WordPress 2.7 Cookbook [Paperback]

Jean-Baptiste Jung (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2009

This is a Packt Cookbook, which means it contains step-by-step instructions to achieve a particular goal or solve a particular problem. The book can be read chapter by chapter, or you can look at the table of contents and read the recipes in no particular order. This book is for anyone who wants to enhance their WordPress blog to make it engaging and feature-rich. It is not specifically for developers or programmers; rather it can be used by anyone who wants to get more out of their WordPress blog by following step-by-step instructions. A basic knowledge of PHP/XHTML/CSS/WordPress is desirable but not necessary.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jean-Baptiste Jung is a self-taught web developer, web designer, and blogger. Jean is pretty active in the WordPress community and the Internet in general, blogging on his blogs CatsWhoCode.com and WpRecipes.com, as well as writing for prestigious blogs as such as Smashing Magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (July 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847197388
• ISBN-13: 978-1847197382
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,410,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Was Just What I Needed!, September 13, 2009

By 

Milo Bloom (Milo's Meadow, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: WordPress 2.7 Cookbook (Paperback)

So I'd dived into wordpress, and had all the basics covered...installation, theme selection, etc. What I didn't have was the know-how to make the tweaks and changes to turn the basics into something I was happy to have my name on. Ideas were not a problem -- just the "how". I opened this book to a random page and found the solution to one of the 50 little tweaks I had in mind. It wasn't the easy way out either, as Mr. Author-Guy began by noting that the simplest solution was the worst because it was detrimental to "search engine optimization." So I took the smarter route that Mr. Author-Guy proposed and learned a lot in the process. One tweak down, 49 to go!

I'd say this is a book for the "intermediate beginner" or "advanced amateur". If you've bought Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read, as I did (and recommend for beginners!), then you could do WAY worse than to make this book #2.

It was *exactly* what I needed.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a swiss army knife of WP techniques, January 5, 2010

By 

Estevan Benson "artist" (los angeles, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: WordPress 2.7 Cookbook (Paperback)

I would recommend this book for anyone who already understands what PHP, XTML and CSS is. You don't have to be skilled in those areas to follow the recipes in this book though. A third of it may cover very basic ground if you're already a novice but you're bound to find at least a few very handy ideas in this book that any Wordpress project would need. I'd like to see more Wordpress Cookbooks.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for intermediate WordPress users, September 12, 2010

By 

The Headhunter (Lebanon, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: WordPress 2.7 Cookbook (Paperback)

I've been managing my WordPress blog for a few years now. It's nothing fancy, but I'm always looking for ways to tweak and improve it, not so much for visual-appeal side as for functionality. This books offers lots of great tips - things I didn't know and that I would not likely find elsewhere unless I spent a lot of time on WP discussion forums. The author does a nice job of providing tips and explaining how to put them to use. "Cookbook" is an accurate term for the title. If you're just getting started, the book might make a great tool to help you see the possibilities as you develop your blog. But it's not a "how-to" for the total novice. This one's a keeper. The book could use some editing - many expressions are awkward and the writing style is often distracting. Why do tech publishers skimp on good editing? It seems to be a trend. I can't count the number of tech books I've put back on the store shelf after reading brief sections - they're frankly embarrassing. And I don't blame the authors, who are smart techies. I blame the publishers for failing to do their part to produce a book properly. If you do your own work on your WP blog, get this book - it'll pay off quickly. Kudos to the author.

UPDATE Sept 2011: A year after getting this book, I've found that among all my WordPress books, this is the one I turn to most often. I wish Jung would do a new edition for WordPress 3.x. No other book teaches the "recipes" that Jung's does, in an easy-to-follow manner. There are lots of "how to use WP" books. There are no other "how to make WP do great stuff" books. I came back to this review because I was hoping to find a new edition! If you do your own tweaks to your WP installation, you'll love this book.