Wordpress+Workshop--Widgets+and+Links

For this workshop, I am assuming that you already know the basics of your Wordpress e-portfolio. I wanted to go into a few new areas so that you can make your blog as interesting as possible.

I. __WIDGETS__ A lot of how your blog looks depends upon the “widgets” you use and which “links” you choose to include in your blog. Widgets are the small programs that run along the side or bottom of your blog (depending upon your theme). Widgets are part of your theme, so in order to change your Widgets you have to go to the “appearance” section of your dashboard: 1) Sign onto your blog. 2) Go to your dashboard. 3) Go to the bottom of the dashboard to “appearance.” 4) Choose “widgets.” 5) You will see a list of widgets and, below that, a section entitled “inactive widgets.” Look through the list of widgets and decide if there are any widgets you would like to include on the side of your blog. 6) Choose a widget by placing your cursor on it and “dragging” it up into the sidebar or footer area of your blog. 7) After the widget is placed, open it by clicking on the arrow on the side of the widget to customize. 8) Save your changes and click on “close.” 9) Now take a look at how your widget looks by clicking on the name of your blog, which should take you to the home page. If the widget does not look like you want it to, or if it needs to be moved, return to the dashboard and fix your widget.

II. __LINKS__. If you want to link some other webpages to your blog, one easy way to do this is to create “links.”
 * 1) 1. Go to the dashboard.
 * 2) 2. Find “links.”
 * 3) 3. Click on “All Links” and delete any links you don’t want by checking the boxes next to the links then going to the top of the list to the “bulk actions” pull-down menu and choosing “delete” and then “apply.”
 * 4) 4. Now click “Link Categories” and make categories for your links. On [] you will see that my categories include class times, other instructors, and past students.
 * 5) 5. Save “link categories.”
 * 6) 6. Go to “Links.”
 * 7) 7. Enter the title you want to give a link.
 * 8) 8. Add the URL (http address).
 * 9) 9. Save link.