- ISBN: 9780789741073 | 0789741075
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 7/26/2011
WordPress has grown into the #1 blogging tool in its category: several million bloggers have downloaded this powerful open source software, and millions more are using WordPress.com's hosted services. Thirty-two of Technorati's Top 100 blogs now use WordPress. WordPress InDepth, 2/e,is a comprehensive reference for everyone who wants to use either WordPress or WordPress.com more effectively -- regardless of their experience with WordPress or with blogging. It offers comprehensive guidance for every aspect of using WordPress -- from downloading, installing, and securing it through blog design, templates, themes, posting entries, working with comments and email, and managing WordPress blogs. WordPress software has moved from Version 2.9 to Version 3.0 and this new edition has been fully updated to reflect the changes, including: -New look. The software has a more sophisticated look. Some menu items have been moved around, and the font is different. -Menus editor. WordPress now allows users to create and manage menus -Graphics editor. -New default theme. The look and functionality of the default theme have changed -Merger of WordPress and WordPress Multi-User (WordPress MU) -Use of WordPress as a CMS.
Bud Smith wrote his first book for Que about buying computers fifteen years ago—and had
to do his online research for it using dial-up Internet. Since then, he’s lived and worked in
Silicon Valley; London, England; Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand; San Francisco and
Oakland, California, and written a dozen more books. And he does most of his online work at
broadband speeds—except when he’s using the Web on his cell phone, which is as slow as his
old dial-up modem. Bud runs a WordPress-based blog at RunawayDaily.com.
Michael McCallister is devoted to the idea that technology need not be feared and can be mastered
by anyone. He has been writing about technology in general, and open source software
in particular, for the whole of the twenty-first century, and part of the previous century, too.
He tries to help build the open source community, from which derives WordPress and so much
else that is good, true, and pure in life (the parts of life that run on computers, anyway). While
Bud has moved hither and yon, Michael has lived the relatively boring, stable life in the central
United States (Milwaukee, Madison, and Boulder). Michael has been running “Notes from the
Metaverse” on WordPress since 2006 at metaverse.wordpress.com. Find out more at www.
michaelmccallister.com.
Introduction
Welcome
Why This Book?
How Our Book Is Organized
Conventions Used in This Book
Text Conventions
Special Elements
Part I: Getting Started with Your Blog
1 Getting Started with WordPress
What Is WordPress?
WordPress Versions in Brief
The WordPress Community
What Does It Cost You?
Who Is WordPress For?
Blogger as a Worthy Alternative
WordPress User Case Study 1: Beginners
WordPress User Case Study 2: A Business Blog
WordPress Hosting Options
Making the Move
Comparing WordPress.com with WordPress Software
Other Ways to Create an Online Presence
2 Starting Your Blog Right
Creating Your Blog
How Many Visitors Do You Want?
Playing the Domain Name Game
Starting with a Custom Domain Name
Adding a Custom Domain Name Later
Using a WordPress.com Domain Name Forever
Signing Up
Creating a WordPress Account and a Blog
Taking Advantage of Resources
Changing Initial WordPress Settings
General Settings
Writing Settings
Reading Settings
Discussion Settings
Media Settings
Privacy Settings
Sharing Settings
Other Settings Subpanels: OpenID, Text Messaging, Domains, Email, and
Webhooks
WordPress Settings Not in the Settings Menu
Ratings Settings
Post by Email and Post by Voice Settings
Delete Site
3 Creating Your Blog’s Look
You’ve Got the Look
Introducing Themes
What to Look for in a Theme
Colors
Number of Columns
Fixed-Width or Flexible-Width Columns
Widgets and Other Features
Should You Change Your Theme with CSS?
Listing the Themes
Choosing a Theme
Changing a Custom Header
Changing mShots and Related Links
Adding Available Widgets
Placing Widgets
Preserving Existing Widgets
Adding New Widgets
A Brief Catalog of Widgets
Getting the Most Out of Widgets
Part II: Running Your Blog
4 Creating Your First Post
What Is a Blog Entry?
