Customer Reviews

WordPress 24-Hour Trainer: Watch, Read, and Learn How to Create and Customize WordPress Sites (Book & DVD)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was somewhat hesitant to buy a tutorial book that had not been reviewed yet (this book is copyright 2010 and came out Dec. 09), but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. This book offers from-the-ground-up instruction with all the basics from how to install Wordpress to customizing a template.

The author, George Plumley, has a pleasant style that is neither condescending to the newbie or goofy like I have found some of the "yellow books" to be. I haven't found any fluff here, just solid step-by-step advice and lessons.

I really was just following along and not thinking about whether the book is "good" or "bad", just going through it. Then, in Lesson 7: Working with the Text Editor, I found myself recognizing one of the many gems in this book. As someone who has struggled with more than one text editor until I found out that if you copy/paste from someplace else you need to get rid of the formatting first, I know that this author had the non-geek in mind when he wrote this. His advice is to open a text program such as Notepad and paste the text in there, then copy/paste from Notepad into the editor in Wordpress and the excess coding will be stripped away. Now, this is basic information for a lot of people, but remember the first time you tried to figure out why that Word formatting kept showing up in your Wordpress text editor? Yes, this author had that person in mind and gently drops in a paragraph with a couple of sentences in it addressing the problem and suggesting a solution.

I have hired a designer to do websites in Wordpress for a couple of clients and I wanted to learn to do it myself. I am confident that I'll be able to do it myself next time, thanks to the information provided in this book. The author spends some time going over some of the basics of site planning and organization, basic design, SEO, and backups. If you are a budding website builder, you'll get a lot of time-tested information here. Yes, many books go deeper into each of these subjects, but for the person wanting to put their first site together or get a refresher on the basics, why buy another book if you don't have to? There's plenty of meat to digest here.

The CD is a great bonus, too.

If you have dabbled with Wordpress but knew you were only scratching the surface, do yourself a favor and invest in this book. Certainly, there are those that will say that all of this information is available for free on the web. Yeah, but not in step-by-step form and not in a format you can carry along with you when you're waiting somewhere or need to find the information quickly.

I don't know this author, but I do know that if he writes any other books about a subject that I'm interested in, I'm quite likely to buy it based on my experience with this book/CD combo. I buy and read a lot of techy type books and if I ever owned a book that deserves "6 stars", this is it. This is the gold standard by which all tech-related books should be measured for common sense writing style.

I am just amazed at how thorough this book is, yet how easy it is to use and understand. Everything is in layman's terms and shown, as well as having written explanations.

I was initially bummed at the price of the book but now that I'm using it I realize what an absolute STEAL it is at this price. I am SO thankful I found this guide.

This "24-hour trainer" guide in how to optimize your Wordpress page is not only incredibly helpful, but it's easy to understand and follow along. I have been managing a Wordpress site for about a year now, and while experience is always the best way to learn, this book will be a huge help for beginners. Those who have been maintaining a Wordpress site might not be willing to splurge on this book, but I think even the most experienced Wordpress bloggers can find value in what it has to offer.
For one, EVERYthing is covered in this book, even things you wouldn't think of. The troubleshooting in this book is intuitive, and doesn't necessarily reflect trying to fix technical problems. The author imagines a problem arising, and he addresses it.
Additionally, it's not a complete bore to read as most of these technical books can be. It's easy on the eyes, and you'll want to try things out, even if you had no plans to do so.
It also comes with a DVD where you literally sit down and watch how these techniques are applied. It couldn't be any more thorough.
Highly recommended!

If you are new to WordPress, you certainly could do worse in your choice of books. I have been using WordPress for several years and this is one of the better books I've seen on using WordPress. Even as an experienced user, I found some tidbits in here that were helpful. But as a new user to WordPress, you should also be aware of the fact that WordPress is under constant development and consequently upgrades are fast and furious. This is a good thing to the WordPress power user, but to authors and publishers must be a pretty big issue since any book released soon becomes outdated due to the relentless march forward of WordPress development. As I write this review WordPress is already at version 2.9.2 and version 3.0 is right around the corner. Unfortunately this book is written with version 2.8 in mind so it won't even mention many of the new features introduced with version 2.9.* of WordPress. However there is still a great amount of useful information presented in these chapters that will pertain to WordPress 2.9.*, but just be aware that WordPress is quickly marching forward so this book will become less useful as time goes on.

The author is gifted with an excellent style of writing. He presents his material in a very easy to read manner while avoiding being too chummy or too technical. Each chapter has exercises and if you complete the exercises, you will learn a great deal and gain hands-on experience. The book takes a fairly straightforward approach that a beginner will appreciate. The process of installing WordPress is discussed as well as a good explanation of the Dashboard and how to move around in the Admin area.

