Getting Started with WordPress

In this session…

What WordPress is Steps to get you started Tour of the WordPress admin panel WordPress Terminology Learning Resources Questions

What WordPress is an Open Source Content Management

System (CMS) WordPress rules the web! 18.9% of the web

is powered by WordPress initially a blogging platform – no longer just

for blogs there’s no limit to what a WordPress site can

look like

Which WordPress?WordPress.com (personal blog) WordPress.org (website)

hosted for you for freeno servers or code required!

is self-hosted - installed on your paid web hosting account

yourblogname.wordpress.comcan pay to add on your domain

uses your own domain name

select from available themes,can't modify theme files

100% control to choose & customize themes

restricted to built-in features,can't add additional plugins

100% control to add plugins

maintenance is looked after you need to backup & update

WordPress.com network your site is independent

This presentation will focus on WordPress.org Websites from now on….

WordPress Geek Speak…

Steps to get you started…

http://learnwp.ca

Click on Pre-workshop

Walk through the first 5 posts…

1. Register a Domain name

2. Signup for Hosting

3. Point the domain from the domain registrar to the host's server by setting the DNS

4. Install WordPress to the ROOT directory on the server of your hosting account. WordPress is NOT a program to install on your computer

5. Login to WordPress

http://learnwp.ca/ - click on Pre-workshop

Tour the WordPress Admin Panel Login with /wp-admin after your domain name

(e.g. http://yourdomain.ca/wp-admin) The admin panel of your site is the backend

where you control your site content. The frontend is what visitors to your site see.

Log into WordPress admin panel using your username and password

Let's take a look...

TERMINOLOGY: Themes Theme - files control how your site looks. Your website

data is safely stored in the database so you can change themes.

A Child Theme - has been built off of another theme. The child inherits from the "parent". You can update a parent theme, your customizations are preserved in the child theme folder. Don't delete the parent theme!

A Premium Theme- is a theme that you purchase Theme Frameworks- premium themes with extra built-in

interfaces to allow you to modify your site design without editing code files.

Adding a new theme Appearance → Themes → Install Themes ONLY use themes from the repository or reputable

premium themes We can search the WordPress repository and

install right from the admin panel interface! Content is in the database so you can change

themes without entering content again Let’s change the theme…

TERMINOLOGY: Plugins A plugin is an addon code package you can

install to add functionality to your site Search the repository -

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ or search from the admin panel plugin interface

In addition to free plugins there are premium plugins you purchase

Some Plugins I like…

Akismet for Comment Spam – by Automattic JetPack – by Automattic WordPress SEO – by Yoast Backup Buddy (premium plugin) there are currently over 27,000 plugins in the

WordPress repository

TERMINOLOGY: Widgets WordPress Widgets add content and

features to a site’s sidebars, header & footer – depending on theme

Simply drag & drop to add, arrange, and remove widgets in the widgetized areas of your theme.

Plugins will often add additional widgets – e.g. Jetpack

Let’s look at how widgets work…

TERMINOLOGY: Pages & Posts Pages are for your more static content - they don't

change very often Page Templates – are theme specific layouts, such

as no sidebar Posts

• are entries in your blog (articles, news items)• usually in reverse chronological order, newest on top• typically organized into categories (archive pages)• display meta data: i.e. date, author, tags, categories

Let's look at pages & posts

Learning Resources http://codex.wordpress.org – official

documentation http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons wordpress.org/support – forum wordpress.tv – WordCamp videos LearnWP.ca/blog - our blog

Q & Eh?Q & Eh?

image used by permission susybee.com

Thank You!

Ruth Maude

facebook.com/LearnWP

@2LearnWP @dandelionweb

facebook.com/dandelionwebdesign

dandelionwebdesign.com LearnWP.ca