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Every newly created blog is the same default lay out with posts displayed on its front page (‘Home’) with a ‘Hello World’ post and an ‘About’ page.

When you publish posts they are displayed in reverse chronological order with your most recent post at the top of your post page.

There are two main ways to write a new post:

• The Add New Post Screen
• The QuickPress Module on your Dashboard

Using the Add New Post Screen To Write Posts

The Add New Post Screen is a more advance post editor compared to using the QuickPress and is the main screen where you’ll write most posts. Besides providing more post options it is better suited to writing longer posts.

There are two main options for accessing your Add New Post screen:

1.  Post > Add New in the left dashboard menu

2.  Add New > Post or  New Post link in the admin bar

Brief Overview of Your Add New Post Screen

The area where you write your post is by default in Visual Editing mode which uses WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) option for formating.

It works similar to any Word processing software.

Simply write your post, highlight any text you want to format and then click the appropriate button in the toolbar to add formating such as bold, italics, number list.

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The Show/Hide Kitchen Sink button is used to view the advanced formating options including heading styles, underlining, font color, custom characters, undo, redo.

Now all you need to do to write a post is:

1. Give your post a Title
2. Add your content
3. Add your tags and categories
4. When finished writing click Publish.

Previewing your Draft

Before you publish your post it is a good idea to use the Preview option to see what it looks like to your readers.

You preview a post by clicking on Save Draft and then Preview. This opens up a draft version of your post in a new tab.

To make edits just go back to your Add New Post screen.

Using the QuickPress module on your blog Dashboard

The QuickPress module is a mini-post editor that lets you quickly write a post including title, add media files and add tags directly from your dashboard. It also gives you the option of saving it as a draft or publishing immediately.

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For more post options such as adding categories, scheduling future publish dates you should use the Add New Post screen.

Your dashboard provide a quick overview of what’s happening with your blog while also supplying tools to navigate to other areas of your Administration panel.

Appearance of your default Dashboard

The main area of your dashboard is made of configurable modules such as Right Now, Quick Press, Recent comments and the main navigation on the left hand side.

These modules can be moved by left mouse clicking on their title, dragging to the new location on your dashboard and then release your mouse button.

You can also expand and collapse these dashboard modules by left mouse clicking on their title bar.

Main Navigation Menu

Your navigation menu is on the left side of your Dashboard. Each navigation item can be expanded or collapsed to view their submenu by clicking on the arrow on the right hand side of the item.

Click on the Dashboard link at the top of the navigation menu to return to the dashboard area of your blog when you are on any page within your administration panel.

You also have a quick access navigation menu in the grey admin bar at the top of your blog and administration panel which you can use to different areas inside your dashboard.

To navigate to a new screen just hover over then item in the admin bar and then select the desired option.

Right Now Module

The Right Now module provides a quick overview of your current number of posts, pages, comments, tags, categories, themes and storage usage. Clicking on the item name , or type of comments, in the Right Now module takes you to that area in your administration panel.

For example, clicking on Posts takes you to your Edit post panel which lists all your posts while Comments takes you to Edit comments.

Recent Comments Module

The Recent Comments Module displays the 5 most recent comments for your blog. Hovering your mouse over the comments brings up five action links which makes it easy to Approve/Unapprove, Edit, Reply, Mark as Spam, or Trash Comments directly from your dashboard.

For example, clicking the Reply action link brings up a form that lets you reply to comments from your dashboard.

Incoming Links Module

The Incoming Links Module uses Google Blog Search to display other blogs that have linked to your blog. Please note:

• On your brand new blog the Incoming Links Module displays the message : It has found no incoming links… yet. It’s okay — there is no rush.
• Links won’t appear here until bloggers start linking to your blog or posts.

QuickPress Module

The QuickPress module is a mini-post editor that lets you quickly write a post including title, add media files and add tags directly from your dashboard. It also gives you the option of saving it as a draft or publishing immediately.

For more post options such as adding categories, scheduling future publish dates you should use the Add New Post screen.

Recent Drafts Module

Your Recent Draft Modules displays your five latest drafts saved with their title, date and a short excerpt.

Clicking on a Draft’s title opens up that draft so you can continue editing and/or publish. Whereas clicking on View All takes you to your Edit Post screen where all drafts you have written are displayed. Please note:

• On your brand new blog the Recent Draft Module displays the message : There are no drafts at the moment. 
• Drafts won’t appear here until you save some.

Screen Option Button

The Screen Option button located at the top right hand side of your administration panel can be used to customize what is displayed and how it is displayed on that screen.

You can use the Screen Option button to change the number of columns and hide modules on your dashboard (untick hides them).