WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) [Paperback]

Lisa Sabin-Wilson (Author), Matt Mullenweg (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470149469 | ISBN-13: 978-0470149461 | Publication Date: November 12, 2007 | Edition: 1

Are you a wannabe blogger? A seasoned pro migrating your blog to WordPress? Looking to do more cool stuff with your existing WordPress blog? Then this fun guide is for you! WordPress for Dummies is a veritable smorgasbord of WordPress information, ideas, tools, resources, and instruction on everything you need to create and maintain your dream blog.

Unlike other blog hosts, WordPress gives you the ability to create a blog that is tailored to your own tastes and needs. Sure, the codes, tags, and terminology can seem a little intimidating at first, but WordPress for Dummies breaks it all down to show you just how intuitive, friendly, and extensible the software really is. This easy-to-follow guide shows you how to:

• Sign up for a free WordPress account
• Set up and use a hosted blog with WordPress.com
• Install and set up the WordPress.Org and WordPress.MU software for single- and multi-user versions
• Find great themes, plugins, and consultants that will help you achieve JUST the kind of blog you want
• Use tags to work with WordPress templates
• Combat challenges with comments, trackback spam, and “splogs”
• Add special technologies to your blog, such as RSS feed, podcasting, vlogging, and photoblogging
• Find online support, tips, and resources for WordPress software

Whether you want to keep family and friends updated on your latest adventures, post pictures of your new puppy, or communicate your passion with millions of readers worldwide, WordPress for Dummies is your passport to creating the kind of blog that will keep your visitors coming back for more!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Includes coverage of WordPress MU community software

Create a hosted, self-hosted, or multi-user blog, explore plugins, and more.

WordPress is powerful software known for helping bloggers share their thoughts online. Whether you want to set up a blog in the WordPress community, add a blog in the WordPress community, add a blog to another site, or build your own blogging community, this book shows how WordPress can  help. With this book, you'll soon be navigating WordPress templates plugins, and themes with no problem.

Discover how to:

• Personalize WordPress settings
• Understand common template tags
• Manage and moderate comments
• Deal with spam and trackback
• Troubleshoot common problems

About the Author

Lisa Sabin-Wilson has worked with the WordPress software since its inception in 2003 and has built her business around providing technical support, hosting, and design solutions for bloggers who use WordPress. She reaches thousands of people worldwide with her WordPress services, skills, and knowledge regarding the product. Lisa operates a few blogs online, all of which are powered by WordPress.
Her personal blog (justagirlintheworld.com) has been online since February of 2002; her design business at E.Webscapes (ewebscapes.com) has been online since 1999. She also provides a successful Web hosting service, Blogs About Hosting (blogsabout.com), which caters to blogs and bloggers on a global scale.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (November 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470149469
• ISBN-13: 978-0470149461
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.9 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #452,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

E.Webscapes Design Studio
http://ewebscapes.com

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/LisaSabinWilson

Facebook:
http://facebook.com/LisaSabinWilson

I design because it makes me happy to create. I write because it makes me happy to share. Other than that? I breathe. I drink espresso. I love my family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical how-to manual, March 2, 2008

By 

Karen Franklin "Forensic Psychologist" (El Cerrito, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) (Paperback)

I bought this book because it was the only comprehensive beginner's guide to WordPress that I could find, and it was also up to date (important in this rapidly changing field). This was my first "Dummies" purchase; I've always hated that title and the implicit putdown it conveys.

I was pleasantly surprised. Lisa Sabin-Wilson knows her stuff, she writes well, and the advice is practical and easy to follow. The book uses a logical progression, teaching us step-by-step what WordPress is, what it can do, and where you can go to find further resources. Sections address important topics such as plugins, self-hosting, theme selection and development, migrating your blog from another site, and much more.

I was mostly looking for a guide on using WordPress as a website content management system (CMS), and although one chapter does address this, I wish the book had covered this in more depth. Also, I would have liked to read more about design and style issues. However, no one book can do it all, and at almost 400 pages this book was long enough. (Although it's a very quick read; it took me only one morning to get through it, and not all chapters will be relevant to every reader.)

I recommend it to anyone wanting to gain basic familiarity with WordPress (and related technical jargon), see whether it's the thing for you and, if so, get started using it.

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for beginners and some tips for later, December 18, 2007

By 

Michael (Charleston, SC, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) (Paperback)

This is actually the book I wish I had been there when I first started out with blogs and especially WordPress. A lot of time is spent addressing what blogs are and what they can do and then going through how to set up a WordPress.com account or how to install the WordPress.org software on your own site. Most of the book is really set up and functionality. While most of this information can be found on the web, having this book beside you would make the task so much easier. If you already have your blog all set up and in use, most of the book is of far less use to you. I find myself in that category since I run a number of person blogs, a couple of corporate WordPress sites, and have installed the software a number of times. The two parts then that I could really get my teeth into are the section on theme customization with an explanation of many of the variables, and the second detailing the author's top ten plug-ins. I found some items there that I had somehow overlooked before and are coming in quite handy.

So, why the 4 star rating? If you are just starting out, you really need this book. Pick it up before you start. And for you it will stay with you for a while and be a 5 star. If you have been doing this for a while, there will only be a couple of chapters of real value to you, so it will most likely be a 3 star. Average them together and what do you have? 4 stars!

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Wordpress book thus far, November 14, 2007

By 

Apprentice - See all my reviews

This review is from: WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) (Paperback)

Prior to Wordpress for Dummies being published, the other Wordpress books out there were very limited or not extensively covered. For those of you who have tried to use Wordpress before, I know the Wordpress Codex or documentation may seem overwhelming due to its extensive coverage. This book does a great job of really giving you the ins and outs of Wordpress. The author tries to cover the most important features of Wordpress without trying to overwhelm the readers and does a very good job of it. I really liked the part about the author covering the MU feature of Wordpress as well as covering the common used template tags in addition making the templates, 'the loop' and template files easy to understand for beginners. If you are already proficient with CSS/XHTML and want to take your blog/sites to the next level, this book is for you. However, this book does NOT teach you CSS/XHTML (does provide other resources in the book) so I would suggest you pick up another book for that. If you want to know about WP and blogging in general, this book is for you.