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IN THE FEW SHORT YEARS since the first edition of this book, WordPress has grown to power about 20 % of all the websites in the world. This success is not due to some massive marketing campaign; it was mostly viral, as web site owners, designers, developers, and marketers spread the word. And I think they told others because WordPress is:

● Easy to set up

● Easy to maintain

● Easy to grow and adapt

It's this last quality – ease of growing and adapting – which I think is particularly important. WordPress helps make your website future-proof, meaning no matter what happens on the web – new social media platforms, new technologies, new requirements – it allows you to respond pretty easily to those changes.

Since I began building websites exclusively with WordPress, I've noticed an important change in my clients: they look forward to updating and expanding their sites. When changing some text, let alone adding a new page, is like pulling teeth, you're less likely to do it. With WordPress, not only are my clients making their own changes, but they're excited about it and that's also made them more involved in their sites. Instead of having a site built and then sitting back, my clients are actively thinking about what they can change or add to make their sites better, because they can go in and do it themselves when the thought strikes.

That's the real power of WordPress: putting more control in the hands of the website owner.

But WordPress won't magically build a great site for you. It's only a tool that makes it easier for you to build a great site. You need to know how to use WordPress, as well as understand its potential, so you can use the tool most effectively. This book will help you with both.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for beginners at two levels: those who've never built a website and those who've never built or used a WordPress website. You should be aware that there are two versions of WordPress:

● The free hosted version at WordPress.com

● The open-source downloadable version from WordPress.org, which you then install on your own server (commonly referred to as the self-hosted version)

The important difference between the two is that with the hosted version you don't control which plugins or themes are available to use. For personal blogging or, with some paid features, even some small businesses, the hosted version can be a good choice. But for complete control or customization of your site, the self-hosted version is the better choice.

Though this book deals with the self-hosted version of WordPress, much of it – how to enter content, how to upload photos and documents, how to lay out content, and so on – still applies to the hosted version.

What This Book Covers

Since the second edition of this book, WordPress has undergone significant changes, all of which make it even easier to use and even more flexible for managing any type of website. This new edition includes features up to and including Version 4.0, with indications of some changes expected in 4.1.

You'll learn how to set up a WordPress website from scratch, using the default features of the software. Each lesson covers a related set of tasks, so you can follow the lessons in order or easily dip into any one of them to quickly learn one thing. Because we're in an increasingly mobile world, the book also covers important differences when using WordPress on a mobile device. And at the end of most lessons there will be a list of free plugins that extend the functions discussed in that lesson.

Keep in mind, this book is not what I call an extended manual. It does not aim to cover every feature of WordPress. Instead, it focuses on the key tasks you need in the day-to-day running of a website, and covers them in great detail. I do that by showing you not just the basics, but the tips and tricks that make things as simple as possible. The addition of videos for key points helps make things clearer and reinforce the concepts.

How This Book Is Structured

The 36 lessons are grouped into themed sections:

● Section I: Before You Start– Get to know how WordPress thinks about content and what planning you need to do before starting your site.

● Section II: Firing Up WordPress– Instructions for installing the software, an overview of the administration interface, and the basic settings you'll need to get going.

● Section III: Working with Written Content– Entering your content and publishing it.

● Section IV: Working with Media Content– The ins and outs of uploading images, video, documents, and more, as well as how to use them on your site.

● Section V: Managing Your Content– Navigating through various types of content, editing it, and moving it around.

● Section VI: Making Your Site Social– Dealing with social media, comments, links, RSS feeds, and multiple users.

● Section VII: Choosing and Customizing Themes– How to choose from the astonishing array of themes, and some basics for making the site look exactly the way you want.

● Section VIII: Becoming Search Engine–Friendly– Keeping an eye on your site statistics, and basic techniques for optimizing your site so that you get indexed in the best possible way.

● Section IX: Maintenance and Security– Making sure your software is up to date, and getting into good backup habits.

● Section X: Added Functionality Using Plugins– Using plugins that give WordPress new features, such as e-commerce, events calendars, and much, much more.

When you're finished reading the book and watching the videos online, you'll find lots of support in the p2p forums, as you'll see in a moment, but there's also the WordPress community on the Web. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are using this software, and a lot of them give back in so many ways. It's a spirit that's reflected in the quality of WordPress and its continued improvement.

