On a slightly more technical level, WordPress is an open-source content management system licensed under GPLv2, which means that anyone can use or modify the WordPress software for free. A content management system is basically a tool that makes it easy to manage important aspects of your website \u2013 like content \u2013 without needing to know anything about programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The end result is that WordPress makes building a website accessible to anyone \u2013 even people who aren\u2019t developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Kinds Of Websites Can WordPress Make?<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\nMany years ago, WordPress was primarily a tool to create a blog, rather than more traditional websites. That hasn\u2019t been true for a long time, though. Nowadays, thanks to changes to the core code, as well as WordPress\u2019 massive ecosystem of plugins and themes, you can create any type of website with WordPress<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFor example, not only does WordPress power a huge number of business sites and blogs, it\u2019s also the most popular way to create an eCommerce store<\/a> as well! With WordPress, you can create:<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Business websites<\/li>
- eCommerce stores<\/li>
- Blogs<\/li>
- Portfolios<\/a><\/li>
- Resumes<\/li>
- Forums<\/a><\/li>
- Social networks<\/li>
- Membership sites<\/a><\/li>
- \u2026pretty much anything else you can dream up.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s how to install a WordPress theme<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/shortiedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/add-new-post.gif\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA quick beginners guide on how to create a new blog post in WordPress!<\/h3>\n\n\n\nStep 1: Log in to WordPress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Go to yoursite.com.au\/wp-admin<\/strong> and log in with your username and password.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou\u2019ll then be taken to the WordPress dashboard. If you were already logged in, you\u2019ll go straight to the WordPress dashboard without having to log in again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fill the required username and password for login.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 2: Create a new post<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There are several ways to add a new post \u2013 the easiest way is to hover over the Posts <\/strong>tab and click Add New<\/strong>. ![\"How](\"https:\/\/shortiedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/add-new-post.gif\")
Alternatively, can hover over the New<\/strong> tab in the top bar and click on Post<\/strong>. You can also click on the Posts<\/strong> tab and then click Add New<\/strong> at the top of the posts screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 3: Enter the title of your new post<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Put the title of your post in the first box at the top that says Enter title here<\/strong>. ![\"How](\"https:\/\/shortiedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/title.gif\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 4: Enter body content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The big box below the title box is where you put all the text, images and other content that makes up your new blog post. ![\"How](\"https:\/\/shortiedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/body.gif\")
The WordPress editor provides you with formatting tools like Bold<\/strong>, Italic<\/strong>, Paragraph<\/strong> Alignment<\/strong>, Styles<\/strong>, Lists<\/strong> and a bunch of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 5. Choose a feature image<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The feature image will usually be shown at the very top of the post. It will also be your post\u2019s thumbnail, meaning wherever this post appears, the thumbnail image will appear along with it. ![\"How](\"https:\/\/shortiedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/image.gif\")
You can upload a new image, or use an existing image from your media library. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 6. Select tags and categories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Tags and Categories are located on the right side of a post. ![\"How](\"https:\/\/shortiedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/tags.gif\")
Categories are usually broader whereas Tags are generally a bit more specific. For example, if you were posting a cake recipe, your Category might be \u2018Baking\u2019 and your Tags might be \u2018Cake\u2019, \u2018Birthday\u2019 and \u2018Icing\u2019. ![\"How](\"https:\/\/shortiedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/categories.gif\")
When creating tags and categories, try to think of topics that people will want to read more about. You don\u2019t want your tags\/categories to be too general, but you also don\u2019t want them to be so specific they only contain one post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 7. Hit publish!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You\u00a0can preview what your post will look like on your actual site by clicking the Preview button in the side bar. Once you\u2019re happy and your post is finished, click on the blue publish button on the right-hand side and your post will be live!\u00a0![\"How](\"https:\/\/shortiedesigns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/publish.gif\")
