this tag is
.post {background: #ffffff; border: 1px solid silver; padding: 10px;}
A style is created for all posts that have a white background with a thin silver border and 10 pixels of padding space between the post text and the border of the post.
✦ .sticky: You stick a post to your front page to call attention to that
post, so you may want to use different CSS styling to make it stand out
from the rest of the posts on your blog:
.sticky {background: #ffffff; border: 4px solid red; padding: 10px;}
This code creates a style for all posts that have been designated as
‘sticky’ in the post options on the Write Post page to appear on your site with a white background, a thick red border, and 10 pixels of padding space between the post text and border of the post.
✦ .category—wordpress: Because Lisa blogs a lot about WordPress,
her readers may appreciate it if she gives them a visual cue as to which posts on her blog are about that topic. She can do that through CSS by telling WordPress to display a small WordPress icon on the top-right corner of all her posts in the WordPress category:

.category-wordpress {background: url(wordpress-icon.jpg) top right
no-repeat; height: 100px; width: 100px;}
This code inserts a graphic — wordpress-icon.jpg — that’s 100 pixels in height and 100 pixels in width at the top-right corner of every post she assigns to the WordPress category on her blog.
✦ .tag—news: Lisa can style all posts tagged with News the same way she
styles the categories:
.tag-news {background: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;}

 

This CSS styles all posts tagged with News with a light gray background and a thin black border with 10 pixels of padding between the post text and border of the post.
You can easily use the post-class() tag, combined with CSS, to create dynamic styles for the posts on your blog!

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Comprehension the Framework Requirements

When you can begin blogging with Wordpress, you need to set up your base camp. Doing so includes more than basically downloading and

instating the Wordpress programming. You additionally need to create your area (your web journal location) and your Web hosting administration (the place that houses your website). In spite of the fact that you at first download your Wordpress programming onto your hard drive, you instate it on a Web host.

Getting a Web server and introducing programming on it is something you may

as of recently have done on your site; in which case, you can move onto the following

section. Provided that you haven't instituted Wordpress, you should first recognize numerous

calculates, and adapt to a studying bend, on the grounds that setting up your

write through a hosting administration includes utilizing a few innovations that you

may not feel good with. This section takes you through the rudiments

of the aforementioned innovations, and by the final page of this section, you'll have

Wordpress efficaciously introduced on a Web server with your own particular realm

name.

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The Prevalent Provision of Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader, the  prevalent provision  for review Pdf records crosswise over stages and gadgets is presently ready in the Windows Phone Store for all the Windows Phone 8 clients.

The official Adobe Reader for Windows Phone permits you to gain entrance to an extensive variety of Pdf sorts incorporating the watchword secured reports. The application gives you a chance to view, open and inquiry Pdf records and gives you a chance to zoom in on content or pictures.

The route all through the Pdf substance is smooth and you can utilize the bookmarks to bounce straightforwardly to an area in your Pdf archive. Adobe Reader additionally permits you to tap on the connections in the Pdf record to open joined pages. Moreover, you can rapidly go through substantial records utilizing thumbnails and ultimately, the application gives you a chance to select and duplicate content from a Pdf record to the clipboard.

The official Adobe Reader application for Windows Phone 8 could be downloaded from the Windows Phone Store.

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Using Sidebar Templates

You can create separate sidebar templates for different pages of your site by
using a simple include statement. When you write an include statement,
you’re simply telling WordPress that you want it to include a specific file on
a specific page.
The code that pulls the usual Sidebar template (sidebar.php) into all the
other templates, such as the Main Index template (index.php), looks like
this:

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

What if you create a page and want to use a sidebar that has different infor-
mation from what you have in the Sidebar template (sidebar.php)? Follow
these steps:
1. Create a new sidebar template in a text editor such as Notepad.
2. Save the file as sidebar2.php.
In Notepad, choose File➪Save. When you’re asked to name the file, type sidebar2.php, and then click Save.
3. Upload sidebar2.php to your Themes folder on your Web server.

See Book II, Chapter 2 for FTP information, and review Book VI for infor-
mation on how to locate the Themes folder.
The template is now in your list of theme files on the Edit Themes page (log in to your WordPress Dashboard and click Editor in the Appearance drop-down list).
4. To include the sidebar2.php template in one of your page templates,
replace the code:
<?php get_sidebar(); /> with the code <?php get_template_
part(‘sidebar2’); ?> (which calls in a template you’ve created within your theme).

By using that get_template_part function, you can include virtually any
file in any of your WordPress templates. You can use this method to create
footer templates for pages on your site, for example. First, create a new tem-
plate that has the filename footer2.php. Then locate the following code in
your template:

<?php get_footer(); ?>

and replace it with this code:

<?php get_template_part(‘footer2’); ?>

You can do multiple things with WordPress to extend it beyond the blog.
The few practical examples in this chapter that use the default Twenty Ten
theme show you how to use WordPress to create a fully functional Web site
that has a CMS platform — anything from the smallest personal site to a
large business site.

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Adding the tag

When you have the category ID number in hand, you’re ready to add the <query_post> tag to your template.

Here are two parameters that you can use with the <query_posts> tag:

✦ showposts=X: This parameter tells WordPress how many posts you
want to display. If you want to display only three posts, enter show-
posts=3.
✦ cat=X: This parameter tells WordPress that you want to pull posts from
the category with this specific ID number. If the ID category is 40, enter
cat=40.
Follow these steps to add the <query_post> tag to your template:

1. Click Editor in the Appearance drop-down list.
The Edit Themes page opens.
2. Click the template in which you want to display the content.
If you want to display content in a sidebar, for example, choose the Sidebar template: sidebar.php.
3. Locate the ending </ul> tag at the bottom of the template for the
theme you’re using.
If you’re using the Twenty Ten theme, the ending </ul> tag is the second-to-last line.
4. Type the following code directly above the ending </ul> tag:
<?php query_posts(‘showposts=3&cat=40’); ?>
<h2>Type Your Desired Title Here</h2>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<strong><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>” rel=”bookmark”
title=”Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>”><?php the_ title(); ?></a></strong>
<?php the_excerpt();endwhile;endif; ?>

In the first line, you indicate the following: showposts=3&cat=40. You

can change these numbers to suit your specific needs. Just change 3 to
whatever number of posts you want to display (there’s no limit!) and
change 40 to the specific category ID number that you want to use.
5. Click the Update File button.
The changes you just made are saved to the sidebar.php template.

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Finding the category ID number

You can’t easily find the unique ID number for a category unless you know where to look. To locate it, follow these steps:
1. Click Categories in the Posts drop-down list.
The Categories page opens.
2. Hover your mouse over the name of the category for which you need
the ID number.
The category ID number appears in the status bar of your browser.
Figure 6-5 shows the category ID in a browser’s status bar. (Mozilla
Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari have similar status bars.) The last part of the URL displayed in the status bar is tag_ID=1, which means that 1 is the ID for this Uncategorized category

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Pulling in Content from a Single Category

WordPress makes it possible to pull in very specific types of content on your
Web site through the <query_posts> template tag. If you place this tem-
plate tag before The Loop (see Book VI), it lets you specify which category
you want to pull information from. If you have a category called WordPress

and you want to display the last three posts from that category — on your front page, in your blog sidebar, or somewhere else on your site — you can use this template tag.