From the people who created and maintain WordPress, to the people who make plugins and themes, to the people who write about WordPress on their blogs or contribute to the official and unofficial forums, there are thousands of bright minds giving back to the community with code, ideas, fixes, and more. You never have to feel you're alone when you're using WordPress. I like to think of it as a worldwide 24-hour help line. Whether you need help or can offer help, you're welcome any time.

Instructional Videos

Nothing beats watching how something is done, and that's why I've provided several hours' worth of video about how you can use WordPress. Most lessons in the book have an accompanying video which not only illustrates several of the examples in the lesson, but goes well beyond what can be covered in print. You'll also gain more insight into the creation of the sample website discussed in the book: Island Travel.

If you have an existing WordPress site – a self-hosted version or a blog on WordPress.com– I encourage you to work along in the admin screen. If you don't have a site, you could install WordPress if you have a web hosting account (see Lesson 3) or you could open an account with WordPress.com. The main thing is that you be able to practice what's covered in the book and on these videos, which can be viewed at www.wrox.com/go/wp24vids.

Also online you'll find a PDF with links to each of the more than 400 plugins mentioned in the book. You can find the plugins under the lesson where they were mentioned. Click on a link and you'll be taken to the listing in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory.

Conventions

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what's happening, we've used a number of conventions throughout the book.

WARNING Boxes like this one hold important, not-to-be-forgotten information that is directly relevant to the surrounding text.

NOTE Notes, tips, hints, tricks, and asides to the current discussion are presented in boxes like this.

PLUGINS

At the end of virtually all the lessons, you'll find a box like this with a list of plugins from the WordPress Plugin Directory related to the topics of that lesson. Commercial plugins are not covered here, with the occasional exception.

REFERENCE Reference References like this one point you to the website at www.wrox .com/go/wp24vids to watch the instructional video that accompanies a given lesson.

As for styles in the text:

● We highlight new terms and important words when we introduce them.

● We show URLs and code within the text like so: persistence.properties.

Errata

We make every effort to ensure that there are no errors in the text or in the code. However, no one is perfect, and mistakes do occur. If you find an error in one of our books, like a spelling mistake or faulty piece of code, we would be very grateful for your feedback. By sending in errata, you may save another reader hours of frustration and, at the same time, you will be helping us provide even higher quality information.

To find the errata page for this book, go to www.wrox.com and locate the title using the Search box or one of the title lists. Then, on the Book Search Results page, click the Errata link. On this page, you can view all errata that has been submitted for this book and posted by Wrox editors.

NOTE Note A complete book list, including links to errata, is also available at www.wrox.com/misc-pages/booklist.shtml.

If you don't spot “your” error on the Errata page, click the Errata Form link and complete the form to send us the error you have found. We'll check the information and, if appropriate, post a message to the book's errata page and fix the problem in subsequent editions of the book.

p2p.wrox.com

For author and peer discussion, join the P2P forums at p2p.wrox.com. The forums are a web-based system for you to post messages relating to Wrox books and related technologies and interact with other readers and technology users. The forums offer a subscription feature to e-mail you topics of interest of your choosing when new posts are made to the forums. Wrox authors, editors, other industry experts, and your fellow readers are present on these forums.

At p2p.wrox.com, you will find a number of different forums that will help you not only as you read this book, but also as you develop your own applications. To join the forums, just follow these steps:

1. Go to p2p.wrox.com and click the Register link.

2. Read the terms of use and click Agree.

3. Complete the required information to join, as well as any optional information you wish to provide, and click Submit.

4. You will receive an e-mail with information describing how to verify your account and complete the joining process.

NOTE You can read messages in the forums without joining P2P, but in order to post your own messages, you must join.

Once you join, you can post new messages and respond to messages other users post. You can read messages at any time on the Web. If you would like to have new messages from a particular forum e-mailed to you, click the Subscribe To This Forum icon by the forum name in the forum listing.

For more information about how to use the Wrox P2P, be sure to read the P2P FAQs for answers to questions about how the forum software works as well as many common questions specific to P2P and Wrox books. To read the FAQs, click the FAQ link on any P2P page.