WordPress can initially seem daunting, but with a little know-how, you can navigate it like a pro. This guide covers some essential skills, from changing themes to using HTML and CSS. Let’s get started!

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Changing Your WordPress Theme

Your theme controls the look and feel of your website. To change it, go to your WordPress dashboard (usually yourwebsite.com/wp-admin) and navigate to Appearance > Themes. You’ll see a selection of installed themes. You can browse available themes by clicking “Add New”. Once you find a theme you like, click “Install” and then “Activate” to apply it to your site.

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Using HTML Tags in Blog Posts

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is very important for web content. It’s the code that tells your browser how to display text, images, and other elements on a web page. Here’s how you can use it in your WordPress posts:

Creating Lists

Lists are a great way to organize information. Here’s how to create ordered and unordered lists using HTML:

Unordered List (Bulleted):

Let’s say you want to list your favorite fruits:

<ul>
    <li>Apples</li>
    <li>Bananas</li>
    <li>Oranges</li>
</ul>

This code will produce the following on your webpage:

• Apples
• Bananas
• Oranges

Ordered List (Numbered):

If you have steps in a process, use an ordered list:

<ol>
    <li>Step 1: Preheat the oven</li>
    <li>Step 2: Mix the ingredients</li>
    <li>Step 3: Bake for 30 minutes</li>
</ol>

This will show up as:

1. Step 1: Preheat the oven
2. Step 2: Mix the ingredients
3. Step 3: Bake for 30 minutes

Adding Emphasis

Use the <em></em> tag to emphasize a word or phrase. This italicizes the text.

This is some <em>emphasized</em> text.

This will look like:

“This is some emphasized text.”

Headings

Headings help structure your content.

For example: 

<h1>How to Bake a Cake</h1>
<h2>Ingredients</h2>
<h2>Instructions</h2>

These tags create headings like this:

How to Bake a Cake

Ingredients

Instructions

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Using Custom CSS

Custom CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) lets you control the style of your website. It’s how you change colours, fonts, layout, and more. Go to Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS in your WordPress dashboard. This is where you can add your own CSS rules.

For example, to make all your H2 headings a nice shade of green, you would add the following CSS:

h2 {
    colour: #008000; /* Green */
}

This tells the browser to make all elements with the <h2> tag green. You can use different colour codes (like #008000), colour names (like green), or other CSS colour formats.

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And there you have it! These are some fundamental WordPress skills to get you started. With these tools, you can create a functional and beautiful website. Enjoy!