\u00a0Or you can hit\u00a0Save Draft<\/strong>\u00a0come back to it later. Drafts are saved in WordPress but\u00a0not visible to any of your site visitors. \u2014 \u00a0 So there you have it! Creating new blog posts in WordPress is easy once you\u2019ve done it a few times. Happy blogging!<\/p>\n\n\n\nDo you want to know about the history of WordPress? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you are\u00a0starting a WordPress blog<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0today, then you see a popular website builder which powered more than 32% of all websites on the internet. In this article, we want to take a look back at the history of WordPress to show you how it evolved over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/cdn4.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/wphistory.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe story of WordPress tells us how open source<\/a> communities work to make something so useful without compromising software freedom. WordPress project is driven by a community of dedicated developers, users, and supporters (Related: Why is WordPress free?<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress started out because the development of an existing blogging software b2\/cafelog was discontinued by their main developers. In 2003, two users of b2\/cafelog, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, decided to build a new platform on top of b2\/cafelog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They probably didn\u2019t know that they are about to start a journey that would eventually benefit millions of users around the globe, create thousands of jobs, and a whole industry of developers, designers, writers, bloggers, and web publishers would make their living off it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On May 27, 2003<\/strong>, Matt announced the availability of the first version of WordPress. It was well received by the community. It was based on b2 Cafelog with significant improvements. The first version of WordPress included a new admin interface, new templates, and generated XHTML 1.1 compliant templates. The post editor looked like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/cdn4.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/wordpress-firstrelease.png\" "\\"Post")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn May 2004<\/strong>, version 1.2 of WordPress came with plugin architecture. This enabled users and developers to extend the functionality of WordPress by writing their own plugins and sharing them with rest of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs WordPress was opening itself to the community, something totally opposite was happening in the blogging industry at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The market leader in blogging tools industry at that time was Moveable Type. They announced new licensing terms which were not liked by many of their users. This forced many of their users to look for a new blogging platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WordPress 1.2, presented itself as an ambitious project offering users a mature, stable, easy and flexible platform with features that rivaled their proprietary competitors. The adaption rate of WordPress skyrocketed with this release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/cdn3.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/wp12.png\" "\\"WordPress")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWith the increase in the number of users, WordPress started getting better with the help and interest of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In February 2005<\/strong>, WordPress 1.5 came with Pages, comment moderation tools, new default theme Kubrick, and a completely new Theme System. Matt announced themes with these words:<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1.5 we have created an incredibly flexible theme system that adapts to you rather than expecting you adapt to it. You can have your entire weblog run through a single file, just like before, or you can literally have a different template for every single different category. It\u2019s as much or as little as you want. We\u2019ve also broken common site elements like headers, footers, and sidebars into their own files so you can make a change in one place and see it everywhere immediately. \u201cMatt Mullenweg \u2013 Announcing WordPress 1.5<\/a>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n![\"Kubrick](\"https:\/\/cdn.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/kubrickdefaulttheme.png\" "\\"Kubrick")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn December 2005<\/strong>, WordPress 2.0 was released with a new admin dashboard. This new admin area was a complete overhaul of the administration screens in WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt used JavaScript and DHTML to make a better user interface where users did not need to load a page to perform some simple tasks. Users were now able to add categories and tags<\/a> to posts without leaving the post editor or delete comments without reloading the comments screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/cdn4.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/wordpress-2-0.png\" "\\"WordPress")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe shiny new admin UI was not the only significant improvement in this release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the first release that came with Akismet anti-spam plugin<\/a> pre-installed. It also came with a WordPress database backup plugin, wp-db-backup, which was then dropped in 2007. Another first for this release was the introduction of a functions.php file<\/a> in the Theme System.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn March 1, 2006,<\/strong> Automattic, the company founded by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, filed the trademark registration for WordPress and WordPress logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 2008<\/strong>, a web design company called Happy Cog joined the WordPress project to help design a new WordPress admin interface. A usability study was conducted to design the admin UI.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThroughout the year new features such as shortcodes<\/a>, one-click updates, and built-in plugin installation were added to WordPress with different releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/cdn.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/wp-27-dashboard.png\" "\\"WordPress")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn June of 2010<\/strong>, Automattic, the company founded by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, transferred the ownership of WordPress trademark and logo to the WordPress Foundation<\/a>. This was a significant moment in WordPress history, because it ensured that WordPress will continue to grow, and is not dependent on a company or a group of developers to continue the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn June 17, 2010,<\/strong> WordPress 3.0 was released. It was a major step towards WordPress as CMS. This release introduced several features such as custom post types<\/a>, better custom taxonomies<\/a>, custom backgrounds, header, menus, contextual help on admin screens, etc. WordPress MU project was merged into WordPress core to create Multisite networks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt also came with Twenty Ten, which started the tradition of a new default theme for each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
