WordPress 101 - Digital Family Summit

Master of the Blog: Everything You Need to Know About WordPress

Led by: Tracy Levesque co-owner of YIKES, Inc. yikesinc.com [email protected] @yikesinc @liljimmi

mailto:[email protected]

Today you will...

Tracy Levesque [email protected]@yikesinc @lilimmi


● Learn what WordPress is

● Learn how to build a functioning site with WordPress from install to build-out without touching a line of code (unless you want to)

● Learn how to use themes and plugins to customize and build functionality for your site

● Get one-on-one help from volunteer TAs from the Philly WordPress Meetup Group

● Walk away with links to resources to help you remember what you learned today and continue to learn more


Meet Tracy

Meet the TAs

Introduce yourself

● Your name and where you're from● Why you're interested in this workshop● Something random

Introductions



= Click for more information


Official description from WordPress.org

“WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.”

WordPress is Free, Open Source, Web-based Software

WordPress core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers and thousands of people around the word contribute to it by either testing the software or building plugins and themes for it.

WordPress is a Content Management System

WordPress allows people to build websites and manage them.

What is WordPress?



What is WordPress?


http://pagelyblog.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/wordpress-infographic.jpg

WordPress.org

Stand-alone software that lets you set up a website on your own hosting account with your own domain name. You can add-to and modify the code behind your site via themes, plugins or your own modifications.

WordPress.com

A free blogging service that allows you to start a blog hosted on WordPress.com's servers. You can open an account and start blogging away. You do not have to pay for hosting (although there are some add-on services you can opt to pay for). You only have a limited number of themes to choose from and you can not install plugins or modify code.

WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com




http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/?display=wide



What you need

1. A hosting account that supports PHP and MySQL

PHP version 5.2.4 or greater, MySQL version 5.0 or greater

2. A domain name

3. A one-click install feature through your host or the software downloaded from WordPress.org

Some hosts provide a one-click WordPress install via your hosting account's control panel. If your host does not provide this feature (or if you want more control over the installation process) you will need to download the latest version of WordPress from WordPress.org

Installing WordPress


http://wordpress.org/about/requirements/



What You Need For a Manual Install

1. Access to cpanel (or similar) to create a database and database user

During install you will need to enter a database name, database username, password and database host.

2. A FTP Program

FTP is the program you use to upload and download files between your computer and your hosting account.

3. A Web browser

The installation itself happens on a web browser.





Creating Your Database

Security tip!

Make your database name and username unique. Don't use “wordpress” or the same username and password you use for FTP or your hosting account.

Make your database password strong. If your host has a password generator use it. If you are making it up yourself make sure it is at least 10 characters long and contains numbers, upper/lowercase letters and special characters.

Keeping WordPress updated to the latest version will help protect you from hackers, but taking extra security measures during install will help even more.





Uploading WordPress to your hosting account

1. Unzip the file you downloaded from WordPress.org

2. Using a FTP program, upload the files shown below to the the root directory of your website.

Your website's root directory is often named “public_html” or “htdocs”but it may vary. Contact your hosting provider if you can not find it.



http://filezilla-project.org/



Running the Famous 5-Minute Install

Navigate to your site's home page to find step one

Go ahead and click “Create a Configuration File”

On the next page of information click “Let's Go”



http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress




Enter the database information you created.

Security tip!

Make your table prefix unique. Don't use “wp_” or “wordpress_.”keep the underscore, but make it a unique name.






Hit “Run the install”






Final Step: Name your site and log in!

Security tip!

Do not use “admin” as your admin username. “Admin” used to be the default WordPress username and hackers will use that first when trying to access your site. Use a unique username and a strong Password.



A Tour of Your New Site

Your brand-spankin' new WordPress site comes with the default theme “Twentyeleven” and some sample content.

● A sample post on the home page.

● A sample page

● Sample header images

● A sample tag line “Just another WordPress site”






A Tour of Your New Site's Dashboard

Your dashboard address: yourdomain.com/wp-admin/

Some general admin info.

● The admin is divided into 3 areas:1.The top menu bar2.The left-hand menu where you can navigate to most of your admin

functionality3.The main content window that contains widgets or detailed admin

functionality.

● You can change the display and layout of a particular admin page by clicking on the “screen options” tab in the upper right corner of the admin screen.




Setting Up Your New Site

The Settings Menu

● General: Title, tagline, date format, etc.

● Reading: Set what appears on your site’s home page -- posts or a static page

● Discussion: Manage comment settings

● Media: Make default image sizes and other media settings

● Privacy: Hide your site from search engines while in development

● Permalinks: Define the structure of your friendly URLs




Adding Content

Pages vs. Posts

● Pages: Regular website pages with content.

● Posts: Entries (like blog posts) that have a date, categories and tags associated with them. They can be listed in a particular order (chronologically, alphabetically, etc.)and fed to other sites or blog readers via an RSS feed .


http://en.support.wordpress.com/post-vs-page/



Adding Content

Pages

● Adding content: Title and content

● Editing content: Formatting text, adding pictures, using Zen mode.