The <query_posts> template tag has several parameters that let you dis-
play different types of content, such as posts in specific categories and con-
tent from specific pages/posts or dates in your blog archives. The
<query_posts> tag lets you pass so many variables and parameters that
we just can’t list all the possibilities. Instead, you can visit this page in the
WordPress Codex and read about the options available with this tag:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/query_posts.
First, you have to find the ID number for the category you want to use; then you have to tell WordPress how to display the content by using the <query_posts> tag.

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Creating a Template for Each Post Category

You don’t have to limit yourself to creating a static-page template for your
site. You can use specific templates for the categories you’ve created on
your blog (which we talk about in Book III, Chapter 7) and create unique sec-
tions for your site, as Lisa did (with an espresso chaser, of course).
Figure 6-4 shows Lisa’s design portfolio. Design Portfolio is the name of a category that she created in the WordPress Dashboard. Instead of using a static page for the display of her portfolio, she used a category template to handle the display of all posts made to the Design Portfolio category.
You can create category templates for all categories in your blog simply by
creating template files that have filenames that correspond to the category
ID numbers, and then uploading those templates to your WordPress themes
directory (see Book VI). Here’s the logic to creating category templates:
✦ A template that has the filename category.php is a catchall for the dis-
play of categories.
✦ Add a dash and the category ID number to the end of the filename
to specify a template for an individual category.

✦ If you don’t have a category.php or category-#.php file, the cat-

egory display gets defined from the Main Index template (index.php).

 

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Creating Different Page Views Using WordPress Templates

The Add New Page page opens, where you can write a new post to your WordPress blog.

1. Click Add New in the Pages drop-down list.

2. Type the title in the Title text box and the page content in the large
text box.
3. Select the page template from the Page Template drop-down list.
By default, the Page Template drop-down list in the Attributes module appears on the right side of the page. You can reposition the modules on this page; see Book III, Chapter 2 for more information.
4. Click the Publish button to save and publish the page to your site.

Figure 6-2 shows the layout of Lisa’s home page on her business site at
www.ewebscapes.com and the information it contains, whereas Figure 6-3
shows the layout and information provided on the Services page at www.
ewebscapes.com/services. Both pages are on the same site, in the same WordPress installation, with different static-page templates to provide different looks, layouts, and sets of information.

A lot of the content in this chapter dips into working with WordPress tem-

plates and themes, a concept that gets introduced, in depth, in Book VI. If
you find the topics in this chapter intimidating at all, then work through

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How to Create a Template

To use a page template, you have to create one. You can create this file in a text-editor program, such as Notepad. (To see how to create a template, flip over to Book VI, which gives you extensive information on WordPress templates and themes.) To create an About page, for example, you can save the template with the name about.php.
When you have your template created, follow these steps to make it part of WordPress:

1. Upload the template file to your WordPress theme folder.
You can find that folder on your Web server in /wp-content/themes.
2. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard and click Editor in the
Appearance drop-down list.
The Edit Themes page opens.
3. Click the about.php template link located on the right side of the
page.
4. Type the Template Name tag directly above the get_header() tem-
plate tag.
The header tag looks like this: <?php get_header(); ?>.

If you’re creating an About Page, the code to create the Template Name looks like this:

<?php
/*
Template Name: About Page
/*
?>
5. Click the Update File button.
The file is saved, and the page refreshes. If you created an About Page template, the about.php template is now called About Page in the template list on the right side of the page.
Figure 6-1 shows the Page template and displays the code needed to define

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Using WordPress Templates

As we explain on the previous posts , a static page contains content that
doesn’t appear on the blog page, but as a separate page within your site.
You can have numerous static pages on your site, and each page can have
a different design, based on the template you create. (Flip to Book VI to find out all about choosing and using templates on your site.) You can create several static-page templates and assign them to specific pages within your site by adding code to the top of the static-page templates.

Here’s the code that appears at the top of the static-page template Lisa uses
for her About Us and Our Blog Designers page at www.ewebscapes.com/
about:

<?php
/*
Template Name: About Page
*/
?>

Using a template on a static page is a two-step process: Upload the template,
and then tell WordPress to use the template by tweaking the page’s code.

In Book VI, you can discover information about Custom Menus, including
how to create different navigation menus for your Web site. You can create
a menu of links that includes all the pages you created in your WordPress
Dashboard. You can display that menu on your Web site by using the
Custom Menus feature.

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Exploring Different Uses for Custom Fields

In this chapter, we use the example of adding your current mood to your
blog posts by using Custom Fields. But you can use Custom Fields to define
all sorts of different data on your posts and pages; you’re limited only by
your imagination when it comes to what kind of data you want to include.
Obviously, we can’t cover every possible use for Custom Fields, but we can give you some ideas that you may want to try out on your own site — at the very least, you can implement some of these ideas just to get yourself into the flow of using Custom Fields, and hopefully they can spark your imagination on what types of data you want to include on your site:
✦ Music: Display the music you’re currently listening to. Use the same
method we describe in this chapter for your current mood, except
create a Custom Field named Music: Use the same code template, just
define the key as: $key=”music”; and alter the wording from My
Current Mood is: to I am Currently Listening to:.
✦ Books: Same as the mood or music Custom Field, you can display what
you’re currently reading by creating a Custom Field named Book and
define the key in the code as $key=”book”;, and then alter the wording
from My Current Mood is: to I Am Currently Reading:.
✦ Weather: Let your readers know what the weather is like in your little
corner of the world by adding your current weather conditions to your
published blog posts. By using the same method that we describe in this
chapter, create a Custom Field named Weather and use the same code
for the template, just define the key as $key=”weather”; and alter the
wording from My Current Mood is: to Current Weather Conditions:.
If you want to get really fancy with your Custom Fields, you can also define an icon for the different metadata displays. For example, using the mood Custom Field, you can add little emoticons (or smiley-face icons that portray mood) after your mood statement to give a visual cue of your mood, as well as a textual one. Follow these steps to add an emoticon to the mood Custom Field that you add in theprevious sections in this chapter:

1. Visit the Posts page in the Dashboard.
2. Click the title of the post that you want to edit.
3. Add a new Custom Field by selecting Enter New from the drop-down
list and entering mood-icon in the Name text box.

4. Click the Add an Image icon above the Post text box to open the

Upload Image window.
Upload an image from your computer by clicking the Select Files button (see Book IV, Chapter 3 for information on uploading images).
5. From the Link URL text box, copy the file URL of the image you
uploaded.
You can see the Add an Image window in Figure 5-6.

6. Click the X in the top-right corner to close the Add an Image window.

7. Paste the Link URL in the Value text box for the mood-icon Name (see

Figure 5-7).
8. Click the Add Custom Field button.
The Name and Key values are saved.
9. Click the Update button.
This step saves the changes in your post and updates it on your site.
10. Update the function code in your template file to include the new
mood icon.
Follow these steps to add that code:

a. Open the Edit Themes page in your Dashboard.

b. Click the Single Page (single.php) file.
The single.php template displays in the text box on the left side of
the page.
c. Locate the code you added for the mood Custom Field.
d. Before the closing </strong> HTML tag, add the following line of
code:
<img src=”<?php $key=”mood-icon”; echo get_post_meta($post->ID, $key,
true); ?>” />
The <img src=” that precedes the Custom Field code is the HTML tag used to display an image on your site. The “ /> code that
appears after the Custom Field code is part of the HTML tag and it closes the <img src=” HTML tag. We changed the $key to indicate that we’re calling the mood-icon Custom Field.
e. Click the Update File button to save your changes.
f. Visit the post on your site to view your new mood icon.
You can see Lisa’s mood icon in Figure 5-8.