In 2011<\/strong>, Post formats<\/a> and admin bar<\/a> made their way into WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAround that time, some really cool WordPress plugins were building powerful eCommerce platforms<\/a> on top of WordPress. This enabled WordPress users to create online stores<\/a> and build powerful ecommerce websites using WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 2012<\/strong>, theme customizer, theme previews, and new media manager were introduced. These features tremendously helped new users in creating image galleries<\/a> and previewing themes before they change to a new theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 2013<\/strong>, WordPress 3.7<\/a> came with the new automatic updates feature that allowed WordPress to automatically update your site\u2019s software for minor releases. The automatic updates feature is very similar to what Google Chrome browser does. Several users didn\u2019t like the feature, so we wrote a tutorial on how to disable automatibecometes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBy this time WordPress had already became the most popular CMS in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, not only does WordPress power a huge number of business sites and blogs, it\u2019s also the most popular way to create an eCommerce store<\/a> as well! With WordPress, you can create:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s how to install a WordPress theme<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go to yoursite.com.au\/wp-admin<\/strong> and log in with your username and password.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll then be taken to the WordPress dashboard. If you were already logged in, you\u2019ll go straight to the WordPress dashboard without having to log in again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fill the required username and password for login.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several ways to add a new post \u2013 the easiest way is to hover over the Posts <\/strong>tab and click Add New<\/strong>. Put the title of your post in the first box at the top that says Enter title here<\/strong>. The big box below the title box is where you put all the text, images and other content that makes up your new blog post. The feature image will usually be shown at the very top of the post. It will also be your post\u2019s thumbnail, meaning wherever this post appears, the thumbnail image will appear along with it. Tags and Categories are located on the right side of a post. You\u00a0can preview what your post will look like on your actual site by clicking the Preview button in the side bar. Once you\u2019re happy and your post is finished, click on the blue publish button on the right-hand side and your post will be live!\u00a0 Do you want to know about the history of WordPress? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are\u00a0starting a WordPress blog<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0today, then you see a popular website builder which powered more than 32% of all websites on the internet. In this article, we want to take a look back at the history of WordPress to show you how it evolved over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story of WordPress tells us how open source<\/a> communities work to make something so useful without compromising software freedom. WordPress project is driven by a community of dedicated developers, users, and supporters (Related: Why is WordPress free?<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress started out because the development of an existing blogging software b2\/cafelog was discontinued by their main developers. In 2003, two users of b2\/cafelog, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, decided to build a new platform on top of b2\/cafelog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They probably didn\u2019t know that they are about to start a journey that would eventually benefit millions of users around the globe, create thousands of jobs, and a whole industry of developers, designers, writers, bloggers, and web publishers would make their living off it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 27, 2003<\/strong>, Matt announced the availability of the first version of WordPress. It was well received by the community. It was based on b2 Cafelog with significant improvements. The first version of WordPress included a new admin interface, new templates, and generated XHTML 1.1 compliant templates. The post editor looked like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May 2004<\/strong>, version 1.2 of WordPress came with plugin architecture. This enabled users and developers to extend the functionality of WordPress by writing their own plugins and sharing them with rest of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As WordPress was opening itself to the community, something totally opposite was happening in the blogging industry at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The market leader in blogging tools industry at that time was Moveable Type. They announced new licensing terms which were not liked by many of their users. This forced many of their users to look for a new blogging platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress 1.2, presented itself as an ambitious project offering users a mature, stable, easy and flexible platform with features that rivaled their proprietary competitors. The adaption rate of WordPress skyrocketed with this release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the increase in the number of users, WordPress started getting better with the help and interest of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February 2005<\/strong>, WordPress 1.5 came with Pages, comment moderation tools, new default theme Kubrick, and a completely new Theme System. Matt announced themes with these words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1.5 we have created an incredibly flexible theme system that adapts to you rather than expecting you adapt to it. You can have your entire weblog run through a single file, just like before, or you can literally have a different template for every single