Tech Tip: OU Create's Wordpress and Adding Navigation Links

Before this semester I had never used OU Create or Wordpress, so this has been a lot of learning. When choosing a site to host my project on, Dr. Gibbs suggested that I check out OU Create because it's platform is friendly to hosting the HTML file I needed because of my Twine story. The first day I looked into it, I was really overwhelmed. For this Tech Tip, I'll be specifically showing you how to add header links in the Wordpress application of OU Create, because it took me a hot minute to figure it out.

Setting Up OU Create

Every member of the OU community has access to OU Create! Once you create your account and log in, you will see a page similar to this: 

For this example, you'll want to click on Wordpress and go through the set up for that. This will include picking a domain name. The one I use for class is dungeonsanddecisions.oucreate.com. 

Once the application is installed, you'll click on "My Applications" and then on your domain link that has /wp-admin/ on the end of it:

This takes you to the editing/admin side of your site. It should look something like this:

Setting Up Header Links

Once you're on the admin homepage, you'll click "Appearance" in the left-hand column. This will take you to a page with six pre-loaded themes you can use, or an option to make your own. For my project, I use the "Twenty Seventeen" theme. 

Once you pick your theme, you'll click the blue "Customize" button that shows at the bottom of the theme. 

This should take you to what looks like your site page, but with a control panel on the left side of the screen. Click on the "Menus" option. Once in Menus, there should be a choice labeled "Navigation" with "(currently set to:)" and either Top Menu, Social Links Menu, or nothing. 

Click on Navigation. There will be a place to name the menu if you choose, and a button that says "+ Add Items"

There will be a list of pages and posts after you click "+ Add Item" to choose from. Choose what you want to add to the Navigation Bar, and you should see it automatically added to the left under what you have your navigation bar titled. 

NOTE: If you have not created any pages, posts, etc. yet, there will be no items to add. Create a tester page/post if you need to. 

This will update on the preview of your page in the background. Once you are done, don't forget to hit the blue Publish button at the top of the control panel. After you have published, you are all done! 

I hope this helps! 

All pictures were screenshots done by me from my personal view of the OU create website.