A picture says more than a thousand words.
WordPress makes it easy for you to add images to your WordPress site. There are 2 steps involved to inserting an image into a post. First, the image file must be uploaded onto your web server before it can be inserted into a post. The second step is to actually insert the image into the post in the appropriate location.

The simplest way to do this is to use the “Add Media” function on the page/post screen (see the Upload/Insert buttons to the left of the “Visual” and “HTML” tabs). Choose the appropriate button depending on whether you are adding photos, videos, audio, or miscellaneous media (e.g. PDF files). This method will complete both steps as outlined above.

In the “From Computer” area of the screen you need to upload the desired image file. NOTE: Before hitting the “Upload from Computer” button it is recommended that you select the “Browser Uploader” instead of using the default Flash Uploader.

After selecting the “Browser Uploader”, hit the “Browse…” button and choose the desired image file on your computer. Then, hit the “Upload” button. Your image file is now on your web server.

Make sure you give the image an appropriate title, as well as a relevant description if desired. Choose the desired alignment and size, and hit the “insert into post” button. Your image is now inserted into the post at the location where your cursor was last active.

Every time you upload an image to your web server it is added to the “Gallery” of images that are available for that blog. If you want to insert the same image into another post go to the “Gallery”, hit the “Show” link next to the image title, and then follow the same instructions to insert that image into another location or post.

As you likely know by now, your WordPress blog-based website has many ways to publish content within, such as pages, posts and comments. In this tutorial, I am going to focus on the subject of Pages, explaining briefly what makes them different than posts and comments. Next I will take you step by step through adding a new page to your WordPress website.

Pages and Posts are very similar in their methods to publish. In many cases, they can even be displayed almost identically at your WordPress. The main difference between the two is that Pages are by design static while Posts can be static by are by design typically dynamic. In brief this simply means that pages are usually used to present long standing information so once you publish a page it will remain visible to the viewers until you remove them.

Posts on the other hand are most commonly used to present time sensitive or even frequently changing information and typically in chronological order.  If the administrator of a WordPress site chooses a number of posts to display in a specific location, for instance five, the standard practice is for WordPress to display the five most recent posts in the designated category or with the specified tags. (I will explain categories and tags in greater detail at a later date.)

Steps to Adding New Pages

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard. If you don’t already know how to do this, please read my tutorial here first.
2. To go to the Pages main menu, click on the word ‘Pages’ in the left sidebar of your Dashboard. Your sidebar items may or may not be expanded to show their sub items. You will not need to expand them this time but, if you are simply curious, you may click the down-pointing triangle to the right of each title.
   

   You will find Pages below Links in the sidebar

3. Now that you have reached the Pages main dialog, Click on ‘Add New’ near the upper left of screen. This will open a blank page ready for you to fill in. It’s going to feel much like writing an email, just with a few extra options involved, so don’t be intimidated!
   

   You will see a list of any existing pages, as seen in this example taken from my client's dashboard

4. In the top blank white box, give your new page a title. In most cases it helps to be concise because this title will be how your page is listed in the navigation menu of your site. If possible, try to keep it to 3 or 4 short words.
5. Create the content of your new page. The next blank white box below the title is where the content goes. If you have ever used email or word processing software, you will see some very familiar buttons at the top of it, including text formatting like bold, italic and strike-through, font color, underline, text alignment left, center and right and pre-formatted options in the drop-down menu titled “Format”. In the format submenu, you can designate the way WordPress should stylize a block of text you have highlighted. For example, Paragraph (or normal formatting), Address (generally italic) and Header (generally larger and bolder than Paragraph).
   1. Editing Modes. There are two modes in which to edit your content in WordPress: using the Visual mode tab or the HTML mode tab, both at the upper right of the content box. In most cases you will use the default Visual mode as it presents in a “what you see is what you get” method. In the event that you need to do more advanced editing to the end product using HTML, you can use the HTML mode tab which will show all the coding markup while you edit. If you are unfamiliar with HTML, it is unlikely you will need to use this.Your WordPress page can contain much more than just simple text.
   2. Multimedia (photos/songs/video). You can use the multimedia buttons just right of “Upload/Insert” at the top of the content box to place photos, music and video into your pages. Upon clicking on the relevant boxes, you will be prompted either to upload a file from your computer, provide the address of such content that is already hosted at another website or to select a multimedia file you have already uploaded which will be in your Gallery. Click here for a tutorial on inserting pictures, music and video.
   3. Don’t Sweat It! Feel free to experiment with your content. You don’t have to worry about wrecking anything. The New Page dialog you are at is isolated to affecting just the new page. If you get frustrated and lost, you can always click “Move to Trash” at the far upper right in red to throw it away and start over!
6. Choose where your new page will appear in the navigation menu. This is accomplished in the right sidebar under Attributes. If your new page is going to be a top level item on the menu bar, you can leave the default Parent selection of “Main Page (no parent)”. However, if you would like your new page to show as a sub-menu item under a parent, then choose the menu item you would like to be its parent.Next, if your WordPress theme has multiple templates for page layouts, pick the one that fits the way you want your new page to be displayed in the Template drop-down menu.Lastly, under Order is a box with a zero in it by default. If you replace this with a number, it will designate which order position your new page will appear in either the Main Menu or Sub-Menu, depending on whether you chose a parent and if there are other items in it’s same menu location.
   

