Learning to use any new application, let alone a global phenomenon like WordPress can be quite a challenge.
The choices, in terms of how you learn, are however fantastic these days. You can download countless e-books and PDF manuals; you can watch YouTube self-help videos til the early hours of the morning – or you could go to someone who has used WordPress for ages and ask “tell me what I need to know now!”.
If your learning style draws you to the last of these options then what do you want to get out of a “in person” workshop so that you can go away and develop your website, post your blogs and make sure it doesn’t fall over accidentally.
This is what my list looks like.
- To be confident with a new application like WordPress, I need to have some sort of feel as to how it all works together to produce the finished article. You could call this a kind of map of the application so, from a great height, I can see the parts I need to see, and I know where to go for any particular function. So, for WordPress, I need to understand something about themes, templates, pages and posts.
- I need to know how to manage the application on a daily basis, both regarding where I go to add something, to change something or, in rare cases, to fix something. In the case of WordPress, this is largely done through the WordPress Dashboard.
- I then need to know how to use this new thing that I have invested in – the core of the application. So creating and editing pages and posts (blogs) is an area I want to feel comfortable with.
- After I have conquered the main tasks, I am now interested in presentation and functions that my website visitors will want to see or use. So here I want to be able to add and edit images and video, to create and offer downloads (whether documents, video, programs, applications, etc.) and create and manage links to other pages, other sites and social media.
- Finally, I want to be able to organise all the content that I have created so it can be found easily – so menus, templates and widgets come to the fore in this area. I also want to be able to fix my WordPress site if there are errors or small problems in the future.
After this point my brain probably hurts with system overload and too much to remember – so what I want at the conclusion of my WordPress user training is pointers on how to gradually expand the functionality of my website (i.e. plugins), how to optimise the content for search engines (SEO) and how to connect up all my social media activity to my WordPress website.
If this sounds good to you, get in touch to enquire about a workshop either on our premises in North Oxfordshire (1 mile from M40, J11), or at your own premises if you want to train several people all at the same time.
Can we help you with your next project?
Toast is a full-service design agency, we work with clients on everything from business card design to WordPress websites. If you need a quote for an upcoming project, call us on 01295 266644 or complete the form and we'll get in touch.
Written by.
Dave is Toast’s Managing Director and also heads up the digital team. He’s been a designer, illustrator and WordPress designer/developer for over 25 years and has worked on various projects across many industry sectors. Dave’s primary area of focus nowadays is website planning, design and UX, SEO and website optimisation, which makes a real positive difference to businesses bottom lines.
