Customer Reviews

Using WordPress, with DVD

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wordpress has become popular because that initial step into publishing is so low. It is straightforward, allowing a writer to focus on task.

But - at some point - there is the desire to do more. Beyond the basic customization of what appears on the page, comes the wish to have a unique, custom template, extending features - in general, making Wordpress more unique to the user's needs.

For those with moderate web experience, who want to do more than the basics with Wordpress - get this book! The chapter "Editing a Theme to Make it Your Own" de-mystifies some of dirty work necessary to tweak a theme via it's CSS. The basic stuff does not even require an understanding of CSS itself - he provides clear instructions that allow a someone to do basic tweaks to their theme so that it will be unique.

The chapter "WordPress as a Website" is excellent, as it describes how Wordpress can be used to maintain something that doesn't look like a blog at all - instead - an easy to administer web site for commercial or private use.

The book itself is well organized, building on the basic-basics with an assumption that the user may not have spent much time at all with Wordpress, beyond some minor fiddling. It does assume that you are comfortable with server administration if you are planning on hosting Wordpress yourself. He recommends, and I definitely agree - it is much easier to just use a hosted service solution. Four that are recommended by Wordpress.org are listed in the book. Installation and configuration becomes much easier and straightforward for a novice Wordpress Administrator.

I like this book because it is an end-to-end learning experience that avoids arcane knowledge and instead focuses on the big stuff a Wordpress administrator with little experience would like to know.

WordPress has established itself as the blogging software of choice for millions of people looking to put their thoughts online. Using WordPress is a solid intro to get you up and running with a blog of your own.

The book walks you through all the big and not-so-big steps of make a WordPress blog; from install and updates, to using themes, plug-ins and widgets, to handling audio and video files, to keeping your blog secure.

Almost all of the content in this book is geared toward the install on your own site "wordpress.org" version of WordPress, but it does try to cater to the "wordpress.com" the stripped-down version hosted by WordPress itself. If you have a wordpress.com blog and are looking to upgrade to your own site down the line, this book'll show you how.

The big selling point of this book is the online content. With a quick signup and a simple authentication to prove you actually own the book, you're rewarded with a complete online version of the book (with color photos) as well as video walkthroughs of the various steps you'll be taking in the blog miking process. The only topic that's missing the multimedia treatment is converting a static HTML site over to WordPress, which would've been good to see.

There are also audio sidebars with additional thoughts on each chapter's topic. They may useful if you're curious for more info, but the fact that there's no visuals makes it a bit hard to follow what they're saying. Some topics like using the WordPress image editor are done in an audio sidebar with no visuals to guide you.

My other complaint about the companion site is that there's no easy way to access just the multimedia stuff. You basically have to scan through to the page you want. A list broken up by chapter would've really been nice.

As a whole, Using WordPress is a great beginner/intermediate book to get you on your way to running a fully functioning blog.

I have been using Wordpress since the b2 days, so I pretty much know what is going on in there. However, that is also my downfall - how do you help others use it once it is deployed? I was all ready to start writing some instructions and this book showed up. I got it. I am so glad I did!

This thing is really written for the absolute beginning blogger. No fancy jargon, and the jargon that is in there (and it has to be) is fully explained. This is not for developers by any means, unless you are like me and have a whole bunch of users that you have to help. Just hand them this book and let them go to town.

The book starts out with the idea that the user does not even have a website, then progresses into how to get a domain name, all the way through setting up Wordpress and using it. Totally brilliant!

I was really looking forward to this book because I thought perhaps I could find something that could really help me learn how to use Wordpress. I see all over the internet of people who say how easy it is, but it's not that easy to me.

I was particularly interested in learning how to use Wordpress to create the "look" of a static site. Perhaps it is me but I just could not follow along with this book/videos very well. I kept having to back it up and watch certain parts over and over again.

Some people are very good at what they do, but they aren't very effective at "teaching" it to others. That takes special skill.

I have watched several video tutorials trying to learn the ins and outs of Wordpress, but with all of them, it seems the person doing the tutorial is showing you how "they" do it, and showing you what they think is important to know, etc.

Even after purchasing this book, I still find myself searching the internet to figure out how to do a simple task. For example, I wanted to know how to get rid of the "leave a reply" box.

I'm still determined to learn how to Use Wordpress, but this book just didn't do it for me.

I'm trying to learn Wordpress to make a website, not a blog, but a website. The problem with me is that I know nothing about html or flash and even iWeb is a little confusing for me. USING WORDPRESS spells everything out so clearly that I'm using this book as a step-by-step guide to get my site up and running.

Now the book itself is pretty bare. There are other Wordpress books out there that have more diagrams, charts, and pictures in color, but USING WORDPRESS really shines with it's companion website that hosts tutorial videos, mp3s, and real demos of Wordpress. This alone puts the book miles ahead of any other Wordpress book out there right now.

