Title: Trouble with basic concepts
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Trouble with basic concepts

 *  [nydude](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nydude/)
 * (@nydude)
 * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/trouble-with-basic-concepts/)
 * I almost hate to ask some of this because it seems like it’s so basic compared
   to other posts I’m reading, but I’m hoping someone will help…
    Having trouble
   wrapping my head around some basic stuff:
    - When creating posts, there is some really basic html stuff that I want to 
      do but can’t in WordPress. Should I be using some other editor and then entering
      into WP once it’s all set? (If so, suggestions?)
    - I want to put a bunch of posts onto a specific page but cannot figure out 
      how to do it. I created a page in WP but cannot get individual posts to appear
      there (there’s no option to post to a specified page). To be real specific,
      I have a number of draft posts that contain video clips and I want to post
      them to a page I called ‘Video Series’.
    - Tags: What are they used for? Is this keywords for the post?
    - Permalinks: From reading, it seems as though everyone would/should want permalinks
      because it will be easier for search engines to pick up your posts. If that’s
      the case, why is it an option rather than a default? Under what circumstances
      would you not want to use permalinks?
    - Please help. I’m spending hours and hoiuirs trying to just learn the basics
      here.
       Thx

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Thread Starter [nydude](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nydude/)
 * (@nydude)
 * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/trouble-with-basic-concepts/#post-954064)
 * My post above is another example of basic stuff that I cannot get a handle on…
   when typing the post, I clicked the ‘li’ button before and the ‘/li’ button after
   each topic – thinking that it would create a list of the topics but it didn’t
   do it.
 *  [StrangeAttractor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/strangeattractor/)
 * (@strangeattractor)
 * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/trouble-with-basic-concepts/#post-954069)
 * > # When creating posts, there is some really basic html stuff that I want to
   > do but can’t in WordPress. Should I be using some other editor and then entering
   > into WP once it’s all set? (If so, suggestions?)
 * You can click on the HTML tab in the editor to insert HTML. However, be aware
   even in HTML mode, WordPress still retains some annoying filtering of some HTML.
   There are plugins to correct this, but the easiest thing to do is simply turn
   off the Visual Editor (haven’t used 2.7 yet, but the option for this in 2.6 was
   USERS > YOUR PROFILE > remove checkmark from “Use Visual Editor” and SAVE.) If
   the Visual Editor is turned-off, I *believe* WP no longer filters your HTML at
   all.
 * > # I want to put a bunch of posts onto a specific page but cannot figure out
   > how to do it. I created a page in WP but cannot get individual posts to appear
   > there (there’s no option to post to a specified page). To be real specific,
   > I have a number of draft posts that contain video clips and I want to post 
   > them to a page I called ‘Video Series’.
 * WordPress has “posts” or “pages”. “Posts” (dated entries) appear on your blog
   page by default. “Pages” are separate top-level items from the blog — they can
   be edited, but you can’t put “posts” in them, at least not without specific templates
   to do that. (From the sound of your post above, this is an advanced topic, and
   you should master the basics of using WordPress before delving into templates.)
 * Re: your video posts… the easier way to do this would be to create a category
   called “Video Series” and categorize all the video posts accordingly (by the 
   way, you can use more than one category for any post). The default way WordPress
   works is to have a main blog page that displays your most recent entries, and
   allows the visitor to page through them. But you also usually have a list of 
   categories in the sidebar, so that the visitor can click a given category and
   see only posts in that category.
 * What you are trying to do (have a separate page for certain kinds of posts) is
   not default WordPress behavior and requires creating new templates. This can 
   be done — and it isn’t brain surgery, although the learning curve is dependent
   on how familiar you are with editing files and uploading them with FTP — but 
   it sounds to me like you are still getting accustomed to the basic way that WP
   works, so it would be best to master that first.
 * > # Tags: What are they used for? Is this keywords for the post?
 * Yes, basically they are keywords. There are categories and tags in WordPress 
   since version 2.3. There is some redundancy between the concepts, but basically
   categories are big main topics, large buckets to categorize your posts. Tags 
   are on-the-fly keywords.
 * > # Permalinks: From reading, it seems as though everyone would/should want permalinks
   > because it will be easier for search engines to pick up your posts. If that’s
   > the case, why is it an option rather than a default? Under what circumstances
