Getting Started Tutorial

Your Google Account

A Google account is required for this course.

If you do not have a Google account then go to Google.com Links to an external site. right now to create one. Once at the Google home page, click "Sign In" in the upper right. On the sign in page, below the sign in form, click "create account" and follow the directions.

Make a note of your Google account, e.g., joestudent@gmail.com. You will enter it in this week's tutorial submission assignment.

A Google account will allow you to log into some of the required applications for this class, such as WordPress Links to an external site. and Pixlr Links to an external site.. Your Google account also comes with many great applications like Drive Links to an external site., Docs Links to an external site., Sheets Links to an external site., YouTube Links to an external site., and many more.

In this class we will use Drive, Docs, and Sheets in the next few weeks.

Google Drive is an online storage system. Save any of your files there and access them from any computer. You can organize your files in folders like you can on your own computer. You can share these with others in many ways. We'll check that out later.

Google Docs is an online word processor. It is much like Microsoft Word, but simpler. Files created in Docs are automatically saved in Drive.

Google Sheets is an online spreadsheet. It is much like using Microsoft Excel, but simpler. If you haven't used a spreadsheet before then you are in for a treat. It is a giant, awesome calculator! Like in Docs, files created in Sheets are automatically saved in Drive.

Wordpress

WordPress is a blogging system and content management system. We will use it to create some custom web sites with you and to create an online portfolio of your work. 

Go to WordPress @ BMCC Links to an external site. to set up an account. From the home page, select "login" near the bottom right. On the resulting page select "Login with Google" near the top. 

Once you "Allow" Google to sign you up for this WordPress account, you will be taken back to the login page. You will see a large, blue button to logout. Please logout immediately.

Check your Gmail for a message from WordPress @ BMCC to verify you are who you say your are, i.e., the owner of the Gmail address. The email message will have a link to allow you to edit your profile page. Until this happens you will not be able to complete the WordPress account and update your profile as shown below. 

Note: if you don't receive an e-mail from WordPress @ BMCC within an hour, then send an e-mail to your instructor with your WordPress user ID (it will be something like user1234) AND your Google e-mail address. Your teacher will then complete the WordPress sign up process for you, so that you can log in and edit your WordPress account, as shown below. Your teacher will get back to you about the next step to sign in to WordPress at BMCC.

Once logged in to WordPress @ BMCC, you should see "Howdy, user###" in the upper right corner. Hover over that and select "Edit My Profile":

new wordpress network user id

Fill in the fields for first and last name, nickname, and select your name from the "Display name publicly as" dropdown list.

You username is assigned by the system and cannot be changed. Note your username and submit it in this week's tutorial submission assignment (e.g. user304).

At the bottom of the page, click update profile.

Create your WordPress Site

Now that you have logged in to WordPress and updated your profile, it's time to create your own site. The BMCC WordPress installation allows each user to have multiple sites. You will be using just one for this course and will add to it throughout the term.

To set up your site:
  1. Log in to BMCC Wordpress, if you aren't already, and click the "MySites" link in the toolbar at the top of the page. You should only see one at this point: the default site "Wordpress @ BMCC".
  2. Click the "Add New" button to add a new site
  3. Choose a site name and site title, click the "No" radio button under the privacy question (so your site will not be indexed by search engines). You may choose anything for your site name but it must not contain spaces or special characters. Any inappropriate site names will be immediately deleted by the instructor. A good site name is your first and last name with no spaces (e.g. homersimpson) but also feel free to be creative. Click "Create Site".
  4. Go back to the "My Sites" page and change your primary site in the dropdown to the site you just created. Save Changes.
    Eventually, the site "WordPress @ BMCC" will be removed from your account. Until then, please only edit your new site and not the main site.

Screenshot-WordPress-MySites2.png

Configure your WordPress Site

A few more steps to complete the configuration and setup for your site:

  1. Go to My Sites and then the Dashboard for your new site.
  2. Go to the Posts menu in the left-side column. There you should only see one post, "Hello world!".
  3. Delete the “Hello World” post.
  4. Delete the "Sample Page" page.
  5. From the Settings menu, change tag line for the site.
  6. From the Settings menu -> Discussion, choose "users must be logged in to comment".

Once you've created your site, visit the site and copy the URL (something like http://math.bluecc.edu/wordpress/astudent). With the link:

  1. Post a link to your new WordPress site on the course Wiki for Class WordPress Sites
  2. Include the link in this week's tutorial submission assignment, next.