Create your own complete blog or web site from scratch with WordPress

* Everything you need to set up your own feature-rich WordPress blog or web site
* Clear and practical explanations of all aspects of WordPress
* In-depth coverage of installation, themes, syndication, and podcasting
* Explore WordPress as a fully functioning content management system
* Concise, clear, and easy to follow; rich with examples

In Detail

Using WordPress you can easily create dynamic blogs and web sites with great content and many outstanding features. It is an ideal tool for developing blogs and although it is chiefly used for blogging, it can also be used as a complete CMS with very little effort. You can customize the features, incorporate your own design, and even write your own plug-ins with ease. Its versatility and ease of use have attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users. While it is easy to get started with WordPress, its full power is not obvious.

If you want to create a powerful, fully-featured blog or non-blog web site in no time, this book is for you. It will give you a rapid and straightforward introduction to the rich and powerful features of WordPress and get you up and running with a state-of-the-art blog as quickly and painlessly as possible. It will help you learn everything WordPress has to offer, from the ground up, so you can build your complete web site. You will see many of WorPress's hidden powers that will help you build a fully functioning web site.

You will be introduced to the main aspects of a blog - users, communities, posts, comments, news feeds - and learn how to manage them using WordPress. You will learn to install WordPress and customize the look-and-feel of your web site. You will develop the skills and confidence to manage all types of content, be it text or images, on your blog, and also understand how users interact with the blog. By working through the book you'll be inspired as well as informed, and have the capability and the ideas to make your blog cutting edge and exciting to maximize its impact.

More advanced users will also pick up tips on creating your own themes and plug-ins, and such technical steps as backing up your WordPress web site and moving it from one server to another.

What you will learn from this book?

* Upgrade your WordPress from older installations
* Add tags and images to your posts and manage the comments on those posts
* Personalize and control the content of your web site using feature-rich widgets and plug-ins
* Manage the look and feel of your WordPress web site with customized themes and templates
* Share a blog with multiple authors and give them differing levels of control over blog administration and content
* Manage different levels of privileges for your users in a particular community and create custom roles for them
* Link your web site to the outside world through feeds, syndication, and podcasting
* Explore how you can take WordPress beyond blogging and use it as an effective CMS tool

Approach

Written in a clear, easy-to-read style, the book takes you through the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book.

Who this book is written for?

This book is a guide to WordPress for both beginners and those who are slightly more advanced. It's for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner, and it's also for people who want to learn how to customize and expand the capabilities of a WordPress web site.

It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT-confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog.