WordPress For Dummies, 6th Edition

WordPress For Dummies, 6th Edition

Released April 2014
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9781118791615

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Book description

The bestselling WordPress guide, fully updated to cover the 2013 enhancements

WordPress has millions of users, and this popular guide has sold more than 105,000 copies in its previous editions. With the newest releases of WordPress, author and WordPress expert Lisa Sabin-Wilson has completely updated the book to help you use and understand all the latest features. You'll learn about both the hosted WordPress.com version and the more flexible WordPress.org, which requires third-party hosting. Whether you're switching to WordPress from another blogging platform or just beginning to blog, you'll find lots of advice in this friendly guide.

  • WordPress is a state-of-the-art blogging platform that emphasizes aesthetics, web standards, and usability

  • This guide explains how to set up and maintain a blog with either of the two WordPress versions

  • Covers all the changes and improvements in the latest release of WordPress

    • WordPress For Dummies, 6th Edition is the guide you'll want by your side to help you create and maintain a knockout blog with WordPress.

    Table of contents

      1. Introduction
        1. About This Book
        2. Conventions Used in This Book
        3. What You Are Not to Read
        4. Foolish Assumptions
        5. How This Book Is Organized
          1. Part I: Introducing WordPress
          2. Part II: Using the WordPress Hosted Service
          3. Part III: Self-Hosting with WordPress.org
          4. Part IV: Flexing and Extending WordPress
          5. Part V: Customizing WordPress
          6. Part VI: The Part of Tens
        6. Icons Used in This Book
        7. Where to Go from Here
      2. Part I: Introducing WordPress
      3. Chapter 1: What WordPress Can Do for You
        1. Discovering the Benefits of WordPress
          1. Getting set up the fast and easy way
          2. Extending WordPress’s capabilities
          3. Taking part in the community
        2. Choosing a WordPress Platform
          1. Choosing the hosted version from WordPress.com
          2. Self-hosting with WordPress.org
      4. Chapter 2: WordPress Blogging Basics
        1. This Crazy Little Thing Called Blog
        2. Dipping into Blog Technologies
          1. Archiving your publishing history
          2. Interacting with your readers through comments
          3. Feeding your readers
          4. Tracking back
          5. Dealing with comment and trackback spam
        3. Using WordPress as a Content Management System
          1. Exploring the difference between a website and a blog
          2. Viewing examples: Blog versus website
        4. Moving On to the Business of Blogging
      5. Part II: Using the WordPress Hosted Service
      6. Chapter 3: Getting Started with WordPress
        1. Creating a WordPress Account
        2. Navigating WordPress
        3. Using the WordPress Dashboard
          1. Right Now
          2. Recent Comments
          3. Your Stuff
          4. What’s Hot
          5. Quick Draft
          6. Recent Drafts
          7. Stats
          8. Hiding and unhiding modules on the Dashboard
        4. Setting Important Options before You Blog
          1. Setting your General options
          2. Adjusting your Date and Time settings
          3. Setting your public profile: Tell us a little about yourself
          4. Setting your preferences
      7. Chapter 4: Writing and Managing Your Blog
        1. Ready? Set? Blog!
          1. Inserting media files into your post
          2. Refining your post options
          3. Publishing your post
        2. Organizing Your Blog by Subject
          1. Creating categories and subcategories
          2. Filing posts in categories and subcategories
        3. Creating and Categorizing Your Blogroll
          1. Creating link categories
          2. Adding new links to your blogroll
        4. Managing and Inviting Users
          1. Managing authors and users
          2. Inviting friends to WordPress.com
        5. Managing Comments and Comment Spam
          1. Setting discussion options for your blog
          2. Viewing comments
        6. Creating a Static Page
        7. Setting Up Your Front Page
        8. Publishing a Public or Private Blog
        9. Publicizing through Social Media
          1. Making sharing easy
          2. Clicking the Like button
        10. Establishing Trust Relationships with OpenID
      8. Chapter 5: Enhancing Your Blog with Themes, Widgets, and Upgrades
        1. Changing Your Blog’s Look
        2. Enhancing Your Theme with Features
          1. Adding navigation menus
          2. Changing the background color and image
          3. Creating a mobile-friendly display
          4. Changing the header image
          5. Using the Custom Design upgrade
        3. Widget Wonder: Adding Handy Tools to Your Sidebar
          1. Selecting and activating widgets
          2. Using the Text widget
          3. Using the RSS widget
        4. Upgrading Your WordPress Account (for a Fee)
        5. Naming Your Domain
      9. Part III: Self-Hosting with WordPress.org
      10. Chapter 6: Setting Up Blogging Base Camp
        1. Establishing Your Domain
          1. Understanding domain name extensions
          2. Considering the cost of a domain name
          3. Registering your domain name
        2. Finding a Home for Your Blog
          1. Getting help with hosting WordPress
          2. Dealing with disk space and bandwidth
        3. Transferring Files from Point A to Point B
        4. Installing WordPress
          1. Installing WordPress manually
          2. Setting up the MySQL database
          3. Uploading the WordPress files
          4. Last step: Running the install script
      11. Chapter 7: Understanding the WordPress.org Dashboard
        1. Logging In to the Dashboard
        2. Navigating the Dashboard
          1. At a Glance
          2. Activity
          3. Quick Draft
          4. WordPress News
        3. Arranging the Dashboard to Your Tastes
        4. Finding Inline Documentation and Help
          1. Creating your own work space
        5. Setting Options on the Dashboard
        6. Configuring the Settings
          1. General
          2. Writing
          3. Reading
          4. Discussion
          5. Media
          6. Permalinks
