WordPress® 24-Hour Trainer, Second Edition

WordPress® 24-Hour Trainer, Second Edition

Released August 2011
Publisher(s): Wrox
ISBN: 9781118066904

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Book description

The eagerly anticipated second edition, completely updated for WordPress 3.1

As an open source content management system, WordPress allows users to easily build feature-rich web sites with no programming experience. This unique book-and-video package is a friendly, self-paced beginners guide to the latest release of WordPress. Lessons are focused on practical, everyday tasks that users will need to create and maintain their sites: entering new content, creating new pages, managing menus, making content search-engine friendly. Plus you'll find lots of tips based on years of experience teaching people to use WordPress.

You'll also learn how to extend the functionality of WordPress by using the thousands of plugins available. Connecting to social media, creating membership and e-commerce sites, setting up events calendars, making your site mobile-friendly—these are just some of the plugins you'll be introduced to. Each lesson in the book is supplemented by an instructional video intended to enhance your learning experience. Plus, a trouble-shooting appendix addresses various issues to help you solve any challenges you may face.

Lessons include:

  • Installing WordPress

  • Admin area overview

  • Basic admin settings

  • Adding a new post

  • Working with the text

  • Laying out text

  • Advanced post

  • The basics of handling media files

  • The upload/insert window

  • Image options in detail

  • Editing and laying out

  • Working with image galleries

  • Adding video and audio

  • Adding documents

  • Managing posts and pages

  • Managing media files

  • Managing post categories and

  • Managing widgets and

  • The links manager

  • Managing comments

  • Bringing in content from other sites

  • Helping others connect to your site

  • Having multiple site users

  • Overview of WordPress themes

  • Creating a child theme

  • Basic customization of your design

  • Optimizing your content

  • Optimizing your site as a whole

  • How is your site doing?

  • Keeping up to date

  • Backing up your site

  • Installing and activating plugins

  • Two example plugins

  • Other common uses for plugins

  • Running multiple sites with WordPress

  • Customizing WordPress

  • Troubleshooting WordPress

If learning the new WordPress is a pressing issue for you, then this book-and-video package is exactly what you need.

