WordPress 3.0 User Guide

Download

WordPress 3 User Guide

A beginners guide to running a website using WordPress 3

Author: Simon Goodchild

www.wpsymposium.com • Version 1.1.4

8 February 2011

Categories

These allow you to put your posts into categories. If you intend to blog frequently this is a nice way to organise your posts.

Use the link at the bottom of the box to add new categories.

Publishing your Post

Finally, click on Publish to make your post appear on the website.

You can return to your website to view your blog posts on the Post page you’ve

set up.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 5: Posts

EDITING EXISTING POSTS

To list all the posts on your blog, click on Posts in the Posts

menu as shown to the right. This will show all the posts,

over several pages once you have several on your site.

Just like with Pages, hover over a post to see the options

available to you.

You can edit existing posts or Trash them.

RECOVERING POSTS FROM TRASH

This is the same as pages. Above your list of posts you have the option to view

those posts in Trash and recover them, or delete the permanently.

COMMENTS

An active blog is typically accompanied by many comments from visitors to your

website. This could be a pain to manage, but WordPress makes it easy.

You receive an email as comments are made informing you of new comments,

and allowing you to approve them, trash them or mark them as spam. The email

is self explanatory and dead easy to use.

From: !W o r d P r e s s < W o r d P r e s s @yoursite.local> Subject: ![Your Site] Please moderate: "My new proper post"

Date: !4 A u g u s t 2 0 1 0 1 7 : 1 8 : 0 9 G M T + 0 1 : 0 0 To: ! Your Name <youremail@example.com>

A new comment on the post "My new proper post" is waiting for your approval http://www.example.com/2010/08/04/my-new-proper-post/

Author : Joe Bloggs (IP: 127.0.0.1 , practivate.adobe.com) E-mail : joe@bloggs.com URL """: Whois ": http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=127.0.0.1 Comment: This is a comment, and I love this site.

Approve it: http://www.example.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=approve&c=2 Trash it: http://www.example.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=trash&c=2 Spam it: http://www.example.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=spam&c=2

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 5: Posts

Currently 1 comment is waiting for approval. Please visit the moderation panel: http://www.example.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=moderated

However, with frequent comments an alternative way is to manage them through

the site itself.

When you get comments, they will show on your admin dashboard:

Perhaps the easiest way to approve or Trash (or edit/spam) is to hover over the

comment and use the links that appear to do what you want.

Note that you can also reply to a comment from here.

The other way is to use the Comments menu item, which also shows you how

many new comments you have:

This is a more detailed list of the comments you have. Again, hover over each

comment to choose how you want to manage it:

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 5: Posts

COMBATTING SPAM WITH AKISMET

Spam (unsolicited - and nearly always unwanted - communication via email, or

your blog comments) can ruin your website as you will find you spend all your

time marking the comments as trash or spam.

WordPress comes with a pre-installed plugin the detect and do a good job of

marking comments that are spam as just that. You can then choose to mark those

as not-spam if it happens to get it wrong. Normally, you will find it does a good

job of identifying only spam as spam.

The plugin is called Akismet. However, it is not activated by default,

you have to activate it.

Via the Plugins menu, choose Plugins (as shown to the right).

This will display all the plugins you have installed and whether

or not they are activated. Plugins are dealt with in a separate

chapter, so for now just go ahead and activate Akismet.

When you do, you will be reminded that you have to enter a key to enable

Akismet:

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 5: Posts

Click on the “enter your Akismet key” link and you’ll see the following screen:

To get your key follow the link or go straight to http://en.WordPress.com/api-

keys/ where, depending on whether your site is commercial or not you get a free

or paid for key.

Once you’ve got your key, enter it in the screen above and click on Update

options and you’ll get confirmation (the key below is a dummy one by the way!):

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 5: Posts

Now that Akismet is configured, you’ve got an extra menu

option (which normally happens after activating a plugin).

Click on it to see what Akismet has been up to!

How do you know what Akismet has put in it’s Spam queue? Well on your

dashboard, in the Right Now box, you have some more information. Click on

“spam queue” to see what’s been caught by Akismet.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 5: Posts

ADDING A NEW POST WITH

QUICKPRESS

You probably won’t use Quickpress very often, if at all. However it’s on the Dashboard in a pretty handy position. So in case you do, it will allow you to add a post to your blog page in one step.

