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WordPress In Depth, 2nd Edition

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WordPress In Depth, 2nd Edition

Book

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Description

  • Copyright 2012
  • Edition: 2nd
  • Book
  • ISBN-10: 0-7897-4107-5
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-4107-3

Do more with WordPress – in less time!

This is the most complete, coherent, and practical guide to succeeding with WordPress 3.1 and WordPress.com’s hosted services. The authors help you efficiently design, secure, and manage your blog, and add powerful features to attract visitors and build thriving communities. Get comfortable with WordPress, leverage its immense power, and customize it to your unique needs—no matter how large your blog grows, or how complex your content management challenges are!

•     Start your WordPress blog right, to avoid hassle and rework later

•     Make your blog’s appearance stand out from the crowd

•     Use QuickPress to create new posts in no time

•     Make your posts easier to find and more useful to casual visitors

•     Revamp your whole blog in minutes with themes

•     Use HTML and CSS “power tools” to add advanced blog features

•     Engage readers with comments, polls, and ratings

•     Manage teams of blog administrators, editors, authors, and contributors

•     Use WordPress Statistics and Google Analytics to understand and grow your audience

•     Add graphics and media to your blog posts

•     Work with a hosting provider that runs WordPress software for you

•     Create new blog networks with WordPress Multisite

•     Integrate social networking features with BuddyPress

•     Find, test, activate, and use powerful third-party plug-ins

•     Build your own themes and plug-ins

All In Depth books offer:

•     Comprehensive coverage with detailed solutions

•     Troubleshooting help for tough problems you can’t fix on your own

•     Outstanding authors recognized worldwide for their expertise and teaching style

Learning, reference, problem-solving...the only WordPress book you need!

Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

Installing and Upgrading WordPress Software

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 11 and Index)

Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome

Why This Book?

How Our Book Is Organized

Conventions Used in This Book

    Text Conventions

    Special Elements

 

Part I: Getting Started with Your Blog

1 Getting Started with WordPress

What Is WordPress?

    WordPress Versions in Brief

    The WordPress Community

    What Does It Cost You?

Who Is WordPress For?

    Blogger as a Worthy Alternative

    WordPress User Case Study 1: Beginners

    WordPress User Case Study 2: A Business Blog

WordPress Hosting Options

    Making the Move

    Comparing WordPress.com with WordPress Software

Other Ways to Create an Online Presence

 

2 Starting Your Blog Right

Creating Your Blog

How Many Visitors Do You Want?

Playing the Domain Name Game

    Starting with a Custom Domain Name

    Adding a Custom Domain Name Later

    Using a WordPress.com Domain Name Forever

Signing Up

    Creating a WordPress Account and a Blog

    Taking Advantage of Resources

Changing Initial WordPress Settings

    General Settings

    Writing Settings

    Reading Settings

    Discussion Settings

    Media Settings

    Privacy Settings

    Sharing Settings

Other Settings Subpanels: OpenID, Text Messaging, Domains, Email, and

Webhooks

WordPress Settings Not in the Settings Menu

    Ratings Settings

    Post by Email and Post by Voice Settings

    Delete Site

 

3 Creating Your Blog’s Look

You’ve Got the Look

Introducing Themes

    What to Look for in a Theme

    Colors

    Number of Columns

    Fixed-Width or Flexible-Width Columns

    Widgets and Other Features

    Should You Change Your Theme with CSS?

    Listing the Themes

    Choosing a Theme

Changing a Custom Header

Changing mShots and Related Links

Adding Available Widgets

    Placing Widgets

    Preserving Existing Widgets

    Adding New Widgets

    A Brief Catalog of Widgets

    Getting the Most Out of Widgets

Part II: Running Your Blog

4 Creating Your First Post

What Is a Blog Entry?

Using the QuickPress Tool

Adding a New Post

    Working on Posts in Full-Screen Mode

    Using Basic Formatting Commands

    An Example of Text Formatting

    Using Hyperlinks as Formatting

    Using Secondary Formatting Commands

Adding Links

    Linking Strategy

    Creating a Link

Using Shortlinks

    Using bit.ly

    Using the Get Shortlink Feature

Saving, Checking Your Spelling, and Publishing Posts

5 Taking Posts Further

Doing More with Posts

Anchor Posts

Putting Your Posts in Categories

    How People Think About Categories

    Using and Creating Categories

    Managing Categories

    Moving Posts Among Categories

Tagging Your Posts

    Using and Creating Tags

    Managing Tags

    Changing Tags Associated with Posts

Updating Links and Your Blogroll

    Adding New Links

    Editing Links

    Link Categories

 

6 Using HTML in Your Widgets and Blog

How HTML Can Take You Further

Power Tools for Better Blogging

HTML Basics in WordPress

    HTML Tags

    The Visual and HTML Tabs

    Character Formatting

    List Formatting

    Linking

    The More Tag

    HTML Editing in WordPress

    What Tags Can I Use?

