Activating Jetpack

This tutorial will walk you through the activation and configuration of Jetpack. We recommend using Jetpack if you want to do some custom CSS for your site or if you want to easily create tiled image galleries.

1. Activate Jetpack

If you aren't already in the Plugins section of your dashboard, navigate there now. Find Jetpack in the listing, and under the name, choose "Activate."

You should be taken to a screen asking you to connect Jetpack to WordPress.com that looks like this:

Go ahead and click the "Connect to WordPress.com" button.

2. Connect to WordPress.com

You will be prompted to connect Jetpack by logging in with a WordPress.com account and then approving access for Jetpack.

WordPress.com is not the same thing as the hosted WordPress application that we are using for COPLACDigital, so your username/password for COPLACDigital sites is not the same as your WordPress.com username/password. You may not even have a WordPress.com login if you've never created one before.

Once you've logged in via WordPress.com and approved the connection to Jetpack, it should take you back to Jetpack's dashboard for your course site. If you WordPress.com asks you to "pick a plan that's right for you," just choose the Free option. After you click "Start with Free," you should be taken back to your site and see a "Jump Start your Site" screen from Jetpack.

3. Configure Jetpack

Jetpack will offer to configure recommended settings for you—choose the option to "Skip this step." We'll configure a couple things ourselves.

Once you've chosen to skip the jump-start setup, you should be at Jetpack's dashboard. (Not to be confused with the general WordPress dashboard! The idea is the same, though—Jetpack's dashboard is where you can manage the plugin, just like how the WordPress dashboard is where you manage your site.)

The first thing you'll see in the Jetpack dashboard are Site Stats. We'll turn on a couple features here:

Below Site Stats is Security. Turn on the first item in the Security section, Protect, by toggling the switch to the right of Protect.
Below Security is Performance. Turn on the only item in this section, Image Performance, by toggling the switch to the right.

Great! We've started the configuration of Jetpack and now have a couple key features turned on. From here, we'll turn on a few more features to round out the configuration. Back at the top of your Jetpack screen, switch from the dashboard to Settings.

The Settings screen starts us out in the Writing tab.

In the Composing section, toggle "Check your spelling, style, and grammar" if that's something that would be beneficial for you. You can manage additional spell check settings by clicking the downward-facing arrow to the right of this item.
In the Media section, toggle "Display images and galleries in a gorgeous, full-screen browsing experience."
In the Theme Enhancements section, toggle "Optimize your site for smartphones."

You can, of course, turn on more settings than just the few we've covered here, but these are the features that will be most useful to your site building process and the site's functionality. Additional tabs in the Settings screen are: Sharing, Discussion, Traffic, and Security.

Note also that now that Jetpack is active, there is an additional option under the "Appearance" menu item in our WordPress dashboard: Edit CSS. If you know CSS or want to dabble in it for the purposes of customizing your site, now you can easily do that with the Edit CSS option.

And now, we are finished activating and configuring Jetpack!

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