A quick guide to using Wordpress.com. How to set up a blog, change the theme, make it viewable to a selected group of others, create posts, categories and pages.

1. Guide to Wordpress.com blogs
1. Register your own free blog
2. Get to know your blog
3. Change appearance using Themes
4. Make your blog private & invite viewers
5. Creating & publishing Posts
6. Using Categories for Posts
7. Subscribing to other blogs
8. Making & managing Comments
9. Using Pages

2. Register your own free blog

3. Go to www.wordpress.com and click
on ‘Get started here’

4. Enter your details and click
‘Create Blog’
Use .wordpress.com
It is free of charge.
Use your @uwe.ac.uk
email address.

5. Check your email to complete
registration
Click ‘Activate Blog’ in
the activation email
you receive from
wordpress.com.
You can fill your profile
details in now (name,
interests etc.) or any
time after you have
activated your blog by
clicking the name of
your blog in the top
right corner.

6. Click on the ‘My Blogs’ tab

7. Click on the name of your new blog

8. Your new blog
Don’t worry if it doesn’t
look exactly like this. The
appearance may be
different because your
blog has a different
‘theme’.
You can change the
appearance of your blog
to suit your own
preferences later. This
guide will show you how
to do it.
The address of your blog is: www.thenameofyourblog.wordpress.com
So in this example it is: www.adummyname.wordpress.com

9. Get to know your blog

10. Finding your way around
• You don’t need to know what every feature or button does to get going!
• The part of your blog that others can see is often called the ‘front end’.
• The ‘Dashboard’ is where you create and edit content (text, images, links etc.) and
manage settings like Privacy, Subscriptions, Comments and Appearance.
• Remember, for advice & help at any time go to: www.learn.wordpress.com

11. See what your blog looks like to others
To go to the ‘front end’ of the
blog click on the name of your
blog in the top left corner of the
window.
You can do this at any time to see
what your blog looks like to
others.

12. Use your ‘Dashboard’ to adjust settings
• Click the name of your blog in the top left corner then click Dashboard.
• Use the Dashboard to create and edit content and control settings for your blog.
• Only you can see your Dashboard.
• You can also view it here: www.thenameofyourblog.wordpress.com/wp-admin

13. Themes

14. Change the appearance of your blog
Change the
appearance of
your blog by
selecting a
different ‘theme’.
Click ‘Appearance’
and ‘Themes’ in
the Dashboard
menu. Find a
theme you like
and click ‘Activate’.
Go to the front
end of your
website and
refresh the page in
your browser to
see how it looks.

15. Comparison of two ‘themes’
default ‘2010’ theme ‘Beach’ theme
• All of the content (text, images, posts, comments etc.) remains safely on your blog.
• The ‘look and feel’ (header image, page layout, menus, colours and fonts) will change.
• Most themes are free of charge. You can change theme as often as you like.

16. Privacy

17. Adjust your ‘Privacy’ settings
You need to make your
blog ‘private’ so that
only the people you
invite can view your
blog.
From your Dashboard
go to ‘Settings’ then
click ‘Privacy’.

18. Choose the setting and invite viewers
Select ‘I would like my site to be private, visible only to users I choose’
and click ‘Save Changes’.
Then click ‘Invite viewers to your blog’.

19. Inviting others to view your blog
Enter the email
addresses
(separated by a
comma) of
people you
want to invite.
Remember to
invite your tutor.
You should
invite people as
viewers so
select the
‘Viewer’ role
and click ‘Send
Invitation’.

20. Creating & Publishing Posts

21. Create a new blog Post
You can create a new blog Post
in several different ways. It
doesn’t matter which method
you choose. They all do the
same thing.
From the
Dashboard
From the ‘front end’

22. How to write and publish a Post
Writing, editing and
publishing a Post is
straightforward.
1. Write the title of
the Post.
2. Write the main
content for the
Post.
3. Click the
‘Publish’ button.
Read the content of
this unpublished
Post to see how it is
done.

23. A published Post
Remember you can
see what your blog
Posts look like to
others (the ‘front
end’) at any time by
clicking your blog’s
name in the top left
corner.

24. Categories

25. Making ‘Categories’ for Posts
Read the content
of this unpublished
Post for
instructions.
Categories make it
easy to organise
your Posts and for
others to find your
Posts.

26. A published Post in a Category
This is the
published Post.
Links to recent
Posts and links to
Categories are
shown on the page.
Below the Post you
can also see a link
for others to ‘Leave
a comment’ about
your Post.

27. Subscribing to other blogs

28. Viewing other’s work
• If your group members’ blogs are set as ‘private’ they will need to invite you to
view their blogs.
• Click the ‘Accept Invitation’ link in the invitation email you receive.
• You must have a Wordpress.com account to view ‘private’ blogs you are invited to.
If you don’t have an account yet, create one.

29. Subscribe to other’s blogs
• If you subscribe to your group members’ blogs (or anyone else’s) you will receive
an email notification every time they add a new Post
• Go to the blog you want to subscribe to and click the ‘+Follow’ button.

30. Manage your subscriptions
• Go to your Dashboard and click ‘Blogs I Follow’ to see the blogs you are subscribed to.
• You can change the frequency of email notification of new Posts from here too.

31. Comments

32. Commenting
Commenting on a
Posts can help
learning. Comments
are ideal for giving
and receiving
feedback and
developing ideas.
Read the content of
this Post to see how
to make a new
Comment.
Comments often
need to be ‘approved’
by a blog’s owner
before they are
published.

33. Managing Comments
View all the Comments
you have made on
other blogs click via
'Comment's I've Made'.
To manage (approve,
edit, delete etc.) all
Comments from
others, click
'Comments' in the
main menu.
You can view and
manage recent
Comments directly
from your Dashboard.

34. Pages

35. Use Pages for ‘static’ content
Click ‘Pages’ on your
Dashboard to add or
edit Pages.
You may want an
‘About Me’, ‘Learning
Outcomes’ or ‘Project
Outline’ Page.
Posts are displayed in
reverse chronological
order on your blog but
Pages are usually used
for ‘static’ content
that isn’t time specific
and is less likely to be
updated often.

36. Summary
This guide has shown you how to:
• Get your own free wordpress.com blog
• View the public ‘front end’ & the private ‘Dashboard’
• Control privacy settings
• Create & publish Posts
• Create Categories for Posts
• Subscribe to other blogs
• Make & manage Comments
• Change the Theme
• Use Pages