different category. It\u2019s as much or as little as you want. We\u2019ve also broken common site elements like headers, footers, and sidebars into their own files so you can make a change in one place and see it everywhere immediately. \u201cMatt Mullenweg \u2013 Announcing WordPress 1.5<\/a>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In December 2005<\/strong>, WordPress 2.0 was released with a new admin dashboard. This new admin area was a complete overhaul of the administration screens in WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It used JavaScript and DHTML to make a better user interface where users did not need to load a page to perform some simple tasks. Users were now able to add categories and tags<\/a> to posts without leaving the post editor or delete comments without reloading the comments screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The shiny new admin UI was not the only significant improvement in this release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the first release that came with Akismet anti-spam plugin<\/a> pre-installed. It also came with a WordPress database backup plugin, wp-db-backup, which was then dropped in 2007. Another first for this release was the introduction of a functions.php file<\/a> in the Theme System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 1, 2006,<\/strong> Automattic, the company founded by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, filed the trademark registration for WordPress and WordPress logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2008<\/strong>, a web design company called Happy Cog joined the WordPress project to help design a new WordPress admin interface. A usability study was conducted to design the admin UI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the year new features such as shortcodes<\/a>, one-click updates, and built-in plugin installation were added to WordPress with different releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June of 2010<\/strong>, Automattic, the company founded by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, transferred the ownership of WordPress trademark and logo to the WordPress Foundation<\/a>. This was a significant moment in WordPress history, because it ensured that WordPress will continue to grow, and is not dependent on a company or a group of developers to continue the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On June 17, 2010,<\/strong> WordPress 3.0 was released. It was a major step towards WordPress as CMS. This release introduced several features such as custom post types<\/a>, better custom taxonomies<\/a>, custom backgrounds, header, menus, contextual help on admin screens, etc. WordPress MU project was merged into WordPress core to create Multisite networks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also came with Twenty Ten, which started the tradition of a new default theme for each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n In 2011<\/strong>, Post formats<\/a> and admin bar<\/a> made their way into WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around that time, some really cool WordPress plugins were building powerful eCommerce platforms<\/a> on top of WordPress. This enabled WordPress users to create online stores<\/a> and build powerful ecommerce websites using WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2012<\/strong>, theme customizer, theme previews, and new media manager were introduced. These features tremendously helped new users in creating image galleries<\/a> and previewing themes before they change to a new theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2013<\/strong>, WordPress 3.7<\/a> came with the new automatic updates feature that allowed WordPress to automatically update your site\u2019s software for minor releases. The automatic updates feature is very similar to what Google Chrome browser does. Several users didn\u2019t like the feature, so we wrote a tutorial on how to disable automatibecometes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By this time WordPress had already became the most popular CMS in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA quick beginners guide on how to create a new blog post in WordPress!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Step 1: Log in to WordPress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 2: Create a new post<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Alternatively, can hover over the New<\/strong> tab in the top bar and click on Post<\/strong>. You can also click on the Posts<\/strong> tab and then click Add New<\/strong> at the top of the posts screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 3: Enter the title of your new post<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 4: Enter body content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The WordPress editor provides you with formatting tools like Bold<\/strong>, Italic<\/strong>, Paragraph<\/strong> Alignment<\/strong>, Styles<\/strong>, Lists<\/strong> and a bunch of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 5. Choose a feature image<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You can upload a new image, or use an existing image from your media library. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 6. Select tags and categories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Categories are usually broader whereas Tags are generally a bit more specific. For example, if you were posting a cake recipe, your Category might be \u2018Baking\u2019 and your Tags might be \u2018Cake\u2019, \u2018Birthday\u2019 and \u2018Icing\u2019. When creating tags and categories, try to think of topics that people will want to read more about. You don\u2019t want your tags\/categories to be too general, but you also don\u2019t want them to be so specific they only contain one post. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 7. Hit publish!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Or you can hit\u00a0Save Draft<\/strong>\u00a0come back to it later. Drafts are saved in WordPress but\u00a0not visible to any of your site visitors. \u2014 \u00a0 So there you have it! Creating new blog posts in WordPress is easy once you\u2019ve done it a few times. Happy blogging!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/cdn.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/wp-38-colors.jpg\" "\\"WordPress")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n