WordPress: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

WordPress: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

by Matthew MacDonald
Released July 2014
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449341909

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Book description

Whether you’re a budding blogger or seasoned Web designer, WordPress is a brilliant tool for creating websites, once you know how to tap its impressive features. The latest edition of this jargon-free Missing Manual shows you how to use WordPress 3.9’s themes, widgets, plug-ins, and souped-up editing and multimedia tools to build just about any kind of site.

The important stuff you need to know:

  • Create your site. Get hands-on, A-to-Z instructions for building all types of websites, from classy blogs to professional-looking ecommerce sites.
  • Add features. Choose from thousands of widgets and plug-ins to enhance your site’s ease of use, looks, and performance.
  • Mix in multimedia. Add picture galleries, slideshows, video clips, music players, and podcasts to your pages.
  • Attract an audience. Create automatic content feeds, sign up site subscribers, and help readers share your posts on social media.
  • Fine-tune your content. Analyze site statistics to improve your content and reach, and to optimize your site for search engines.
  • Go Mobile. Choose a theme that automatically reconfigures your site for mobile devices.
  • Build a truly unique site. Learn how to customize WordPress themes to create a site that looks exactly the way you want it to.

Publisher resources

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Table of contents

  1. The Missing Credits
    1. About the Author
    2. About the Creative Team
    3. Acknowledgments
    4. The Missing Manual Series
  2. Introduction
    1. About This Book
      1. What You Need to Know
      2. Your Computer
      3. Hosting WordPress
      4. About→These→Arrows
    2. About the Outline
    3. About the Online Resources
      1. Web Links
      2. Living Examples
      3. Registration
      4. Feedback
      5. Errata
    4. Using Code Examples
    5. Safari® Books Online
  3. I. Starting Out with WordPress
  4. 1. The WordPress Landscape
    1. How WordPress Works
      1. WordPress Behind the Scenes
      2. WordPress Themes
    2. What You Can Build with WordPress
      1. Blogs
      2. Other Types of WordPress Sites
    3. WordPress Hosting
      1. Choosing Where to Host Your Site
      2. WordPress.com Sites vs. Self-Hosted Sites
  5. 2. Signing Up with WordPress.com
    1. Choosing a Web Address
    2. Creating Your WordPress.com Account
    3. Managing Your New Site
    4. Exploring the WordPress.com Community
    5. Visiting the WordPress.com Store
      1. Buying a Domain after Signup
      2. Using a Domain Name You Already Own
  6. 3. Installing WordPress on Your Web Host
    1. Preparing for WordPress
      1. Deciding Where to Put WordPress
      2. Creating a Subdomain (if You Need One)
      3. Understanding the Administrator Account
    2. Installing WordPress with an Autoinstaller
      1. Installing WordPress with Softaculous
      2. Managing a Softaculous-Installed Site
      3. Managing Softaculous Backups
      4. Installing WordPress with Fantastico
    3. Installing WordPress by Hand
      1. Creating a MySQL Database
      2. Uploading the WordPress Files
      3. Running the Install Script
    4. Keeping WordPress Up to Date
      1. Minor Updates
      2. Major Updates
  7. II. Building a WordPress Blog
  8. 4. Creating Posts
    1. Introducing the Dashboard
      1. The Menu
      2. The Home Page
      3. Dashboard Practice: Changing Basic Settings
      4. One More Task: Choosing a Starter Theme
    2. Adding Your First Post
      1. Creating a New Post
      2. Browsing Your Posts
      3. Delayed Publishing
      4. Editing a Post
      5. Deleting a Post
      6. Creating a Sticky Post
    3. Organizing Your Posts
      1. Understanding Categories
      2. Categorizing Posts
