Creating a Portfolio in WordPress

Creating a Portfolio in WordPress

 

This Lesson Project supports  Student  Learning Outcome 2 from your Course Syllabus:

Effectively organize, manage, and communicate information using software applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and database software.

Purpose:

Create a personal digital portfolio using WordPress.com.  Wordpress.com is a free site that allows you to create a blog or website using the popular WordPress CMS (content management system). We will be using this site throughout the semester to store your projects and assignments thereby creating a digital portfolio that can be accessed by employers, universities, etc. to demonstrate your abilities and achievements. At the conclusion of this course, you can choose to keep the site and continue to add to it or you may delete it.

Learning Outcomes:

· The student demonstrates the ability to create original works as a means of personal expression.

· The student applies existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.

· The student selects and uses applications effectively and productively

· The student investigates and incorporate layout and color consistently, design consistent pages, and design for a specific audience and purpose.

Requirements:

1.    Create an account on wordpress.com for your portfolio. 

a.    Go to wordpress.com and click on  create website

b.    Choose an appropriate user name for your WordPress account. This will be the unique identifier for the URL on wordpress.com where your portfolio will reside.

Example: using a name -  www.pattiburks.wordpress.com . If your name is taken you may need to add a middle initial or a number such as  www.pattiburks84.wordpress.com .

2.    Assuming this is your first wordpress.com account, you will be walked through a five step process. Choose the free account and any theme for now – you will select a different one after creating your account. You have now created a blog space in WordPress and will be adding items to it for your portfolio.

3.    Click  My Site in the upper left, and then click  WP Admin to see the dashboard.

(If you don’t see the  WP Admin link, then click the address bar of your browser where you see the URL of your WordPress site, add /wp-admin, press enter.

Example: www.pattiburks.wordpress.com/wp-admin)

The dashboard is the back-end of the site that allows you to administer the site. Here is where you can change settings and add content.

a.    From the dashboard, go to  Settings->General.

b.    Change the  Site Title to your name and the  Tagline to Professional Portfolio.

c.    Next, set the Timezone (Chicago is a good choice for Central timezone), Date Format, Time Format, and make sure the language is English.

d.    If you have a nice, professional picture, you can also upload it here.

4.    Now in the dashboard, go to  Appearance –> Themes. Here, you can explore and select a theme for your site.

a.    Click  Free at the top right.

b.    Hold down the Control key & the letter F on the keyboard to get the find box, it will appear at the top or bottom of the current page you are viewing.

c.    Now type in Twenty Twelve. Change your theme to Twenty Twelve.  This theme is a good choice for a portfolio because it is conservative, simple, and professional. The template uses Responsive design – which means it will resize to work on tablets, phones, etc. 

d.    Click  Activate.

5.    To add a page to your site:

a.    In the dashboard, go to  Pages –> Add New. Call this page Welcome.

b.    In the text box, type in a brief biographical description of yourself.

c.    Then go on the right side to template and change it to Full width page template, no sidebar. (Note: the template attribute does not show on all Themes). This will format the page to have a single column with no sidebar.

d.    Then click  Publish. This will add the page to the front-end of the site where your visitors can see it. 

6.    By default, WordPress usually displays your blog as the home page for your site. For our portfolio, we want this Welcome page to be our home page on our site - the first page our visitors will see. To make it the home page:

a.    Go to  Settings –> Reading.

b.    Click on Static page, and then make Welcome the front page.

c.    Scroll to bottom of page and click on the  Save changes button.

d.    Note: If you want to use the blog feature of WordPress (not used or required for this course), you will need to create another page to store your blog entries. Create a new page as described in step 5 above and give it a name. Do not add anything in the text box. Publish and return to the Reading Settings. In the dropbox for the Posts page, select the page that you just created.

7.    By default, WordPress allows users to comment on WordPress pages. To disable comments on the Welcome page:

a.    Go to  Pages –> All pages.

b.    Click under the Welcome page on  Quick Edit

c.    Uncheck the box next to  Allow Comments.

d.    Then click  Update. (Note: your changes will not be saved if you do not click the Update button).

8.    We can use the Settings to change the default that allows comments on all pages:

a.    Go to  Settings –> Discussion.

b.    Unclick all checkboxes under  Default article settings and unclick all checkboxes under  Other comment settings. 

c.    Save changes.

9.    Next we can decide whether we want to allow visitors to share our content using email or social media. For our portfolio, we do not want to allow sharing.

a.    Go to  Settings -> Sharing.

b.    Scroll down to enabled services. Drag all of those up to  Available Services.

c.    Scroll down to  Show Buttons on – unclick all of those. (If you have a blog and want to allow shares, you can leave Posts checked.)

d.    Save changes.

10.  Now let’s check out the page. On the left side, point to  My Site then click  View Site. You now see the front-end of your site as visitors will see it.

11.  Now go back to WP Admin (which is the dashboard) by hovering over  My Site in the upper left corner and clicking on  WP Admin.

Go to  Users –> my profile. Make sure your name is correct in all areas.

12.  Next we want to create a custom menu.

a.    Go to  Appearance –> Menus.

b.    In the Menu Name box type My Menu.

c.    Then click  Create Menu.

d.    Remove the About Page by clicking the arrow on the right side of the menu item and then click  Remove.

e.    Now click on  Manage Locations tab at the top.

f.     In the drop down box choose My Menu.

g.    At the bottom of the page, check both checkboxes under  Menu Settings to automatically add future pages to the menu and make it the primary menu.

h.     Save Changes.

13.  Let’s add some more pages to our site.

a.    Go to  Pages –> add New Page. Call this page Resume Link. Click publish.

b.    Add two pages: call one My resume and copy your resume into the textbox for that page, then add another called cover letter and copy your cover letter into the textbox for that page from the Lesson 3 Project. Select the template for  Full width page, no sidebar for each one. Be sure to publish.

c.    Add a page called Contact.  In the box type your name, email address, and a phone number where you can be reached. Then click the down arrow under Template on the right side. Select  Full width page template, no sidebar. Then Publish that page.

14.  Now go to  Appearance –> Menus. Move the Lesson 3 Project resume/cover letter pages and make them Sub Menu items under Resume Link. Click  Save Menu.

15.  Now let’s take a look at your page. Go to top left and point to  My Site then click  View Site. It should look very professional.

16. Submit your site for grading by clicking on the Lesson 4 Project link below. In the comments area, paste the url to your site so I can find it easily. Then click the submit button to submit it for grading.

Grading Rubric: Use this to maximize your points for the assignment:

Requirements	Points
Create 5 pages in WordPress for your Professional Portfolio Include content per instructions	30
Use the Twenty Twelve Theme	5
Customize the site correctly	5
Make Welcome page a Static Page	5
Create the menu with 3 items & resume/cover letter sub-items	5
Total	50