WordPress 24-Hour Trainer

George Plumley is a freelance web developer and designer who has specialized in helping small business clients build and update their websites for more than 20 years, the last seven of which have focused exclusively on WordPress. He has trained hundreds of clients and students, and regularly provides workshops and seminars on using and customizing WordPress. Wrox guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think. Written by programmers for programmers, they provide a structured, tutorial format that guides you through all the techniques involved.

• INTRODUCTION xxviiSECTION I: BEFORE YOU STARTLESSON 1: THINKING LIKE WORDPRESS 3Static Versus Dynamic Web Pages 3Content Management Systems 5LESSON 2: PLANNING YOUR SITE FOR WORDPRESS 11Mapping Out Your Site Content 11Special Site Functionality 16How You Want the Site to Look 18Try It 20SECTION II: FIRING UP WORDPRESSLESSON 3: INSTALLING WORDPRESS 23Hosting WordPress 23Manually Installing WordPress 25Auto-Installing WordPress 27When the Installation Is Finished 28Try It 29LESSON 4: ADMIN AREA OVERVIEW 31Logging In 31Navigating the Admin Area 32The Dashboard 36Customizing Admin Screens 36Getting Comfortable 39Try It 41LESSON 5: BASIC ADMIN SETTINGS 43The Settings Menu 43Profile Settings 49Try It 53LESSON 6: ADDING A NEW POST: AN OVERVIEW 57Navigating to Add a New Post 57Adding a New Post 59Try It 66LESSON 7: WORKING WITH TEXT IN THE CONTENT EDITOR 69Anatomy of the Content Editor 69Working with the Content Editor 73Try It 88LESSON 8: BASIC POST SCREEN FUNCTIONS 89Publish 89Try It 102LESSON 9: ADVANCED POST FUNCTIONS 103Revisions 103Excerpt 104Custom Fields 107Discussion 108Comments 109Slug 109Author 109Try It 110LESSON 10: ADDING A NEW PAGE 113Pages Versus Posts 113Adding a Page 113Page Attributes 115Order 117Try It 118LESSON 11: THE BASICS OF ADDING MEDIA FILES 121Uploading and Inserting an Image into a Post 121Uploading an Image to the Media Library 125Problems Uploading Media Files 128Try It 131LESSON 12: THE MEDIA UPLOADER WINDOW 133Insert Media 135Create Gallery 142Set Featured Image 143Insert from URL 144Try It 146LESSON 13: WORKING WITH IMAGES IN THE CONTENT EDITOR 149The Image Details Window 149Moving Images 153Resizing Images 154Design Considerations for Image Placement 157Try It 159LESSON 14: USING THE WORDPRESS IMAGE EDITOR 161The Image Editor Functions 163Cropping an Image 164Scaling an Image 166Controlling WordPress Image Dimensions 167Flipping an Image 168Try It 169LESSON 15: WORKING WITH WORDPRESS IMAGE GALLERIES 171Creating an Image Gallery in a Post 171More Gallery Options 177Try It 180LESSON 16: ADDING VIDEO AND AUDIO 183Video 183Audio 189Try It 191LESSON 17: ADDING DOCUMENTS 193Uploading and Inserting a Document 193Document File Types 196Updating a Document 196Try It 198LESSON 18: MANAGING POSTS AND PAGES 201Finding Posts and Pages 201Using Quick Edit 204Using Bulk Actions 206Importing Content from Another Site 208Admin Settings Affecting Posts and Pages 210Try It 213LESSON 19: MANAGING MEDIA FILES 215The Two Faces of the Media Library 215Filtering and Searching the Media Library 219Editing and Deleting Media Files 220Admin Settings for Media 221Try It 223LESSON 20: MANAGING POST CATEGORIES AND TAGS 225Managing Categories 225Managing Tags 229Converting Categories and Tags 230Try It 232LESSON 21: MANAGING WIDGETS AND MENUS 235Widgets and Widget Areas 235The WordPress Menu System 239Try It 247LESSON 22: CONNECTING TO SOCIAL MEDIA 251Helping Visitors Follow You 251Letting Visitors Share Your Content 253Posting Directly to Social Media 255Displaying Social Media Activity 256Try It 259LESSON 23: MANAGING COMMENTS 261Allow Comments? 261Admin Settings for Commenting 261Knowing You Have Comments 263Approving, Editing, or Deleting Comments 265Dealing with Spam Comments 267Farming Out Comments 268Try It 269LESSON 24: BRINGING IN CONTENT FROM OTHER SITES 271Adding Content from Third-Party Sites 272RSS Feeds 273Try It 277LESSON 25: CONNECTING BY E-MAIL 279Contacting You by E-mail 279Collecting Visitor E-mails 282E-mailing Site Updates 284Try It 287LESSON 26: MANAGING MULTIPLE SITE USERS 289User Roles and Their Capabilities 289Adding a User 291Changing a User’s Abilities 293Users and Security 293Try It 295SECTION VII: CHOOSING AND CUSTOMIZING THEMESLESSON 27: OVERVIEW OF WORDPRESS THEMES 299What Is a WordPress Theme? 299Choosing a WordPress Theme 301Changing Themes 305Try It 307LESSON 28: THEME INSTALLATION AND BASIC CUSTOMIZATION 309Installing and Activating a Theme 309Built-in WordPress Design Functions 314Theme Options 321Try It 322LESSON 29: ADVANCED DESIGN CUSTOMIZATION 323Using Custom CSS 323Using a Child Theme 325More Ways to Customize 328Try It 330SECTION VIII: BECOMING SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLYLESSON 30: OPTIMIZING YOUR CONTENT 333Writing Search-Friendly Titles 333Writing Search-Friendly Content 336Creating Search-Friendly Links 337Making Images Search-Friendly 338Try It 339LESSON 31: OPTIMIZING BEHIND THE SCENES 341Optimizing Admin Settings 341Meta Tags 345Plugins for SEO 346Monitoring Site Statistics 348Try It 350SECTION IX: MAINTENANCE AND SECURITYLESSON 32: KEEPING UP TO DATE 353Updating WordPress 353Updating Plugins 356Updating Themes 357Try It 360LESSON 33: KEEPING BACKUPS 361The Elements of Backing Up 361Try It 366LESSON 34: KEEPING YOUR SITE SECURE 367Six Steps to Greater WordPress Security 367Dealing with Sensitive Data 371Secure Hosting 372Try It 375LESSON 35: INSTALLING AND ACTIVATING PLUGINS 379What Is a Plugin? 379Try It 384LESSON 36: MORE PLUGIN SUGGESTIONS 387Plugin Categories 387JetPack 395Plugins for Other Plugins and Themes 396Try It 396SECTION XI: REFERENCESAPPENDIX: TROUBLESHOOTING WORDPRESS 399Site Visible but with an Error Message 399Error Establishing a Database Connection 400The White Screen of Death 400Page Cannot Display 401You Cannot Recover Your Password 401Finding Help Online 401GLOSSARY 405INDEX 411