   This is found in your New Page dialog's right sidebar

7. Choose whether you will allow Comments and Pingbacks. Allowing comments will mean that readers, most likely with a required approval from you depending on how you have your site configured, can leave their responses to your comments. When approved, these comments are displayed below the comment in a discussion thread with information about the commenter. In my opinion, allowing comments makes any page subject to become a discussion and therefore it would potentially have a “bloggy” feel. If your content is informational by nature and doesn’t really need the input of the public, you might choose to uncheck the “Allow Comments” option. Pingbacks are a method to notify you when somebody on another website provides a link to your page you are creating. By allowing this, you will be notified when somebody references your content and you can therefore investigate whether you approve the usage of your content and how it is presented. I have not seen a way that pingbacks visually effect the presentation of my original content, so I generally leave this option on.
8. Publish or Preview the page. Your required information is now complete. If you click on Preview in the upper right corner of the New Page dialog, you will see a preview of how the page will look to the public. This is an option if you want to avoid prematurely allowing anybody to reach your content.If you click on Publish, your new page will then appear where you chose to place it once you revisit your site. (Note: if you do not see the new page, click on your browser’s refresh button to make sure it is loading the latest content.)

   See the examples in the screenshot below - you may click to see larger size. On the left, I put the new page as order “2″ but with no parent (on this particular site, ‘Home’ is always present in the menu so it essentially is position order “0″). On the right, I chose ‘Carriers’ as the new page with order “99″ to be sure it went to the bottom.

   

   Notice on the left the New Page has no parent, where on the right Carriers is the parent

So you just got the keys to your new bright and shiny WordPress-based website. It’s feature-packed. It’s attractive. It’s got all kinds of spots to put valuable information about your area of specialty. And it’s all yours, baby! There’s just one thing you forgot to ask the geek who set it up for you to show you…

How do I manage this newfangled thing?!?

Fortunately for you, WordPress is actually user-friendly take on the once daunting process of building a website. The first step to adding new or modifying your existing material is getting logged in. So let’s get started – it’s going to be quick and easy.

Steps to Logging in to your WordPress Admin Dashboard

1. Open your web browser of choice (for example, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome or even -gasp- Internet Explorer). Your administrative login panel lives at a web address, or URL, and this is how we’re going to reach it.
   

   Your web browser icon probably looks like one of these.

2. Type your admin login address into your browser’s address bar, then hit enter. If your website is purely WordPress-based (as opposed to a traditional HTML website that ALSO has a blog on it), your admin login address lives at http://www.yourwebaddress.com/wp-admin .
   

   Example: Logging-in using Safari.

3. Type your Username and Password into their respective fields and hit ‘Login’. If you did not build your WordPress site on your own, your web professional or helpful nephew Skip should have provided you with this.
   

   Right smack-dab in the center you should see this.

4. Lo and behold! You’ve made it! The very next screen you will see, provided that you entered the correct login credentials, will be the standard WordPress Dashboard.
   

   Your Dashboard should look a lot like this with minor variables. Click on image to see full size.

   Your Dashboard is the place from where you will accomplish tasks such as:

• Creating new static content Pages
• Creating new blog Posts
• Approving Comments left on your Posts and Pages by readers and subscribers
• Installing WordPress Plugins that help you to accomplish more advanced tasks on your site
• Creating new Users of various permission levels for collaborators who want to help you build your WordPress site
• and many more tasks from simple to advanced. The sky is the limit!

So now you’ve made into your WordPress Administrative Dashboard. For tutorials on how to accomplish specific tasks while logged in, check the WordPress Development page under Blog & Tutorials for more how-tos.

If you’ve recently had your ear to the tracks of the smartphone railroad, then certainly you have been aware of the emerging [dominating?] Google Android presence. The summer of 2007 marked the dawning of the Apple cell phone era. Three years later, perhaps not unlike Julius Caesar’s long ago, the Steve Jobs-lead empire may be finding itself ridden with dissention and unrest. Many long-time loyal followers of the Apple iPhone are emigrating to Android smart phones like the Droid Incredible, EVO 4G, Ally, Droid and the popularly un-branded and unlocked Google Nexus One. The features chronicled below in no particular order may be good examples of the reasons why.