The entire snippet of code you add in the preceding steps should look like this, when put all together (be sure to double-check your work!):

<?php if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, ‘mood’, true) ) : ?>
<p><strong>My Current Mood is: <?php $key=”mood”; echo get_post_
meta($post->ID, $key, true); ?> <img src=”<?php $key=”mood-icon”;
echo get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, true); ?>” /></strong></p> <?php endif; ?>

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Getting WordPress to check for your Custom Field

The previous sections show you how to add the necessary code to your
template file to display your Custom Field; however, what if you want to
publish a post on which you don’t want the mood Custom Field to appear?
If you leave your template file as you set it up by following the steps in the
previous sections, even if you don’t add the mood Custom Field, your blog
post displays My Current Mood is: — without a mood because you didn’t
define one.

But you can easily make WordPress check first to see whether the Custom
Field is added. If it finds the Custom Field, WordPress displays your mood; if
it doesn’t find the Custom Field, then WordPress doesn’t display anything.
If you followed along in the previous sections, the code in your template looks like this:

<p><strong>My Current Mood is: <?php $key=”mood”; echo get_post_meta($post->ID,
$key, true); ?></strong></p>

To make WordPress check to see whether the mood Custom Field exists, add this code to the line above your existing code:

<?php if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, ‘mood’, true) ) : ?>

Then add this line of code to the line below your existing code:

<?php endif; ?>

Put together, the lines of code in your template should look like this:

<?php if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, ‘mood’, true) ) : ?>
<p><strong>My Current Mood is: <?php $key=”mood”; echo get_post_meta($post->ID,
$key, true); ?></strong></p>
<?php endif; ?>

The first line is an IF statement and, basically, asks the question: Does the
mood metadata exist for this post? If it does, the data gets displayed. If it
doesn’t, then WordPress skips over the code, ignoring it completely so that
nothing gets displayed for the mood Custom Field. The final line of code
simply puts an end to the IF question. Refer to the “IF, ELSE” sidebar, in this chapter, to see some everyday situations that explain the IF question. Apply this statement to the code you just added to your template and you get:
IF the mood Custom Field exists, then WordPress will display it, or ELSE it won’t.

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Entering the code in the template file

So that you can see how to enter the code in your template file, we use
the default WordPress theme called Twenty Ten. If you’re using a different
theme (and you can find thousands of different WordPress themes avail-
able), then you need to adapt these instructions to your particular theme.
If you really want to follow along in this chapter, activate the Twenty Ten
theme on your site, for now, just so that you can follow along and know that
you’re seeing the same code in the places we describe (you can find informa-
tion on the Twenty Ten theme and how to activate it in Book VI).
We use Lisa’s mood Custom Field as the example here. When you’re done
with these steps, WordPress displays your current mood at the bottom of
the posts to which you’ve added the mood Custom Field. Keep in mind that
this example is just one type of Custom Field that you can add to your posts
(and it’s an easy one for the purposes of introducing you to the concept).

If you’re ready to give it a go, then you’re in luck because you can follow
these steps to add the template tag, along with a little HTML code to make it
look nice, to your theme (these steps assume that you’ve already added the
mood Custom Field to your blog post and have assigned a Value to it):

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard.

2. Click Editor in the Appearances drop-down list.
The Edit Themes page loads in the Dashboard, as shown in Figure 5-5.
3. Locate the template files for the Twenty Ten theme.
The available templates are listed on the right side of the Edit Themes page, as shown in Figure 5-5.

4. Click Single Post in the list of templates.

The Single Post (single.php) file opens in the text editor on the left side of the screen, where you can edit the template file.
5. Scroll down and locate the template tag that looks like this: <?php
the_content() ?>.
6. On the new line underneath the preceding one, type: <p><strong>My
Current Mood is:.

<p> and <strong> open the HTML tags for paragraph and bold text, respectively; followed by the words to display in your template (My Current Mood is:).

7. Type the code that we discuss in the preceding section.
<?php $key=”mood”; echo get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, true); ?>
8. Type </strong></p>.
This code closes the HTML tags you opened in Step 6.
9. Click the Update File button.
Located at the bottom of the Edit Themes page, this step saves the
changes you made to the Single Post (single.php) file and reloads
the page with a message that says your changes have been successfully
saved.
10. View your post on your site to see your Custom Field data displayed.
The data should look just like the “My Current Mood is: Happy” shown in Figure 5-3.

The entire code, put together, should look like this in your template:

<p><strong>My Current Mood is: <?php $key=”mood”; echo get_post_meta($post->ID,
$key, true); ?></strong></p>

The code is case sensitive, which means that the words you input for the
Key in your Custom Field need to match case with the $key in the code. For example, if you input mood in the Key field, then the code needs to be lowercase, as well: $key=”mood”, if you attempt to change the case like this: $key=”Mood”, the code will not work.
You have to add this code for the mood Custom Field only one time; after you add the template function code to your template for the mood Custom Field, you can define your current mood in every post you publish to your site by using the Custom Fields interface.

Read More

Adding Custom Fields to Your Template File

If you followed along in theprevious sections and added the mood Custom
Field to your own site, notice that the data doesn’t appear on your site the
way it does on Lisa’s. To get the data to display properly, you must open the
template files and dig into the code a little bit. If the idea of digging into the
code of your template files intimidates you, you can put this section aside
and read up on WordPress themes, template files, and template tags in
Book VI.

You can add Custom Fields, in several ways, to your templates in order to
display the output of the fields you’ve set; we think the easiest way involves
using the get_post_meta(); template tag function, which looks like this:

<?php $key=”NAME”; echo get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, true); ?>

Here’s how that function breaks down:

✦ <?php: Part of the functions begins PHP. (Every template tag or function
needs to first start PHP with <?php. You can read more about basic PHP
in Book II, Chapter 3.)
✦ $key=”NAME”;: Defines the name of the key that you want to appear.
You define the Name when you add the Custom Field to your post.
✦ echo get_post_meta: Grabs the Custom Field data and displays it on
your site.

Book IV
Chapter 5

324 Adding Custom Fields to Your Template File
✦ $post->ID,: A parameter of the get_post_meta function that
dynamically defines the specific ID of the post being displayed so that WordPress knows which metadata to display.
✦ $key,: A parameter of the get_post_meta function that gets the
value of the Custom Field based on the name, as defined in the
$key=”NAME”; setting earlier in the code string.
✦ true);: A parameter of the get_post_meta function that tells
WordPress to return a single result, rather than multiple results. (By
default, this parameter is set to true; typically, don’t change it unless
you’re using multiple definitions in the Value setting of your Custom
Field.)
✦ ?>: Ends the PHP function.

Based on the preceding code, to make our mood Custom Field example, you define the key name as mood (replace the NAME in the preceding code with the word mood); it looks like this:

<?php $key=”mood”; echo get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, true); ?>

The part of the functions that says $key=”mood”; tells WordPress to return the Value for the Custom Field with the Name field of mood.

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Exploring the Custom Fields Interface

The Custom Fields module appears on both the Write Post and Write Page (See Book IV, Chapters 2 and 3) pages in the WordPress Dashboard, below the Post text box.

