Tutorial 1b

Reading: WordPress Settings

1. General Settings
In this tutorial, we will study about General Settings in WordPress. WordPress general
setting is used to set the basic configuration settings for your site. In the setting
administration screen, it is a default setting screen.
Following are the steps to access the general settings −
Step 1 − Click on Settings → General option in WordPress.
Step 2 − The General Setting page is displayed as shown in the following snapshot.

Following are the details of the fields on general settings page.

 Site Title − It displays the name of the site in the template header.
 Tagline − Displays a short sentence about your site.
 WordPress Address (URL) − It is the URL of WordPress directory where your
all core application files are present.
 Site Address(URL) − Enter the site URL which you want your site to display on
the browser.
 E-mail Address − Enter your e-mail address which helps to recover your
password or any update.
  Membership − Anyone can register an account on your site after you check this
checkbox.
 New User Default Role − The default role is set for the newly registered user or
members.
 Timezone − Sets the time zone based on the particular city.
 Date Format − Sets the date format as you need to display on the site.
 Time Format − Sets the time format as you need to display on the site.
 Week Starts On − Select the week day which you prefer to start for WordPress
calendar. By default it is set as Monday.
 Site Language − Sets the language for the WordPress dashboard.
Step3 − After filling all the information about general settings, click on Save
Changes button. It saves all your general setting information.
The writing settings controls the writing experience and provides options for
customizing WordPress site. These settings control the features in the adding and
editing posts, Pages, and Post Types, as well as the optional functions like Remote
Publishing, Post via e-mail, and Update Services.

2. Writing Settings
Following are the steps to access the writing settings −
Step (1) − To change writing settings, go to Settings → Writing option.
Step (2) − The Writing Setting page is displayed as shown in the following screen.

Following are the details of the fields on the page.

 Default Post Category − It is a category to be applied to a post and you can
leave it as Uncategorized.
 Default Post Format − It is used by themes to select post format to be applied
to a post or create different styles for different types of posts.
 Post via e-mail − This option uses e-mail address to create posts and publishes
posts on your blog through e-mail. To use this, you'll need to set up a secret e-
mail account with a POP3 access, and any mail received at this address will be
posted.
 Mail Server − It allows reading the e-mails that you send to WordPress and
stores them for retrieval. For this, you need to have POP3 compatible mail
server and it will have URI address such as mail.example.com, which you
should enter here.
 Login Name − To create posts, WordPress will need its own e-mail account.
The Login Name will use this e-mail address and should be kept as a secret as
spammers will post links redirecting to their own websites.
 Password − Set password for the above e-mail address.
  Default Mail Category − It allows selecting custom category for all the posts
that are published via Post by e-mail feature.
 Update Services − When you publish a new post, WordPress will automatically
notify the site update services in the box. See the Update Services on the
codex for the long list of possible services.
Step (3) − After filling all the above information, click on Save Changes button to save
your information.
In this chapter, we will study about Reading Settings in WordPress. Reading Setting
is used to set the content related to the front page. You can set the number of post to
be displayed on the main page.
Following are the steps to access the reading settings −
Step (1) − Click on Settings → Reading option in WordPress.
3. Reading Settings

Step(2) − The Reading Settings page is displayed as shown in the following screen.
Following are the details of the fields on reading settings.
 Front page displays − This section is used to display the front page in any of
the following format −
o Your latest posts − It displays latest posts on the front page.
o A static page − It displays the static pages on the front page.
o Front Page − You can select the actual page you want to display on front
page from the drop down.
o Posts Page − You can select the page from the drop down which
contains posts.
 Blog pages show at most − The number of posts to be displayed per page or
site. By default, it is set as 10.
 Syndication feeds show the most recent − The user can view the number of
posts when they download one of the site feeds. By default, it is set as 10.
 For each article in a feed, show − This section is used to display the post by
selecting any of the following formats −
o Full Text − It displays the complete post. It is set as default.
o Summary − It displays the summary of the post.
 Search Engine Visibility − After clicking on the checkbox, Discourage search
engines from indexing this site, your site will be ignored by the search engine.
Step(3) − After filling all the information, click on Save Changes button to save your
Reading Setting information.
4. Discussion Settings
In this chapter, we will study about Discussion settings in WordPress. WordPress
discussion setting can be defined as the interaction between the blogger and the
visitors. These settings are done by the admin to have a control over the posts/pages
that come in through users.
Following are the steps to access the Discussion setting −
Step (1) − Click on Settings → Discussion option in WordPress.
Step (2) − The Discussion Settings page is displayed as shown in the following
snapshot.
Following fields are seen in Discussion settings.
 Default article settings − These settings are default to the new pages you
create or new posts. This contains three more settings. They are −
o Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article − When you
publish articles then it sends a notification (sends pings and trackback) to
other blogs.
o Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and
trackbacks) − Accepts pings from other blogs.
o Allow people to post comments on new articles − You can allow or
disallow other people to comment on your article using this setting.
You can change the settings as per your will for individual articles.
 Other Comment Settings − This setting has the following options −
o Comment author must fill out name and e-mail − When you check this
box, it is mandatory for visitors to fill their name and email address.
o Users must be registered and logged in to comment − If you check
this box, only those registered visitors can leave comments, if not
checked anyone can leave any number of comments.
o Automatically close comments on articles older than days − This
option allows you to accept comments only for a particular time period as
per your wish.
o Enable threaded (nested) comments − When you check this option,
visitors can reply or have a discussion and get responses.
o Break comments into pages with top level comments per page and
the page displayed by default − If your pages are getting a lot of
comments then you can split them into different pages by checking this
box.
o Comments should be displayed with the comments at the top of
each page − You can arrange the comments in the form of ascending or
descending order.
 Email me whenever − This setting contains two options, namely −
o Anyone posts a comment − When you check into this box, the author
gets an e-mail for every single comment that is posted.
o A comment is held for moderation − This is used in case you do not
want your comment to be updated before it's moderated by the admin.
 Before a comment appears − This setting allows how your posts are controlled.
There are two more settings as followed −
 o Comment must be manually approved − If you check this box then only
the approved comments by the admin can be displayed on the posts or
pages.
o Comment author must have a previously approved comment − This
can be checked when you want to approve a comment of an author
whose has commented and his e-mail address matches the e-mail
address of the previous posted comment. Otherwise the comment is held
for moderation.
 Comment Moderation − Contain only a specific number of links that are
allowed into a comment.
 Comment Blacklist − You can input your own spam words which you do not
want your visitors to enter into the comments, URL, e-mail etc.; later it would
filter the comments.
 Avatars − Avatar is a small image that displays at the top-right-hand corner of
the dashboard screen beside your name. It is like your profile picture. Here you
have a few more options where you can set your avatar for WordPress site.
o Avatar Display − It displays your avatar besides your name when it is
checked.
o Maximum rating − You have a four other options of avatars you can use.
They are G, PG, R and X. This is the age section where you select
according to which type of audience you want to display your posts.
o Default Avatar − In this option, there are few more types of avatars with
images; you can keep these avatars according to your visitors e-mail
address.
Step (3) − Click on Save Changes button to save the changes.
5. Media Settings
In this chapter, we will study about Media Settings in WordPress. It is used to set the
height and width of the images which you're going to use on your website.
Step (1) − Click on Settings → Media option in WordPress.