Note: As part of the print version of this title, video lessons are included on DVD. For e-book versions, video lessons can be accessed at wrox.com using a link provided in the interior of the e-book.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  6. ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR
  7. CREDITS
  8. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  9. CONTENTS
  10. INTRODUCTION
    1. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
    2. WHAT THIS BOOK COVERS
    3. HOW THIS BOOK IS STRUCTURED
    4. INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS ON DVD
    5. CONVENTIONS
    6. ERRATA
    7. P2P.WROX.COM
  11. SECTION I: Before You Start
    1. 1: Thinking Like WordPress
      1. DYNAMIC VS. STATIC WEBSITES
      2. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
      3. HOW WORDPRESS ASSEMBLES PAGES
      4. HOW WORDPRESS MANAGES CONTENT
      5. TRY IT
    2. 2: Planning Your Site for WordPress
      1. HOW CONTENT WILL BE ENTERED
      2. HOW CATEGORIES WILL BE ORGANIZED
      3. HOW THE SITE SHOULD LOOK
      4. TRY IT
  12. SECTION II: Firing Up WordPress
    1. 3: Installing WordPress
      1. UPLOADING THE WORDPRESS FILES
      2. SETTING UP YOUR DATABASE
      3. DOING THE INSTALLATION
      4. TRY IT
    2. 4: Admin Area Overview
      1. LOGGING IN
      2. NAVIGATING THE ADMIN AREA
      3. THE DASHBOARD
      4. CUSTOMIZING ADMIN SCREENS
      5. TRY IT
    3. 5: Basic Admin Settings
      1. SETTINGS TO GET YOU STARTED
      2. SETTING YOUR PERSONAL PROFILE
      3. TRY IT
  13. SECTION III: Working with Written Content
    1. 6: Adding a New Post — Overview
      1. ANATOMY OF A NEW POST
      2. WRITING A POST
      3. CATEGORIES AND TAGS
      4. PUBLISHING A POST
      5. TRY IT
    2. 7: Working with the Text Editor
      1. ANATOMY OF THE TEXT EDITOR
      2. SIZING THE TEXT EDITOR
      3. STYLING TEXT
      4. WORKING WITH TEXT LINKS
      5. IMPORTING TEXT
      6. TRY IT
    3. 8: Laying Out Text
      1. STYLING PARAGRAPHS
      2. CREATING LISTS
      3. TIPS FOR LAYING OUT POSTS
      4. TRY IT
    4. 9: Advanced Post Options
      1. FORMAT
      2. FEATURED IMAGE
      3. ADDITIONAL POST BOXES
      4. REVISIONS
      5. TRY IT
    5. 10: Adding a New Page
      1. PAGES VS. POSTS
      2. THE ADD NEW PAGE OPTIONS
      3. PARENT
      4. TEMPLATE
      5. ORDER
      6. TRY IT
  14. SECTION IV: Working with Media Content
    1. 11: The Basics of Handling Media Files
      1. THE UPLOAD/INSERT MENU
      2. INSERTING AN IMAGE INTO A POST
      3. THE MEDIA LIBRARY VS. GALLERIES
      4. TRY IT
    2. 12: The Upload/Insert Window Tabs
      1. THE FROM COMPUTER TAB
      2. THE FROM URL TAB
      3. THE GALLERY TAB
      4. THE MEDIA LIBRARY TAB
      5. TRY IT
    3. 13: Image Options in Detail
      1. TEXT THAT ACCOMPANIES IMAGES
      2. OTHER IMAGE OPTIONS
      3. INSERTING VS. SAVING
      4. TRY IT
    4. 14: Editing and Laying Out Images
      1. THE WORDPRESS IMAGE EDITOR
      2. AN EXAMPLE OF ALIGNING AND RESIZING
      3. THE INSERTED IMAGE WINDOW
      4. REPOSITIONING IMAGES IN THE TEXT EDITOR
      5. RESIZING IMAGES IN THE TEXT EDITOR
      6. WHICH KIND OF RESIZING TO USE?
      7. MORE COMPLEX IMAGE LAYOUTS
      8. UPDATING AN IMAGE
      9. TRY IT
    5. 15: Working with Image Galleries
      1. CREATING AN IMAGE GALLERY IN A POST
      2. ADDING AND REMOVING IMAGES FROM A GALLERY
      3. CHANGING THE ORDER OF GALLERY IMAGES
      4. MORE OPTIONS WITH GALLERY SHORTCODES
      5. TRY IT
    6. 16: Adding Video and Audio
      1. UPLOADING/INSERTING VIDEO
      2. THE AUTO-EMBED FUNCTION
      3. ADDING AUDIO
      4. TRY IT
    7. 17: Adding Documents
      1. UPLOADING AND INSERTING A DOCUMENT
      2. TYPES OF DOCUMENTS
      3. UPDATING A DOCUMENT
      4. TRY IT
  15. SECTION V: Managing Your Content
    1. 18: Managing Posts and Pages
      1. FINDING POSTS AND PAGES
      2. RENAMING, RESCHEDULING, AND MORE WITH QUICK EDIT
      3. USING BULK EDIT
      4. IMPORTING CONTENT FROM ANOTHER SITE
      5. ADMIN SETTINGS AFFECTING POSTS AND PAGES
      6. TRY IT
    2. 19: Managing Media Files
      1. FINDING FILES IN THE MEDIA LIBRARY
      2. EDITING AND DELETING MEDIA FILES
      3. ADMIN SETTINGS FOR MEDIA
      4. TRY IT
    3. 20: Managing Post Categories and Tags
      1. MANAGING CATEGORIES
      2. MANAGING TAGS
      3. CONVERTING CATEGORIES AND TAGS
      4. TRY IT
    4. 21: Managing Widgets and Menus
      1. WHAT ARE WIDGETS?
