Suzanne Enright WordPress Guide
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Suzanne Enright WordPress Guide
Copyright © 2020, Abell Smith Design • (253) 250-3628 • abell@abellsmith.com • abellsmith.com
(If you’re printing this guide, make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom first to load all the images!)
(If you’re printing this guide, make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom first to load all the images!)
Suzanne, the following is a very abbreviated version of my regular client WordPress guide, created after the cleanup on the Kensu Group website. Some of the content below may not apply to your installation of WordPress, but hopefully you will find some useful tips!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COLOR STYLEGUIDE
The hex codes for the new primary colors on your website:- Purple: #6915a1
- Teal: #199cad
- Blue: #282faf
HOW TO CHANGE THE OVERALL WEBSITE DESIGN
You can customize many parts of your website’s overall look and feel using the “Customizer,” which you can access by going to Appearance > Customize. Check out the following video showing how to use the Customizer in Hestia Pro, which is the theme that your site uses. The video starts here at 2:04:*NOTE: Whenever making changes to the overall website design, you’ll want to go slow and take care to check your progress on the front end after each change, so you can retrace your steps if you make a mistake. Let Abell know if something gets broken and you need help!HOW TO ADD/EDIT CONTENT IN PAGES AND POSTS WORDPRESS
You have three choices for adding or editing content in WordPress: the newly installed Beaver Builder, your previous page-builder Elementor, the Classic Editor, or the built-in Gutenberg editor. Each is a reasonably user-friendly option, but is also slightly different from the others. At this time, my suggestion is to use Beaver Builder, but you may want to try them all and see for yourself! The three options are explaned below:*NOTE: Whenever making changes to page or post content, you’ll want to go slow and take care to check your progress on the front end after each change, so you can retrace your steps if you make a mistake. Let Abell know if something gets broken and you need help!
- Beaver Builder – Your website has a 3rd-party, drag-and-drop editor plugin installed called Beaver Builder. My clients have usually found this to be the easiest way to add and edit content.
Check out the following video showing how to edit content using Beaver Builder. The video plays here between 2:24 and 6:00… my own video is in the works, but this one will do for now: - Elementor – I have not used your previously-existing page builder, Elementor, with any of my client site. However, I did find this detailed video, which hopefully can give you a few tips on how to get the most out of this plugin:
- Classic Editor – Many WordPress users prefer to stay with the Classic Editor. To use the Classic Editor, go to Pages > All Pages, and hover over the page you want to edit. Select “Edit (Classic Editor).”
To see my guide on Adding/Editing Page and Post content using the Classic Editor, visit:
WordPress Classic Editor Guide
(https://growyourworldweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Wordpress-Classic-Guide.pdf) - Gutenberg – As of WordPress version 5.0, the CMS has incorporated its own native, drag-and-drop block editor. To use Gutenberg, go to Pages > All Pages, and hover over the page you want to edit. Select “Edit (Block Editor).” In my clients’ experience, the Gutenberg editor is promising, but it is “not quite there yet” in terms of ease-of-use.
For more information on using Gutenberg, visit:
How to Use the New WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg Tutorial)
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-use-the-new-wordpress-block-editor/)
HOW TO MANAGE IMAGES ON YOUR WEBSITE
The images and graphics (as well as PDFs and other files) live in the Media Library of WordPress. See below for some important tips and tutorials:
Using the image editor – While it is recommended that you use Photoshop or similar software to do advanced image editing, WordPress has a basic built-in image editor that can perform a number of the tasks you might need to accomplish. When you’re viewing an image in the media window, click “Edit Image.” A new page will appear with a row of buttons at the top that will give you several options, with pop-up tool tips when you hover over them. You can change the size of an image by going to “Scale Image” and specifying the dimensions. Basic images within pages can be many different sizes, but should be limited to about 2400px wide for most website designs. It’s recommended that you not increase the size of lo-res images, as this will cause them to appear “fuzzy.” To crop an image, click and drag a little on the image to get a crop-box started, and then in the two “Selection” parameter windows to the right, enter your desired dimensions (e.g. 300 x 300)… this will make the crop-box the desired size. Hover over your box until you get a cursor with four arrows, drag the box to where you want it positioned, and click the Crop button in the top row of buttons (on the far left).
RESTORING ORIGINAL IMAGE – It is always recommended that you save an original version of the photo you are altering to your desktop before you save your changes in the WordPress image editor. However, if after saving your edited image you need to revert back to the original version, click Edit Image, and Restore Original Image.
NOTE: Images that are not optimized and/or are high resolution (300 dpi or more) may take a long time to upload (for example, images that have just been uploaded from your digital camera), and will probably not display as quickly as images that are optimized for the web. Hi-res images can also take up a ton of space on the server! It’s typically best to optimize these images for the web in Photoshop or other software.- Replace Media – A special plugin has been added to allow quick and easy replacement of items in the Media library. In the media library list view, hover over an item and select “Replace Media.” Make sure the new item has the exact same file name as the old item (e.g., “image.jpg”), select the “Just replace the file” radio button, and click Upload.
- Controlling images – There are a number of ways to better control and customize display of your images in posts and pages, such as by “floating” images within a page, adding borders, and opening them using the “lightbox” effect.
See below for my video showing more about these options:
ADDITIONAL FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS
- Menus – For more on managing your navigation menu(s), first you’ll need to go to the Customizer under Appearance > Customize. Then check out the following video for more info on menus (plays here between 1:40 and 4:10):
WORDPRESS MAINTENANCE
- From time to time, widgets, plugins and WordPress itself will require updating. Updates typically happen when developers release security patches or add extra functionality. It’s an essential practice to keep your plugins and WordPress version updated to the latest versions. The top two reasons for sites being hacked are insecure passwords and outdated (vulnerable) software. WordPress has introduced automatic background updates in an effort to promote better security and to streamline the update experience, but by default, only minor WordPress releases are enabled (e.g. v5.1.1, v5.1.2). These minor releases are usually for maintenance and security purposes or translation file updates. Only core WordPress files will be auto-updated; your theme and plugins won’t be automatically updated. When your site is auto-updated, your site administrator will be notified by email. If your WordPress installation can’t update itself automatically for one reason or another, your site administrator will be notified of this as well.
For more information about assistance with ongoing WordPress maintenance, ask me about the Abell Smith Design Website Care Packages!
- Beaver Builder – Your website has a 3rd-party, drag-and-drop editor plugin installed called Beaver Builder. My clients have usually found this to be the easiest way to add and edit content.
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