WordPress for Dummies

by Sabin-Wilson, Lisa; Mullenweg, Matt

• ISBN13: 9781118383186
• ISBN10: 1118383184
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-28
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

The popular guide to WordPress, fully updated to help you get blogging Join the millions of bloggers who rely on WordPress, the popular and free blogging platform. This guide covers all the features and improvements in the most up-to-date version of WordPress. Whether you are switching to WordPress from another blogging platform or just starting your first blog, youll find lots of advice in this friendly guide. With this easy-to-follow book, you'll be able to take full advantage of the flexibility and usability of WordPress. WordPress is a state-of-the-art blog platform that emphasizes aesthetics, web standards, and usability Shows what it takes to set up and maintain a blog with WordPress and how to use all the new features Covers the changes and improvements to the latest release of WordPress Written by WordPress expert Lisa Sabin-Wilson, this guide helps bloggers take advantage quickly and easily of everything this popular blogging tool has to offer.

Author Biography

Lisa Sabin-Wilson is the founder and Creative Director of E. Webscapes Design Studio, which specializes in blog design and development with an emphasis on Word Press custom design. She's a popular conference speaker and the author of WordPress Web Design For Dummies. Lisa blogs at http://lisasabin-wilson.com and you can find her on Twitter as @LisaSabinWilson.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiv
Introduction	p. 1
About This Book	p. 1
Conventions Used in This Book	p. 3
What You Are Not to Read	p. 3
Foolish Assumptions	p. 4
How This Book Is Organized	p. 4
Introducing WordPress	p. 4
Using the WordPress Hosted Service	p. 5
Self-Hosting with WordPress.org	p. 5
Flexing and Extending WordPress	p. 5
Customizing WordPress	p. 5
The Part of Tens	p. 6
Icons Used in This Book	p. 6
Where to Go from Here	p. 6
Introducing WordPress	p. 9
What WordPress Can Do for You	p. 11
Discovering the Benefits of WordPress	p. 11
Getting set up the fast and easy way	p. 12
Extending WordPress's capabilities	p. 13
Tailing part in the community	p. 14
Choosing a WordPress Platform	p. 15
Choosing the hosted version from WordPress.com	p. 17
Self-hosting with WordPress.org	p. 17
WordPress Blogging Basics	p. 19
This Crazy Little Thing Called Blog	p. 19
Dipping Into Blog Technologies	p. 20
Archiving your publishing history	p. 21
Interacting with your readers through comments	p. 22
Feeding your readers	p. 24
Tracking back	p. 25
Dealing with comment and trackback spam	p. 26
Using WordPress as a Content Management System	p. 27
Exploring the difference between a website and a blog	p. 27
Viewing examples: Blog versus website	p. 28
Moving On to the Business of Blogging	p. 30
Using the WordPress Hosted Service	p. 31
Getting Started with WordPress	p. 33
Creating a WordPress Account	p. 33
Navigating WordPress	p. 40
Using the WordPress Dashboard	p. 42
Right Now	p. 42
Recent Comments	p. 44
Your Stuff	p. 45
What's Hot	p. 45
QuickPress	p. 46
Recent Drafts	p. 46
Stats	p. 46
Setting Important Options before You Blog	p. 48
Setting your General options	p. 48
Adjusting your Date and Time settings	p. 49
Setting your public profile: Tell us a little about yourself	p. 51
Setting your preferences	p. 56
Writing and Managing Your Blog	p. 59
Ready? Set? Blog!	p. 59
Inserting media files into your post	p. 62
Refining your post options	p. 67
Publishing your post	p. 70
Organizing Your Blog by Subject	p. 72
Creating categories and subcategories	p. 72
Filing posts in categories and subcategories	p. 74
Creating and Categorizing Your Blogroll	p. 74
Creating link categories	p. 75
Adding new links to your blogroll	p. 75
Managing and Inviting Users	p. 78
Managing authors and users	p. 79
Inviting friends to WordPress.com	p. 80
Managing Comments and Comment Spam	p. 81
Setting discussion options for your blog	p. 81
Viewing comments	p. 86
Creating a Static Page	p. 88
Setting Up Your Front Page	p. 90
Publishing a Public or Private Blog	p. 91
Publicizing through Social Media	p. 93
Making sharing easy	p. 93
Like button	p. 94
Interaction Through SMS (Text Messaging)	p. 95
Establishing Trust Relationships with OpenID	p. 96
Enhancing Your Blog with Themes, Widgets, and Upgrades	p. 97
Changing Your Blog's Look	p. 98
Enhancing Your Theme with Features	p. 99
Adding navigation menus	p. 99
Changing the background color and image	p. 101
Creating an iPad-friendly display	p. 103
Changing the header image	p. 105
Using the Custom Design upgrade	p. 106
Widget Wonder: Adding Handy Tools to Your Sidebar	p. 107
Selecting and activating widgets	p. 107
Using Text widgets	p. 109
Using the RSS widget	p. 113
Upgrading Your WordPress Account (For a Fee)	p. 115