YouTube as an Example of Embedded HTML

Using the Text Widget

    Content Providers for the Text Widget

    Things You Can Do with the Text Widget

    A Simple Sample Text Widget

7 Adding Features to Your Blog

Making Your Blog Better

Adding Users to Your Blog

    Understanding WordPress User Roles

    Inviting Users and Assigning Roles

Adding a Static Page

    Planning Static Pages

    Designing a Static Page

    Creating and Editing Static Pages

Adding a Custom Menu

    Planning Menus

    Creating a Custom Menu

Adding Polls

8 Tracking Statistics and Bringing In Visitors

Getting More People to Visit Your Blog

WordPress Statistics

    Why Are You Doing This?

    Stats on Your WordPress Administration Page

    The Stats Page in WordPress Administration

    Analyzing Referrers

    Incoming Links

    Looking at Search Terms

    Top Posts and Pages

    Clicks

    Blog Stats: Summary Tables

How Visitors Can Subscribe to Your Blog

    Using the RSS Widget

Part III: Taking Your Blog Further

9 Adding Graphics to Your Blog and Posts

Why Add Graphics and Other Media?

Copyright and Media Types

Putting Pictures in Your Posts

Graphics Tips for Bloggers

Using the WordPress Image Editor

    How Much Should I Scale and Crop?

    When Should I Use a Separate Editor?

Uploading and Inserting Graphics

    Uploading an Image to the Media Library

    Using an Image from Your Computer in Your Post

    Using an Image from the Media Library in Your Post

    Using an Image from the Web in Your Post

    Using a Custom Header Image Per Post

 

10 Adding Upgrades, Audio, and Video

Upgrading Your Blog

A Quick Description of Upgrades

    Custom CSS

    Unlimited Private Users

    No-ads Upgrade

    Space/Audio Upgrades: 5GB, 15GB, and 25GB

    VideoPress Upgrade

    Domain Names

    Global Differences

Getting a Good Domain Name

    WordPress.com

    Domain Names Versus

    Custom Domain Names 

    How Domain Names Work 

    Choosing a Good Third-Level or Second-Level Domain Name

Using Audio in Your Blog

    Where to Host Audio

    Putting an Audio File in Your Blog

Using Video in Your Blog

    Where to Host Video

    Putting a Video File in Your Blog

Part IV: Building Your Own WordPress Installation

11 Installing and Upgrading WordPress Software

Getting It Done for You: Hosted WordPress

    Finding a Blog-Friendly Host

    Why PHP and MySQL?

    Using FTP to Upload Files

    Preparing for the Five-Minute Hosted WordPress Installation

    The Five-Minute Hosted WordPress Installation

    Adding a User to Your Site

    Upgrading WordPress

Transferring Your WordPress.com Blog

Hosting WordPress Yourself

    Installing a Test Web Server and MySQL Database

    Editing the WordPress Configuration File

12 Taking Control of Your WordPress Site

A Quick Tour of the WordPress.org Dashboard

Customizing Your Dashboard

Getting Social: WordPress Multisite and BuddyPress

    Your Own Blog Network: WordPress Multisite

    Creating a Social Network with BuddyPress

 

13 The WordPress Toolkit: Themes and Security

Essential Tasks: Themes and Security

Shopping for Themes

    Finding Free Themes

    Finding Premium Themes

    Installing and Activating a Theme

Securing Your New Website

    Security Considerations When Selecting a Theme for Your Blog

    Protecting Your Site

    Backup and Restore

 

14 The WordPress Toolkit: Plug-Ins

WordPress Modular Architecture

Defining a Plug-In

Finding Plug-Ins

    Finding and Installing Plug-Ins from the Directory

    Plug-In Compatibility

    Finding Free Plug-Ins Outside the Directory

    Finding Premium Plug-Ins

Manually Installing and Activating Plug-Ins

    Downloading New Plug-Ins

    Testing Your New Plug-In

    Selection and Activation

    Managing and Updating Plug-Ins

Making Your Site Mobile-Friendly

    Fitting Your Site to the Small Screen

    WordPress Mobile Apps

Some “Essential” Plug-Ins

    Basic WordPress Plug-Ins: Akismet and Hello Dolly

    WordPress.com Jetpack: A Starter Kit

    Administration and Security

    Posting Aids

    Statistics

    Comments, Forums, and Other Discussions

    Advertising/Search Engine Optimization

    Links

    Multimedia

    Social Networks

 

15 Style Sheets for Building Themes

Creating Style Sheets

Introducing XHTML

    Defining Web Standards

    XML and XHTML

    Writing HTML-Friendly XHTML in WordPress

Introducing CSS

    What CSS Is Meant to Do

    What Is a Style Sheet?

