Initial install of speakup petition to new blog

You don’t need to edit files in any folders. Just include the shortcode for your petition in your post. Try adding the following in any regular wordpress post:

[emailpetition id="1"]

You’ll find the shortcodes for your petitions in the Shortcodes column on the Email Petitions page. They also appear in the little yellow notification message that appears at the top of your screen when you create a new petition.

Thanks for this reply, Kreg. I greatly appreciate your patience in helping us beginners. After 50+ hours of search in WP.org Forums, Codex searches, Speakup help pages, HTML Dog, and YouTube, I finally discovered how to use Filezilla to add the petition to my Twenty Twelve post at https://www.seniorshelpamerica.com. I also learned how to add the email petition widget to the Main Sidebar after I gave up trying to fit the Sign Now box to the blog front content page along side of the petition content.
However, I’m still stumped over these problems:
a. When the Sign Now widget opens, my first name, last name and email auto load in the boxes rather than being blank for new entries.
b. The fields for Sreet, City, State/Province and Post Code need to be “required.”
c. “Post Code” needs to be changed to “Zip Code” and a “+4” box added. Politician petitions require full address info, including +4 to authentic legitimate voters are submitting the petition.
d. I would like to minimize the space in the heading between the “header text” and the “header image.”
e. I would like “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of the page along with the box for reply content, etc.
If items “d” and “e” are not appropriate for your Speakup comment, perhaps someone else could lend a hand.