● Slug: Override Wordpress’ default slug

● Page attributes: Parent, ordering and template

● Discussion: Turning on or off comments and trackbacks

● Featured Image: Add a specific header image for a page

● Publish: Status and Visibility options

● Custom Fields: Add additional custom fields that can be used by theme templates and plugins.




Adding Content

Posts

● Format: Some themes make use of different formats.

● Categories and Tags: Create and Assign categories and tags

● Author: Change the author of a post




Building Navigation Menus

WordPress allows you to easily create menus you can add to your main navigation or widget areas.

● Name your menu You can create multiple menus.

● Assign your menu a theme location Themes can set locations for menus. If your theme supports menus they will show up on the left hand side.

● Add pages to your menu Browse the pages you have added to your site and add them to your menu. You can drag-and-drop arrange them. You can also add custom links to your menu.


http://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Menus_Screen



Changing Your Site's Layout & Design

Intro to Themes

A Theme not only determines the look and feel of your site (colors, typography, pictures, layout, etc.) it also sets your site's functionality. Some Themes also allow you to customize design elements to alter the look and feel of your site.

Twentyeleven Theme Options

● Color Scheme

● Link Color

● Default Layout


http://codex.wordpress.org/Blog_Design_and_Layout




Sidebars and Widget Areas

A Theme can have set areas where you can use Widgets (mini content blocks of information or interactivity). They are often in the sidebars (left or right-hand side of a webpage) or in the footer (the bottom of a webpage).

Twentyeleven Widget Areas

● Main Sidebar - Shows up on posts and pages that use the Sidebar template● Showcase Sidebar - Shows up on pages that use the Showcase template● Footer Area One, Two and Three - Shows up on all site pages

Remember, you set a page's template under “Page Attributes.”





Using Widgets

Widgets are easy to add to widget areas. You can just Drag-and-drop them on and off. You can even save widget settings for later use by dragging them to the “InactiveWidgets” area.

Twentyeleven Widgets

Twentyeleven comes with an assortment of widgets.





Header Options

Twentyeleven has a few options for customizing your site's header

● Header Image – Set a static image or randomly pull from a pool of images. You can also choose to not show any image.

● Header Text – Set the text color or choose to show no text.


http://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Header_Screen




Background Options

Twentyeleven has a few options for customizing your site's background

● Background Image – Set an image for your site's background. You can also set the background image positioning.

● Display Options – Set the background color.


http://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Background_Screen




Installing Different Themes

There are thousands of free and premium themes built by theme designers all over the world.

It is easy to browse, install and test drive themes via the “Install Themes” tab under Appearance > Themes


http://codex.wordpress.org/Appearance_Themes_Screen




Using the Amazing New Theme Customizer

Just added to WordPress 3.4 is the ThemeCustomizer. It allows you to change themeoptions and see how they look in real timebefore making the changes live.

You can customize active or inactive themesunder Appearance > Themes.


http://blog.lynda.com/2012/06/15/using-the-new-wordpress-3-4-theme-customizer/



Adding Functionality With Plugins

What is a Plugin?

Official description from WordPress.org

“Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine.”

Plugins add functionality to WordPress. It can be somethingas simple as adding Google Analytics or as complicated asa fully-functioning Message board or Ecommerce to your site.

It is easy to browse, get detailed information on and install Plugins from Plugins > Add New.

You can also browse the WordPress Plugin Directory to find more information on thousands of free Plugins.


http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins

Learning More

Join a WordPress Meetup Group

There are currently 312 WordPress Meetup Groups in 13 countries. They generally meet regularly and present an a variety of WordPress-related topics.

http://wordpress.meetup.com/

Attend a WordCamp

WordCamps are affordable, informal, community-organized WordPress conferences held all over the world. They are packed with workshops geared towards WordPress users, designers and developers.

http://central.wordcamp.org/



http://wordpress.meetup.com/

http://central.wordcamp.org/




Learning More

Surf Around the WordPress Codex

The WordPress Codex is “the online manual for WordPress and a living repository for WordPress information and documentation.” You can find detailed information on everything WordPress-related.

http://codex.wordpress.org/

Read and Post to the WordPress Support Forums

You you need a solution to something WordPress-releated, someone has probably posted about it on the Support Forums. The WordPress community is generally very helpful and collaborative, so feel free to find helpful info. On the forums.

http://wordpress.org/support/


http://codex.wordpress.org/

http://wordpress.org/support/



Links to Resources


http://wordpress.org/

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

http://wordpress.org/news/

http://planet.wordpress.org/

http://wordpress.tv/

http://www.wpbeginner.com/

http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/wordpress-resources/

http://build.codepoet.com/

http://wpmail.me/

http://wpcandy.com/

Thank you!Slides: slideshare.net/thetracyL




Technology

WordPress 101 - Digital Family Summit