The Custom Fields module has two different text boxes:

✦ Name: Also known as the Key, you give this name to the Custom Field
you’re planning to use. The Name needs to be unique: It’s used in the
template tag that you can read about in the section “Adding Custom
Fields to Your Template File,” later in this chapter. In Figure 5-2, you can
see that Lisa’s Custom Field has the name mood.
✦ Value: Assigned to the Custom Field name and displayed in your blog
post on your site if you use the template tag that you can also read
about in the section “Adding Custom Fields to Your Template File,”
later in this chapter. In Figure 5-2, the Value assigned to the mood (the
Custom Field name) is Happy.

 

Simply fill out the Name and Value text boxes, and then click the Add
Custom Field button to add the data to your post or page. Figure 5-2 shows
a Custom Field that Lisa added to her post with the Name of mood and with
the assigned Value Happy. In the section “Adding Custom Fields to Your
Template File,” later in this chapter, we show you the template tag you need
to add to your WordPress theme template in order to display this Custom
Field, which appears in her post like this: My Current Mood is: Happy,
shown in Figure 5-3, where the Custom Field appears at the end of Lisa’s post.
You can add multiple Custom Fields to one post. To do so, simply add the

Name and the Value of the Custom Field in the appropriate text boxes on
the Write Post page, and then click the Add Custom Field button in order to
assign the data to your post. You will do this for each Custom Field you want
to add to your post.
After you add a particular Custom Field (such as the mood Custom Field Lisa
added in Figure 5-2), you can always add it to future posts. So, you can make
a post tomorrow and use the mood Custom Field but assign a different value
to it. If tomorrow you assign the value Sad, your post displays My Current
Mood is: Sad. You can easily use just that one Custom Field on subsequent
posts. After you create a Custom Field (such as the mood Custom Field),
you can access it in a drop-down list below the Name field,
so you can easily select it again and assign a new Value to it
in the future.
Custom Fields are considered extra data, separate from the post content itself, for your blog posts, and WordPress refers to them as metadata. The Custom Field Name and Value get stored in the database in the wp_postmetadata table, which keeps track of which Names and Values are assigned to each post. See Book II, Chapter 7 for more information about the
WordPress database structure and organization of data.

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Understanding Custom Fields

A WordPress template contains static pieces of data that you can count on
to appear on your site. These static items include elements such as the title,
the content, the date, and so on. But what if you want more? Say you write a
weekly book-review post on your site and want to include a listing of recent
reviews and accompanying thumbnails of the books; you can, through the
use of Custom Fields, without having to retype the list each time you do a

review. You can add literally thousands of auto-formatted pieces of data like this (such as book reviews or movie reviews, for example) by adding Custom Fields on your WordPress blog.
You create Custom Fields on a per-post or per-page basis, which means that
you can create an unlimited amount of them and add them only to certain
posts. They help you create extra data for your posts and pages by using the
Custom Fields interface, which is covered in the following section.

So, what can you do with Custom Fields? Really, the only right answer is:
Anything you want. Your imagination is your only limit when it comes to the
different types of data you can add to your posts by using Custom Fields.
Custom Fields allow the site owner the flexibility of defining certain pieces of
data for each post.
To use Custom Fields, you do need a bit of knowledge about how to navi-
gate through WordPress theme templates because you have to insert a
WordPress function tag, with specific parameters, in the body of the tem-
plate file. Book VI takes you through all the information you need to know in
order to understand WordPress themes, templates, and template tags — so
you may want to hit that minibook before you attempt to apply what we
discuss in the rest of this chapter. If you’re already comfortable and famil-
iar with WordPress templates and tags, then you probably won’t have any
trouble with this chapter at all.

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Keeping Media Files Organized

If you’ve been running your blog for any length of time, you can easily forget
what files you’ve uploaded by using the WordPress uploader. Lisa used to
have to log in to her Web server via FTP and view the Uploads folder to see
what she had in there.
Now, the WordPress Media Library allows you to conveniently and easily discover which files are in your Uploads folder.
To find an image, video, or audio file you’ve already uploaded by using the file uploader and to use that file in a new post, follow these steps:

1. Click the Upload Media icon to open the File Uploader window.
2. Click the Media Library link at the top of the window.
All the files you’ve ever uploaded to your blog appear because of the
File Uploader feature (see Figure 4-3). Files you uploaded through other methods, such as FTP, don’t appear in the Media Library.
3. Select the file that you want to reuse and click the Show link.
4. In the settings menu that appears, set the options for that file: Title,
Caption, Description, Link URL, Order, Alignment, and Size.
5. Click the Insert into Post button.
The correct HTML code is inserted into the Post text box.

✦ Search media files by using a specific keyword. If you want to search
your Media Library for all files that reference kittens, then you type
the word kittens in the Search box in the upper-right side of the Media
Library page. Then click the Search Media button; the page reloads and
displays only media files that contain the keyword or tag kittens.
✦ Delete media files. To delete files, click the small white box that
appears to the left of the file’s thumbnail on the Manage Media page;
then click the Delete button, which appears at the top left of the page.
The page reloads, and the media file you just deleted is now gone.
✦ View media files. On the Manage Media page, click the thumbnail of the
file you want to view. The actual file opens in your Web browser. If you
need the URL of the file, you can copy the permalink of the file from your
browser’s address bar.

 

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Podcasting with WordPress

As we explain in the introduction to this chapter, to podcast, the Web site owner provides regular episodes of an audio show that visitors can download to their computer and listen to on their favorite audio player. Think of podcasting as a weekly radio show that you tune into, except that it’s hosted on the Internet, rather than on a radio station.
In the sidebar “WordPress video and audio plugins” in this chapter, we mention

a few plugins that allow you to more easily insert audio files in your WordPress
posts and pages — however, a few plugins are dedicated to podcasting, and
they provide features to podcasters that go beyond just embedding audio files
in a Web site. Some of the more important of these features include
✦ Archives: Create an archive of your audio podcast files so that your lis-
teners can catch up on your show by listening to past episodes.
✦ RSS Feed: An RSS feed of your podcast show gives visitors the opportu-
nity to subscribe to your syndicated content so that they can be notified
when you publish future episodes.
✦ Promotion: A podcast isn’t successful without listeners, right?
Podcasters like to promote their shows by including their audio files
in the iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes) library so that when people
search iTunes for podcasts by subject, they find the podcasters’ podcasts and subscribe to them.
These three plugins go beyond just audio-file management, they’re dedicated to podcasting and all the features a podcaster is looking for:

✦ PowerPress (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
powerpress): PowerPress has many of the features podcasters are
looking for, including full iTunes support; audio players; multiple file-
format support (.mp3, .m4a, .ogg, .wma, .ra, .mp4a, .m4v, .mp4v,
.mpg, .asf, .avi, .wmv, .flv, .swf, .mov, .divx, .3gp, .midi, .wav,
.aa, .pdf, .torrent, .m4b, .m4r); statistics to track the popularity of
your different podcast offerings; and tagging, categorizing, and archiving
of podcast files.
✦ Podcast Channels (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
podcast-channels): WordPress provides some of the basic stuff
needed for podcasting, such as media-file embedding, archiving, and RSS feed handling. The Podcast Channels plugin gives you iTunes metadata that enables you to specify channels for your podcast files and include them in the iTunes library.
✦ Podcasting Plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
podcasting): Enhances the built-in WordPress audio-management
features by adding iTunes support, compatible RSS feeds, and media
players. This plugin also allows you to have multiple podcasting feeds,
in case you have different podcast shows that cover a range of different
topics.
We discuss Web hosting requirements in Book II. If you’re a podcaster and
intend to store audio files on your Web hosting account, you may need to
add increased storage and bandwidth to your account so that you don’t run
out of space or incur higher fees from your Web hosting provider. Discuss
these issues with your Web hosting provider to find out upfront what you
have to pay for increased disk space and bandwidth needs.