Simply enter the title and your post (the content). A good habit to get into is entering tags. These are descriptive words that can used elsewhere on your site, separated by commas.

Click on Publish to post to your blog.

Although you can add images and other media via Quickpress it’s not advisable as the editor is raw text, and so all images and so on are shown as HTML - not ideal.

As this is a QuickPress, the content field is small. Some browsers like Chrome allow you to stretch out the field by dragging the bottom right corner - if you can, do this to help you out!

WORDPRESS TAXONOMIES

So what is a taxonomy, and how are they used with Categories and Tags?

Well a taxonomy is simply a word used to describe a way of classifying data - it’s information on the information!

WordPress actually comes with three taxonomies:

1. Tags

2. Categories

3. Link Categories

When you add a tag (for example), you are adding a “term” to the taxonomy. For example, if you have a cooking site with a blog, you might use the term “cake” as a tag, along with “pie”. They are terms within the category taxonomy.

You may be wondering why to use taxonomies? There are many, but say on the cooking site you want to see all blogs about cakes, it’s simple now you have tagged all relevant posts and/or pages with the term “cake”.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 5: Posts

At first the relevance may not appear obvious, but as the amount of content builds up on your website you will be glad you started from the beginning, rather than go through and add terms at a later date!

There are no strict rules as to what your taxonomies are - they are your creation. However, on the flip side, you can spend a lot of time defining your taxonomy terms so that anyone who enters content follows your terms, rather than making up their own.

Custom Taxonomies

Along with the default taxonomies provided by WordPress you can create your own. However, as this requires editing one of the WordPress files (functions.php) this is covered in the Advanced User Guide.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 6: The Editor

Chapter 6: The Editor

ASSUMPTIONS

You are confident adding and editing new pages and/or posts

•

WHAT WILL YOU COVER THIS CHAPTER?

The features of the editor

•

Uploading images in to the editor

•

Editing the HTML (instead of the Visual editor)

•

THE TOOLBAR

The editor that comes with WordPress provides a good balance between

simplicity and power. It is a “WYSIWYG” Editor - What You See Is What You

Get. It is called the TinyMCE editor (in case anyone asks you!).

Most common functions are provided for.

! Bold, Italic and Strikethrough

! Bullet list and Numbered list

! Insert Quote

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 6: The Editor

! Align text left, centre or right

! Insert hyperlink, or if it exists, remove the link

! Useful in long posts. Sets where the “read more…” is

! placed, where the whole post will be shown

! Spell checking

! Enter fullscreen editing - very useful for large posts/pages

! Show/Hide the second line of the toolbar

Select formatting for the current paragraph. Use this menu

to set headings and so on - avoid setting colour and font-

! size manually!

Your website look and feel is controlled with something called a

stylesheet which, from one file, sets how headings, text and all sorts of

this look. Once change can update the whole site. If you change headings and

text with the text colour tool for example, you will manually have to update every

one if you want to change them in future. Instead use the options on the format

menu, and if you want to (for example) change all your headings from blue to

red, update your stylesheet (if your site has been designed for you, it’s a change

your web designer can do in minutes, don’t let them fool you otherwise!!!)

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 6: The Editor

! Underline. There are legitimate stylistic reasons for

! using underline, however be sure you have a reason -

! otherwise it should generally be avoided as underlined text

! normally denotes a hyperlink if not explicitly styled in

! context with another meaning.

! Format text full-width (justified to the left and right)

! Set text colour - be careful not to use too much, if at all. See

! the comment above about stylesheets.

! Paste as plain text or Word - does it’s best to remove

! unnecessary formatting, but not guaranteed!

It is not the best way to transfer content created in Word. A far better

way is to copy from Word and paste into a plain text editor like Notepad,

and then copy from there and paste into the editor. It strips out all the unwanted

“styles” that word processors put in for their own benefit, and which will make

your website content a nightmare to maintain.

! Remove Formatting (it you’ve copied and pasted from

! another editor or got in a mess!)

