Sue Brandreth's Learning Resources

Tomasi, Chuck and Steppe, Kreg (2011) Sam’s Teach Yourself WordPress 3 in 10 Minutes, Sams Publishing, Pearson Education

Sams Teach Yourself WordPress in 10 Minutes gives you straightforward, practical answers when you need fast results. By working through its 10-minute lessons, you’ll learn everything you need to build great blogs with WordPress and WordPress.org, and reach any audience by web browser, RSS, or cell phone!

10 minutes is all you need to learn how to…

• Quickly build free blogs with WordPress.com
• Customize your blog to fit your message
• Create powerful text, audio, and video content
• Moderate comments and build communities
• Set up RSS feeds
• Host your own blog with WordPress.org software
• Deliver content via iPhone and BlackBerry
• Streamline publishing with third-party tools

Sams Teach Yourself WordPress in 10 Minutes gives you straightforward, practical answers when you need fast results. By working through its 10-minute lessons, you’ll learn everything you need to build great blogs with WordPress and WordPress.org, and reach any audience by web browser, RSS, or cell phone!

 

Tips point out shortcuts and solutions

 

Cautions help you avoid common pitfalls

 

Notes provide additional information

 

Plain English definitions explain new terms

 

10 minutes is all you need to learn how to…

• Quickly build free blogs with WordPress.com
• Customize your blog to fit your message
• Create powerful text, audio, and video content
• Moderate comments and build communities
• Set up RSS feeds
• Host your own blog with WordPress.org software
• Deliver content via iPhone and BlackBerry
• Streamline publishing with third-party tools

Introduction

1 Introducing WordPress

Understanding WhatWordPress Is

Getting Started with WordPress.com

Migrating From Another Blog

Summary

2 Completing Your Profile

Finding Your Profile

My Public Profile

Personal Settings

Profile Differences Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org

Completing Your About Page

Summary

3 Creating Posts and Pages

Creating Posts

Editing Existing Posts

Creating Pages

Summary

4 Configuring Your Blog Settings

General

Writing

Reading

Discussion

Media

Privacy

Permalinks (WordPress.org only)

OpenID (WordPress.com only)

Sharing (WordPress.com only)

Domains (WordPress.com only)

Webhooks (WordPress.com only)

Summary

5 Managing Comments

Understanding Comments

Allowing or Denying Comments

Managing Comments

Best Practices

Summary

6 Personalizing the Appearance of Your Blog

Themes

Widgets

Custom Menus

Making Additional Changes

Summary

7 Using RSS and Data Migration Tools

Syndicate Your Blog with RSS

Other Useful Tools

Backing Up Your Data

Migrating Your Blog

Importing from Another Blog

Summary

8 Setting Up Hosting

Why Host Your Own Blog?

Understanding Your Responsibilities

Setting Up Your Domain Name

Setting Up Your Web Hosting Account

Finding Support

Summary

9 Installing WordPress

Using Automated Script Services

Installing WordPress Manually

Uploading Your Files

Creating the Database

Running the Install Script

Summary

10 Using Themes on Your Own Site

Changing the Look and Function of Your Site

Searching For and Installing a Theme

Widgets

Menus

Summary

11 Customizing Your Site with Plugins

What Are Plugins?

Using the Plugins Dashboard

Finding Plugins

Installing a Plugin

Upgrading Plugins

Removing a Plugin

Popular Plugins

Summary

12 Blogging on the Go

Setting Up Your Blog for Remote Access

Posting from Other Websites

Using Mobile Applications

Using Email to Post

Using ScribeFire

Summary

13 WordPress Support

Looking for Help

Free Support

Paid Support

Other Learning Resources

Summary

Index

Table of Contents

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Hedengren, Thord Daniel (2011) Smashing WordPress – Beyond The Blog, Second Edition, Smashing Magazine Book Series, John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Download eBook PDF (PDF 7,289KB)

Critically acclaimed Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog is now available in a second edition! All the goodness of the first book is here, updated for WordPress version 3.1 and up, as well as a lot of new stuff to make this one worth a purchase even for people owning the first edition.

You’ll learn how to (from the book’s back cover):

• Build beautiful WordPress themes, including child themes
• Create custom login forms and admin themes
• Use the loop to control content
• Build plugins, including widget functionality
• Use custom post types and custom taxonomies
• Use post formats
• Integrate WordPress with the social web
• Use conditional control elements
• Integrate theme options
• Build your WordPress projects for SEO

Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog not only teaches you what you can do with WordPress, but also aims to open your mind to the possibilities of the platform. With this book you’ll be able to create the sites you want, way beyond the blog.