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Inserting Audio Files into Your Blog Posts

Audio files can be music files or voice recordings, such as recordings of you speaking to your readers. These files add a nice personal touch to your blog. You can easily share audio files on your blog by using the Upload Audio feature in WordPress. After you insert an audio file in a blog post, your readers can listen to it on their computers, or download it onto an MP3 player and listen to it on their drives to work, if they want.
Click the Add Audio icon on the Edit Post or Add New Post page, and then follow these steps to upload an audio file to your blog post:

1. Click the Select Files button.
An Open dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 4-2.
2. Select the file that you want to upload and click Open (or simply
double-click the filename).
The file uploader window reappears in WordPress, which shows a progress bar while your audio file uploads. When the upload is complete, a dialog box that contains several options opens.

 

3. Type a title for the file in the Title text box.

4. Type a caption for the file in the Caption text box.
5. Type a description of the file in the Description text box.
6. Click the File URL button.
Clicking this button provides a direct link in your post to the video file
itself.
7. Click Insert into Post.
A link to the audio file is inserted into your post. WordPress doesn’t
embed an actual audio player in the post; it only inserts a link to the
audio file. Visitors click the link to open another page, where they can
play the audio file.
Some great WordPress plugins for audio-handling can enhance the function-
ality of the file uploader and help you manage audio files in your blog posts.
Check out Book VII for information on how to install and use WordPress Book IV
plugins in your blog.

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Adding video from your computer

To upload and post to your blog a video from your computer, click the Add
Video icon on the Edit Post or Add New Post page. Then follow these steps:

1. Click the Choose Files to Upload button.

An Open dialog box appears.
2. Select the video file that you want to upload and click Open (or simply
double-click the filename).
The file uploader window in WordPress appears, which shows a progress bar while your video uploads. When the upload is complete, a dialog box that contains several options opens.
3. Type a title for the file in the Title text box.
4. Type a caption for the file in the Caption text box.
5. Type a description of the file in the Description text box.
6. Click the File URL button.
Clicking this button provides a direct link in your post to the video file
itself.
7. Click Insert into Post.
WordPress doesn’t embed a video player in the post, it inserts only
a link to the video; however, if you have the Auto-Embed feature acti-
vated, WordPress attempts to embed the video within a video player. If
WordPress cannot embed a video player, it displays the link that your
visitors will have to click in order to open the video in a new window to
view it.

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Adding video from the Web

To add video from the Web, click the Add Video icon, then click the From
URL tab, shown in Figure 4-1, on the Add Video pop-up window and follow
these steps:

1. Type the URL (Internet address) of the video in the Video URL text box.

Type the full URL, including the http:// and www portion of the
address. Video providers, such as YouTube, usually list the direct links for the video files on their sites; you can copy and paste one of those links into the Video URL text box.
2. (Optional) Type the title of the video in the Title text box.
Giving a title to the video allows you to provide a bit of a description of
the video. Provide a title if you can so that your readers know what the
video is about.

3. Click the Insert into Post button.

A link to the video is inserted into your post. WordPress doesn’t embed
the actual video in the post; it inserts only a link to the video. Your blog
visitors click the link to load another page in which the video plays.

The preceding steps give you the ability to insert a hyperlink that your
readers can click to view the video on another Web site (such as YouTube).
However, if you activate WordPress’s nifty Auto-Embed feature, WordPress
can automatically embed many of these videos within your posts and pages.
With this feature, WordPress automatically detects that a URL you typed in your post is a video (from YouTube, for example) and wraps the correct HTML embed code around that URL to make sure that the video player appears in your post (in a standards, XHTML-compliant way).
Before WordPress can embed a video, however, you must enable the AutoEmbed feature on the Media Settings page by following these steps:
1. Click Media in the Settings drop-down list on your WordPress
Dashboard.
The Media Settings page loads in the Dashboard.
2. Select the Auto-Embed check box.
The Auto-Embed feature is now enabled and WordPress will attempt to embed a video player from a video URL from third-party video services like YouTube or Flickr within your post.
3. Set the dimensions of the video in which you want the (video) to
appear on your site in the Maximum Embed Size field.
Enter size (width and height) that you want the videos to appear in your posts and pages.
4. Click the Save Changes button.
You’re ready to automatically embed links into your WordPress posts. Book IV
Chapter 4
Currently, WordPress automatically embeds videos from YouTube,
Vimeo, DailyMotion, blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scibd, PhotoBucket, PollDaddy, and Google Videom, as well as VideoPress-type videos from WordPress.tv.

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Inserting Video Files into Your Blog Posts

Whether you’re producing your own videos for publication or embedding other people’s videos, placing a video file in a blog post has never been easier with WordPress.

Check out a good example of a video blog at http://1938media.com.

Loren Feldman and his team produce video for the Web and for mobile
devices.

Several video galleries on the Web today allow you to add videos to blog

posts — Google’s YouTube service (www.youtube.com) is a good example
of a third-party video service that allows you to share their videos.

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Inserting Images into Your Blog Posts

 
• Link URL: If you want the image linked to a URL, type that URL in
this text box. Alternately, select the appropriate option button to
determine where your readers go when they click the image you
uploaded: Selecting None means the image isn’t clickable, File URL
directs readers through to the image itself, and Post URL directs
readers through to the post in which the image appears.
• Alignment: Select None, Left, Center, or Right. (See Table 3-1, later in
this chapter, for styling information regarding image alignment.)
• Size: Select Thumbnail, Medium, Large, or Full Size.
WordPress automatically creates small- and medium-sized versions of
the images you upload through the built-in image uploader. A thumb-
nail is a smaller version of the original file. You can edit the size of the
thumbnail by clicking the Settings link and then clicking the Media
menu link. In the Image Sizes section of the Media Settings page, desig-
nate your desired height and width of the small and medium thumbnail
images generated by WordPress.

 

If you’re uploading more than one image, skip to the “Inserting a Photo Gallery” section, later in this chapter.

Click the Edit Image button (shown in Figure 3-2) to edit the appear-

ance of the image.
The image editor (see Figure 3-3) options are represented by icons
shown across the top of the image editor window and include
• Crop: Cut the image down to a smaller size.
• Rotate Counter-Clockwise: Rotate the image to the left.
• Rotate Clockwise: Rotate the image to the right.
• Flip Vertically: Flip the image upside down and back again
• Flip Horizontally: Flip the image from right to left and back again.
• Undo: Undo any changes you made.
• Redo: Redo images edits that you’ve undone.
• Scale Image: The option drop-down list appears, giving you the abil-
ity to set a specific width and height for the image.
Click the Insert into Post button.

The Add an Image window closes, and the Add New Post page (or the

Add New Page page, if you’re writing a page) reappears. WordPress has inserted the HTML to display the image in your post, as shown in Figure 3-4; you can continue editing your post, save it, or publish it.