Android 2.2 is a feature-packed powerhouse of juicy new features and just plain telephonic glory.

1. Native tethering support including Wi-Fi hot spot function for up to 8 devices simultaneously.
   It bears little explanation as to why this features kicks [donkey]. While an Android user might need to be selective about which carrier and device to choose in order to use it to it’s full potential, Android now packs the heat necessary to provide wired or wireless internet connection to a laptop or desktop in exile. In the case of the Nexus One for both AT&T and T-Mobile, Android 2.2 delivers 3G to your computer without inherent cumulative bandwidth or speed limits . I personally have the AT&T-supporting version of the Nexus One and have found it not only easy to use but a surprisingly fast internet connection – that is, when I’m in an area where AT&T is providing a strong 3G signal.  Luckily I am “grandfathered-in” to the now discontinued unlimited smartphone data plan on my carrier. Unfortunately, those of you seeking to use Android 2.2 on a device procured from your carrier or branded with its mark may have no choice but to contend with mandatory fees or caps in order to use this feature.
2. Flash 10.1 Support – embedded videos can now play in your browser of choice!
   Despite recent propaganda dished out by the fruit-named giant, Adobe Flash is not dead nor is it antiquated. I will admit it isn’t necessarily recent or cutting edge technology at present, but Flash is alive and kicking. And perhaps more importantly [Are you listening Steve?]: the people want it! Before I step off my soapbox, I’ll offer just just one personal theory as to why Apple doesn’t plan or want to permit Adobe Flash on their mobile devices: Flash is difficult if not impossible to put on a leash. In essence, the media machine’s iTunes sales of both multimedia and applications would be severely challenged if Android developers could deliver Flash-based apps and streaming media without the proprietary clutches of a market like the App Store or iTunes.
3. Enhanced Exchange Server support
   That now means corporate businesspeople can see beyond their Blackberry phones. In recent months when asked the question “so what’s the difference between a Blackberry and an Android phone?”, my usual reply highlighted that Blackberry was usually the best choice for the employee of a large business that relies heavily on a MS Exchange Server while Android is often best for those who want virtually everything else. Namely, Android has been very strong for music and video delivery and has had the 2nd largest marketplace in the world for applications. Now that Google is making the stride into Exchange Server support, even working stiffs can have fun on a killer smartphone.
4. Performance improvements – now often clocked at over 400% faster on some handsets.
   Android 2.2′s utilization of a just-in-time (JIT) compiler for the Dalvik VM and their V8 JavaScript engine have vastly improved smoothness, snappiness and overall stability of the operating system and web browsing experience respectively. Personally, I have found my Nexus One to be significantly more responsive and continuously.
5. Permanent home screen buttons for most widely used functions: Phone and Browser apps.
   It seems simple, but it has improved the Android experience to have these buttons dwelling in the intuitive location at the bottom of the screen. Now a user can remove both the phone application and browser shortcut icons from their custom home screens. Previously it felt not unlike making a phone call over VoIP on a PC having to launch and “run” the phone application on my… well… phone. Now both surfing the web and ordering a pizza are much closer at hand.
6. Greatly improved Camera Application functions – especially those relating to navigating through it.
   If you had asked me a month ago to name a weak link in what should be pivotal functions of Android 2.1, I’d have named the camera application. On the fly, in order to play photo snob while snapping a photo of my kitty, I had to awkwardly slide out a drawer from the left side of my screen. Therein one would find the essential camera controls such as flash mode, white balance and others. As of 2.2, the camera app has been intuitively improved to have buttons ever present on the right of the screen that can call toggle such functions with much greater ease and consumer camera-esque simplicity. Whether these functions are new or just previously buried, I can now easily turn on and off the flash or geotagging, toggle the digital zoom, focus mode or white balance settings and adjust exposure. In brief: it’s sweet!
7. Bluetooth contacts sharing now enabled.
   This is pretty neat seeing as previously Android was a bit more stingy about sharing contacts to other phones. There are, of course, other methods to share this type of data such as with apps like Bump and over both email and SMS.
8. Installed applications can now be stored on external media such as a MicroSD card.
   It used to be that you had to store all your apps on the Android device’s internal (and finite) memory. Version 2.2 now allows the user, provided that the app developer approves and has enabled the function, to store their apps on inserted or external memory. This feature allows a greater array of apps to remain installed concurrently on the device with a conceivable storage limit in gigabytes rather than megabytes.
9. Applications can now be included in cloud-destined backups.
   This new feature lends the user a greater potential for peace of mind and security to know their apps are being backed up to remote servers along with other previously-permitted data. Like the above mentioned feature, this requires the consent and inclusion by the application developer. Users switching to a different device or replacing a destroyed/lost/stolen device can be back in business with greater swiftness when using this feature.
10. Application bug reporting helps to improve the user experience.
    Developers have a hard time fixing things they don’t know about or that they can’t see occur in the field. With 2.2′s bug reporting abilities, diagnosis will be easier for developers to accomplish and application enhancement will likely be well benefited.

