WordPress: The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

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:	9781492074168
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/17/2020
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	490
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

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 vii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 The WordPress Landscape 1

How WordPress Works 1

What You Can Build with WordPress 5

The Last Word 12

Chapter 2 Installing WordPress on Your Web Host 13

Choosing a Web Host 13

Preparing for WordPress 17

Installing WordPress 22

Keeping WordPress Up-to-Date 37

The Last Word 40

Chapter 3 Testing WordPress on Your Computer 41

The WordPress Stack 41

Setting Up a Site with Local 42

Managing Your Local Sites 50

The Last Word 55

Chapter 4 Creating Posts 57

Introducing the Admin Area 57

Administration Practice 62

Adding Your First Post 65

Organizing Your Posts 77

Working with Several Posts at Once 87

How to Get High-Quality Web Addresses 91

The Last Word 97

Chapter 5 Choosing and Polishing Your Theme 99

How Themes Work 100

Choosing a Theme 103

Tweaking Your Theme 111

Customizing Your Widgets 124

Responsive Themes 136

The Last Word 137

Chapter 6 Making Fancier Posts 139

Simple Text Formatting 139

Understanding Blocks 144

Using the Essential Blocks 147

Working with More Exotic Blocks 154

Managing Your Blocks 162

Creating Personalized Blocks 167

The Last Word 169

Chapter 7 Adding Pictures, Videos, and More 171

Adding a Basic Picture 171

Working with the Media Library 181

Adding Featured Images 188

Embedding a Video 192

Playing Audio Files 198

Embedding Other Types of Content 203

The Last Word 206

Chapter 8 Creating Pages and Menus 207

Understanding Page Basics 207

Showing Pages with a Menu 212

Changing Your Home Page 228

Creating Better Home Pages with Templates 233

The Last Word 242

Chapter 9 Getting New Features with Plugins 243

How Plugins Work 243

The Jetpack Plugin 256

The Last Word 273

Chapter 10 Comments: Letting Your Readers Talk Back 275

Allowing or Forbidding Comments 276

The Life Cycle of a Comment 279

The Ongoing Conversation 289

Making Comments More Personal with Gravatars 296

Using Facebook and Twitter Comments 302

Stamping Out Comment Spam 305

The Last Word 315

Chapter 11 Collaborating with Multiple Authors 317

Adding People to Your Site 318

Working with Authors 323

Building a Private Community 334

Creating a Network of Sites 338

The Last Word 349

Chapter 12 Attracting a Crowd 351

Encouraging Your Readers to Share 352

Keeping Readers in the Loop 364

Search Engine Optimization 373

WordPress Site Statistics 381

The Last Word 386

Chapter 13 Editing Themes to Customize Your Site 387

The Goal: More Flexible Blogs and Sites 388

Protecting Yourself with a Child Theme 394

Decoding the Style Rules in Your Theme 401

Changing the Twenty Twenty Styles 406

Editing the Code in Your Theme 416

Changing a Twenty Twenty Template 420

The Last Word 426

Chapter 14 More Tools for Professional Sites 427

Disaster Proofing with Backups 427

Better Performance with Caching 437

Adding Ecommerce to Your Site 443

A Final Grab Bag of Useful Plugins 457

The Last Word 463

Index 465