 

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Adding an image from your computer

To add an image from your own hard drive after you click the Add an Image icon, follow these steps:

1. Click the From Computer tab, and then click the Select Files button.
A dialog box, from which you can select an image (or multiple images) from your hard drive, opens.
2. Select your image(s), and then click Open.
The image is uploaded from your computer to your Web server.
WordPress displays a progress bar on the upload and displays an Image

Options window when the upload is finished.
3. Edit the details for the image(s) by clicking the Show link that appears
to the right of the image thumbnail (the Show link appears for each
image if you uploaded multiple images at once — if you uploaded only one image, the Image options automatically appear).
When you click Show, the Add an Image window appears (see Figure 3-2), which contains several image options:
• Title: Type a title for the image.
• Alternate Text: Type the alternate text (see preceding section) for the
image.
• Caption: Type a caption for the image (such as This is a flower from
my garden).
• Description: Type a description of the image.

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Adding an image from the Web

To add an image from the Web after you click the Add an Image icon, follow these steps:
1. Click the From URL tab in the Add an Image window.
The Add Media File from URL window opens.
2. Type the URL (Internet address) of the image in the Image URL text
box.
Type the full URL, including the http:// and www portion of the
address. You can easily find the URL of any image on the Web by rightclicking (PC) or Command-clicking (Mac), and then selecting Properties from the pop-up menu that appears.
3. Type a title for the image in the Image Title text box.
4. Type a description of the image in the Alternate Text text box.
The alternative text appears in a browser for visually impaired people
who use text readers or if, for some reason, the image doesn’t load prop-
erly. Although alternate text gives the visitors to your site a description
of what the image is, it can also improve your SEO (search engine optimi-
zation) efforts. Search engines read the alternative text (also called ALT
tags) to further categorize and define your site in listings and directories.

5. (Optional) Type the caption of the image in the Image Caption text

box.
The words you type here appear below the image on your blog, as a
caption.
6. Specify an alignment option by selecting the None, Left, Center, or
Right radio button.
7. Type the URL to which you want the image linked.
The option you select determines where your readers go when they click the image you uploaded:
• None: You don’t want the image to be clickable.
• Link to Image: Readers can click through to the actual image itself,
where the image file loads in their browser window.
8. Click the Insert into Post button.
WordPress inserts the appropriate HTML markup in the body of your
post so that the image gets displayed when visitors to your site view
your post.

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Inserting Images into Your Blog Posts

You can add images to a post pretty easily by using the WordPress image
uploader. Jump right in and give it a go by clicking the Upload an Image icon
on the Add New Post page. The Add an Image window that appears lets you
choose images from your hard drive or from a location on the Web (see
Figure 3-1).
The interface that WordPress uses for file uploads is based on Adobe Flash.
Flash is a specific set of multimedia technologies programmed to handle
media files on the Web. Some browsers and operating systems aren’t config-
ured to handle Flash-based applications. If you experience difficulties with
the Add an Image window, WordPress gives you an easy alternative: Click
the Browser Uploader link in the Add an Image window to use a non-Flash-
based uploader to transfer your files.

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Adding a Blog to Your Web Site

If you want a blog on your site but don’t want to display the blog on the front page, you can add one from the WordPress Dashboard. To create the blog for your site, first follow these steps:

1. Click Add New link in the Pages drop-down list.
The page where you can write a new post to your WordPress blog
opens.
2. Type Blog in the Title text box.
The page slug is automatically set to /blog. (Read more about slugs in Book III, Chapter 3.)
3. Leave the Page Content text box blank.
4. Click the Publish button.
The page is saved to your database and published to your WordPress
site.
Now, you have a blank page that redirects to http://yourdomain.
com/blog. Next, you need to assign the page you just created as your
blog page.
5. Click Reading in the Settings drop-down list.
The Reading Settings page opens.
6. From the Posts Page drop-down list, select the page that you created
in the preceding step list.
The page is set as your blog page.
7. In the Blog Pages Show at Most section, type the number of posts that
you want to appear in the Posts text box.
If you enter 5, for example, the blog page shows the last five posts you made to your blog.
8. Click the Save Changes button.
The options you just set are saved, and your blog is now at http://
yourdomain.com/blog (where yourdomain.com is the actual domain name of your site).
When you navigate to http://yourdomain.com/blog, a listing of your
blog posts appears.

This method of using the /blog page slug works only if you’re using custom

permalinks with your WordPress installation.if you
want more information about permalinks.) If you’re using the default perma-
links, the URL for your blog page is different; it looks something like
http://yourdomain.com/?p=4 (where 4 is the ID of the page you created
for your blog).

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Assigning a static page as the front page

After you create the page you want to use for the front page of your web site, tell WordPress that you want the static page to serve as the front page of your site. Follow these steps:
1. Click Reading in the Settings drop-down list to display the Reading
Settings page.
2. In the Front Page Displays section, select the A Static Page radio
button.
3. From the Front Page drop-down list, select the static page that you
want to serve as your front page.
In Figure 2-4, we chose to display a static page, and the Welcome page is the one we want to appear on the front page of the Web site.
4. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the Reading Settings
page.
WordPress displays the page you selected in Step 4 as the front page of
your site.

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Creating the Front Page of Your Web Site

✦ Custom Fields: Custom fields add extra data to your page, and you can

fully configure them. You can read more about the Custom Fields feature
in WordPress in Book IV, Chapter 5.
✦ Discussion: Decide whether to let readers submit comments through the
comment system by selecting or deselecting the Allow Comments text
box. By default, the box is checked; uncheck it to disallow comments on
this page.
Typically, you don’t see a lot of static pages that have the Comments
feature enabled because pages offer static content that doesn’t generally
lend itself to a great deal of discussion. There are exceptions, however,
such as a Contact page, which might use the Comments feature as a way
for readers to get in touch with the site owner through that specific
page. Of course, the choice is yours to make based on the specific needs
of your Web site.
✦ Author: If you’re running a multi-author site, you can select the name of
the author you want to be attributed to this page. By default, your own
author name appears selected here.
✦ Publish: The publishing and privacy options for your post, which we
cover in Book IV, Chapter 1.
✦ Page Attributes: Select a parent for the page you’re publishing. In Book
III, Chapter 7, we cover the different archiving options, including the
ability to have a hierarchical structure for pages that create a navigation
of main pages and subpages (called parent and child pages).
✦ Page Template: Mentioned in the section “Creating the Front Page of
Your Web Site,” earlier in this chapter. You can assign the page template if you’re using a template other than the default one (Book VI, Chapter 7 contains more information about themes and templates, including using page templates on your site).
✦ Page Order: By default, this option is set to 0 (zero). You can enter in
a number, however, if you want this page to appear in a certain spot
on the page menu of your site. (If you’re using the built-in menu feature

in WordPress, you can use this option; but you don’t have to use it because you can define the order of pages and how they appear in your menu by assigning a number to the page order — for example, a page with the page order of 1 will appear first in your navigation menu, where a page with the page order of 2 will appear second, and so on.
✦ Featured Image: Some WordPress themes are configured to use an
image (photo) to represent each post that you have on your blog. The
image can appear on the home/front page, blog page, archives, or any-
where within the content display on your Web site. If you’re using a
theme that has this option, you can easily define a post’s thumbnail by clicking the Set Featured Image link below the Featured Image module on the Add New Post page. Then you can assign an image that you’ve uploaded to your site as the featured image for a particular post.