A few quibbles such as in Lesson 8 the author discusses Blockquotes, what they are used for and how some WordPress themes style them in different ways. He then shows a graphic of 4 different and attractive ways that Blockquotes can be styled. He neglects however to tell you how you can actually change the styling of your Blockquotes, probably because it involves modifying the cascading style sheet which he may have felt was beyond the scope of a beginner book. But he could of at least mentioned that instead of ignoring the issue completely. He also fails to discuss the Search Engine Optimization ramifications of using Headings properly.

One area of the book really disappoints, and that is Part X: Extending WordPress. Although not necessarily the fault of the author since his book was written with WordPress v2.8 in mind, I found that several of the plugins mentioned in Part X were not compatible with the latest version of WordPress due to the fact that the plugin authors had not yet updated their plugins to work with the latest version of WordPress. Perhaps they worked with v2.8 of WordPress, but they did not work with 2.9.2 at the time I am writing my review.

Overall though, this is a solid book on WordPress for the beginner to intermediate user.

As a 58 year old boomer being dragged into the 21st century, I determined a couple of years ago to conquer a new personal frontier: website creation. For a little foundation I began, I started my first website using GoDaddy.com, which provided a fast and sufficient (for that time), if basic product that at least got me in the game. Soon thereafter the time came to upgrade to something more professional, for which a knowledgeable friend with a website company designed something much better, using WordPress. To my surprise, I found the WordPress regime intuitive and easy to use.

Then came time for me to start a site all my own. I wasn't sure WordPress was sufficient for my grand plans.
I thought I should push my envelope. Based on what a different knowledgeable friend told me about "functionality', "capacity", and "content management software", I accepted his recommendation to take a flyer on Joomla. Phew! It was a turbulent ride, a painful, brain-numbing experience. After a week, I returned my recently purchased stack of Joomla guides and limped back to WordPress.

Again I purchased an armful of guides, including George Plumley's helpful guide, WordPress 24 Hour Trainer. After scanning them all, my intuition told me to start with Plumley. It was a good choice. WordPress 24 Hour Trainer is a very digestible guide which steps a novice gently through 38 short lessons all the way from basic "thinking like WordPress" up to plug-ins, widgets, and extensions. (Wishing to digest it thoroughly, I have had to take a little more than 24 hours with it, though...) The book is accompanied by a CD with visual examples for each chapter, presented by Plumley in a mild, avuncular, folksy way that will put even the most technophobic neophyte at ease. The printing in the book itself is a little too small for these older eyes easily to scan, and the letters captured in the screenshot examples of the text are even smaller, requiring at times for very careful readers of older age a magnifying glass. In the later chapters Plumley also trails off a bit, forgetting to mention how to click to certain places that he explains. But all in all, Plumley offers a good first rung for techno-reluctant autodidacts wanting to climb the WordPress learning ladder.

When I say I'm new to Wordpress, it's as if I'd been wrapped in cellophane, lying in a cardboard box, like a new item on a shelf. I only wish i'd found this book first but I don't think it was on the market yet. It's the only book a beginner needs. Each chapter is like a little classroom where you learn a specific lesson. At the end of each chapter (or lesson) the author gives you supervised practice with step-by-step instruction. It's wonderful. He doesn't talk down to you ( although my ego could take that because of my zero level of knowledge) nor does he reach to a level far above the average person's head. I felt completely at ease with every chapter.

For instance, I like to do videos but I was always having trouble. The author explained so simply why mine didn't have controls when embeded directly. I was trying to put the round pegs in the square holes again. The whole book just made everything easier for me to understand.

The absolute zenith is a DVD that was included. It goes through each chapter showing all the boxes that you'll be working with. To me, it was as if a little bit of Wordpress information heaven dropped into my laptop. Now, I'm positive not everyone begins blogging at the lowly level that I started with. Even if you have your blog up and going with WP, I'm sure you'll be amazed at the new gems of information you will find. I don't know how anyone can understand on their own, all the reasons behind the working of WP and this book clearly defines them all.

I bought a lot of books before I came upon this one. I gleaned a bit of fragmented information here and there and spent a lot of money. Don't let the price on this book scare you away. $44.99 sounds a little pricey for a book BUT it's well worth it. I wasted many times that price before I found this book. Here's the good news. You can buy the book on Amazon for $29.69.

I'm glad I bought this book--I've never used WordPress and it's been at my side as I struggle to create a WordPress site. I am a graphic designer working to master rudimentary web development skills--understanding and intuiting file structure is not how my brain works but I'm motivated to educate myself. So I embrace being spoken to in the most elemental manner when navigating WordPress--it can't be broken down too basic for me.

