WordPress: Visual Quickstart Guide
by Jessica Neuman Beck and Matt Beck
Until recently, developing and maintaining a website required a programming background or at least a solid familiarity with HTML and CSS. Although WordPress was initially designed as a blogging system, it has evolved to a full Content Management System (CMS). Individuals who don't have the time or the inclination to learn code can easily design, build and manage their own website. WordPress users can set up their site on WordPress.com or install the program with a hosting company.
I had my first experience with WordPress when a client asked me to input her blog updates. Fortunately, I had acquired this book,
WordPress: Visual Quickstart Guide, to review for the Virtual Assistant Forums site and was able to test its claim of "Learn WordPress the Quick and Easy Way!" I was favorably impressed with how quickly I was able to get up to speed with the basics of the program.
As with most technical projects, there are some rather dry chapters to work through before the fun begins. The first three chapters cover the installation and setup of WordPress, an overview of the Dashboard, how to backup and transfer your site content and data files, how to upgrade to the most current version of WordPress, and how to configure and manage your account.
The next four chapters get to the good stuff - adding and managing content! We start with adding posts, using tags, setting up and using categories, using the media library, managing links, adding new pages and using custom fields. We learn to enable, disable and moderate comments and how to fight spam. We return to the media library and learn how to upload, manage and edit images and how to create a gallery. Working with audio and video files is also covered. Because the point of having a blog is getting it read, the book also covers some basic tools that can help increase your site's exposure, such as RSS feeds, subscriptions and Google Feedburner.
The next few chapters cover the more advanced WordPress topics. Because themes are such an important piece of the site design, we learn how to download one of the many customized themes available, or how to add your own company logo to a theme. Widgets and plug-ins add extra functionality to a site and we learn the difference between the two and how to use and install both. For the do-it-your-selfer, who has knowledge of HTML, CSS and PHP, there's a chapter on how to design and build a theme from scratch and how to work with template files and template tags. Finally, there is a brief introduction to the WordPress Loop.
The final section of the book demonstrates how WordPress can be used for more than a blog - how to use it as a CMS. You can add additional pages to your site, set up multiple authors, integrate third party services such as Twitter, and place ads that will generate income. You'll learn about tools and tricks for maintaining your blog, modifying your theme and stats to evaluate site traffic.
The three appendices that follow cover how to customize your settings, troubleshooting, and online resources.
Pros
1. Overall, I was very impressed with this book. It's thin for a technical book, it comes in at just over 250 pages, but if you work through this book, you will have a very competent WordPress skill set. If you are an advanced WordPress user, this book would be great as a quick reference.
2. There are lots of screen shots so you're never left wondering "What am I supposed to click?" The book is laid out nicely with enough white space to not feel overwhelmed with text, but also a very decent amount of information on each page.
I would definitely consider another Visual Quickstart Guide book!
Laserdog gives this book three wags of the tail - the highest possible rating!
The first edition of this book was published in 2009 and has 288 pages. The price of the book is $19.79. Click here to buy the book.
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BOOK REVIEW - WordPress: Visual Quickstart Guide
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