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Creating the static page

To have a static page appear on the front page of your site, you need to create that page. Follow these steps:

1. Click Add New in the Pages drop-down list.
The Add New Page page opens, where you can write a new page for your WordPress blog, as shown in Figure 2-3.
2. In the Title text box, type a title for the page.
3. Type the content of your page in the large text box.
4. Set the options for this page.
We explain the options on this page in the following section.
5. Click the Publish button.
The page is saved to your database and published to your WordPress
site with its own, individual URL (or permalink). The URL for the static
page consists of your blog URL and the title of the page. For example,
if you titled your page About Me, then the URL of the page is http://
yourdomain.com/about-me.

The Page Template option is set to Default Template. This setting tells

WordPress that you want to use the default page template (page.php in
your theme template files) to format the page you’re creating. The default
page template is the default setting for all pages you create; you can assign
a different page template to pages you create, if your theme has made dif-
ferent page templates available for use. In Book VI, Chapter 6, you can find
extensive information on advanced WordPress themes, including informa-
tion on page templates and how to create and use them on your site.

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Creating the Front Page of Your Web Site

For the most part, when you visit a blog powered by WordPress, the blog
appears on the main page. Lisa’s personal blog at http://lisasabin-
wilson.com, powered by WordPress (of course), shows her latest blog
posts on the front page, along with links to the post archives (by month
or by category).
But the front page of Lisa’s business site at http://ewebscapes.com, also
powered by WordPress, contains no blog and displays no blog posts (see
Instead, it displays the contents of a static page that Lisa cre-
ated in the WordPress Dashboard. This static page serves as a portal to her
design blog, her portfolio, and other sections of her business site. The site
includes a blog, but also serves as a full-blown business Web site, with all
the sections Lisa needs to provide her clients the information they want.
Both of Lisa’s sites are powered by the self-hosted version of WordPress.org, so how can they differ so much in what they display on the front page? The answer lies in the templates in the WordPress Dashboard.
You use static pages in WordPress to create content that you don’t want to appear as part of your blog but do want to appear as part of your overall site (such as a bio page, a page of services, and so on).

 

Creating a front page is a three-step process: Create a static page, designate that static page as the front page of your site, and tweak the page to look like a Web site, rather than a blog.

By using this method, you can create unlimited numbers of static pages to build an entire Web site. You don’t even need to have a blog on this site, unless you want one.

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Creating the Front Page of Your Web Site

 

With the page feature, you can create an unlimited amount of static pages separate from your blog posts. People commonly use this feature to create About Me or Contact Me pages, among other things. Table 2-1 illustrates the differences between posts and pages by showing you the different ways the WordPress platform handles them.

Differences between a Post and a Page

WordPress Options                             Page                         Post

Appears in blog post listings            No                            Yes

Appears as a static page                      Yes                           No

Appears in category archives           No                            Yes

Appears in monthly archives            No                            Yes

Appears in Recent Posts listings       No                            Yes

Appears in site RSS feed                        No                            Yes

Appears in search results                     Yes                           Yes

 

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Understanding the Difference between Posts and Pages

In this post, we go into great detail about how WordPress archives
your published content on your site by filing it under categories and tags, as
well as by date (year/month/day/time of day), and through the use of pages,
rather than posts.

Pages, in WordPress, are different from posts because they don’t get
archived the way your blog posts/articles do: They aren’t categorized or
tagged, don’t appear in your listing of recent blog posts or date archives,
and aren’t syndicated in the RSS feeds available on your site — because con-
tent within pages generally doesn’t change. Pages are considered static or
stand-alone content and exist separately from the archived post content on
your site.

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Arranging post modules

Aside from being able to make the Post text box bigger (or smaller), as we
discuss in the section “Creating Your Own Workspace for Writing,” earlier in
this chapter, you can’t edit the Post text box module. You can configure all
other modules on the Add New Post page (and the Edit Post page); you can
remove them (in the Screen Options panel, as we discuss in the preceding
section), expand and collapse them, and drag them around to place them in
a different spot on your screen.
Collapse, or close, any of the modules by hovering your mouse over the
module title and then clicking the down arrow that appears to the right of
the module name, as shown in Figure 1-10 for the Categories module (like-
wise, you can expand, or open, a module by doing the same when it’s
collapsed).

You can also drag and drop a module on the Add New Post screen to position it wherever you want. Just click a module and, while holding down the mouse button, drag it to different area on the screen. WordPress displays a dashed border around the area when you have the module hovering over a spot where you can drop it. Because Lisa uses the Featured Image module on every post she publishes, she’s dragged that module to the top right of her writing space, as shown in Figure 1-11.

You can really configure your own custom workspace on the Post page

within your Dashboard that suits your style, work habits, and needs. WordPress remembers all the changes you make to this page, including the screen options and modules, so you have to set up this page only once. You can drag and drop modules on any Dashboard page in the same way you do on the main Dashboard page, as covered in Book III, Chapter 2.

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Adjusting screen options

Several items appear on the Add New Post page, as described in the section, “Composing Your Blog Post,” earlier in this chapter. You may not use all these items, and in fact, you may find that simply removing them from the Add New Post page (and the Edit Post page) makes writing your posts easier and more efficient. To remove an item, follow these steps:

2. Select or deselect items below the Show on Screen heading.

Select an item by placing a check mark in the check box to the left of its name; deselect it by removing the check mark. Selected items appear on the page, and deselected items are removed from the page.
If you deselect an item that you want to include again on the Add New
Post page, it’s not gone forever! Revisit the Screen Options panel and
reselect its check box to make that item appear on the page once again.
3. Select your preferred Screen Layout.
You can choose whether the layout appears in one column or two columns (the default option).
4. Click the Screen Options tab when you’re done.
The Screen Options panel closes and the options you’ve chosen are saved and remembered by WordPress.

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Creating Your Own Workspace for Writing

1. Click the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen.

The Screen Options panel drops down,

2. When you find the post you need, click its title.

Alternatively, you can click the Edit link that appears below the post
title.
The Edit Post window opens. In this window, you can edit the post and/ or any of its options.
If you need to edit only the post options, click the Quick Edit link. A
drop-down Quick Edit menu appears, displaying the post options that
you can configure, such as the title, status, password, categories, tags,
comments, and timestamp. Click the Save button to save your changes.
3. Edit your post; then click the Update Post button.
The Edit Post window refreshes with all your changes saved.
Creating Your Own Workspace for Writing
You can discover how to organize the Dashboard to create your own customized workspace by rearranging modules and
screen options for your Dashboard. The Add New Post page, where you
write, edit, and publish your post, has the same options available, allowing you to fully control the workspace arrangement to create your own custom, unique space that suits your writing needs.
To start customizing your workspace, open the Add New Post page by click-
ing Add New in the Posts drop-down list on the Dashboard.One of the first
things we do when we visit this page on a new WordPress site is make the
Post text box (where you write the content of your post) bigger. You just
need to click your mouse in the bottom corner of the box, and while hold-
ing down your mouse button, drag it until it’s the length you want, and then
release your mouse button (conversely, you can make the box smaller by
dragging it up, rather than down).