Step (2) − The Media Settings page is displayed as seen in the following screenshot.
Following are the details of the fields on Media settings −
 Thumbnail size − Set the size of the thumbnail.
 Medium size − Set the height and width of medium size images.
 Large size − Set width and height of larger images.
 Uploading files − After checking this checkbox, the uploaded image will be
arranged into year and month based folder.
Step (3) − After setting the dimension in pixels, click on Save Changes button. It
saves your media setting information.

6. PermaLink Settings
In this chapter, we will learn about Permalink settings in WordPress. Permalink is a
permanent link to a particular blog post or category. It allows setting the default
permalink structure. These settings are used to add permalinks to your posts in
WordPress. Following are the steps to access permalink settings.
Step (1) − Click on Settings → Permalinks option from the left navigation menu.
Step (2) − When you click on Permalinks, the following page appears on the screen.
Here are a few settings you can make −
 Common settings −
Check any of the radio buttons to choose your permalink structure for your blogs
o Default − It sets the default URL structure in Wordpress.
o Day and name − It sets URL structure according to the date and name in
your posts.
o Month and name − It sets the URL structure according to the month and
name in your post.
o Numeric − It sets numbers in the URL structure in your post.
o Post name − It sets post name in the URL structure in your post.
 o Custom Structure − It sets the URL structure of your choice by writing
the desired name in the given text box.
 Optional
These are optional. You can add custom structure for main category or tag URL.
If your text box is empty then default settings is used. Here you have two
options.
o Category Base − Add custom prefix for your category URL.
o Tag Base − Add custom prefix to your Tags URL.
Step (3) − Once you are done with changes, click on Save Changes button to save
the permalink settings.

7. Plugins Settings
In this chapter, we will study how to use plugins in your WordPress site. Plugin allows
to easily modify, customize or enhance WordPress blog or post. The WordPress Plugin
is a software that can be uploaded to expand the functionality of the site. They add
services or features to WordPress blog. Plugins are used to make your work easier.
Following are the simple steps to add plugins.
Step (1) − On the left side bar, Click on Plugins → Installed Plugins as shown in the
screen.
Step (2) − The following page appears.

In this section, you can view the already installed plugins.

Step (3) − Click on → Plugins → Add New menu as shown in the following screen.
Step (4) − A list of plugins appears that are used in WordPress. Here you can directly
install plugins from the available list or you can upload it by clicking on Upload Plugin.
When you click on Upload Plugin you'll get the following page.

Click on Browse, it goes back to the page where you can select plugins from
WordPress site. And if you click on Choose File, you can add files from your system.
Otherwise, you can directly choose the plugin that you need and click on Install
now as seen in the following screenshot.
When you click on Install Now, the package starts to download and gets installed.
Then, click on Activate plugin to active that plugin to use in WordPress as seen in the
following screen.

After clicking on Activate Plugin you'll get a message as Plugin activated and you can
also find the installed plugin in the list.
Below the plugin activated message, you can view few options such as All, Active,
Inactive and Update available.
When you click on Active the following page appears. Here you can view all the
activated plugins.
When we click on Inactive, the plugins which are available but are not activated gets
displayed. You can activate this plugin by clicking on Activate.

When you click on Update available, you'll get a list of plugins that must be updated.
Click on Update and you get a message as Updated.
Click on Bulk Actions and select any of the options. Click on Apply button to update,
delete, activate or deactivate each of the plugins by checking the boxes.

In Search Installed Plugins you can just type your plugin name in the text box that is
already installed and click on the Search Installed Plugins button.
When you click on the Search installed Plugin button you get the following page with
your respective plugin.

Step (5) − Click on Plugins → Editor from the side bar.

Step (6) − The following page gets displayed.
This page lets you edit your plugins. A few options are explained.
 Select plugin to edit − Allows you to select a plugin from the dropdown and edit
it.
 Documentation − Allows you to select the tools from the dropdown to edit the
plugin.
 Plugin files − Allows you to select files from the list and edit accordingly.
Finally, after editing the plugin files, click on Update file.