WordPress for Dummies (ISBN - 0470402962)

412 Pages·2021·11.85 MB·English

Lisa Sabin-Wilson
Founder, E.Webscapes Design Studio

Foreword by Matt Mullenweg
Cofounder of WordPress

Learn to:
• Use the latest upgrades to WordPress 2.7

• Explore theme development and tweak
free WordPress themes

• Create a unique blog theme and
presentation by using tags with CSS

WordPress

®

2nd Edition

Making Everything Easier!™

Open the book and find:

• Advice for creating a blog that
draws readers

• Tips on managing comments,
trackbacks, and spam

• How to use the Dashboard

• Wonderful widgets and plugins
to add

• How to make permalinks work
with your Web server

• The standard templates and how
to tweak them

• Ten popular WordPress themes

• Where to find help when you
need it

Lisa Sabin-Wilson is a designer of blogs and Web sites and founder
of E.Webscapes Design Studio. She has been working with WordPress
since 2002. Lisa’s client list includes over 1,000 personal and professional
blogs, and she is a frequent panel member at blogging and social media
conferences.

$24.99 US / $26.99 CN / £15.99 UK

ISBN 978-0-470-40296-2

Internet/Web Page Design

Go to
dummies.com®
for more!

Discover why bloggers love
WordPress and make your
blog the best it can be

Blogs are as much a part of life today as the evening
newspaper was fifty years ago, and for much the same
reason: Inquiring minds want to know. WordPress powers
some of the most popular blogs on the Web, and with
this guide to help, it can work for you, too. Here’s what
WordPress does, how to set it up and use it, and some cool
bells and whistles to make your blog stand out.

• Pick your flavor — decide whether to use the WordPress.com
hosted service or self-host your blog with WordPress.org

• Customization — discover CSS and template tags and how to use
them to create your own unique style

• Blogging 101 — find out about archiving, interacting with
readers through comments, tracking back, and handling spam

• Host with the most — get the scoop on domain registration, Web
hosting providers, basic tools like FTP, and more

• Do it yourself — install WordPress.org, set up a MySQL®
database, explore RSS feeds, and organize a blogroll

• Beef up your blog — insert audio, video, images, and photos

• Think theme — discover where to find WordPress themes,
explore various options, and work with template tags to create a
unique look

WordPress

®

2nd Edition

Sabin-Wilson

Spine: .816”

by Lisa Sabin-Wilson

Foreword by Matt Mullenweg
Cofounder of WordPress

WordPress
®

FOR
DUMmIES

‰

2ND EDITION

WordPress® For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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ates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. WordPress is
a registered trademark of Automattic, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008937854

ISBN: 978-0-470-40296-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Lisa Sabin-Wilson has worked with the WordPress software since its incep-
tion 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 (blogs-about.com), which caters to blogs and bloggers on a global
scale.

When she can be persuaded away from her computer, where she is usually
hard at work providing design solutions for her WordPress clients, she some-
times emerges for public speaking appearances on the topics of design, blog-
ging, and WordPress. She has appeared at national conferences such as the
annual South By Southwest Interactive Conference, and meet ups local to her
Southeastern Wisconsin area like Web414.

Lisa consults with bloggers both large and small. Bloggers come in thousands
of different fl avors, from business to personal, from creative to technical, and
all points in between. Lisa is connected to thousands of them worldwide and
appreciates the opportunity to share her knowledge through WordPress For
Dummies. She hopes you fi nd great value in it, as well!

When she’s not designing or consulting with her clients, you can usually fi nd
her either at her favorite coffee shop sipping espresso, on a mountaintop
somewhere hitting the slopes with her husband and kids, or 100 feet beneath
the ocean waters, scuba diving with her husband and swimming with the
fi shes.

Dedication

My husband, Chris Wilson, is the single biggest source of encouragement
and motivation I have in my life. In writing the fi rst edition and this second
edition of WordPress For Dummies, he had my back every step of the way.
Always helping, always encouraging, always listening and sharing. He told me
he’s proud of me. I’m proud of you too, baby — for being the best husband in
the world. I love you!

Author Acknowledgments

Many, many thanks and kudos to Matt Mullenweg, the core develop-
ment team from Automattic, and every single person involved in making
WordPress the best blogging platform available on the Internet today. To the
volunteers and testers who destroy all those pesky prerelease bugs for every
new version release, the WordPress community thanks you! And to each and
every WordPress plugin developer and theme designer who donates his or
her time, skills, and knowledge to provide the entire WordPress community
of users with invaluable tools that help us create dynamic blogs, thank you
a thousand times! Every person mentioned here is an invaluable asset to
the overall WordPress experience; I wish I could name you all, individually,
except that there are literally thousands of you out there!