GO BEYOND THE BLOG Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress–powered sites that go beyond the obvious. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexibility. Inside, WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond the blog and shows you how WordPress can serve as a CMS, a photo gallery, an e–commerce site, and more. YOU WILL LEARN: THE ANATOMY OF A WP INSTALL AND HOW WORDPRESS ACTUALLY WORKS HOW TO BUILD BEAUTIFUL WORDPRESS THEMES – INCLUDING CHILD THEMES HOW TO CREATE CUSTOM LOGIN FORMS AND ADMIN THEMES HOW TO USE THE LOOP TO CONTROL CONTENT, AND EVEN USE ALTERNATIVES TO THE LOOP HOW TO INTEGRATE THEME OPTIONS HOW TO BUILD PLUGINS – INCLUDING WIDGET FUNCTIONALITY HOW TO BUILD YOUR WORDPRESS PROJECTS FOR SEO INTEGRATE WORDPRESS WITH THE SOCIAL WEB HOW TO CREATE AMAZING NAVIGATION HOW TO USE CONDITIONAL CONTROL ELEMENTS

Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. The second edition of Smashing WordPress has been updated for WordPress 3.1+, which includes internal, custom post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexibility.

Inside, WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond d the blog and shows you how WordPress can serve as a CMS, a photo gallery, and e-commerce site, and more. This edition includes new and upgraded examples of cool WordPress usage.

You will learn how to:
• Build Beautiful WordPress Themes, including Child Themes
• Create Custom Login Forms and Admin Themes
• Use the Loop to Control Content
• Build Plugins, including Widget Functionality
• Use Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies
• Use Post Formats
• Integrate WordPress with the Social Web
• Use Conditional Control Elements
• Integrate Theme Options
• Build Your WordPress Projects for SEO Thord Daniel Hedengren is a professional web designer and developer who has created numerous WordPress themes, developed plugins, and put WordPress to good use powering both blogs and big editorial sites.

He is the former editor of the Blog Herald, a popular website for bloggers and WordPress users. Smashing Magazine (smashingmgazine.com) is one of the world’s most popular Web-design online magazine. True to the Smashing Magazine book series delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers.

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Plumley, George (2009) WordPress – 24-Hour Trainer – Watch, Read, and Learn How to Create and Customize WordPress Sites, Wrox Programmer to Programmer, Wiley Publishing, Inc

Don’t let WordPress intimidate you. WordPress 24-Hour Trainer is a unique lesson-based book that walks you through the essential parts of WordPress. Each lesson is streamlined to teach a specific aspect of WordPress, helping you to focus on just what you need in order to get the task accomplished. If you learn better visually, this book provides you with a video to accompany each lesson.

This book is the perfect guide to:

• Planning and preparing your site for WordPress
• Installing WordPress
• Writing, tagging, and publishing a post
• Working with the text editor
• Styling paragraphs and creating lists
• Working with media files
• Linking, aligning, and sizing an image
• Working with image galleries
• Adding video and audio
• Naming, scheduling, and managing posts
• Making your site stand out
• Helping others connect to your site
• Becoming search engine friendly
• Optimizing your site
• Backing up your site
• Installing and activating plugins

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Plumley, George (2011) WordPress – 24-Hour Trainer, Second Edition, Wrox Programmer to Programmer, Wiley Publishing, Inc

DVD for Plumley, George (2011) WordPress – 24-Hour Trainer – Second Edition – Wrox Programmer to Programmer – Wiley Publishing, Inc (ZIP 618.828KB)

As an open source content management system, WordPress allows users to easily build feature-rich web sites with no programming experience. This unique book-and-video package is a friendly, self-paced beginners guide to the latest release of WordPress. Lessons are focused on practical, everyday tasks that users will need to create and maintain their sites: entering new content, creating new pages, managing menus, making content search-engine friendly. Plus you’ll find lots of tips based on years of experience teaching people to use WordPress.

You’ll also learn how to extend the functionality of WordPress by using the thousands of plugins available. Connecting to social media, creating membership and e-commerce sites, setting up events calendars, making your site mobile-friendly these are just some of the plugins you’ll be introduced to. Each lesson in the book is supplemented by an instructional video intended to enhance your learning experience. Plus, a trouble-shooting appendix addresses various issues to help you solve any challenges you may face.

Lessons include:

• Installing WordPress
• Admin area overview
• Basic admin settings
• Adding a new post
• Working with the text
• Laying out text
• Advanced post
• The basics of handling media files
• The upload/insert window
• Image options in detail
• Editing and laying out
• Working with image galleries
• Adding video and audio
• Adding documents
• Managing posts and pages
• Managing media files
• Managing post categories and
• Managing widgets and
• The links manager
• Managing comments
• Bringing in content from other sites
• Helping others connect to your site
• Having multiple site users
• Overview of WordPress themes
• Creating a child theme
• Basic customization of your design
• Optimizing your content
• Optimizing your site as a whole
• How is your site doing?
• Keeping up to date
• Backing up your site
• Installing and activating plugins
• Two example plugins
• Other common uses for plugins
• Running multiple sites with WordPress
• Customizing WordPress
• Troubleshooting WordPress

Learn to build, update, maintain, and expand a WordPress website

WordPress is an increasingly popular open–source content management system that exists in either a self–hosted or hosted version and allows you to build and maintain a feature–rich website. This unique book–and–video package serves as a friendly, self–paced learning experience on the capabilities and newest features of the self–hosted version of WordPress (though much of it also applies to the hosted version). Veteran author George Plumley teaches you how to customize and extend WordPress in a number of ways in order to make it do exactly what you need. The valuable lessons featured in the book focus on everyday tasks and are supplemented on the instructional video to enhance your learning experience.

