Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
I
Changing Initial WordPress Settings
Entire topics could be written about settings in WordPress.com and WordPress.org; however, this is
WordPress In Depth
, not
WordPress Settings In Depth
, so we don't want to do that. Instead, we're
going to gallop through the many settings for WordPress.com here and highlight only the ones that
really make a difference, at setup time and beyond. Settings specific to WordPress.org are covered
in Chapter 11.
In this section, we highlight options that affect your entire blog rather than specific parts of it. Most
of these settings are under the actual Settings menu, which contains nine subpanels: General,
Writing, Reading, Discussion, Media, Privacy, Delete Blog,
OpenID, and Domains. We also cover Ratings settings and the
Post by Email option here.
This tour serves two purposes: to help you get your blog set up
correctly for getting started, so “wrong” settings don't drive you
crazy, and to begin familiarizing you with WordPress settings so
you know where to go when you want to change something
later. Even if you don't remember the location of a specific set-
ting, having gone through these pages, you can come back to
them and find the setting in which you're interested.
tip
For help on specific fields in
WordPress screens, start your
search with the Help link that
appears on every WordPress
administration page, or access
the WordPress Codex directly at
codex.wordpress.org.
General Settings
The appropriate values to choose for many of the General
Settings for WordPress are self-evident. For instance, the email
address to use for administration is set when you create the blog,
as described earlier in this chapter, and can be changed when
needed.
Among the General Settings, as shown in Figure 2.3, the follow-
ing settings are the ones for which we can provide some pointers
for getting the most out of WordPress:
caution
Many onscreen dialog boxes for
various kinds of traditional and
web software now avoid any kind
of Save button, but WordPress
uses them. On all the Settings
pages, click the Save Changes
button, or you're likely to lose
your changes.
•
Blog Title and Tagline
—Most of the blog themes you will
choose from (see the next chapter) will display these fields.
The title should be pithy and easy to remember; the tagline should be friendly and explain the
blog's area(s) of focus. Review them regularly as your blog progresses. Many blogs change their
focus over time, adding or dropping topics as needs and interests of bloggers and site visitors
change. If your blog's focus changes, its title and tagline should change, too.
•
Timezone
—The time in WordPress blogs is not automatically updated to match daylight savings
time. You have to change the Timezone setting in a way that is, in fact, incorrect to get the
correct time to show during daylight savings periods. To get your UTC time zone, visit
www.time.gov. During daylight savings periods, adjust one time zone to the east during daylight
savings time periods. The Timezone setting helpfully gives you the current time for the selected
time zone, so you can compare it with your time.