But I wanted more discussion on exactly how to change the layout of a chosen WordPress theme. The author refers his readers to a developer for help with that, and I can see why: the CSS code is daunting. I realize for many, switching out pieces of a theme, and rearranging some divs, is pretty simple. But not for me! So I was wishing for more instruction in this book on that. I didn't expect instruction in CSS, php, or javascript, but I was hoping for much more guidance in picking through the style sheets. The word "customize" in the title promised more than what I found.

WordPress 24-Hour Trainer: Watch, Read, and Learn How to Create and Customize WordPress Sites (Book & DVD) is a very nice resource for setting up a WordPress site. This volume took me a little over a week to get through. But it is not overly dense, like so many similar technical reference books. Not only will this provide good instruction in setting up a WP site, it will also be a good reference for novice users to keep as they continue expanding and growing their sites.

THE BOOK

The content of the book is very well organized. There is enough detail to satisfy both techies and novices. In that sense, the book provides a good quick introduction to WordPress for several audiences.

The core functionality of WordPress is covered very well for the most part. Nice basic treatments are included for planning, installation, administration, content management and customization. There are even short sections on things many other books forget, such as backing up your site.

There are some areas I would have covered in more detail. The final sections on using plug-ins and extending WordPress are particularly light. This is not really an advanced topic because almost everybody using WordPress will have to set-up plug-ins.

The sections on expanding WordPress beyond the basic functionality, Part X, includes three short sections related to plug-ins. The section on installing and activating plug-ins is light but adequate. But better plug-ins could have been chosen as examples. And the section on other methods of extending WordPress functionality is far too brief.

For example, the sample plug-ins that were outlined include NextGEN Gallery, a popular photo management plug-in, and Form Creation, one of several form creation plug-ins available. While these are certainly useful plug-ins, they seem to be low-hanging fruit in terms of the level of complexity in setting them up. By the time most users have read through the entire book, even novices should be able to set-up either of those plug-ins without too much extra instruction.

It would have been nice if they included some of the more complex back-end plug-ins, such as AJAX or php, which many users will invariably have to integrate into their sites from day two. Needless to say, you will have to seek out other resources to help you with those things. Some plug-ins are technically complex enough that they could require a book's worth of instruction in order to be set up functionally and securely.

THE DVD

The DVD is a nice bonus. There are good tutorials and nice examples included that can be easily aid you in creating your own pages. Using the DVD on your computer requires you to accept the license agreement, but other than that it is pretty self-explanatory.

The best thing about the DVD is that specific examples from the book are included on the DVD with easy-to-follow chapter references. That ensures that if you don't fully understand a section, you can reinforce what you have read with an easy-to-follow video tutorial.

CONCLUSION

The book stands alone well on its own. There is a very nice balance of good content and logical organization. The DVD really does a good job of reinforcing the book's content by providing nice example tutorials that correspond to the different topics. Either the book or the DVD alone would each be worth the price of admission. Together, they are pretty much a slam dunk.

The only caveat I will provide is that those looking for a deep dive into advanced topics will, clearly, want to look for other resources.

This is definitely recommended. Enjoy.

Anyone who wants to design, publish and manage their own WordPress web site will be well served by George Plumley's "WordPress 24-Hour Trainer." This book, and its included companion DVD, guide the reader through the process of understanding, installing and using WordPress. The chapters are presented in a thoughtful, well organized manner.

What I appreciated most about Plumley's approach was his focus. He spends sufficient time on each chapter, but avoids the temptation to delve so deeply into any specific topic that the book's readers become lost.

The downsides are few. Plumley doesn't include DVD lessons for the first two chapters (essentially Part One of the book.) He could have included brief lessons (pointers really) on thinking about and planning a web site. True, these lessons, had they been included, wouldn't have been strictly about WordPress--and that is the book's purpose. Still, I can't help but see this as an unfortunate omission.

In short, if you are a small business person who needs to build a WordPress web site, or someone who wants to launch a Word Press web site for personal reasons, this is the book for you. If you are someone who wants to know more about WordPress, this book can certainly provide that--although it is not strictly intended for that purpose.

A word about the price. The books lists for $44.99 (US) and $53.99 (Canada.) Amazon sells it for considerably less, but it is still an expensive book. Even considering that there is a DVD included, the book is on the pricey side. But that seems to be the way of any book considered to be a "text book." When I wrote my second book, Remote LAN Access: A Guide for Networkers and the Rest of Us, the publisher said, "What price shall we set for your book? We were thinking 40 or 50 dollars." Knowing the text books tend to sell for more, I asked them to keep the price around $30 which they did. So you can see that, based on my experience as an author, George Plumley's "WordPress 24-Hour Trainer" is pricey but not overpriced.

This is a very nice comprehensive manual for all of the features of WordPress and the instructional DVD with videos is a nice added bonus. However, if like me you've been working with WordPress already for a while and have configured your own blog, much of the material covered in this book will seem quite basic. This book is basically for beginners to WordPress.