How to Pinterest ~ for my Dad !

My Dad is pretty cool. He's on facebook ... twitter ... he 'checks in' on his iPhone. And now, he's got pinterest ! He got it because my sister and I love it. But, he's a bit confused by it. I'm not surprised, I was too when I first got it. I decided to write him a little 'how to' and thought, why not stick it on my blog ... there may actually be other people who might like a bit of a how to as well !

When I first signed up, I was a bit confused as to how to get around. Clicking on your name in the top right hand corner will take you to your own pinterest page. This is where you will find your 'boards', your 'pins', and your 'likes".   I have my boards sorted in alphabetical order ... you can arrange them by clicking on the 'rearrange boards' button just under your name.  Once you are in there, you just drop and drag. 

When you originally sign up, there will be a few boards already on your page. You can change them. Just hit the button on the board that says "EDIT". Then you can change the title, add a description if you want. I have all my boards set to only me being able to pin. Not sure why you would want others to pin but whatever. Select a category and then 'save settings". If you wand to delete the board entirely, you can do that here too.

Over on the left hand side of the screen, under your name and above your photo you'll see 'followers" and 'following'. If you click on the 'followers' that will show who is following you. If you click on 'following' that will show who you are following. (I hope you are following me !!)

If there is a button that says 'unfollow', then you are following that person. If you don't want to see their posts then push the 'unfollow' button.

If you see a 'follow' button, then you are not following them. If you want to follow, then push the 'follow' button.

You can invite friends through facebook or through email.  When you click on the Invite Friends like you see above, it will take you to where you can do this.  Finding friends is easy too ... just click on the Find Friends like you see above, and if you've signed in through facebook, you'll be able to find friends that way ...

Clicking on the red Pinterest word at the top of the screen will take you to this page. From here you can click 'pinners you follow' and it will show you the recent things that people you follow have pinned. You can click on 'everything' and either see everything anyone on pinterest has pinned recently or you can select specific interests from the drop down menu. There is also 'videos', 'popular' and 'gifts' ... I haven't really used them.

At first, I thought pinterest was all about re-pinning what other people had pinned. But then I discovered that I could pin stuff from websites and then ... then !!! I really loved it !! You have to install the 'pin it' button onto your toolbar first. Here's the instructions I used to install mine.

When you want to pin to pinterest from a webpage, make sure you are on the specific page you want to come back to (not the home page of the blog or website)as it will link the photo to the address in the address bar. It will bring up some photos for you to chose from. When you hover over the one you want it will give you a 'pin this' button. Click that.

Then select which of your boards you want to pin to and write a little description to remind you why you pinned it ...

One more thing. If you hover over individual 'pins', you will be given these options. Repin. Like. Or Comment. Repin will take you to the section where you chose your board and write your description. Like will put the pin in your 'likes' section. and comment ... well, it will let you leave a comment. You can also tag other pinners by using the @bonnieg73 just like on facebook.

I use the iphone app too but it's not exactly the same as the web version.  You can't do as much but I like scrolling through the things the people I follow have pinned on the phone better than on the computer.  I do different things on the computer and the phone ...

I think that about covers it ...

Let me know if there is anything that is still a little confusing ... and I'll do my best to answer for you.