About the WordPress “Tools” Section
This post is part of a series of posts I’ve created for my clients. While the information herein will likely be useful to just about anyone getting to know WordPress, it may contain specific functionality that only applies to clients of ClickNathan.com.
Right out of the box WordPress comes with a section labeled Tools.
It’s not used by very many people at all, and most of the functionality that it provides will have been already implemented by myself per our little mutual contractual of web design and all, but I’ll review it here in brief for those of you who want to know how every little clock ticks and talk clocks on your website.
The Tools section of WordPress is one of those wonderfully powerful and equally dangerous areas. It is possible to break your site or jumble it all up if you incorrectly use some of the features below. Using the Tools feature is at your own risk and ClickNathan is not responsible for any fouling up you might wreck like havoc on your new web site. Have fun!
Press This
Click Tools in the left navigation of your WordPress installation. The first option on this page is to create a bookmark in your browser which allows you to easily post new content as you browse the web. This is mostly useful for people who run blogs which link to other things around the web, your particular feelings on the usefulness of such a feature is completely personal. Have a go, nothing can go wrong by playing with this feature.
Categories & Tags Converter
First, you should understand the difference between Categories and Tag in WordPress. Once you grasp that whole semi-confusing concept, you may come to a realization that you’ve been using Categories as tags all this time, and would like to trim down the number of categories you have by making most of them into tags. This is the tool for you. Using this requires you to install a plugin and at worst, you’ll lose your categories as they’ll become tags. Other than that, not much damage should occur, but of course, at your own risk and all that fantastical jazz.
Import
This screen is used to install a variety of plugins which can be used to import content from another blogging platform to WordPress. If this was part of our original agreement, I’ll take care of this for you. If not, I’m happy to perform such feats of sheer ecstasy for you at an additional cost. If you’d like to try it yourself, have a blast but remember, you’ll be using plugins which manipulate your database and could result in deleted content, duplicate content or worse.
Export
Bam! The most useful, least dangerous of all of the Tools screens. Here you can export your content which makes it easy to then import it to another WordPress installation, even a WordPress.com site. Enjoy!
Up Next? WordPress’ Settings Panel
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Up Next: How to Install a WordPress Plugin