Posts are the basic unit of a blog. They are not to be confused with Pages, however. Pages are usually where you place special “timeless” information such as your About page, your Contact page, etc. Your posts are generally for chronological or “regular” blog entries.

To write a post, go to Post>Add New, or click on the New Post button on the top bar. The top text box below “Add New Post” sets the post title, which appears at the top of the post. If you don’t set a post title, it will be published without a title. Once you input a title and WordPress autosaves (or you click the Save Draft button), a field appears below the title box with the URL the post will have, including the “slug”: the URL name for this post (highlighted in yellow).

If you don’t give the post a title before you save the draft (or WordPress autosaves one), WordPress assigns the post a number. Every post in your WordPress blog has a number, of course. Saving a draft of the post with a title will replace the slug.

If you’d like to change the slug yourself—to make it easier to remember, shorter, or more friendly to search engines—click on the Edit button. The slug portion of the URL turns into a text field. Be sure to save your changes.

Below the title box is the post box. In the box, you type the content for the post. At the top of the box are the buttons to upload media: image, video, audio, or other media (we’ll talk more about adding pictures and media next time).

Most of the buttons above the post window are fairly intuitive. From left to right, they are:

• Bold
• Italicize
• Strike through (a popular convention in blogging)
• Bulleted list
• Numbered list
• Blockquote (indents text; also may add some styling depending on your theme)
• Align left
• Align center
• Align right
• Create link (only an option if you have selected text)
• Unlink (only an option if you have selected linked text)
• Split post with More tag (creating a Read more. . . link on your blog homepage and feed)
• Spellcheck (with pull down for languages)
• Toggle fullscreen mode (makes the post box take up the whole browser window)
• Show or hide advanced toolbar (“Kitchen Sink” they call it):

Clicking on the last button adds a second toolbar below the first.

The advanced toolbar buttons, from left to right, are:

• Preset formatting styles (drop down menu)
• Underline
• Align full (justified)
• Select text color
• Paste as plain text
• Paste from Microsoft Word
• Remove formatting
• Insert/edit embedded media
• Insert a custom or special character (letters with accents, etc.)
• Unindent (only an option if the paragraph you’re editing is indented)
• Indent
• Undo
• Redo
• Help

Other capabilities on the New Post page:

• Drag and drop the individual boxes to customize the page so you can find all the things you use commonly. Just click on the title bar of a box and hold to drag.
• Toggle each box open or closed for clutter/cleanliness. Just click the down triangle on the title bar of the box (shown at right, it appears when you hover over the box).
• Assign a post a category—be sure to check the box beside the category name in the Categories box at the right, below the Publish (this may also be below the Tags box). (If this box is ‘closed,’ click the triangle at the end of the box to ‘open’ it.)

• Add a new category—click +Add New Category. (See also Creating Categories.)
• Add tags to a post (topics addressed in a post which are not as central or important to your blog as topics covered in categories)–use the Tags box. This is on the right side below the Publish box. After typing the tags, click Add. To remove tags, click the x next to the tag.
• Disable comments and/or pings (links back from other blogs that link to your post)—use the options in the Discussion box in the main column.
• Select a different author for a post—use the Author box. (If this box is ‘closed,’ click the + sign by the title of the box to ‘open’ it.)
• Set an optional excerpt—type a short summary or cut-and-paste a section of your post into the (Optional) Excerpt box. This is included in the code of your page and may be used by search engines to display info about the page on the search engine results page.
• Send a trackback (a comment-like notification to another blog post that your post includes a link to it)—put the URL of the linked post in the Send Trackbacks box. However, WordPress can also be set to automatically send trackbacks to any link included in your post by checking the first option under Settings>Discussion which reads “Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article (slows down posting.).”

Note that there are two versions of WordPress: wordpress.com and wordpress.org. WordPress.com is what you want to use if you just want a free blog. WordPress.org is if you want more control, but are ready to take care of the maintenance and technical stuff, as well as pay for hosting. Today we’re looking at wordpress.com

Go to WordPress.com. To sign up for a blog, click the big orange button on the right-hand side of the screen. You know, the one that says “Sign up now.” (You already knew that, huh?)

On the next page, you provide some very impersonal information: a username and password for your account, and an email address where WordPress can reach you.

Be sure here that you check the box to indicate that you’ve read the terms of service (which you should always read, of course), as well as tick the circle by Gimme a blog! (Like username.wordpress.com). You’ll get to select the exact address at wordpress.com in the next step. This option is selected by default. The other choice is if you just want a username for commenting on other WordPress.com blogs, etc.