This text is especially useful to me. I had a website using Wordpress and became dissatisfied due to my misunderstanding of the tools available. I finally gave up that website as a lost cause.

Using the knowledge gained form Using Wordpress, I am currently creating another, far more complex website. This book taught me much about Wordpress, but also about websites in general. Tris Hussey writes in uncomplicated language and clearly explains technical information so that the general public can understand.
Detailed below are some of the topics that I found especially useful.

Domains and Hosts, Tris gave me the confidence to try again and overcome problems I had with the hosts I used in the past.

Configuring Wordpress, Tris makes this so simple. Just follow the given step by step directions and enjoy your progress.

Using Plugins. Tris provides a great list of plugins with description of functions. Some are valuable, easy already coded applications like Metrics and Multimedia

Themes. Hussey previews many of the types of Themes on Wordpress. He explains how to find what you want among the over 1000 themes available. He also details using widgets and explains parent-child themes.

Organizing Content. Finally, with Hussey's help I understand posts, pages, child pages, categories, sub categories, and tags. More importantly I appreciate the necessity of these tools.

Using Wordpress is a valuable tool. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to manage a superior website.

I don't typically write reviews, but this book sucks so bad I made a special point of coming back and reviewing it, if only to perform a public service by lowering its unbelievable star rating. Anyone who gave this book more than 2 stars a) Has never read a technical manual of any sort before, b) Found out only yesterday that the internet exists, or c) Received a payoff or discount of some sort from the author.

Let me put it this way - If your idea of a good technical manual entitled "Using Wordpress" includes only, strictly how you log in to WordPress, enter your user name, and (yay?) post the ugliest plainest blog entry ever, then this is the book for you.

If, on the other hand, you'd kind of resent being told things like "WordPress includes the powerful ability to use Categories . . . so good luck finding someone to show you how to use them, and thanks for your $30, sucker!" then you might as well browse elsewhere.

It actually rankles me that this guy is out there writing technical manuals, because I know that while writing this book he was thinking, "OMG, I can't BELIEVE I have the audacity to sell this pablum for money! I'm wickedly clever!" He must have.

The guy actually wastes a 20-page chapter on how to EDIT your posts via the content editor. By that I mean stuff like, "The button with the bold letter B on it will bold the text. The slanted I means italic. The little scissors mean cut." I'm not exaggerating. I'm talking about stuff a third grader knows, provided they once sent an email.

Like I say, most maddening of all is the total insult of being told (at the very end of every boring chapter, btw) that there are actually some useful features in WordPress, and discovering nope, you're not going to learn about ANY of them here. I've learned more about WordPress from deciphering stuff on Russian websites about it, and again, I'm being quite literal.

Horrible. Horrible. Horrible!

I bought the book partly because of the availability of additional linked video and audio material on SafariBooksinline. But sadly I found out that the subscription fees are $30 - 40 per month.

There is a wealth of information in this book. However, I don't think I can say you'll not need any other information. One attractive feature of the book is that it says you can go to a website to get more that integrates with the book. Nope. The links no longer work. So, on balance, you'll use this as a useful reference. But, you'll need more, especially if you have virtually no background in website design.

I wish more technical books were written this well.

This is definitely one of the better WordPress books I've read over the years. Not only is a great book to get if you are new to WordPress 3 and looking for an excellent soup-to-nuts guide on how to get started, it is also a great book for newbies that explains what you have to do to secure a domain, get a webhosting account and installing WordPress. Obviously some of this info will be "old news" to more experienced folks, but fear not, there is a huge amount of useful information in this book that will be worthwhile for those people who have way more experience. I would not recommend the book to someone who has already been doing a lot of work in WordPress as there are more advanced books appropriate for those with higher skill levels.

The author does a great job of concisely explaining the basics... What DNS is, how to buy a domain, tips on selecting a webhost, the differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org, how to install WordPress both locally and on a remote host. It's all great information presented as clearly as it could be presented.

Once you get past the basics the book delves head-on into how to set things up, how to use the Dashboard, how to setup users and assign appropriate privileges. I like all the little tips that are dispensed along the way. For instance you can have multiple Users with the same name, but each user must have a unique email address and username.

Great plugin recommendations are made and there is good discussion on SEO strategy and themes. Excellent info on themes is presented, describing what files are essential to a theme and how to make a child-theme.

It's really an amazing book. I'd call it a complete user-guide for WordPress and it is all clearly explained with no fluff. Readable, useful, wonderful.

Typos are always inevitable it seems, and this book has some. But that does not detract from the clear, concise and well-written material presented in this book. Highly recommended.