        7. Creating Your Personal Profile
        8. Setting Your Blog’s Format
          1. Posts
          2. Media
          3. Pages
          4. Comments
          5. Appearance
          6. Plugins
          7. Users
          8. Tools
      12. Chapter 8: Establishing Your Blog Routine
        1. Staying on Topic with Categories
          1. Changing the name of a category
          2. Creating new categories and deleting others
        2. Examining a Blog Post’s Address: Permalinks
          1. Making your post links pretty
          2. Customizing your permalinks
          3. Making sure that your permalinks work with your server
        3. Discovering the Many WordPress RSS Options
        4. Blog It!: Writing Your First Entry
          1. Composing your blog post
          2. Dressing up your posts with images, video, and audio
          3. Refining your post options
          4. Publishing your post
          5. Editing your posts
        5. Look Who’s Talking on Your Blog
          1. Managing comments and trackbacks
          2. Moderating comments and trackbacks
          3. Tackling spam with Akismet
      13. Part IV: Flexing and Extending WordPress
      14. Chapter 9: Media Management: Images, Audio, and Video
        1. Inserting Images into Your Blog Posts
          1. Aligning your images
          2. Inserting a photo gallery
        2. Inserting Video Files into Your Blog Posts
        3. Inserting Audio Files into Your Blog Posts
        4. Keeping Media Files Organized
      15. Chapter 10: Making the Most of WordPress Plugins
        1. Finding Out What Plugins Are
          1. Exploring the Plugins page
          2. Discovering the one-click plugin update
        2. Exploring the Plugins Included with WordPress
          1. Incorporating Akismet
          2. Saying Hello Dolly
        3. Using Plugins: Just the Basics
        4. Installing Plugins Manually
          1. Finding and downloading the files
          2. Reading the instructions
        5. Uploading and Activating Plugins
          1. Uploading a new plugin
          2. Activating the plugin
        6. Setting Plugin Options
        7. Uninstalling Plugins
        8. Understanding the Open Source Environment
      16. Chapter 11: Finding and Installing WordPress Themes
        1. Getting Started with Free Themes
          1. Finding free themes
          2. Avoiding unsafe themes
          3. Previewing themes
          4. Downloading themes
        2. Activating a New Theme
        3. Browsing and Installing Themes from the Dashboard
        4. Deciding to Use Commercial Themes
      17. Part V: Customizing WordPress
      18. Chapter 12: Understanding Themes and Templates
        1. Using WordPress Themes: The Basics
          1. Understanding theme structure
          2. Connecting templates
        2. Contemplating the Structure of a WordPress Blog
        3. Examining the Anatomy of a Template Tag
        4. Getting Familiar with the Four Main Templates
          1. The Header template
          2. The Main Index template
          3. The Sidebar template
          4. The Footer template
          5. Other templates
        5. Putting a Theme Together
          1. Connecting the templates
          2. Using additional stylesheets
        6. Customizing Your Blog Posts with Template Tags
        7. Using Tags with Parameters for Sidebars
          1. The calendar
          2. List pages
          3. Post archives
          4. Categories
          5. Getting widgetized
      19. Chapter 13: Tweaking WordPress Themes
        1. Styling with CSS: The Basics
          1. CSS selectors
          2. Classes and IDs
          3. CSS properties and values
        2. Changing the Background Color
          1. Creating a custom background
          2. Changing the background using CSS
        3. Using Your Own Header Image
        4. Creating Custom Navigation Menus
          1. Adding the Custom Menu feature to your theme
          2. Building custom navigation menus
          3. Displaying Custom Menus using widgets
        5. Changing Font Family, Color, and Size
          1. Changing font color
          2. Changing font size
          3. Borders
          4. Finding additional CSS resources
        6. Understanding Basic HTML Techniques
          1. Inserting images
          2. Inserting hyperlinks
          3. Inserting lists
        7. Customizing Theme Style with Child Themes
          1. Creating a child theme
          2. Loading a parent theme’s style
          3. Customizing the parent theme’s styling
          4. Using images in child theme designs
        8. Modifying Theme Structure with Child Themes
          1. Overriding parent template files
          2. Adding new template files
          3. Removing template files
      20. Part VI: The Part of Tens
      21. Chapter 14: Ten Popular WordPress Plugins
        1. AppPresser — Mobile App Framework
        2. Jetpack
        3. Subscribe to Comments
        4. Facebook
        5. All in One SEO Pack
        6. BackupBuddy
        7. WP Super Cache
        8. Twitter Tools
        9. Google XML Sitemaps
        10. Sucuri Sitecheck Malware Scanner
      22. Chapter 15: Ten Free WordPress Themes
        1. Hybrid
        2. designPile
        3. Responsive
        4. P2
        5. Annotum Base
        6. Blackbird
        7. iTheme
        8. Esquire
        9. WP-Creativix
        10. Gridline
      23. Chapter 16: Upgrading, Backing Up, and Migrating
        1. Getting Notified of an Available Upgrade
        2. Backing Up Your Database
        3. Upgrading WordPress Automatically
        4. Upgrading WordPress Manually
        5. Migrating Your Existing Blog to WordPress
          1. Movin’ on up
          2. Preparing for the big move
          3. Converting templates
          4. Moving your blog to WordPress
          5. Importing from Blogspot/Blogger
          6. Importing from LiveJournal
          7. Importing from Movable Type and Typepad
          8. Importing from WordPress
          9. Importing from an RSS feed
          10. Finding other import resources
        6. Moving Your Website to a Different Host
          1. Creating a backup and moving manually
          2. Using a plugin to back up and move to a new host
      24. About the Author
      25. Cheat Sheet
      26. More Dummies Products

    Product information

    • Title: WordPress For Dummies, 6th Edition
    • Author(s):
    • Release date: April 2014
    • Publisher(s): For Dummies
    • ISBN: 9781118791615