    Anatomy of a Style Sheet

Tweaking Theme Style Sheets

    When Using an Existing Theme Is Good Enough

    Tweaking an Existing Theme with the Theme Editor

    Backing Up Themes to Preserve Your Choices

    Creating a Child Theme

    Some Common Tweaks

    Creating a CSS-Based Theme from Scratch

 

16 PHP Basics: Themes and Plug-ins

Introducing PHP

    PHP 4 Versus PHP 5

    Installing PHP on Your Test or Development Server

    Writing PHP Scripts: Basic Syntax

MySQL Database Tables for WordPress

Customizing Your Site with FUNCTIONS.PHP

    Making Your Content More Findable with Custom Taxonomies

    Helping Visitors to Get Around Your Site with Custom Menus

The Heart of WordPress: The Loop

    What Does “The Loop” Do?

    Creating a Featured Posts Loop with WP_Query

PHP Theme Templates

    The Index Template

    The Sidebar Template

    The Header Template

    The Footer Template

Examining an Existing Plug-In

Submitting to the WordPress Plugin Directory

    Why Not Submit to the Plugin Directory?

    Submitting to the Plugin Directory

 

Part V: Appendixes

A WordPress.com Versus WordPress.org

Choosing the Right WordPress for You

Naming of Parts

Choosing WordPress.org

    Making Money with Your Blog

    Automattic’s Ads on Your Site

    Tapping the WordPress Community

    Getting the Right Host

Choosing WordPress.com

 

B WordPress Documentation

Finding Your Way Through the Online Documents

The WordPress Codex

Problems with WordPress Documentation

Using Google to Access WordPress Documentation

 

C Examples of WordPress Blogs

Why Look at Famous Blogs?

XXL

Surfin’ Safari

Master of Arts in Teaching at USC

 

D Examples of WordPress.com Blogs

Equal Representation for .commies

Famous Quotes

The Outland Institute

Music at SFSU

E WordPress Site Maps

Navigating the WordPress Sites

Navigating WordPress.com

    Home Page: http://wordpress.com

    Support Options: http://en.support.wordpress.com

    Forums: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/

    Free Features: http://en.wordpress.com/features

    Premium Features: http://en.wordpress.com/products

    VIP Services: http://vip.wordpress.com

    Theme Showcase: http://theme.wordpress.com

    Popular Tags/Hot Topics: http://en.wordpress.com/tags

    News: http://en.blog.wordpress.com

    Stats

    About Us: http://en.wordpress.com/about

    Advanced Services: http://en.wordpress.com/advanced-services

Navigating WordPress.org

    Home Page: http://wordpress.org

    Showcase: http://wordpress.org/showcase

    Themes, Plug-Ins, and Places to Complain: http://wordpress.org/extend

    The World of WordPress: http://wordpress.org/about

    Latest from the Developers: http://wordpress.org/news

    Getting Help from Your Peers: http://wordpress.org/support

    Finding a Host: http://wordpress.org/hosting

     Downloading WordPress: http://wordpress.org/download

    Learning from the Sources on WordPress.tv: http://wordpress.tv/

 

F Importing Content from Other Systems

Direct Import into WordPress

    Transferring from Blogger/BlogSpot

    Transferring from LiveJournal

    Transferring from Movable Type/TypePad

    Transferring from Posterous

    Transferring from Textpattern

Indirect Transfer

    Transferring from an RSS Feed

    Transferring from (X)HTML Wordpress

G Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts

Know Your Purpose

Use Keywords

Get Links

Use Tags and Categories

Consider Using META Tags

Try Using Plug-Ins

Living in the Zone

 

Index

Updates

Submit Errata

More Information

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Overview


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This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


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Questions and Inquiries

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Online Store

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Surveys

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Contests and Drawings

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Customer Service

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Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

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Web Analytics

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Cookies and Related Technologies

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Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


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Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

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Correcting/Updating Personal Information


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Sale of Personal Information


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While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

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  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
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  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
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Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020