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Being your own editor

While we write this book, we have editors looking over our shoulders,
making recommendations, correcting typos and grammatical errors, and
helping us by telling us when we get too long winded. You, on the other
hand, are not so lucky! You’re your own editor and have full control of what you write, when you write it, and how you write it. You can always go back and edit previous posts to correct typos, grammatical errors, and other mistakes by following these steps:
1. Find the post that you want to edit by clicking Posts in the Posts drop- Book IV
down list. Chapter 1
The Posts page opens and lists the 20 most recent posts you’ve made to
your blog.
To filter that listing of posts by date, select a date from the Show All
Dates drop-down list at the top of the Posts page. For example, if you
select February 2011, the Posts page reloads, displaying only those
posts that were published in the month of February in 2011.
You can also filter the post listing by category. Select your desired category from the View All Categories drop-down list.

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Refining Your Post Options

This option is otherwise known as a sticky post. Typically, posts are

displayed in chronological order on your blog, displaying the most
recent post on top. If you make a post sticky, it remains at the very top,
no matter how many other posts you make after it. When you want
to unstick the post, deselect the Stick This Post to the Front Page
check box.
✦ Password Protected: By assigning a password to a post, you can publish
a post to your blog that only you can see. You can also share the post
password with a friend, who can see the content of the post after he
or she enters the password. But why would anyone want to password-
protect a post? Imagine that you just ate dinner at your mother-in-law’s
house and she made the worst pot roast you’ve ever eaten. You can
write all about it! Protect it with a password and give the password to
your trusted friends so that they can read all about it without offending
your mother-in-law. Figure 1-7 shows a published post that’s private;
visitors see that a post exists, but they need to enter a password in the
text box and then click Submit in order to view it.

✦ Private: Publish this post to your blog so that only you can see it — no

one else will be able to see it, ever. You may want to protect personal
and private posts that you write only to yourself (if you’re keeping a per-
sonal diary, for example).

✦ Publish Immediately: Click the Edit link to make the publish date

options appear, where you can set the timestamp for your post. If you
want the post to have the current time and date, ignore this setting
altogether.
If you want to future-publish this post, you can set the time and date
for anytime in the future. This feature has come in handy for Lisa many
times. For example, when you have a vacation planned and you don’t
want your blog to go without updates while you’re gone, you can write
a few posts and set the date for a time in the future. Those posts are
published to her blog while you’re somewhere tropical, diving with the
fishes.
✦ Publish: This button wastes no time! It bypasses all the previous draft,
pending review, and sticky settings, and publishes the post directly to
your blog immediately.
After you select an option from the Publish drop-down list, click the Update button. The Write Post page saves your publishing-status option.
If you click Publish and for some reason don’t see the post appear on the front page of your blog, you probably left the Status drop-down list set to Unpublished. Your new post appears in the draft posts, which you can find by clicking Edit in the Posts drop-down list.

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Publishing your post

After you give your new post a title; write the content of your new blog post; maybe add an image or other type of media file to your blog post (see Book IV, Chapter 4); and configure the tags, categories, and other options, now the question is: Publish? Or not to publish (yet)?
WordPress gives you three options for saving or publishing your post when
you’re done writing it. The Publish module is located on the right side of
the Add New (or Edit) Post page. Just click the title of the Publish module to
expand the settings you need. Figure 1-6 shows the available options in the
Publish module.

The Publish module has several options:

✦ Save Draft: Click this button to save your post as a draft. The Add New
Post page reloads with all your post contents and options saved; you
can continue editing it now, tomorrow, the next day, or next year — the
post is saved as a draft until you decide to publish it or delete it. To
access your draft posts, click the Posts link on the Posts menu.
✦ Preview: Click the Preview button to view your post in a new window,
as it would appear on your live blog if you’d published it. Previewing the
post doesn’t publish it to your site yet. It gives you the opportunity to
view it on your site and check it for any formatting or content changes
you want to make.
✦ Status: Click the Edit link to open the settings for this option. A drop-
down list appears, from which you can select Draft or Pending Review:
• Draft: Save the post in draft form but don’t publish it to your blog.
• Pending Review: The post shows up in your list of drafts next to a
Pending Review header. This option lets the administrator of the
blog know that contributors have entered posts that are waiting for
administrator review and approval (helpful for blogs that have mul-
tiple authors).Generally, only contributors use the Pending Review
option.
Click the OK button to save your Status setting.
✦ Public: Select this option to make the post viewable to everyone who
visits your site.
✦ Stick This Post to the Front Page: Select this check box to have
WordPress publish the post to your blog and keep it at the very top of all blog posts until you change this setting for the post.

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Refining Your Post Options

After you write the post, you can choose a few extra options before you
publish it for the entire world to see. These settings apply to the post you’re
currently working on — not to any future or past posts. You can find these
options below and to the right of the Post text box (see Figure 1-4). Click the
title of each option — the settings for that specific option expand.
You can reposition the different post option modules on the Add New Post page to fit the way you use this page.

Here are the options that appear below the Post text box:

✦ Excerpt: Excerpts are short summaries of your posts. Many bloggers
use snippets to show teasers of their blog posts, thereby encourag-
ing the reader to click the Read More links to read the posts in their
entirety. Type your short summary in the Excerpt box. Excerpts can be
any length, in terms of words; however, the point is to keep it short and

sweet, and tease your readers into clicking the Read More link. Figure

1-5 shows a blog post published to Lisa’s site; however, it displays only an excerpt of the post on the front page — requiring the reader to click the Continue Reading link to view the post in its entirety.

✦ Send Trackbacks: If you want to send a trackback to another blog, enter

the blog’s trackback URL in the Send Trackbacks To text box. You can
send trackbacks to more than one blog; just be sure to separate track-
back URLs with a space between each. For more on trackbacks, refer to
✦ Custom Fields: Custom fields add extra data to your posts, and you can
fully configure them. You can read more about the Custom Fields feature
in WordPress in Book IV, Chapter 6.
✦ Discussion: Decide whether to let readers submit comments through the
comment system by selecting the Allow Comments on this Post check
box. By default, the box is checked; uncheck it to disallow comments on this post.
✦ Author: If you’re running a multi-author blog, you can select the name
of the author who wrote this post. By default, your own author name
appears selected in the Author drop-down menu.

Here are the options that appear to the right of the Post text box:

✦ Publish: Publishing and privacy options for your post, which we cover
in more detail in the following section of this chapter.
✦ Categories: You can file your posts in different categories to organize
them by subject. (See more about organizing your posts by category.
Select the check box to the left of the category you
want to use. You can toggle between listing all categories or seeing just
the categories that you use the most by clicking the All Categories or
Most Used links, respectively.
Don’t see the category you need? Click Add New Category, and you can
add a category right there on the Add New Post page that appears.
✦ Post Tags: Type your desired tags in the Add New Tag text box. Be sure
to separate each tag with a comma so that WordPress knows where
each tag begins and ends. Cats, Kittens, Feline represents three
different tags, for example, but without the commas, WordPress would
consider those three words to be one tag. See Book III, Chapter 7 for
more information on tags and how to use them.
✦ Featured Image: Some WordPress themes are configured to use an
image (photo) to represent each post that you have on your blog. The
image can appear on the home/front page, blog page, archives, or any-
where within the content display on your Web site. If you’re using a
theme that has this option, you can easily define the post thumbnail by
clicking Set Featured Image below the Featured Image module on the
Add New Post page. More information about using Featured Images can
be found in Book VI, Chapter 6.
When you finish setting the options for your post, don’t navigate away from
this page; you haven’t yet fully saved your options. The following section on
publishing your post covers all the options you need for saving your post
settings!

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