! Allows you to insert a movie (Flash, Quicktime, etc). You

! will need to know the URL of the movie file

! Insert a special character that you can’t find on your

! keyboard

! Indent or outdent text

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 6: The Editor

! Undo and Redo

! Help with the Editor - recommended to be read

INSERTING AN IMAGE INTO A POST OR PAGE

Above the content area are some icons allowing you to include images, audio, video and other media.

Let’s use images as an example. Put your cursor right at the start of the content field, and click on the Add Image icon:

This will open a dialog box where you can upload images from your computer or pick images from your media library. For now, select From Computer:

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 6: The Editor

Click on the Select button and the image will upload, then prompting you for further information which you should review:

Alternative Text is the text displayed if the image is not displayed. This is important for accessibility.

If you don’t want the image to act as a link, click on None below Link

URL.

Alignment is how the image is

displayed in the text.

The sizes are uniform for all images uploaded to ensure consistency. Medium is a good choice.

Finally, Click on the Insert button to insert the image:

The dialog box will close and the image will appear in the editor.

Changing the image after inserting in the editor

After inserting the image, you may want to change something such as aligning it to the right (if you previously forgot or chose to the left).

If you click the image in the editor, two buttons will appear over it:

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 6: The Editor

The second button deletes the image, simple as that.

The first brings up a dialog box wherein you can change a lot of features, split between two tabs (Edit Image and Advanced Settings) as follows.

Edit Image

Size! ! ! ! Use a percentage selector to resize the displayed ! ! ! ! image (not the actual size of the image itself).

Alignment! ! ! Align the image left, centre or right (or not at all).

Edit Image Title! ! The title stored in the HTML, useful for search

! ! ! ! engines. It is also displayed as a tooltip (when the ! ! ! ! mouse is hovered over the image in a browser).

Edit Alternative Text! This is important for search engines, for people ! ! ! ! who choose not to display images, and for those ! ! ! ! people who use special browsers as they have ! ! ! ! trouble viewing a page (for example, audio ! ! ! ! browsers).

! ! ! ! If the image is of a Victorian Sponge Cake (for ! ! ! ! example), put “Picture of Victorian Sponge Cake” ! ! ! ! not just “cake”, as this is the text that is shown in

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 6: The Editor

! ! ! ! in place of the image and/or read out in audio ! ! ! ! browsers.

Edit Image Caption! Displayed as an image caption, when using captions.

Link URL! ! ! The link associated with the image, that is followed

! ! ! ! when the image is clicked on.

Linking the Image

The last item (Link URL) will set the link that is followed when a visitor clicks upon it. You have three options available to you:

None! ! ! ! The image is displayed only, no hyperlink is used.

Current Link! ! Uses the current URL

Link to Image! ! Opens the image full size

Or you can enter your own URL which the visitor will go to when clicking on the image.

Advanced Settings

You will probably not use this unless you want to change the image to a specific size, or add your own styles, so this is covered in the Advanced User Guide.

However, one thing worth mentioning is the Image Properties:

When inserting an image, you may find the text is right up against it and you want some “space” between the image and the text.

Enter a figure (for example “6”) to set the minimum number of pixels between the image and the text either vertically and/or horizontally. After updating with

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 6: The Editor

the values entered, WordPress will convert what you entered into Styles, for example:

THE VISUAL AND HTML TABS

Usually, the visual editor will suffice. However, the actual text and “tags” for how you want the text to appear is stored in HTML.

More advanced users who know how to edit in HTML will be able to do more advanced layouts. Therefore, the access the HTML use the Tabs above the content area.

Don’t forget which “mode” you are editing in, entering HTML in the Visual Editor and then switching can cause you to waste a lot of time as

all the < and > characters will be converted to < and > … if this

means nothing to you, ignore it!

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 7: The Media Library

Chapter 7: The Media Library

ASSUMPTIONS

You understand the difference between an image and video

•

WHAT WILL YOU COVER THIS CHAPTER?

What the Media Library is

•

How to view what’s in your media library

•

How to upload an image, movie or whatever

•

How to search for items in the media library

•

Attaching items to a page or post

•

SO WHAT IS THE MEDIA LIBRARY?

Basically, it’s where you store all your images and other media (sound files,

movies and so on if you use them).

Think of it as a book shelf.

Access the media library via the menu (shown on the right).