Huge thanks to Melody Layne, Steve Hayes, Amy Fandrei, and Rebecca
Senninger from Wiley Publishing for their support, assistance, and guidance
during the course of this project. Just the mere fact they had to read every
page of this book means that they deserve the Medal of Honor! Also, many
thanks to technical editor Paul Chaney and other editors of the project who
also worked hard to make sure that I look somewhat literate here.

To any family members and friends whom I have neglected during the pro-
cess of writing this book, thank you for not abandoning me!

Finally, I thank my family — my husband, Chris; my children, Ben and
Melissa; and my parents, Donald and Penny Sabin — for their unending sup-
port for this book, and in life.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form
located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project Editor: Rebecca Senninger

(Previous Edition: Susan Christophersen)

Acquisitions Editor: Amy Fandrei

Copy Editor: Kathy Simpson

Technical Editor: Paul Chaney

Editorial Manager: Leah Cameron

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katie Key

Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis,
Sarah Philippart, Christin Swinford,
Ronald Terry, Christine Williams

Proofreaders: John Greenough,
Dwight Ramsey, Penny L. Stuart

Indexer: WordCo Indexing Services

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Table of Contents

Foreword .................................................................... xiv

Introduction ................................................................. 1

Part I: Introducing WordPress ....................................... 9

Chapter 1: What WordPress Can Do for You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Discovering the Benefi ts of WordPress ......................................................11
Easy to set up and use.........................................................................12
Extend WordPress’s capabilities .......................................................13
Take part in the community ...............................................................13
Choosing a WordPress Platform ..................................................................15
Choosing the hosted version from WordPress.com .......................18
Self-hosting with WordPress.org........................................................18
Running a network of blogs with WordPress MU ............................19

Chapter 2: WordPress Blogging Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

This Crazy Little Thing Called Blog .............................................................21
Dipping Into Blog Technologies ...................................................................23
Archiving your publishing history .....................................................24
Interacting with your readers through comments ..........................24
Feeding your readers...........................................................................26
Tracking back .......................................................................................28
Dealing with comment and trackback spam ....................................29
Moving On to the Business of Blogging ......................................................30

Part II: Using the WordPress Hosted Service ................ 31

Chapter 3: Getting Started with WordPress.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Creating a WordPress.com Account ...........................................................33
Navigating WordPress.com ..........................................................................36
Using the WordPress.com Dashboard ........................................................38
Right Now ..............................................................................................39
Recent Comments ................................................................................41
Incoming Links .....................................................................................42

WordPress For Dummies, 2nd Edition
viii

Your Stuff ..............................................................................................42
What’s Hot ............................................................................................42
QuickPress ............................................................................................43
Recent Drafts ........................................................................................43
Stats .......................................................................................................43
Setting Important Options Before You Blog ...............................................44
Setting your General options ..............................................................45
Adjusting your Date and Time settings .............................................46
Setting your profi le: Tell us a little about yourself ..........................48
Getting Help ....................................................................................................54

Chapter 4: Writing and Managing Your Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Ready? Set? Blog! ...........................................................................................55
Inserting media fi les into your post ...................................................58
Refi ning your post options .................................................................62
Publishing your post ...........................................................................63
Organizing Your Blog by Subject .................................................................66
Creating categories and subcategories .............................................66
Filing posts in categories and subcategories ...................................68
Creating and Categorizing Your Blogroll ....................................................68
Creating link categories ......................................................................69
Adding new links to your blogroll .....................................................69
Managing and Inviting Users ........................................................................72
Managing authors and users ..............................................................73
Inviting friends to WordPress.com ....................................................74
Managing Comments and Comment Spam .................................................75
Setting discussion options for your blog ..........................................76
Viewing comments...............................................................................79
Managing comment spam with Akismet ...........................................80
Creating a Static Page ...................................................................................81
Setting Up Your Front Page ..........................................................................83
Publishing a Public or Private Blog .............................................................85
Establishing Trust Relationships with OpenID ..........................................86

Chapter 5: Enhancing Your Blog with Themes,
Widgets, and Upgrades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87

Changing Your Blog’s Look ..........................................................................87
Widget Wonder: Adding Handy Tools to Your Sidebar ............................89
Selecting and activating widgets ........................................................89
Using Text widgets...............................................................................91
Using the RSS widget ...........................................................................92
Upgrading Your Hosted Service (For a Fee) ..............................................93
Naming Your Domain ....................................................................................95