• Go to wordpress.com and create a new account (unless you already have one). Make sure you check “Gimme a blog!” and NOT “Just a username…”

 

• Select a “theme” for your Blog. To select a “theme”:
  • Go to “Dashboard” (upper left corner).
  • Choose “Presentation” from the upper menu
  • Choose “Themes” from the lower menu
  • Click on any theme and check it out…
  • If that’s what you want: Click on “Activate…” (upper right corner)
  • If not, click on the X (upper left corner) 
  • Make Sure
    • you choose a theme that allows all the options you need (widgets and their locations; menus and their locations).
    • the colors and mood of your “theme” fits the overall theme and topic of the project.
    • the widgets you use are relevant and not too distracting (don’t include too many).

• Change the header image by choosing “Presentation” from the upper menu, and “Custom Image Header" from the lower menu. (IMPORTANT: some theme may not allow that, others may have a different name for the image header).
  • Upload any image you like and follow the instructions...

 

• Add and SETUP at least the following Widgets (below) by choosing “Presentation” from the upper menu, and “Widgets” from the lower menu. (IMPORTANT: if the widgets below don't appear, you will need to change the theme, as your theme may not support all the widgets needed).
  • To ADD a widget, grab the widget from the "Available Widgets" at the bottom of the page and drag it to your "Sidebar" (you may have more than one sidebar.
  • To SETUP a widget, click on the small box to the right of each widget and follow the instructions.
  • To Rearrange a widget in your sidebar(s), simply grab it and move it up or down.
  • You need ALL of the following sidebars:
• Categories (or "Categories 1")
• Pages
• Flickr
• RSS1
• Vodpod Videos
• Box.net file sharing
• Archives
• Blog Stats
• Sonific Songspot
• Meebo
• Meta
• Search
• (EXPERIMENT!! Add as many others you want here...)

 

• Create four “Categories”:
  • Choose “Manage” from upper menu
  • Choose “Categories” from lower menu
  • “Add New” >>  Fill Category Name (e.g. Introduction) and Parent (“None”) >> Add Category
  • NOTE: If you want a category to fall under another category: Choose something other than “None” for category Parent.
  • Make sure:
    • you have a minimum of four categories (e.g. introduction, literature review, analysis, conclusion, references).
    • the categories are prominently positioned in the blog (see widgets above, on how to move your category widget to a higher position).
    • each category is clearly and appropriately labeled.
  • IMPORTANT: a category will NOT appear on the page (even after you create it) unless you create at least one post for it. See next point for that:

 

• Create at least one “Post” for each category:
  • Choose “Write” from upper menu
  • Choose “Write Post” from lower menu
  • Enter a title and text in the body
  • IMPORTANT: Choose the category where the post will appear (from the list of categories on the right)
  • IMPORTANT: Click “Publish” (“Save” will only save it and not publish it, Publish will do both)
  • Choose a specific font and color for the text you use. Be consistent and make sure the styles you use fit the whole theme. (e.g. Make sure the titles are bigger that the paragraph text (and in bold…). The menu options in the Post box give you extra options if you click on the last icon to the right (it looks like three dotted lines of color).

 

• Create one "Page"
  • Choose “Write” from upper menu.
  • Choose “Write Page” from lower menu.
  • Enter a title and text in the body.
  • IMPORTANT: A Page is an alternative to a Post; you can create pages and subpages that will appear the same way, though with slight differences, as posts.

   

• Modify each of the "Posts" you already created by choosing "Manage" from the upper menu, "Posts" from the lower menu, then click on "Edit" for the Post you want to modify.
  • One “post” should include a hyperlink to text.
  • One “post” should include an image, with a hyperlink to that image.
  • One “post” should include an embedded video from YouTube.com