WordPress: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition

Chapter 1: The WordPress Landscape

Since you picked up this book, it's likely that you already know at least a bit about WordPress. You probably realize that it's a great tool for creating a huge variety of websites, from gossipy blogs to serious business sites. However, you might be a bit fuzzy on the rest of the equation—in other words, how WordPress actually works its magic.

This short chapter will introduce you to the WordPress way of life. First, you'll take a peek at the inner machinery that makes WordPress tick. If you're not already clear on why WordPress is so wonderful—and how it's going to save you days of work, years of programming experience, and a headful of gray hairs—this discussion will fill you in. After that, you'll take a quick look at the types of sites you can build with WordPress. As you'll see, WordPress began life as a blogging system but has since mutated into a flexible, easy-to-use tool for creating virtually any sort of site.

How WordPress Works

You probably already realize that WordPress isn't just a tool to build web pages. After all, anybody can create a web page—you just need to know a bit about HTML (the language that web pages are written in) and a bit about CSS (the language that formats web pages so they look beautiful). It also helps to have a good web page editor at your fingertips. Meet these requirements, and you'll be able to build a static website—one that looks nice enough, but doesn't actually do anything (Figure 1-1).

Figure ...