Naming Your Domain	p. 117
Self-Hosting With WordPress.org	p. 119
Setting Up Blogging Base Camp	p. 121
Establishing Your Domain	p. 121
Understanding domain name extensions	p. 122
Considering the cost of a domain name	p. 123
Registering your domain name	p. 123
Finding a Home for Your Blog	p. 124
Getting help with hosting WordPress	p. 125
Dealing with disk space and bandwidth	p. 126
Transferring Files from Point A to Point B	p. 127
Installing WordPress	p. 129
Using SimpleScripts to install WordPress	p. 129
Installing WordPress manually	p. 133
Setting up the MySQL database	p. 134
Uploading the WordPress files	p. 135
Last step: Running the install script	p. 137
Understanding the WordPress.org Dashboard	p. 143
Logging On to the Dashboard	p. 144
Navigating the Dashboard	p. 145
Right Now	p. 146
Recent Comments	p. 148
Incoming Links	p. 148
Plugins	p. 150
QuickPress	p. 151
Recent Drafts	p. 151
WordPress Blog	p. 151
Other WordPress News	p. 153
Arranging the Dashboard to Your Tastes	p. 153
Changing the Dashboard layout	p. 155
Finding inline documentation and help	p. 157
Creating your own work space	p. 159
Setting Options on the Dashboard	p. 160
Configuring the Settings	p. 161
General	p. 161
Writing	p. 165
Reading	p. 167
Discussion	p. 168
Media	p. 175
Privacy	p. 177
Permalinks	p. 177
Creating Your Personal Profile	p. 178
Setting Your Blog's Format	p. 180
Posts	p. 181
Media	p. 181
Links	p. 182
Pages	p. 182
Comments	p. 183
Appearance	p. 183
Plugins	p. 184
Users	p. 185
Tools	p. 185
Establishing Your Blog Routine	p. 187
Staying on Topic with Categories	p. 187
Changing the name of a category	p. 188
Creating new categories and deleting others	p. 190
Link Lists: Sharing Your Favorite Sites	p. 192
Organizing your links	p. 193
Adding new links	p. 194
Editing existing links	p. 199
Examining a Blog Post's Address: Permalinks	p. 199
Making your post links pretty	p. 200
Customizing your permalinks	p. 201
Making sure that your permalinks work with your server	p. 203
Discovering the Many WordPress RSS Options	p. 205
Blog It!: Writing Your First Entry	p. 207
Composing your blog post	p. 207
Dressing up your posts with images, video, and audio	p. 211
Refining your post options	p. 211
Publishing your post	p. 213
You are your own editor	p. 216
Look Who's Talking on Your Blog	p. 217
Managing comments and trackbacks	p. 217
Moderating comments and trackbacks	p. 219
Tackling spam with Akismet	p. 219
Flexing and Extending WordPress	p. 221
Media Management: Images, Audio, and Video	p. 223
Inserting Images into Your Blog Posts	p. 224
Aligning your images	p. 229
Inserting a photo gallery	p. 230
Inserting Video Files into Your Blog Posts	p. 234
Inserting Audio Files into Your Blog Posts	p. 236
Keeping Media Files Organized	p. 237
Making the Most of WordPress Plugins	p. 241
Finding Out What Plugins Are	p. 242
Exploring the Plugins page	p. 243
Discovering the one-click plugin update	p. 245
Exploring the Plugins Included with WordPress	p. 248
Incorporating Akismet	p. 248
Saying Hello Dolly	p. 251
Using Plugins: Just the Basics	p. 252
Installing Plugins Manually	p. 254
Finding and downloading the files	p. 255
Reading the instructions	p. 257
Uploading and Activating Plugins	p. 258
Uploading a new plugin	p. 258
Activating the plugin	p. 260
Setting Plugin Options	p. 260
Uninstalling Plugins	p. 261
Understanding the Open Source Environment	p. 262
Finding and Installing WordPress Themes	p. 265
Getting Started with Free Themes	p. 266
Finding free themes	p. 266
Avoiding unsafe themes	p. 268
Previewing themes	p. 268
Downloading themes	p. 270
Activating a New Theme	p. 270
Browsing and Installing Themes from the Dashboard	p. 272
Deciding to Use Commercial Themes	p. 275
Customizing WordPress	p. 277
Understanding Themes and Templates	p. 279
Using WordPress Themes: The Basics	p. 280
Understanding theme structure	p. 280
Connecting templates	p. 283
Contemplating the Structure of a WordPress Blog	p. 283
Examining the Anatomy of a Template Tag	p. 285
Getting Familiar with the Four Main Templates	p. 286
The Header template	p. 286
The Main Index template	p. 292
The Sidebar template	p. 296
The Footer template	p. 297
Other templates	p. 297
Putting a Theme Together	p. 298
Connecting the templates	p. 298
Using additional stylesheets	p. 307
Customizing Your Blog Posts with Template Tags	p. 307
Using Tags with Parameters for Sidebars	p. 309
The calendar	p. 310
List pages	p. 311
Bookmarks (blogroll)	p. 313
Post archives	p. 316
Categories	p. 318
Getting widgetized	p. 321
Tweaking WordPress Themes	p. 323
Styling with CSS: The Basics	p. 324
CSS selectors	p. 324
Classes and IDs	p. 325
CSS properties and values	p. 327
Changing the Background Color	p. 328
Creating a custom background	p. 329
Changing the background using CSS	p. 331
Using Your Own Header Image	p. 332
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.