WordPress 24–Hour Trainer, Second Edition:

• Demonstrates how to enter new content, create new pages, and make content search–engine friendly
• Details techniques for breaking up large amounts of text, writing a post, and creating a sub page
• Explores plugins that help you connect your site to social media, make your site mobile friendly, and more
• Addresses creating and managing menus and displaying links
• Explains how to find files in the media library
• Walks you through running multiple websites from a single installation

Wrox guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think. Written by programmers for programmers, they provide a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

On the DVD

Don′t just learn do!

The lessons within the book are accompanied by an instructional demonstration on the DVD.

You′ll learn to:

• Plan what you need to do before starting your site
• Install WordPress
• Enter your content and publish it
• Upload images, video, documents, and more
• Navigate through various types of content
• Deal with links, comments, RSS feeds, social networks, and multiple users
• Work with themes
• Optimize your site
• Make sure your software is up to date
• Add functionality with plugins

Table of Contents

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Silver, April Hodge (2011) WordPress 3 Complete, PACKT Publishing

Download eBook PDF (PDF 12,385KB)

Download Source Code (ZIP 1,998KB)

• Learn everything you need for creating your own feature-rich website or blog from scratch
• Clear and practical explanations of all aspects of WordPress
• In-depth coverage of installation, themes, plugins, and syndication
• Explore WordPress as a fully functional content management system
• Clear, easy-to-follow, concise; rich with examples and screenshots

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Olink, Mick and Armitage, Raena Jackson (2011) The WordPress Anthology – SitePoint Pty. Ltd.

The WordPress Anthology puts you in the driver’s seat of this powerful and flexible open-source CMS, offering an extensive array of solutions for your projects. Jam-packed with proven tips and techniques for web developers, you’ll discover how to effectively use WordPress to better meet your needs. In short, it’ll make the world’s most versatile CMS work for you!

Get Started
Learn the basics of navigating and installing this popular CMS.

Conquer the Inner Mechanics
Delve into the nuts and bolts of WordPress and make it work for you, with custom post types, file structuring, the Loop, taxonomies, and more.

Extend Your Project
Add extra horsepower to your project’s functionality and presentation with plugins, themes, and APIs.

Create Networks
Adopt Multisite capabilities to host and manage your own centralized network of WordPress websites.

Launch and Market Globally
Learn how to successfully launch and market your projects on a global scale using internationalization, localization, SEO, and goal conversion best practices.

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Cole, Allan, Armitage, Raena Jackson, Jones, Brandon, R . Way, Jeffrey (2010) Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes – SitePoint Pty. Ltd.

We’ll simplify your life as a developer by introducing you to the Thematic framework, so that building solid themes is a breeze! You’ll also learn how to maximize profits by effectively marketing and selling your themes on the Web’s biggest marketplaces.

In short, you’ll make money in no time at all.

Learn to:

• Use design elements effectively to create amazing themes
• Leverage the power of the Thematic framework
• Create color variants and custom widgets
• Apply your existing CSS skills to skin up your theme
• Promote and sell your theme for maximum profit

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Wolfe, M. (2012) WordPress Revealed: How to Build a Website, Get Visitors and Make Money (Even For Beginners): Volume 1, Wolfe Empire Building

In this incredibly in-depth guide to WordPress, Matt Wolfe (of TheWPClassroom.com fame) gives an amazing amount of detail on pretty much everything you need to know to get started with WordPress. From all of the basics of getting a site online to advanced strategies of traffic generation and monetization.

Gone are the days of hiring expensive coders to fix your website or spending thousands of dollars developing membership sites or ecommerce sites. WordPress makes these things simple to do YOURSELF.

With WordPress Revealed, you will learn:

• How to get your first website online within 10 minutes.
• How to customize the look and feel of the site.
• How to add plugins to change the functionality of a site.
• Which plugins EVERY site must have.
• How to make sure you never run out of ideas for content on your site.
• What the most effective blog posts are to generate buzz.
• How to generate loads of traffic to any website (even if it’s not WordPress)
• Monetization strategies to make money with your site.
• Plus many more tips and tricks to make your website as beautiful and effective as possible.

As an added bonus, Matt interviews several experts in business and blogging on exactly how they use WordPress in their businesses. You’ll learn from some of the most accomplished website owners on the internet about their strategies to monetize websites as well as their tips for getting started and the plugins that they couldn’t live without. This section alone is easily worth 4 times the cost of the book.

Some of the expert interviews include:

• Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com
• Glen Allsopp from ViperChill.com
• Ori Bengal of CouchSurfingOri.com
• Sean “The WordPress Guy” Vosler
• Casey Zeman, creator of Easy Webinar Plugin
• Christina Hills of Website Creation Workshop

Do not miss this guide that anyone aspiring to build a business online must own. It will be your one stop resource for everything WordPress.

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MacDonald, M. (2013) WordPress – The Missing Manual. O’Reilly Media, Inc.

A more recent edition of this book is available

Download Example Code (ZIP 4KB)

Companion Web Site: http://www.oreilly.com/pub/missingmanuals/wpmm