Help & Support

Managing Your Site

Sites on Knowledge Commons are powered by WordPress, giving you flexible tools for publishing content, customizing your design, managing comments, using plugins, and collaborating with others. This guide walks you through the main areas of managing your site, from adding posts and pages to adjusting themes and accessing the WordPress Admin Panel.

In this article

1. Adding Content to Your WordPress Site

Your site can include three major types of content: posts, pages, and comments.

Posts

  • Posts are individual entries on your site.
  • They typically appear in reverse chronological order, with the newest post on top.
  • Use posts for news, updates, reflections, ongoing projects, or regularly published content.

Pages

  • Pages are best for static or evergreen content, such as:
    • About pages
    • Contact information
    • Course descriptions
    • Project overviews
  • Pages remain accessible regardless of new activity and are not organized by date.

Comments

  • Comments are written by site visitors.
  • They can appear on posts or pages, depending on your settings.
  • You can moderate comments from the WordPress Admin Panel.

2. Creating Posts

You can add a new post in several ways:

  • Click Posts → Add New in the left-hand WordPress menu
  • Click Add New next to the Posts header on the Posts screen
  • Hover over + New in the top WordPress toolbar and select Post

The New Post Editor

The post editor uses WordPress’s block system.

You can:

  • Add a title
  • Build content using blocks such as:
    • Paragraph
    • Image
    • Heading
    • Gallery
    • List
    • Quote

To add a block:

  • Type / to select a block,
  • OR click the black plus (+) button to the right of the editor,
  • OR choose Browse All to explore all available block types, patterns, and reusable blocks.

Moving and Removing Blocks

  • Use the six-dot handle to drag blocks.
  • Use the up/down arrows to reposition blocks.
  • Click the three-dot menu and choose Remove to delete a block.

3. Creating Pages

Pages are created almost the same way as posts.

You can add a page by:

  • Clicking Pages → Add New in the WordPress menu
  • Hovering over + New in the top toolbar and selecting Page

Pages use the same block-based editor as posts but are typically used for long-term, non-chronological content.

4. Managing Comments

To manage comments:

  1. Visit the Comments tab in the left-hand WordPress Admin menu.
  2. You will see all pending, approved, spam, and trashed comments.

Approving or Moderating Comments

New comments do not appear publicly until you approve them.

For each comment, you can:

  • Approve
  • Trash
  • Mark as Spam

WordPress automatically filters much spam, but you may still need to remove or moderate comments occasionally.

5. Changing Your Site’s Appearance With Themes

Knowledge Commons uses a curated set of WordPress themes to ensure stability across the network. You cannot upload your own themes or edit style sheets directly. This helps maintain compatibility and security.

If you’d like us to consider a new theme, contact us—we welcome suggestions.

Accessing Theme Settings

In the WordPress Admin Panel:

  1. Go to Appearance → Themes
  2. You’ll see:
    • Your active theme
    • Other themes available to activate

Hover over any theme to:

  • Read Theme Details
  • Use Live Preview (legacy themes only)
  • Click Activate to apply a new theme

Customizing Your Theme

Click the Customize button on your active theme to adjust:

  • Colors
  • Fonts
  • Header and footer layout
  • Widget areas
  • Site identity (title and tagline)

About Full Site Editing (FSE)

Full Site Editing themes (e.g., Twenty Twenty-Four, Twenty Twenty-Five) allow full layout customization.

Notes:

  • FSE themes do not support Live Preview. You must activate them to explore design options.
  • Legacy themes (like Suits) remain available but are no longer widely supported by WordPress.

If you experience issues or want help navigating FSE, contact us at hello@hcommons.org.

6. Accessing the WordPress Admin Panel (WP-Admin)

The Admin Panel is where you manage content, appearance, settings, plugins, and users.

How to Access WP-Admin

You can access it in two ways:

  1. Direct URL
    • Add /wp-admin to your site URL
    • Example:
      https://yoursite.knowledgecommons.org/wp-admin
  2. My Sites Menu
    • In the top toolbar, hover over My Sites
    • Hover over your site’s title
    • Click Dashboard

You must have site permissions (admin, editor, author, or contributor) to access WP-Admin.

7. The Admin Panel Overview

Once inside WP-Admin, you’ll see:

Key Content Areas

  • Posts – all blog posts and drafts
  • Pages – all pages on your site
  • Comments – moderation tools for reader comments

Appearance Tools

  • Themes
  • Customize
  • Widgets (in some themes)
  • Menus

Settings

Site-wide options like:

  • Reading and writing settings
  • Privacy
  • Permalinks

Plugins

Add additional features and tools.

Users

Manage who can contribute to your site and what roles they have.

8. Plugins Available on Knowledge Commons

Plugins extend what your site can do. Knowledge Commons offers a curated set of plugins for stability and security.

Available plugins include:

  • Beehive Analytics – set up Google Analytics (enabled by default)
  • Footnotes Made Easy – add footnotes to posts and pages
  • NinjaForms – build forms (free version)
  • Password Protected – password-protect your entire site
  • PressForward – curate and aggregate online content
  • TranslatePress – enable multilingual content (free version)
  • ZotPress – integrate Zotero libraries into your site

You can enable or disable plugins in:
WP-Admin → Plugins

Why plugins are limited

To maintain performance and protect the network, you cannot upload custom plugins. We periodically add plugins based on community need. Contact us if you’d like to request one for consideration.

Need Help?

If you encounter issues, want help customizing your site, or would like to suggest new themes or plugins, please contact us at hello@hcommons.org.