Using the QuickPress Tool
Adding a New Post
Working on Posts in Full-Screen Mode
Using Basic Formatting Commands
An Example of Text Formatting
Using Hyperlinks as Formatting
Using Secondary Formatting Commands
Adding Links
Linking Strategy
Creating a Link
Using Shortlinks
Using bit.ly
Using the Get Shortlink Feature
Saving, Checking Your Spelling, and Publishing Posts
5 Taking Posts Further
Doing More with Posts
Anchor Posts
Putting Your Posts in Categories
How People Think About Categories
Using and Creating Categories
Managing Categories
Moving Posts Among Categories
Tagging Your Posts
Using and Creating Tags
Managing Tags
Changing Tags Associated with Posts
Updating Links and Your Blogroll
Adding New Links
Editing Links
Link Categories
6 Using HTML in Your Widgets and Blog
How HTML Can Take You Further
Power Tools for Better Blogging
HTML Basics in WordPress
HTML Tags
The Visual and HTML Tabs
Character Formatting
List Formatting
Linking
The More Tag
HTML Editing in WordPress
What Tags Can I Use?
YouTube as an Example of Embedded HTML
Using the Text Widget
Content Providers for the Text Widget
Things You Can Do with the Text Widget
A Simple Sample Text Widget
7 Adding Features to Your Blog
Making Your Blog Better
Adding Users to Your Blog
Understanding WordPress User Roles
Inviting Users and Assigning Roles
Adding a Static Page
Planning Static Pages
Designing a Static Page
Creating and Editing Static Pages
Adding a Custom Menu
Planning Menus
Creating a Custom Menu
Adding Polls
8 Tracking Statistics and Bringing In Visitors
Getting More People to Visit Your Blog
WordPress Statistics
Why Are You Doing This?
Stats on Your WordPress Administration Page
The Stats Page in WordPress Administration
Analyzing Referrers
Incoming Links
Looking at Search Terms
Top Posts and Pages
Clicks
Blog Stats: Summary Tables
How Visitors Can Subscribe to Your Blog
Using the RSS Widget
Part III: Taking Your Blog Further
9 Adding Graphics to Your Blog and Posts
Why Add Graphics and Other Media?
Copyright and Media Types
Putting Pictures in Your Posts
Graphics Tips for Bloggers
Using the WordPress Image Editor
How Much Should I Scale and Crop?
When Should I Use a Separate Editor?
Uploading and Inserting Graphics
Uploading an Image to the Media Library
Using an Image from Your Computer in Your Post
Using an Image from the Media Library in Your Post
Using an Image from the Web in Your Post
Using a Custom Header Image Per Post
10 Adding Upgrades, Audio, and Video
Upgrading Your Blog
A Quick Description of Upgrades
Custom CSS
Unlimited Private Users
No-ads Upgrade
Space/Audio Upgrades: 5GB, 15GB, and 25GB
VideoPress Upgrade
Domain Names
Global Differences
Getting a Good Domain Name
WordPress.com
Domain Names Versus
Custom Domain Names
How Domain Names Work
Choosing a Good Third-Level or Second-Level Domain Name
Using Audio in Your Blog
Where to Host Audio
Putting an Audio File in Your Blog
Using Video in Your Blog
Where to Host Video
Putting a Video File in Your Blog
Part IV: Building Your Own WordPress Installation
11 Installing and Upgrading WordPress Software
Getting It Done for You: Hosted WordPress
Finding a Blog-Friendly Host
Why PHP and MySQL?
Using FTP to Upload Files
Preparing for the Five-Minute Hosted WordPress Installation
The Five-Minute Hosted WordPress Installation
Adding a User to Your Site
Upgrading WordPress
Transferring Your WordPress.com Blog
Hosting WordPress Yourself
Installing a Test Web Server and MySQL Database
Editing the WordPress Configuration File
12 Taking Control of Your WordPress Site
A Quick Tour of the WordPress.org Dashboard
Customizing Your Dashboard
Getting Social: WordPress Multisite and BuddyPress
Your Own Blog Network: WordPress Multisite
Creating a Social Network with BuddyPress
13 The WordPress Toolkit: Themes and Security
Essential Tasks: Themes and Security
Shopping for Themes
Finding Free Themes
Finding Premium Themes
Installing and Activating a Theme
Securing Your New Website
Security Considerations When Selecting a Theme for Your Blog
Protecting Your Site
Backup and Restore
14 The WordPress Toolkit: Plug-Ins
WordPress Modular Architecture
Defining a Plug-In
Finding Plug-Ins
Finding and Installing Plug-Ins from the Directory
Plug-In Compatibility
Finding Free Plug-Ins Outside the Directory
Finding Premium Plug-Ins
Manually Installing and Activating Plug-Ins
Downloading New Plug-Ins
Testing Your New Plug-In
Selection and Activation
Managing and Updating Plug-Ins
Making Your Site Mobile-Friendly
Fitting Your Site to the Small Screen
WordPress Mobile Apps
Some “Essential” Plug-Ins
Basic WordPress Plug-Ins: Akismet and Hello Dolly
WordPress.com Jetpack: A Starter Kit
Administration and Security
Posting Aids
Statistics
Comments, Forums, and Other Discussions
Advertising/Search Engine Optimization
Links
Multimedia
Social Networks
15 Style Sheets for Building Themes
Creating Style Sheets
Introducing XHTML
Defining Web Standards
XML and XHTML
Writing HTML-Friendly XHTML in WordPress
Introducing CSS
What CSS Is Meant to Do
What Is a Style Sheet?