Certainly there is more to Android 2.2 than I have thought to name. Stay tuned for more as it is discovered.

Supporting sources for this article included: developer.com, cnet.com and laptopmag.com. Thanks to the authors for their education postings!

The day has finally arrived! Along has come the Nexus One: a contender for my smartphone affections, eclipsing the iPhone 3GS.

Back in 2007, after over a decade of using, working on and playing with computers of all kinds, and plenty of toiling with various Windows versions, I made the plunge headlong into the world of Mac OS. If I really have to boil it down, the key reasons were few and simple: Mac OS is stable, it’s efficient and it’s beautiful. I’ve never since looked back upon my years of using Windows as my primary OS and felt even an once of regret. It’s now the 3 year anniversary of my conversion and my trusty Macbook Pro w/ 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo (upon which I type this article) is still running like a champ, with only about $100 in total upgrades and maintenance since. My techie heart loves this computer – and I don’t know how I ever lived without it!

It was a natural progression for me that in my recent technological conversion I’d begin an interest in the Apple iPhone. I mean, if Apple could have really made a phone half as innovative and high performance as their Mac series then it’d have to be one Palm- or Windows Mobile-butt-kickin’ device! In the early summer of 2007, my wife and I were living in Jacksonville, Florida where, conveniently for me, Apple had one of it’s gorgeous Apple Stores. During the week of the debut there was a seemingly endless line of people streaming from door of the Apple utopia down around the pedestrian mall block. As excited as I was about the iPhone, I wasn’t ready financially to buy an iPhone nor add another $20 to my calling plan. I was going to have to settle for a free t-shirt, which I lined up for and received with joy. I still wear it from time to time.

Now let’s fast forward two more years. It’s June 2009, I’m living in Redding, California and I’m now a smart phone owner. At the time, I had a cherry-red Blackberry Curve 8310. Though it could never sport 3G speeds, I had grown dependent upon it’s ability to instantly deliver my email, chat without limit with my friends in So Cal on BBM and settle trivia disputes with dead-on accuracy. It was to be the third year in a row that Apple was going to rock the phone world with a groundbreaking iPhone release. 2007 had been the original iPhone, 2008 saw the advent of the iPhone 3G. And now, in the year that I was eligible for an upgrade, and just before monetary gift-bearing birthday cards would grace my mailbox, Apple and AT&T were going to release their third and greatest iPhone models to date: the 3GS, sporting 16 and 32 GB of onboard storage, a faster processor and an expected longer life battery. All things considered, I decided this was the year I would jump on board and Oh Boy did I! In July 2009 I got my first iPhone.

It’s fair to say iPhone 3GS has been a great phone, perhaps one of the best models ever made. In a lot of ways it has certainly blazed trails and innovated its way to inspiring an ever-increasing worldwide hunger for high tech smart phones. With that said, after 9 months of owning one, I have to say that it’s just not cutting if for me. I own much of that sentiment to the fact that I’ve been working for Verizon and specializing in Motorola Droid demonstrations since December 2009. Having the iPhone 3GS in my left pocket and the Droid in my right has given me all the opportunity necessary to realize that Android, in my humble opinion, is a far superior phone operating system to even iPhone 3.1.2.

In articles to follow shortly, I will elaborate further on how I came to this realization. Before I conclude this article, I will tell you that my 3GS is currently on eBay with roughly two days to go, 17 bids bringing the auction to over $500 already and I can’t wait to get this thing into a box to who knows where so I can click that glorious ‘Get Your Phone’ button at the Nexus One ordering site. The following are 5 of the reasons are why, in no particular order, that I am jumping ship from the iPhone to climb onto the megayacht of Google Android:

1. Android natively runs Google Voice – a free service that has become a staple in my business communications. Apple has thumbed its nose at it.
2. Android is at the very least semi-open source. The iPhone OS is severely locked down with proprietary controls.
3. Google releases regular and desirable updates over the air for their phones, each time releasing more features.
4. The Nexus One can, and is allow to, multitask as it boasts a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, almost twice as fast as its iPhone counterpart.
5. Android phones pretty much let you do whatever you want to do – from customization to carrier work-around apps, not prevent you from realizing is full potential.

Please check back for future articles on this topic! Thanks for reading.