Multiple problems after installation

Who is your host? Additionally, were you updating an existing WordPress installation or creating a brand new site?

The host is canaca.com
I did a completely new installation – hadn’t used WordPress before the week just gone.

I can understand your frustration. A lot of popular webhosts typically have a “One-Click” WordPress installation process that automates the entire WordPress setup and takes a lot less than 5 minutes (typically 1 minute or less). I use and love Siteground. They’ll install WordPress for you automatically, or if you want to do it on your own they have great tutorials in their help section. (i.e. https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/wordpress-wizard-installation.htm or https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/softaculous-installation.htm). It doesn’t look like Canaca has any resources like that. It is possible that they do have a One-Click WordPress installation button hidden somewhere in cPanel. I can’t say for sure though since I’ve never used them. At this point I would suggest a few things. First, if you don’t mind shelling out some $$$ for a more reputable host, make the switch to Siteground. They specialize in WordPress installations and their support is by far the best. If you’re already committed to Canaca, then there are a couple of things to try. First, double check your site with another browser (i.e. Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge) to see if you’re experiencing the same issue. If you are, then you know your issue is caused by WordPress and you might need to reinstall. If not, then you may just need to clear your cache/cookies on your primary browser. Second, try reinstalling WordPress altogether. Before you try to do the installation manually again, take a look around to see if you can find a One-Click WordPress installation option. WordPress is so popular that I’d be really surprised if they didn’t. If they don’t, try using FTP instead of cPanel to upload your files. It’ll be a lot quicker than using cPanel because you’ll be able to just drag and drop the root WordPress folder and it will copy over everything to your host. Give all that a shot and let me know how it goes. I can provide further clarification if there is anything in particular you didn’t understand.

Thanks aschmidt8. Canaca does have a link for WordPress, though I found it in the local software, which wasn’t all that intuitive. What took me hours to upload with cPanel took less than a minute to do onsite when I had found the link. Apart from some irritations with username/password combinations everything appears to have gone smoothly. I was able to modify settings and save them, and to access themes, so it should be ready for my wife to start uploading book reviews. One thing I noted along the way: I had dowloaded the English version of WordPress, which, among other things, allowed me to specify a date format such as 4th September 2016, but the version on Canaca didn’t offer that, though I was able (because I’d paid attention when trying to get the original working) to set the date format. I was also able to select Australian English, and noted words like “favourite” spelled as we do here.