Menu > Media > Library

By now you may have tried uploading some images (if you’ve

followed this guide chapter by chapter).

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 7: The Media Library

If not, it just means you have nothing in your media library.

The screen, therefore, will look something like this:

It shows, in this case, three images that I’ve uploaded when creating pages and/

or posts.

By hovering over each image you can edit or delete the image.

When you delete an item in the media library it gets deleted

permanently, you can’t recover a file from trash.

ADDING AN ITEM TO THE MEDIA LIBRARY

Either click on Add New under the Media menu, or click on the Add New button

if you are currently viewing the Media Library page.

Menu > Library > Add New

You are then shown a button which you click on to upload one or more files.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 7: The Media Library

When you click on the “Select Files” button you can choose one or more files to

upload.

WordPress handles uploading multiple files which will save you lots of time.

By clicking on Show beside each uploaded file you can enter additional

information. See the chapter on the Editor for more information on this.

Depending on the file type, you’ll have different information available to enter -

for example, images will allow you to enter Alternative Text, whereas a Word

document would not.

Show will turn to Hide allowing you to Show/Hide each file individually.

When you’re done click on “Save all changes” to see your media library with the

new items.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 7: The Media Library

INSERTING AN ITEM INTO A PAGE OR POST

When you create a page or post, you can click on the icon above the content area

to insert, for example, an image.

Below points out the icon for inserting an image into your content.

As you will have seen if you followed the chapter on the editor, a dialog box appears allowing you to select an image.

Previously you selected one from your computer, however this time, click on Media Library.

You will see the contents of your media library.

To insert an image, click on Show beside the item to insert.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 7: The Media Library

You will then have the option to change the default settings for that item which you set when you uploaded it.

The alternative text may not, for example, by relevant to the context so can be updated. You can also choose the alignment and link URL (or set it to none).

When you are happy, click on Insert into Post and your image - from the Media Library - will appear.

This is especially useful for media items that you may use more than once, allowing them to be shared among multiple posts/pages.

FINDING ITEMS IN YOUR MEDIA LIBRARY

As the number of items in your library grows, there are a few ways to find specific items.

The first is to use the “type” of item. Select this filter above your media library list of items.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 7: The Media Library

The second way is to filter by date which again can be found just above the list of items.

Finally, you can search for an item using the search field top-right of the list of items.

ATTACHING IMAGES TO A PAGE OR POST

As the number of items in your media library grows, it is also useful to list items “attached” to a particular page or post. If you inserted an image, for example, you will see that it is already attached:

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 7: The Media Library

However, when you upload directly to the Media library the items will be unattached. You can filter for these unattached images, and if you want to, attach them to a page or post:

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 8: Plugins

Chapter 8: Plugins

ASSUMPTIONS

You want to know how to add extra functionality to your website

•

WHAT WILL YOU COVER THIS CHAPTER?

What plugins are

•

How to install a simple plugin (by actually doing it)

•

How can you create your own plugins?

•

WHAT IS A PLUGIN?

It’s some code that you install and it adds something to WordPress that wasn’t

included as the core. They are often developed by enthusiasts and although

there are commercial plugins available, the vast majority are usually free and tidy

pieces of code that extend WordPress.

They range from significant extensions like Forums or Image Galleries, to small

extensions that add a small feature or enhance a small part of WordPress.

INSTALLING A SIMPLE PLUGIN

We’re going to install a simple plug-in that adds a feedback form so your visitors can contact you.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 8: Plugins

So under the Plugins menu select Add New.

Menu > Plugins > Add New

You will see a link to the plugin directory, you can browse that

at your leisure. For now we are going to search for a specific plugin called “Fast

and Secure Contact Form” so enter it in the search field:

The WordPress directory will be searched and the results displayed. Click on

Install Now…

The plug-in will be downloaded and installed for you, all you have to do is

activate it!

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 8: Plugins

Every plugin will act differently now, some will need no configuration at all,

some will have a few things to configure - normally very easy - and some are a

little more involved (depends on the plugin).

Also, typically, a new menu item will be available to you (like the Akismet plugin

we activated in the Plugins Chapter.

Fast and Secure Contact Form has a Settings link on the list of plugins:

Click on Settings and you will be shown a screen full of options. For now, don’t

change anything, just click on Update Options.

