An Overview of Drupal Content.

The Content menu is where you create pages and blocks in Drupal.

Content.

The Content menu is made up of four sections.

1-1. Content.

The Content section is where you actually create pages. You select a content type — a page template — and write the article by filling in the provided fields: title, body, and so on.

Clicking {Add content} brings up:

[1] Basic page
^{"Use basic pages for your static content, such as an 'About us' page."}
[2] Article
^{"Use articles for time-sensitive content like news, press releases or blog posts."}

^{※ Numbers are not shown in the actual interface. The display may vary depending on the installed theme.}

Select the content type you want and create the page. The difference between Article and Basic page is that Article comes with fields for an image and tags.

What you can do in this menu is create and edit pages, and review and manage the pages you've created. Adding a content type or adding fields to an existing content type needs to be done in Structure > Content types.

1-2. Blocks.

In Drupal, both pages and blocks are referred to collectively as content. I'll go into more detail in later articles, but one of Drupal's useful features is the ability to place multiple blocks within a single page. A straightforward example is a sidebar menu that changes by article category — that kind of page layout is easy to set up.

Blocks are the content used for that kind of page layout. Like pages, blocks are composed of HTML and CSS — the difference is that blocks don't have a URL. Explaining why would get into Drupal's internal structure, so I'll skip that for now, but the practical effect is that a block created once can be placed freely across multiple pages.

Clicking {Add content block} brings up:

[1] Basic block
^{A basic block has a title and body.}
[2] Search

^{※ Numbers are not shown in the actual interface. The display may vary depending on the installed theme.}

Select Basic block to create a block. Search lets you place a search field on a page — use it as needed. Basic block, like content pages, provides fields for a title and body.

What you can do in this menu is create and edit blocks, and review and manage the blocks you've created. Adding a block type or adding fields to an existing block type needs to be done in Structure > Block types.

1-3. Comments.

The Comments menu manages the display of comments left by users when comments are enabled on an article. By default, comments require approval before they appear — to prevent comment spam — and that approval is handled here. Comments are listed individually, with a field showing which article each comment belongs to, so all comments across the site can be managed in one place.

I'm not using the comment feature, so this is an overview only — I don't have a detailed understanding of it.

1-4. Files.

This menu manages the files used on the site — mainly image files. In Drupal, images are usually uploaded at the time an article is created. A list of uploaded files is displayed, and you can check the actual file, its type, and which content it's used in. What you can do here is limited to reviewing and deleting files.

This article has given an overview of the Content menu. What you can do in the Content menu is create pages and blocks using the provided content types — configuring content types and creating new ones needs to be done in the Structure menu.

I keep coming back to this point, and I apologize for the repetition, but without understanding this basic concept, you may find yourself unable to create the pages you want or build the site structure you're after in Drupal. On the flip side, once you understand it, it becomes the foundational concept that lets you use Drupal's powerful features to create pages and configure site structure freely.

2-1. Key Points

In the Content and Blocks sections I've included the following lines:

1. What you can do in this menu is create and edit pages, and review and manage the pages you've created. Adding a content type or adding fields to an existing content type needs to be done in Structure > Content types.
2. What you can do in this menu is create and edit blocks, and review and manage the blocks you've created. Adding a block type or adding fields to an existing block type needs to be done in Structure > Block types.