      2. THE WIDGETS SCREEN
      3. ACTIVATING AND EDITING WIDGETS
      4. MOVING OR REMOVING WIDGETS
      5. THE WORDPRESS MENU SYSTEM
      6. CREATING A MENU
      7. ASSIGNING A MENU
      8. MANAGING MENUS
      9. TRY IT
  16. SECTION VI: Making Your Site Social
    1. 22: The Links Manager
      1. MANAGING LINKS
      2. MANAGING LINK CATEGORIES
      3. DISPLAYING LINKS
      4. TRY IT
    2. 23: Managing Comments
      1. ALLOW COMMENTS OR NOT?
      2. ADMIN SETTINGS FOR COMMENTING
      3. FINDING COMMENTS
      4. APPROVING, EDITING, OR DELETING COMMENTS
      5. DEALING WITH SPAM COMMENTS
      6. TRY IT
    3. 24: Bringing in Content from Other Sites
      1. SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS
      2. ADDING CONTENT FROM THIRD-PARTY SITES
      3. RSS FEEDS
      4. TRY IT
    4. 25: Helping Others Connect to Your Site
      1. CONNECTING VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
      2. RSS FEEDS OF YOUR CONTENT
      3. SETTING PINGBACKS AND TRACKBACKS
      4. SETTING PERMALINKS
      5. TRY IT
    5. 26: Having Multiple Site Users
      1. USER ROLES AND THEIR CAPABILITIES
      2. ADDING A USER
      3. CHANGING A USER'S CAPABILITIES
      4. USERS AND SECURITY
      5. TRY IT
  17. SECTION VII: Choosing and Customizing Themes
    1. 27: Overview of WordPress Themes
      1. WHAT IS A WORDPRESS THEME?
      2. CHOOSING A WORDPRESS THEME
      3. TRY IT
    2. 28: Creating a Child Theme
      1. WHAT IS A CHILD THEME?
      2. STARTING A CHILD THEME
      3. INSTALLING A THEME
      4. TRY IT
    3. 29: Basic Customization of Your Design
      1. CUSTOMIZING THE HEADER IMAGE
      2. CUSTOMIZING THE SITE BACKGROUND
      3. USING YOUR CSS FILE TO CUSTOMIZE
      4. TRY IT
  18. SECTION VIII: Becoming Search Engine—Friendly
    1. 30: Optimizing Your Content
      1. WRITING USEFUL TITLES
      2. WRITING USEFUL CONTENT
      3. LINKING EFFECTIVELY
      4. TAGGING IMAGES
      5. TRY IT
    2. 31: Optimizing Your Site as a Whole
      1. OPTIMIZING ADMIN SETTINGS
      2. CUSTOMIZING PERMALINKS
      3. NAMING CATEGORIES
      4. USING META TAGS
      5. TITLE TAGS
      6. PLUGINS FOR SEO
      7. TRY IT
  19. SECTION IX: Housekeeping Chores
    1. 32: How Is Your Site Doing?
      1. MONITORING PINGBACKS AND INCOMING LINKS
      2. MONITORING SITE STATISTICS
      3. TRY IT
    2. 33: Keeping Up to Date
      1. UPDATING WORDPRESS
      2. UPDATING PLUGINS
      3. UPDATING THEMES
      4. TRY IT
    3. 34: Backing Up Your Site
      1. A BACKUP ROUTINE
      2. BACKING UP YOUR WEB SERVER FILES
      3. BACKING UP YOUR DATABASE
      4. SOME DATABASE BACKUP PLUGINS
      5. BACKUP SERVICES
      6. TRY IT
  20. SECTION X: Adding Functionality Using Plugins
    1. 35: Installing and Activating Plugins
      1. WHAT IS A PLUGIN?
      2. FINDING PLUGINS
      3. INSTALLING AND ACTIVATING PLUGINS
      4. TROUBLESHOOTING PLUGINS
      5. TRY IT
    2. 36: Two Example Plugins
      1. PHOTO GALLERY PLUGIN — NEXTGEN GALLERY
      2. FORM CREATION PLUGIN — CONTACT FORM 7
      3. TRY IT
    3. 37: Other Common Uses for Plugins
      1. SOCIAL NETWORKING
      2. MOBILE
      3. AD MANAGERS
      4. PHOTO AND GALLERY MANAGEMENT
      5. VIDEOS AND PODCASTS
      6. GOOGLE MAPS
      7. E-COMMERCE
      8. MEMBERSHIP
      9. RANDOM CONTENT
      10. RELATED CONTENT
      11. COMMENT ENHANCEMENT
      12. SPAM
      13. EVENTS
      14. TRY IT
  21. SECTION XI: Taking WordPress Even Further
    1. 38: Running Multiple Sites with WordPress
      1. ENABLING MULTISITE MODE
      2. NETWORK ADMIN SCREENS
      3. MAPPING OTHER DOMAINS TO NETWORK SITES
      4. TROUBLESHOOTING MULTISITE INSTALLATIONS
      5. TRY IT
    2. 39: Customizing WordPress
      1. CUSTOM TEMPLATES
      2. CUSTOM FIELDS
      3. CUSTOM POST TYPES
      4. CUSTOM TAXONOMIES
      5. SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
      6. TRY IT
    3. A: Troubleshooting WordPress
      1. TROUBLESHOOTING AN INSTALLATION
      2. TROUBLESHOOTING AFTER INSTALLATION
      3. FINDING HELP ONLINE
    4. B: Glossary
    5. C: What's on the DVD?
      1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
      2. USING THE DVD ON A PC
      3. USING THE DVD ON A MAC
      4. WHAT'S ON THE DVD
      5. TROUBLESHOOTING
      6. CUSTOMER CARE
  22. INDEX

Product information

  • Title: WordPress® 24-Hour Trainer, Second Edition
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: August 2011
  • Publisher(s): Wrox
  • ISBN: 9781118066904