After doing so (it’s actually there before as well), you will see instructions on

how to add to a page on your site. It instructs you to put the following on any

page:

[si-contact-form form='1']

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 8: Plugins

This is often referred to as a “Shortcode”, and is a common way to use the

plugin on to your website. The shortcode is replaced with the content or output

of the plugin.

So, edit your Contact page, or create it if you haven’t got one.

In the editor put the following (copy and paste it from the plugin setting page to

make sure it’s accurate if it doesn’t work for you).

[si-contact-form form='1']

Make sure your Contact page is not used as the Post page, you may have

set it as such. Check via the Settings, Reading menu. Otherwise your

contact form won’t appear.

Save the page and view your Contact

page, you should see you contact form!

You’ve just installed, activated,

configured and added your first

WordPress plugin!

Now go back to the plugin list, click on

Settings again for this plugin and try

changing the options to get the plugin to

do what you want it to do.

If you use the plugin, consider donating

something to the author (via the Settings page), even if a small donation, they are

appreciated. These plugins cost you nothing, but take time to develop, test and

keep compatible with latest versions of WordPress. And no, I’m not the author!

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 8: Plugins

CREATING YOUR OWN PLUGINS

There are thousands of plug-ins available, over 10,000 - but amazingly there will

come the time when you want a plug-in that doesn’t exist, or those available

don’t quite do what your want, or perhaps don’t work with your version of

WordPress.

This is a more advanced topic, and covered in detail in the Advanced

User Guide, you can skip this if you like!

So you’re going to need your own plug-in developed.

There are essentially two ways to create a theme

As with developing themes, this will depend on how technical you are. Are you a

web developer, or want to learn (and have a lot of spare time to do so)?

Creating your own plug-ins

This is out of scope for this guide. If you want to create your own, bear in mind

that you will need to be proficient at:

HTML

•

CSS (Stylesheets) - using DIV’s for layout, for example

•

PHP

•

Probably (depending on the plugin) MySQL databases

•

How websites “work”

•

You will also need to have at least a reasonable understanding of:

Graphic design (depending on how much graphic work is required)

•

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 8: Plugins

Getting someone else to do it for you

Developing a plug-in really is a question of what you want it to do.

For example, I developed the plug-in at http://WordPress.org/extend/

plugins/hts-display-active-members/ because it was needed for a website called

Blueflipper Diving - a website for scuba divers at http://

www.blueflipperdiving.co.uk (where you can see the plug-in working).

It took about half an hour, because I knew exactly what was wanted, and didn’t

rely on any input from anyone else.

On the other hand, a complicated plugin, with exact requirements not defined,

may take days, weeks or even longer depending on the complexity!

Be careful selecting your developer, make sure you can trust them. A plug-in

may need to be updated as you upgrade WordPress. Are they available for

support? Did you get a copy of the source code (which is written in PHP) in case

they go out of business or you fall out with them (it’s likely you will need

someone else to continue support)? And so on.

I am happy to offer advice on creating WordPress plug-ins, and of course as an

experienced website developer over 20+ years, you would be surprised if I

didn’t offer my services! You can find out more at www.wpsymposium.com

including information about the company behind the website and myself.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 9: Widgets

Chapter 9: Widgets

ASSUMPTIONS

You want to add or remove functionality to and from the sidebar (down the

•

right of the screen probably, depending on your website theme)

You are using a theme (like TwentyTen) that is displaying the sidebar on

•

the front end, for example:

WHAT WILL YOU COVER THIS CHAPTER?

What are widgets?

•

Removing widgets

•

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 9: Widgets

Adding widgets

•

Download more widgets

•

WHAT ARE WIDGETS?

If you have the TwentyTen theme installed, or in fact most of the popular themes, down the side of the screen there are small bits of functionality, like the Recent Posts, Recent Comments and so on.

Well these can be changed to provide lots of different features, and many more than can be downloaded.

REMOVING WIDGETS

Via the Appearance menu, click on Widgets.

Menu > Appearance > Widgets

You are shown a screen that displays available Widgets down the left of the screen, and which Widgets are currently being used down the right of the screen.

