I'm a confident user of wordpress, having installed my own premium theme and customized it using google and online tutorials. I'm nervous but comfortable tinkering with my site. I hoped this book might give me some deeper understanding of some simple php or css things I could do to personalize my blog more or just understand it better and use it with more confidence. I'd definitely like to upload my own audio files and understand my options for video in greater depth, too.
But this book did not go "in depth" as the title suggests. They do give some instructions for doing some simple things, but they waste a good portion of the book on inserting images or what each of the things in the kitchen sink does, which is not necessary for most users - if you've used Word before, you can figure out the kitchen sink with little effort. I didn't really get any helpful explanations of how to do the in-depth things that I want to do.
I also hoped for more tips on how to make wordpress more secure (since I got hacked a few months back even with a premium theme), but they didn't even cover the basics of security that I could find, instead telling us to go to a blog post online at someone else's site.
I thought when ordering this book that if it was too basic for me, that I could send it to my Dad, who is a newbie at wordpress and has his own fresh new blog. But because the authors switch back and forth from wp.com and [...], I could just imagine the phone calls between me and my Dad, with him insisting that he knows how to do something and can I tell him why it isn't working the way it's pictured, and me telling him - you have a [...] site, please make sure you're following the [...] directions. The layout of trying to show folks how to install themes or do things from both types of site was just confusing. Plus the text is so small that I can imagine my sixty year old Dad digging out his magnifying glass to read the darn thing.
I can't tell who would like this book. They just tried to do WAY too much and in the end it just didn't function for any type of user, as far as I can tell. You might feel differently. But I'll just continue with my usual strategy of googling for online tutorials when I want to do something on WP. The authors don't provide anything not readily available online with color photos, video, and large print (all lacking in this book).
Author(s): Bud E. Smith, Michael McCallister
Edition: 1 Original
Publisher: Que
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 422
City: Indianapolis, Ind
Contents......Page 4
Introduction: Welcome......Page 13
Why This Book?......Page 14
How Our Book Is Organized......Page 15
Text Conventions......Page 16
Special Elements......Page 17
I: Getting Started With Your Blog......Page 19
What Is WordPress?......Page 21
Who Is WordPress For?......Page 27
WordPress Hosting Options......Page 34
Other Ways to Create an Online Presence......Page 37
Creating Your Blog......Page 39
How Many Visitors Do You Want?......Page 40
Playing the Domain Name Game......Page 41
Signing Up......Page 43
Changing Initial WordPress Settings......Page 48
WordPress Settings Not in the Settings Menu......Page 59
You’ve Got the Look......Page 63
Introducing Themes......Page 64
Changing a Custom Header......Page 78
Changing mShots and Related Links......Page 80
Adding Available Widgets......Page 81
II: Running Your Blog......Page 91
What Is a Blog Entry?......Page 93
Using the QuickPress Tool......Page 94
Adding a New Post......Page 96
Adding Links......Page 105
Saving, Checking Your Spelling, and Publishing Posts......Page 109
Doing More with Posts......Page 113
Putting Your Posts in Categories......Page 114
Tagging Your Posts......Page 122
Updating Links and Your Blogroll......Page 129
How HTML Can Take You Further......Page 135
Power Tools for Better Blogging......Page 136
HTML Basics in WordPress......Page 137
YouTube as an Example of Embedded HTML......Page 150
Using the Text Widget......Page 153
Making Your Blog Better......Page 159
Adding Users to Your Blog......Page 161
Adding a Static Page......Page 164
Adding Polls......Page 172
Getting More People to Visit Your Blog......Page 179
WordPress Statistics......Page 180
How Visitors Can Subscribe to Your Blog......Page 196
Using the RSS Widget......Page 198
III: Taking Your Blog Further......Page 201
Why Add Graphics and Other Media?......Page 203
Copyright and Media Types......Page 205
Graphics Tips for Bloggers......Page 206
Uploading and Inserting Graphics......Page 210
Upgrading Your Blog......Page 221
A Quick Description of Upgrades......Page 222
Getting a Good Domain Name......Page 227
Using Audio in Your Blog......Page 231
Using Video in Your Blog......Page 235
Where to Host Video......Page 236
IV: Building Your Own WordPress Installation......Page 239
Getting It Done For You: Hosted WordPress......Page 241
Transferring Your WordPress.com Blog......Page 255
Hosting WordPress Yourself......Page 258
A Quick Tour of the WordPress.org Dashboard......Page 264
Customizing Your Dashboard......Page 267
Shopping for Themes......Page 269
Security Considerations When Selecting a Theme for Your Blog......Page 281
WordPress Modular Architecture......Page 283
Defining a Plug-In......Page 284
Finding Plug-Ins......Page 285
Manually Installing and Activating Plug-Ins......Page 288
Some “Essential” Plug-Ins......Page 291
Creating Style Sheets......Page 299
Introducing XHTML......Page 300
Introducing CSS......Page 306
Tweaking Theme Style Sheets......Page 311
Introducing PHP......Page 333
PHP and MySQL......Page 342
PHP Theme Templates......Page 344
Examining an Existing Plug-In......Page 351
Submitting to the WordPress Plugin Directory......Page 356
V: Appendices......Page 359
Choosing the Right WordPress for You......Page 361
Naming of Parts......Page 362
Choosing WordPress.org......Page 364
Choosing WordPress.com......Page 367
Finding Your Way Through the Online Documents......Page 369
The WordPress Codex......Page 370
Problems with WordPress Documentation......Page 372
Using Google to Access WordPress Documentation......Page 373
Why Look at Famous Blogs?......Page 375
Surfin’ Safari......Page 376
New Kids on the Block......Page 377
Famous Quotes......Page 379
The Outland Institute......Page 380
Music at SFSU......Page 381
Navigating WordPress.com......Page 383
Navigating WordPress.org......Page 389
F: Importing Content from Other Systems......Page 397
Direct Import into WordPress......Page 398
Indirect Transfer......Page 400
A......Page 403
B......Page 404
C......Page 405
D......Page 406
F......Page 407
G......Page 408
H......Page 409
I......Page 410
M......Page 411
O......Page 412
P......Page 413
Q......Page 414
S......Page 415
T......Page 417
U......Page 418
W......Page 419
Y-Z......Page 422
