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Pages Vs. Posts

In this lesson, you will learn the difference between a page and a post. You will also learn how to know which to use and where to add and edit them. This lesson plan will walk you through the differences between posts and pages; covering how to work with them both in WordPress.  

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Recognize that pages are static.
  • Recognize that posts are dynamic.
  • Recall when to use posts and when to use pages.

Prerequisite Skills

You will be better equipped to work through this lesson if you have experience in and familiarity with:

Assets

Screening Questions

  • Have you worked with WordPress or another content management system before?
  • Have you ever run a blog?
  • How are your writing skills?

Teacher Notes

  • You will be using the image uploader in this lesson, but not going into depth on a lot of the media features WordPress offers. A future lesson will go over this.
  • For this project you will copy and paste dummy content from lipsum.com. This makes the process of creating test pages and posts faster. It’s advised you explain to students the concept of “dummy content” in the development process.
  • The teacher should have access to the post editor and page editor, either installed locally or on a remote server. This editor should be visible to all students.
  • Optionally, students should have access to their Editors, either installed locally or on a remote server.
  • Instructions to the teacher are shown in square brackets.

Hands-on Walkthrough

Introduction

Today we are going to learn the differences between posts and pages. Although they look very similar, they each have unique functions. A post is dynamic, meaning it can be used and shown in many different ways (in a blog page, shared on social media, etc). A page is static, meaning that once you make it, the page stays in one spot until you physically change it. The best way to see the differences is to play around with both posts and pages.

Log in to Your Site

Before you can create posts and pages, you need to log in to your site. Do this by entering the following in the web browser address bar: yourwebsite.com/wp-admin (Replace “yourwebsite.com” with the actual URL of your website.) Enter your username and password. You can check the “remember me” box if you will be using the same (non-public) computer to return to the website later and want to be logged in automatically. If this box is checked, your browser keeps you logged in for 14 days. If unchecked, you’ll be logged out when you close the browser or after two days. If you don’t remember your password, click the “Lost your password?” link below the form. Enter your username or email address and you will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Practice Adding Posts

Now it’s time to add a post. To add a post to your site, you can select “New” from the admin bar at the top. You can also go to Dashboard>Posts>Add New. Take a moment to explore the publishing options. You can publish immediately, schedule a post or even password-protect a post. If you only want part of your post showing on social media and on your main blog page, insert the the more tag as you edit your post. Your post will have a unique url. Notice how it says post-title in the following example? Ex: http://yourwebsite.wordpress.com/date/post-title/ (The actual path will depend on your settings under Settings>Permalinks.)

Practice Adding Pages

When you are comfortable making a post, try creating a page. To add a page to your site, you can select “New” from the admin bar at the top. You can also go to Dashboard>Pages>Add New. Check out your publishing options on this page. Also note how the unique url is shown for pages by using page-title. For example: http://yourwebsite.wordpress.com/page-title/.

Similarities Between Posts and Pages

Open your new post and your new page so they are side-by-side. Show how both have the following options:

  • Title
  • Content
  • Add Media
  • Add Contact Form
  • Discussion Options
  • Sharing Options
  • Featured Image
  • Privacy Settings

Things Unique to Pages

Notice how pages are static and are not listed by date. They don’t have tags or categories, and you can change the template. You can use a menu to make your pages stand out for readers, or you can use the pages widget. Some themes show pages in tabs at the top of a blog. Here are some popular uses for pages:

  • Category Page
  • Contact Page
  • About Page
  • Home Page

Things Unique to Posts

As discussed earlier, posts are a bit different from pages. Check out how your posts can be found in archives, categories, recent posts, various widgets and RSS feeds of your blog. There are also different ways of showing posts. For example, you can create a sticky post, which means that the post will show before all other posts. You can also limit the number of posts shown by going to Dashboard>Reading>Settings.  

Exercises

Add a Post Learn how to create a blog post by selecting the proper tools and using Lorem Ipsum to add content.

  • Create a post.
  • Give the post a title.
  • Fill the post with content using Lorem Ipsum.
  • Add a Featured Image.
  • Choose tags and categories.
  • Choose which privacy setting you want for your post and explain why.
  • Schedule the post to go out five minutes from now. [Or whatever time frame is desired – enough so you can see it published before class is over]
  • Check blog page to note post is not there.
  • Check again after the “published” time to see post live.
  • **Bonus – go back into the post and make it sticky.

Add a Page Learn how to create a blog page by selecting the proper tools and using Lorem Ipsum to add content.

  • Create a page.
  • Give the page a title.
  • Fill the page with content using Lorem Ipsum.
  • Add a featured image.
  • Choose which privacy setting you want for your page and explain why.
  • Publish the page.
  • **Bonus – add your page to a site menu.

Quiz

A post is which of the following?

  1. Static
  2. Dynamic

Answer: 2. Dynamic

A page is which of the following?

  1. Static
  2. Dynamic

Answer: 1. Static

Can pages have tags?

Answer: No.

By default, pages are displayed in reverse-chronological order on the site, one on top of the other.

  1. True
  2. False

Answer: 2. False. Posts are shown in reverse chronological order. Not pages. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Assets

Use one or more of the following themes in your demos:

Additional Resources

  1. Posts
  2. Pages