In the default WordPress installation, the following Widgets are in the Primary Widget Area:

You can remove any of the Widgets (for example the Meta Widget) by first clicking on the down area for the Widget and then clicking Delete:

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 9: Widgets

ADDING WIDGETS

Let’s assume you want to add a calendar to your sidebar.

From the Available Widgets, click and “drag” the Calendar across and “drop” it on to the Primary Widget Area.

It will expand allowing you to enter a title, and then click on Save.

If you now view your website a calendar will be down the right hand side, in the “sidebar” with any dates on which you added a Post highlighted as a link.

Try using other Widgets that are available already for you to add, and start customising your website.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 9: Widgets

DOWNLOAD MORE WIDGETS

WordPress.org hosts a lot more widgets that you can download, nearly all for free! They are actually plugins that have been tagged as widgets and can be seen by going to:

http://WordPress.org/extend/plugins/tags/widget

Find a widget you like the look of, and then on your website install the widget as a plugin - see chapter 8.

For this guide, let’s search for and install the “Inspirational Quotes” plugin (which acts as a Widget). Once installed activate it. Re-read Chapter 8 if you don’t know how to do this.

Now go to your Widgets page, and “Inspirational Quotes” will be available for you to drag across to Primary Widget Area.

Do so, and you are prompted with options:

Click on Save, and return to your website. You’ve downloaded a widget and added it to your site!

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 9: Widgets

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 10: Themes

Chapter 10: Themes

ASSUMPTIONS

You want to change the look and feel of your website

•

WHAT WILL YOU COVER THIS CHAPTER?

What are themes?

•

How do I install a different theme?

•

How can I create my own themes?

•

WHAT ARE THEMES?

A theme will change the way that your website or blog looks. The theme that comes with WordPress is good, works well, but is a little bland - and you don’t want your website to look like every other WordPress website (well, at least those who haven’t change their theme).

The great thing is that a theme doesn’t alter the content of your website at all. It may not display some content, but that’s only because the author of the theme chose not to.

You can install as many themes as you want, and simply activate each one to see how your site looks. If you don’t like any of them, you can revert back to your original theme and you’ve lost nothing at all!

HOW ARE THEMES INSTALLED?

Themes are available to download, and although commercial themes are available, the vast majority are free.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 10: Themes

To install a theme, click on the Appearance menu and choose Themes.

You will be shown what themes are currently installed.

If you haven’t had additional themes installed for you, you will only have one - the default WordPress theme - called TwentyTen.

One way to install another theme is to click on the Install Theme Tab:

Searching for Themes by style

You can now search for themes with particular aspects, such as a blue theme. It’s best not to be too prescriptive when just browsing.

After selecting some options, click on Find Themes.

Featured, Newest and Recently Updates Themes

This is a good way of browsing. Towards the top of the screen are options for featured themes, newest themes, recently updated themes and so on.

Try clicking on them to see themes available.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 10: Themes

Searching for a Theme

If you know the name of a theme, you can just search for it. Trying searching for a theme called “Motion”:

This will show you just the theme called Motion (or any with the word Motion in the title). For the sake of this guide, let’s install this theme. Use one of the above techniques to search for it, and then click on Install.

After confirming that you want to install it, it will be downloaded and installed. Simply activate it!

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 10: Themes

You will now see that you have two themes, with Motion installed, and TwentyTen deactivated (but ready to use again if you want).

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 10: Themes

The admin section hasn’t changed, but return to your website and take a look!!

Big change! I won’t list the differences, it would take a chapter just to do that, but look for yourself.

There is no link to go back to the admin pages.

So if you want to go back enter the following into your browser:

www.example.com/wp-admin

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 10: Themes

CREATING YOUR OWN THEMES

It’s always nice to have your own theme rather than share it. Motion, for

example, has been downloaded well over 5,000 times. Also, you will want your

website to look fairly specific to you.

If you are a commercial company, you will certainly want to have a website that

matches your corporate branding for sure.

This is a more advanced topic, and covered in detail in the Advanced

User Guide, you can skip this if you like!

There are essentially two ways to create a theme

This will depend on how technical you are. Are you a web developer, or want to

learn (and have a lot of spare time to do so)?

