SELECTED FEATURES

• CUSTOMIZED THEME – Your theme has been customized to give it a unique and personalized look
• WORDPRESS 5 – Your new site has the latest version of WordPress installed as your website’s Content Management System (CMS).
• CMS IMPROVEMENTS – Implemented improvements and customizations to the default WordPress interface, to maximize the usability of the CMS.
• PLUGINS & WIDGETS – Installed a number of plugins and widgets to enhance site functioning.
• RESPONSIVE DESIGN – Implemented responsive design of the site for devices of all sizes.
• SECURITY – Implemented a number of security enhancements to guard against various attacks (e.g., brute force attacks).
• AUTOMATIC DATABASE BACKUPS – Activated automatic backups of the MySQL database at regular intervals, in case of server/site crash.

1. LOGGING IN TO WORDPRESS

   Here’s where you go to log into the WordPress CMS:

   https://thornelane.com/staging/5882/wp-admin/
   
   The front-end of the site is here (what the public will see):
   https://thornelane.com/staging/5882/
   
   *NOTE: this is the “staging” site for your new website, meaning a temporary website for the purposes of construction. Once your new site goes live, the login link will change to https://thornelane.com/wp-admin/ and the site itself will be at https://thornelane.com/.
   
   Your usernames and passwords for your two WordPress user roles (Admin and Editor) have been sent in a separate email.

1. USER ROLES – The “Editor” user role minimizes the amount of things you need to deal with in the WordPress CMS (as opposed to “Administrator,” which has access to most site functions). Most of this guide is written for a user logged in as an Editor.
2. LOGIN LIMITS – For security, login attempts have been limited to 10 retries, after which the person attempting to log in is locked out for 20 minutes (4 lockouts increase the time to 24 hours). Go to Settings > Limit Login Attempts to change these settings.

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2. GETTING FAMILIAR WITH WORDPRESS

   You will see a few items in the menu to the left:



• Posts – are one of the two main types of content within a WordPress site (the other is Pages). Posts, better known as blog posts or news posts, are typically organized chronologically.
• Media – is the library of images, PDF’s, and other media files that have been uploaded to WordPress.
• Pages – Pages are the webpages that you see in the main navigation sections of the site, such as “About” and “Contact.” They are organized hierarchically in a tree structure.
• WooCommerce – is your website’s store (see below for instructions).
• Products – are all the products inside your store.
• Analytics – is where you see your store’s sales statistics.
• Profile – Access to your profile in the WordPress system.
• Insights – is where you view your website’s traffic statistics.
• [Collapse menu] – will give you a smaller menu to deal with, using only icons.
  
  *NOTE: your version of WordPress is completely responsive, so you can use the CMS in any browser on any size device!

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3. HOW TO ADD/EDIT CONTENT IN WORDPRESS

   You have three choices for adding or editing content in WordPress: the Classic Editor, the new Gutenberg editor, or the Beaver Builder plugin. Each is a reasonably user-friendly option, but is also slightly different from the others. At this time, my recommendation is to use the Classic Editor, but you may want to try them all and see for yourself. The three options are explaned below:

1. Classic Editor (recommended) – many WordPress users prefer to stay with the Classic Editor. To use the Classic Editor on a Page, for example, 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)
2. Gutenberg – As of WordPress version 5.0, the CMS has incorporated its own native, drag-and-drop block editor. To use Gutenberg on a Page, go to Pages > All Pages, and hover over the page you want to edit. Select “Edit (Block Editor).”
   
   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/)
3. Beaver Builder – Your website also has a 3rd-party drag-and-drop editor plugin installed called Beaver Builder.
   
   For more information on using Beaver Builder, visit:
   Getting Started with Beaver Builder
   (https://wpbeaveraddons.com/getting-started-beaver-builder/)
   
   For more information on converting existing content from Beaver Builder to the Classic Editor or Gutenberg (and vice-versa), visit:
   Convert content between WordPress 5 and Beaver Builder
   (https://kb.wpbeaverbuilder.com/article/588-convert-content-between-wordpress-5-and-beaver-builder)

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4. WooCommerce

   Here’s how you manage your website’s store:

1. Your store was built using WooCommerce, a flexible, open-source eCommerce solution built on WordPress. There are a ton of WooCommerce tutorial videos out there to help you get familiar with the platform, but the below looks like one of the most complete and succinct. The video is one hour long, but you can skip ahead to start at 7:12. It’s recommended when you watch the video that you have your WordPress Dashboard open in separate browser tab, so you can pause video often to try out the instructions:

   Pay particular attention to the tax and shipping setup options, and product setup (description, price, inventory, etc). You can ignore the Wizard setup overview, as well as PayPal setup – both have already been taken care of. Also, many products have already created in your store, including Create-Your-Own-Basket (the variable product). There is also a test product with a price of $0.01, for easily trying out your PayPal payment gateway. Finally, take note of your already-created product categories (Events, Seasonal, Themed). These can be edited or added to by going to Products > Categories.

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5. HOW TO EDIT IMAGES IN WORDPRESS

1. 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.
2. 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.

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6. HOW TO ADD A YOUTUBE VIDEO TO A POST OR PAGE

1. In YouTube – Navigate to the YouTube page for your selected video, and right below the video, click the “Share” tab. Select “Embed”, and you’ll get a window with the embed code. Copy this code.
2. In WordPress – To add a video into a post, choose Posts > Add New Post in the Classic Editor. Simply paste the embed code into the content of the new post in your WordPress Text Editor. Click “Publish.”



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7. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

   Instructions specific to your website – coming soon!



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8. WORDPRESS MAINTENANCE

1. 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 good 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. 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. Once 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 Abell about the Abell Smith Design Website Care Package!