Adding Content with the Visual Editor
The editor used to
enter content into your Page or Post is very easy to use. It’s much like using
a regular word processor, with toolbar buttons that allow you to Bold (" 
) or Italicize ("
) text or enter in Headings (" 
) or bullet points ("
"
). You can even use most of the basic keyboard shortcuts used in other text
editors. For example: Shift+Enter inserts a line break, Ctrl+C/ Cmd+C = copy, Ctrl+X/Cmd+X = cut, Ctrl+Z/Cmd+Z = undo, Ctrl+Y/Cmd+Y =
redo, Ctrl+A/Cmd+A = select all, etc.
(use the Ctrl key on a PC or the Command key on a Mac).
When adding content to your page, the Visual
Editor expands to fit your content, rather than simply scrolling. On top of
that, no matter how tall the Visual Editor becomes, the toolbar buttons will be
available at all times by sticking to the top of the page.
By making use of special keyboard shortcuts,
adding content is now even easier. When you want to add different size headings
to your content, rather than having to select the heading size from the toolbar
dropdown you can now start a line with two or more hashtags (#) and once you
hit Enter to go to the next line, the
Visual Editor will automatically convert your text to the appropriate heading.
Like headings, you can also use * or - to create an unordered list, using 1. will start an ordered list, and > will create a blockquote.
The complete list of keyboard shortcuts available are as follows;
- * – Start an unordered list
- - – Start an unordered list
- 1. – Start an ordered list
- 1) –
Start an unordered list
- ## – H2
- ### – H3
- #### – H4
- ##### – H5
- ###### – H6
- > – Add a blockquote
- --- – Add a horizontal
line
- `..` – Convert text into code block (replace .. with your text)
At the top of the
editor there are two tabs, Visual and Text ( 
). These switch the
editor view between the Visual Editor and the Text editor. The Text view
will enable you to view the HTML code that makes up your content. For the more
experienced users this can be helpful at times but for those not familiar with
HTML tags, it’s not recommended.
When creating a new Page or
Post, the first thing to do is enter in your title in the top entry field where
it says Enter title here. After
moving the cursor down to the editor a new Permalink is created for your page.
Permalinks are the permanent URL’s to your individual Posts, Pages, Categories
etc.. Though not usually necessary, you can manually edit your permalink by
clicking on the actual permalink (the part after the domain name with the
yellow background) or by clicking the Edit button next to it. Once you’ve modified it, click Ok to save or Cancel to
cancel your changes.
At the top of the editor where your content is written, there are
numerous
formatting buttons. Clicking the Toolbar Toggle button (
) will
show or hide a second line of formatting buttons which gives you extra
functionality. The editor buttons perform the following functions:
"
Bold – Bold text
" 
Italic – Italicise text
" 
Bulleted List – Create an unordered (bullet
point) list
" 
Numbered List – Create an Ordered
(numbered) list
"
Blockquote – Used as a way of showing a
quote. How this looks will be
entirely dependent on the Theme that your site is currently using
" Align Left – Align text to the left
"
Align Center – Align text in the center of
the page
" 
Align Right – Align text to the right
" 
Insert/edit link – Used to create an html link
to another page or website. If no
text is selected first, the URL that you enter will also be used for the link
text
" 
Insert Read More tag – Inserts the More tag
into your Page. Most blogs only
display a small excerpt of a Post and you’re required to click the Post title
or a ‘Read more...’ link to continue reading the rest of the article. When you
insert a ‘More’ tag into your Post, everything prior to the tag is considered
as this excerpt. Most times you’d only use this button when you’re creating a
blog Post, rather than a Page
" 
Toolbar Toggle – Used to show or hide the
second row of formatting buttons on
the editor toolbar
"
Distraction Free Writing – Clicking this button will
enlarge the editor so that it fills
the browser window. Clicking the Exit fullscreen link at the top of the screen will reduce it back to its original
size
"
Strikethrough – Add a strikethrough to your
text
"
Horizontal Line – Inserts a horizontal line
into your page
"
Text color – Use to change the
color of text
"
Paste as text – Copying and pasting text from other sites or word processors sometimes leaves the text formatted differently to
what you were expecting. The reason for this is that quite often the html tags
or codes that formatted the original text are pasted along with the text
itself. To avoid this, Paste as Text will strip all these formatting and html
tags. The Paste as Text option acts like a toggle, staying on until you turn it
off by clicking the button again or until you save your page content
"
Clear formatting – Use this to remove all the
formatting (e.g. Bold, Underline,
text color etc..) from the highlighted text
"
Special character – Used to insert special
characters not easily accessible via
the keyboard (e.g. ¼, ½, ¾, ©, €, ö etc..)
"
Decrease indent – Removes one level of
indenting
"
Increase indent – Indents text by one level
"
Undo – Undo your last action
"
Redo – Redo your last action
"
Keyboard shortcuts – Displays information about
the WordPress Visual Editor along
with keyboard shortcut"s
"
Visual/Text – Switches the
editor view between the Visual Editor and the Text editor. The Text view will
enable you to view the HTML code that makes up your content.
For the more experienced users this can be helpful at times
but for those not familiar with HTML tags, it’s not recommended
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