As promised, we now get to set the blog address. You select an address for your blog as well as its title (what will appear in big letters at the top of every page). Note that there are no @ signs in the address of your blog—@ signs are only used in email addresses! Your blog address will be whatever you choose (if it’s available), followed by .wordpress.com (Unlike with Blogger, the address can’t be changed—choose wisely!).

Also here, you indicate what language you’ll be writing in and whether or not you want Google and other websites, including WordPress’s public listings, to be able to access your blog. If you’d like to keep your blog more private (and also make it harder to find), uncheck this box before you click Signup.

WordPress gives you a message that your confirmation email has been sent. In the mean time, if you’ve opted to be included in the public listings of WordPress, you can fill out your profile with your name and a little about yourself.

Here’s our confirmation email:

As it says, click on the link or cut-and-paste it into your browser’s address bar.

And your account is active! The confirmation message gives you a link to visit your blog, where they’ve already put up a useful Hello World! post for you. If you’re signed in, there’s a dark gray bar across the top of the screen—your dashboard. Click on New Post to start writing your own blog posts. (You can click on the picture below to enlarge it to see the New Post button.)

On the New Post page, you can write the individual posts for your blog. Enter a title in the title box—the title of the post appears at the top of the post in big letters. (This post’’ title, for example, is “Beginners’ Guide to WordPress: Sign Up.”) (Again, you can click on this image to enlarge it for a better view.)

In the larger box below, type the words you’d like to see in the content or body of your post. (I’m pretty sure we’ll also be talking about what all those buttons do soon, too.)

To save the draft to finish later, or to make sure you don’t lose your work should your computer or browser crash, click the Save Draft button in the Publish box on the right side of the screen. To publish it to your public blog, click the blue Publish button. Once you publish, you’ll see this at the top of the screen:

You can click on the View post link to see your public post:

Congratulations! You just started a blog on WordPress!

What blogging topics would you like covered for WordPress?

We’re going back to the basics for this next blogging series: I’m going to alternate weeks on Blogger and WordPress.com, and go back all the way to the beginning. I imagine you probably already have a blog, and you’ve probably been through all these steps, but you may know someone who’s interested in getting started, but afraid to try. Fear not! It’s easy! And if you want someone to show you what to do, look no further, because here’s the Beginniners’ Guide to Blogger, part one: how to sign up and set up your blog the first time.

Go to http://www.blogger.com. Here’s what the screen looks like:

If you already have a Google account—such as for Gmail, Google Groups or Orkut—you can use that to sign in at the top. Otherwise, click the big orange button to create an account.

Account creation is easy. You do have to supply some personal details—but nothing more intimate than your email address. You also set a display name here, the name that appears at the bottom of your blog posts. If you don’t want to use your real name, be sure to set that to your pseudonym of choice.

If you already have a Google account, when you sign in, you’ll see this. Click the blue button to create your blog:

Whether you just created a new account or are using an existing account, the next step is the same (You can click to enlarge the picture below). You select a name for your blog (what will appear in big letters at the top of every page) as well as its address. Note that there are no @ signs in the name of your blog—@ signs are only used in email addresses! Your blog address will be whatever you choose (if it’s available), followed by .blogspot.com —in the example here, it’s http://thisisafakeoblogo.blogspot.com. Use the “check availability” link to make sure that address isn’t already taken.

Type in the spam-catcher letters and click the orange Continue button.

Next, you get to choose the template or layout and colors of your blog. There are several choices here, so scroll down to see them all and pick the one you like best. (Note: in an upcoming post, we’ll talk about how to get custom designs for your Blogger blog.)

Voila! Your blog has been created! You can hit the orange Continue button here to start posting, or look at the Advanced Setup Options.

The advanced options allow you to get your own domain for your Blogger blog—i.e., ThisIsAFakeoBlogo.com instead of thisisafakeoblogo.blogspot.com. (Purchasing a domain will cost money. Here’s some of my advice on buying your own domain.) The other advanced option is to import a blog you already have into your new one.

If you went with the orange Continue button, you’ll go right to the Write New Post page. Enter a title in the title box—the title of the post appears at the top of the post in big letters. (This post’s title, for example, is “Beginners’ Guide to Blogger: Sign Up.”)

In the larger box below, type the words you’d like to see in the content or body of your post. (I’m pretty sure we’ll also be talking about what all those buttons do soon, too.)

To save the draft to finish later, or to make sure you don’t lose your work should your computer or browser crash, click the Save Draft button. To publish it to your public blog, click the Publish Post button. Once you publish, you’ll see this:

Follow the View Blog link to see your blog and your first post live in the world:

Congratulations! You just started a blog on Blogger!

What blogging topics would you like covered for Blogger or WordPress?