Creating your own themes

This is out of scope for this guide. If you want to create your own, bear in mind

that you will need to be reasonably proficient at:

HTML

•

CSS (Stylesheets) - using DIV’s for layout, for example

•

Graphic design (depending on how much graphic work is required)

•

You will also need to have at least a reasonable understanding of:

PHP

•

Using MySQL databases

•

How websites “work”

•

WordPress 3 User Guide" Chapter 10: Themes

Getting someone else to do it for you

A theme is not a massive undertaking, and if the requirements are understand

can take a relatively small amount of time, and therefore the cost is not as high as

you might think.

That’s the good news. The bad news is there are many, many, (many) people

who sell themselves as web designers/developers. You can create websites, and

you can create websites properly. Be careful selecting your technology partner,

if they build your site, you will want an on-going relationship with them as your

website - particularly if you are a commercial organisation - becomes an

important aspect of your online presence.

A poor technology partner will have you pulling your hair out in frustration, or

worse will lead you up the garden path.

You need to trust your technology partner.

I am happy to offer advice on creating WordPress websites, and of course as an

experienced website developer over 20+ years, I would be foolish if I didn’t offer

my services. You can find out more at www.wpsymposium.com including

information about the company behind the website and myself.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Glossary

Glossary

Administrator - The power user who controls everything in the website.

Akismet - A service that helps control Spam.

Alignment - How the text appears, to the left or right on screen, or centered.

Alternative Text - Words that appear in a browser if an image isn’t displayed.

Backup - Taking a copy in case a website or database is corrupted or needs to be

reverted to a previous version.

Back End - The administration pages of the website that are used to maintain a

website. Can include access to the database.

Blog - A website that displays a “diary” of posts which can typically be

commented on.

Button - An object on the screen that can be “clicked” on with the mouse.

Categories - A way or organising a blog’s posts in to groups.

Check/Uncheck - Selecting or de-selecting an option on the screen.

CMS - See Content Management System.

Comment(s) - Text that is entered in response to a Post or previous Comment.

Content Management System - The system behind a website that allows the

content to be added, edited or deleted. Additional functionality allows the

website to be customised.

Crib Sheet - A handy small version of a guide with key information.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Glossary

CSS - See Styles.

Dashboard - An overview of the website with key links and statistics.

Database - How a website stores and provides information.

Delete - Remove from the website.

Dialog box - A “popup” area that appears on the screen prompting the user.

Discussion - A term to describe all the posts and comments on a blog, or the

concept of a forum on a website.

Download - Get a file or set of files from another website, retrieving them to

your own computer or on to your website.

Draft - A version of a page or post that is not ready to publish.

Drop-down Menu - A way to select pages on a website related to a menu item.

Only appears when the main menu item is selected or hovered over.

Editor - Allows you to enter content for a page or post.

Feature - Something that extends the functionality of the website, often that

isn’t included in the core software that you add or enable.

File - Anything from a Word Document to an image, or a PHP script to a movie.

It’s how things are stored on a computer.

File Type - What the file is for, for example a .DOC file is a Word Document.

Form - A defined area of the screen into which information can be entered,

nearly always with a submission button to confirm entry.

Forum - A website feature that allows users to discussion in an organised

manner.

Front End - What a visitor to your website will see and experience.

WordPress 3 User Guide" Glossary

Fullscreen - Allows editing using the whole of the computer screen.

Home Page - The “welcome” page on a website, the first page that users see.

HTML - HyperText Markup Language, how web pages are written to be

displayed by a web browser.

HTML Tab - Allows the user to edit content in RAW HTML

Hyperlink - Text, that when clicked on, will take the user to a different web

page, or display additional content.

Icon - A small picture that represents a feature or function.

Image - Describes a file that displays a picture.

Link - See Hyperlink

Media Library - Stores files for use on your website, including images, movies,

documents, audio and so on.

MySQL - The database used by WordPress to store the site content, users,

settings, etc.

Page - Represents a typical web page on a WordPress website.

Password - A hidden word used to log in to a website.

Permalink - A “human” version of a website address, rather than using a

parameter. Eg. /pages/contact instead of ?p=189

Permanently Delete - Remove something, that cannot be recovered.

PHP - Hypertext PreProcessor, the programming language that runs

WordPress.

WordPress 3.0 User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual