Nice beginners manual on using WordPress.
Author: Lisa Sabin-Wilson
For Dummies, 2015.
The book consists of five parts:
1. Introducing WordPress
2. Setting up WordPress
3. Flexing and extending WordPress
4. Customizing WordPress
5. The Part of Tens
The introductory part mainly sets up the vocabulary and the context – the basic considerations when planning a new website – to be used in the later parts.In the second part, we learn what is needed in order to obtain a web domain, and web hosting. Then how to install WordPress on the new web site, and how to configure its basic options.
The third part talks about Media Management, Plugins and Themes. Among other things, there is a nice explanation of the nature of open source development, to caution the reader not to become too dependent on an open source plugin that may later drop by the wayside. Plus a reference to Plugin Buddy, a plugin repository for paid plugins. Another reference to Sucuri website for security checking our website. References to resources for paid themes – iThemes, StudioPress and https://wordpress.org/themes/commercial.
In part 4 the structure of a WordPress theme is analyzed, and we are shown how to create our own basic working theme. There is detailed descriptions on how to edit the PHP code and CSS needed for putting the theme together. One chapter deals with making child themes, which is the recommended way to make changes to an existing theme. Chapter 12 explains how to organize a website in general using WordPress (as opposite to only using the blog site features). We see how to create our own layout for specific pages, using the PHP templates and CSS to manage this.
General evaluation: The information is well structured, the explanations are thorough and should be easy to follow for anyone. Lots of useful references. As so often, the ‘for dummies’ part remains just a joke, since the book is packed with concrete and detailed no-nonsense instructions on how to use the tool. Highly recommended.
By the same author: WordPress All In One.