Anatomy of a Style Sheet
Tweaking Theme Style Sheets
When Using an Existing Theme Is Good Enough
Tweaking an Existing Theme with the Theme Editor
Backing Up Themes to Preserve Your Choices
Creating a Child Theme
Some Common Tweaks
Creating a CSS-Based Theme from Scratch
16 PHP Basics: Themes and Plug-ins
Introducing PHP
PHP 4 Versus PHP 5
Installing PHP on Your Test or Development Server
Writing PHP Scripts: Basic Syntax
MySQL Database Tables for WordPress
Customizing Your Site with FUNCTIONS.PHP
Making Your Content More Findable with Custom Taxonomies
Helping Visitors to Get Around Your Site with Custom Menus
The Heart of WordPress: The Loop
What Does “The Loop” Do?
Creating a Featured Posts Loop with WP_Query
PHP Theme Templates
The Index Template
The Sidebar Template
The Header Template
The Footer Template
Examining an Existing Plug-In
Submitting to the WordPress Plugin Directory
Why Not Submit to the Plugin Directory?
Submitting to the Plugin Directory
Part V: Appendixes
A WordPress.com Versus WordPress.org
Choosing the Right WordPress for You
Naming of Parts
Choosing WordPress.org
Making Money with Your Blog
Automattic’s Ads on Your Site
Tapping the WordPress Community
Getting the Right Host
Choosing WordPress.com
B WordPress Documentation
Finding Your Way Through the Online Documents
The WordPress Codex
Problems with WordPress Documentation
Using Google to Access WordPress Documentation
C Examples of WordPress Blogs
Why Look at Famous Blogs?
XXL
Surfin’ Safari
Master of Arts in Teaching at USC
D Examples of WordPress.com Blogs
Equal Representation for .commies
Famous Quotes
The Outland Institute
Music at SFSU
E WordPress Site Maps
Navigating the WordPress Sites
Navigating WordPress.com
Home Page: http://wordpress.com
Support Options: http://en.support.wordpress.com
Forums: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/
Free Features: http://en.wordpress.com/features
Premium Features: http://en.wordpress.com/products
VIP Services: http://vip.wordpress.com
Theme Showcase: http://theme.wordpress.com
Popular Tags/Hot Topics: http://en.wordpress.com/tags
News: http://en.blog.wordpress.com
Stats
About Us: http://en.wordpress.com/about
Advanced Services: http://en.wordpress.com/advanced-services
Navigating WordPress.org
Home Page: http://wordpress.org
Showcase: http://wordpress.org/showcase
Themes, Plug-Ins, and Places to Complain: http://wordpress.org/extend
The World of WordPress: http://wordpress.org/about
Latest from the Developers: http://wordpress.org/news
Getting Help from Your Peers: http://wordpress.org/support
Finding a Host: http://wordpress.org/hosting
Downloading WordPress: http://wordpress.org/download
Learning from the Sources on WordPress.tv: http://wordpress.tv/
F Importing Content from Other Systems
Direct Import into WordPress
Transferring from Blogger/BlogSpot
Transferring from LiveJournal
Transferring from Movable Type/TypePad
Transferring from Posterous
Transferring from Textpattern
Indirect Transfer
Transferring from an RSS Feed
Transferring from (X)HTML Wordpress
G Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts
Know Your Purpose
Use Keywords
Get Links
Use Tags and Categories
Consider Using META Tags
Try Using Plug-Ins
Living in the Zone
Index
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