   > would you not want to use permalinks?
 * To be honest, I’m not sure. Perhaps someone else can answer that question.
 * > My post above is another example of basic stuff that I cannot get a handle 
   > on… when typing the post, I clicked the ‘li’ button before and the ‘/li’ button
   > after each topic – thinking that it would create a list of the topics but it
   > didn’t do it.
 * Actually, if you view source of the page, it did put in your list tags. But you
   didn’t wrap the list in `<ul></ul>` or `<ol></ol>` tags, so that’s probably why
   it didn’t show them as a list.
 * Have you looked at the [Getting Started with WordPress](http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress)
   section in the Codex? From your post, it sounds like you might benefit from going
   through that section carefully. If you find the Codex overwhelming or confusing,
   you can also Google for basic WordPress tutorials — there are many good ones,
   although I don’t have any links handy to offer you.
 *  Thread Starter [nydude](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nydude/)
 * (@nydude)
 * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/trouble-with-basic-concepts/#post-954079)
 * Thanks so much!
 * > You can click on the HTML tab in the editor to insert HTML. However, be aware
   > even in HTML mode, WordPress still retains some annoying filtering of some 
   > HTML. There are plugins to correct this, but the easiest thing to do is simply
   > turn off the Visual Editor (haven’t used 2.7 yet, but the option for this in
   > 2.6 was USERS > YOUR PROFILE > remove checkmark from “Use Visual Editor” and
   > SAVE.) If the Visual Editor is turned-off, I *believe* WP no longer filters
   > your HTML at all.
 * I don’t want to turn off the visual editor because I’m not advanced enough with
   html and I need to toggle back and forth between html and visual in order to 
   make sure things are coming out the way I’d like. I did a search for the plugins
   but by descriptions, they all seem far over my head – you understand what I’m
   looking for – is there a specific plugin you can suggest?
 * RE: Tags – I have the All in One SEO Pack which (separate from WP’s TAG field)
   allows me to crete a Title, Meta Description, and Keywords on each post. Should
   I be using WP’s Tags as well as All In One’s Keyword field? Or does the All In
   One SEO Pack accomplish the same thing as entering stuff into WP’s ‘Custom Fields’?
 * Thanks again!
 *  [iridiax](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iridiax/)
 * (@iridiax)
 * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/trouble-with-basic-concepts/#post-954085)
 * > I need to toggle back and forth between html and visual in order to make sure
   > things are coming out the way I’d like.
 * Do not do this. Switching back and forth between the visual and html editors 
   will mess up your code. Use only one editor or the other. The visual editor is**
   not** a preview tool, that is what the preview button is for.
 * >  I want to put a bunch of posts onto a specific page but cannot figure out 
   > how to do it.
 * Assign a category to those posts, and then they will automatically appear on 
   that category’s archive page.
 *  [StrangeAttractor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/strangeattractor/)
 * (@strangeattractor)
 * [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/trouble-with-basic-concepts/#post-954229)
 * > I don’t want to turn off the visual editor because I’m not advanced enough 
   > with html and I need to toggle back and forth between html and visual in order
   > to make sure things are coming out the way I’d like. I did a search for the
   > plugins but by descriptions, they all seem far over my head – you understand
   > what I’m looking for – is there a specific plugin you can suggest?
 * There was a plugin to add a preview frame window to the write screen. I know 
   it works in 2.6.x but not sure if it works in 2.7. Search for it in the EXTEND
   section, under plugins — don’t have the exact link handy.
 * All it does is save the trouble of having your preview open in a separate window.(
   Not sure why WordPress removed the built-in Preview frame — I thought it was 
   a very convenient feature.)
 * I’m not sure about your other question about the SEO plugin — I haven’t used 
   it.
 * But on these forums, you can often get better help if you post one specific question
   at a time, so you can try posting a question about the SEO plugin and how it 
   works with tags, etc.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Trouble with basic concepts’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [basics](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/basics/)
 * [beginner](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/beginner/)
 * [new to wordpress](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/new-to-wordpress/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 5 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [StrangeAttractor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/strangeattractor/)
 * Last activity: [17 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/trouble-with-basic-concepts/#post-954229)
 * Status: not resolved

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