WordPress: The Missing Manual

by Matthew MacDonald

Overview

Whether you're a budding blogger or seasoned web designer, WordPress is a brilliant tool for creating websites--once you know how to tap into its impressive features. The latest edition of this jargon-free Missing Manual shows you how to use WordPress's themes, widgets, and plug-ins to build just about any kind of site.

The important stuff you need to know:

• Set up WordPress. Configure WordPress on your web host or get it running on your home computer.
• Create your site. Get hands-on instructions for building all types of websites, from blogs to business sites with ecommerce features.
• Jazz it up. Add picture galleries, slideshows, video clips, music players, and podcasts.
• Add features. Select from thousands of plug-ins to enhance your site's capabilities, from contact forms to a basic shopping cart.
• Build a truly unique site. Customize a WordPress theme to create a site that looks exactly the way you want.
• Attract an audience. Use SEO, site statistics, and social sharing to reach more people.
• Stay safe. Use backup and staging tools to protect your content and avoid catastrophe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492074113
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/18/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	492
File size:	39 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Matthew MacDonald is a science and technology writer with well over a dozen books to his name. He's particularly known for his books about building websites, which include a do-it-from-scratch tutorial (Creating a Website: The Missing Manual), a look at cutting-edge HTML5 (HTML5: The Missing Manual), and a WordPress primer (WordPress: The Missing Manual). He's also written a series of books about programming on and off the Web with .NET, teaches programming at Ryerson University, and is a three-time Microsoft MVP.

In everyday life, Matthew is endlessly amazed by the odd, unusual, and just plain bonkers workings of the natural world. Those who don't have tech problems to solve can check out Matthew MacDonald's science books, where he debugs the quirks and complexities of the human brain (Your Brain: The Missing Manual) and body (Your Body: The Missing Manual). Both books include a mash-up of full-color pictures, trivia, and philosophical head-scratchers. Matthew lives in Toronto, with his wife and two daughters.

Table of Contents

The Missing Credits;
About the Author;
About the Creative Team;
Acknowledgments;
The Missing Manual Series;
Introduction;
The Very Basics of Reading This Book;
About WordPress;
About this Book;
About the Online Resources;
Using Code Examples;
Safari® Books Online;
Part 1: Starting Out with WordPress;
Chapter 1: The WordPress Landscape;
1.1 How WordPress Works;
1.2 What You Can Build with WordPress;
1.3 WordPress Hosting;
Chapter 2: Signing Up with WordPress.com;
2.1 Choosing a Web Address;
2.2 Creating Your WordPress.com Account;
2.3 The WordPress.com Community;
Chapter 3: Installing WordPress on Your Web Host;
3.1 Preparing for WordPress;
3.2 Installing WordPress with an Autoinstaller;
3.3 Installing WordPress by Hand;
3.4 Maintaining Your Site;
Part 2: Building a WordPress Blog;
Chapter 4: Creating Posts;
4.1 Introducing the Dashboard;
4.2 Adding Your First Post;
4.3 Organizing Your Posts;
4.4 How to Get High-Quality URLs;
4.5 Dashboard Tricks to Save Time and Effort;
Chapter 5: Choosing and Polishing Your WordPress Theme;
5.1 How Themes Work;
5.2 Tweaking Your Theme;
5.3 Customizing Your Widgets;
5.4 Choosing a New Theme;
Chapter 6: Jazzing Up Your Posts;
6.1 Making Fancier Posts;
6.2 Using Pictures;
6.3 The Media Library;
6.4 Showing Part of a Post;
Chapter 7: Adding Pages and Menus;
7.1 Creating Pages;
7.2 Viewing Pages;
7.3 Custom Menus;
7.4 Changing Your Home Page;
Chapter 8: Comments: Letting Your Readers Talk Back;
8.1 Allowing or Forbidding Comments;
8.2 The Life Cycle of a Comment;
8.3 The Ongoing Conversation;
8.4 Making Comments More Personal;
8.5 Stamping Out Comment Spam;
Part 3: Supercharging Your Blog;
Chapter 9: Getting New Features with Plug-Ins;
9.1 Managing Plug-Ins;
9.2 The Jetpack Plug-In;
9.3 Adding Mobile Support;
9.4 Backing Up a WordPress Site;
9.5 Better Performance with Caching;
Chapter 10: Adding Picture Galleries, Video, and Music;
10.1 Understanding Embeds and Shortcodes;
10.2 Showing Groups of Pictures;
10.3 Embedding a Video Window;
10.4 Playing Audio Files;
Chapter 11: Collaborating with Multiple Authors;
11.1 Adding Users to Your Site;
11.2 Working with Authors;
11.3 Building a Private Community;
11.4 Creating a Network of Sites;
Chapter 12: Attracting a Crowd;
12.1 Encouraging Your Readers to Share;
12.2 Keeping Readers in the Loop;
12.3 Notifying Readers by Using Feeds;
12.4 Search Engine Optimization;
12.5 WordPress Site Statistics;
Part 4: From Blog to Website;
Chapter 13: Editing Themes: The Key to Customizing Your Site;
13.1 The Goal: More Flexible Blogs and Sites;
13.2 Taking Control of Your Theme;
13.3 Protecting Yourself with a Child Theme;
13.4 Editing the Styles in Your Theme;
13.5 Editing the Code in Your Theme;
Chapter 14: Building an Advanced WordPress Site;
14.1 Planning Your Site;
14.2 Creating Custom Category Pages;
14.3 Building a Better Home Page;
14.4 From Post to Product Page;
14.5 Adding E-Commerce;
Part 5: Appendixes;
Migrating from WordPress.com;
Before You Begin;
Transferring Your Data;
Cleaning Up Your New Site;
Useful Websites;
Chapter Links;