      3. Using Subcategories
      4. Managing Categories
      5. Understanding Tags
      6. Tagging Posts
    4. How to Get High-Quality Web Addresses
      1. Permalinks in WordPress.com
      2. Permalinks on a Self-Hosted Site
      3. Changing a Post’s Permalink
      4. Getting a Shorter Version of Your Web Address
      5. Browsing Categories and Tags Using a Web Address
    5. Dashboard Tricks to Save Time and Effort
      1. Customizing a Dashboard Page
      2. Getting Help
      3. Taking Charge of the List of Posts
      4. Performing Bulk Actions
  9. 5. Choosing and Polishing Your Theme
    1. How Themes Work
      1. The WordPress “Year” Themes
      2. Making Your Theme Suit Your Site
    2. Choosing a New Theme
      1. Visiting the Theme Gallery
      2. Activating a Theme in WordPress.com
      3. Installing a Theme on a Self-Hosted Site
    3. Tweaking Your Theme
      1. Customizing the Header
      2. Changing the Background
      3. Other Theme Options
      4. The Theme Customizer
    4. Customizing Your Widgets
      1. Positioning Your Widgets
      2. Changing Widget Settings
      3. The Basic Widgets
      4. The Calendar Widget
      5. The Tag Cloud Widget
      6. The Text Widget
    5. Mobile Themes
  10. 6. Jazzing Up Your Posts
    1. Making Fancier Posts
      1. Using Subheadings
      2. Showing a Code Listing
      3. Adding Links
      4. Inserting Special Characters
      5. Using the HTML View
      6. Getting a Better Post Editor
    2. Adding Pictures
      1. Putting Pictures in a Post
      2. Viewing the Media Library
      3. Deleting Pictures from the Media Library
      4. Adding Pictures to the Media Library
    3. Featured Images
      1. Assigning a Featured Image to a Post
    4. Showing Part of a Post
      1. Displaying Teasers Using the “More” Quicktag
      2. Dividing a Post into Multiple Pages
      3. Summarizing Posts with Excerpts
      4. Using Excerpts on Your Home Page
    5. Post Formats
      1. Applying a Post Format
      2. The Ephemera Widget
  11. 7. Adding Pages and Menus
    1. Creating Pages
    2. Viewing Pages
      1. Showing Pages in the Pages Widget
      2. Showing Pages in a Menu
      3. Ordering Pages
    3. Custom Menus
      1. Building a Custom Menu
      2. Multiple Menus
      3. The Custom Menu Widget
    4. Changing Your Home Page
      1. Creating a Brochure Site
      2. Creating a Custom Entry Page
    5. Page Templates
      1. Pages With or Without Sidebars
      2. Better Home Pages
  12. 8. Comments: Letting Your Readers Talk Back
    1. Allowing or Forbidding Comments
      1. Changing Comment Settings for a Post
      2. Changing the Default Comment Settings Site-Wide
    2. The Life Cycle of a Comment
      1. Leaving a Comment
      2. Moderating Comments Through Email
      3. Moderating Comments from the Dashboard
      4. Moderating Comments for a Specific Post
      5. Sanitizing Comments
    3. The Ongoing Conversation
      1. Threaded Comments
      2. Paged Comments
      3. Advertising a Post’s Comments
      4. Comment Ratings
      5. Linkbacks
    4. Making Comments More Personal
      1. The Gravatar Service
      2. Signing Up with Gravatar
      3. Changing the “Mystery Man” Gravatar
      4. Gravatar Hovercards
      5. Facebook and Twitter Comments
    5. Stamping Out Comment Spam
      1. Understanding Spam
      2. Spam-Fighting Strategies
      3. Understanding Akismet
      4. Installing Akismet
      5. Using Akismet
      6. Fighting Spam with CAPTCHA
  13. III. Supercharging Your Blog
  14. 9. Getting New Features with Plug-Ins
    1. Managing Plug-Ins
      1. How Plug-Ins Work
      2. Searching for a Plug-In
      3. Installing a Plug-In
      4. Activating a Plug-In
      5. Keeping Your Plug-Ins Up to Date
    2. The Jetpack Plug-In
      1. Signing Up with WordPress.com
      2. Using the Image Widget
      3. Adding a Contact Form
      4. Adding a Mathematical Equation
    3. Adding Mobile Support
      1. The WPtouch Mobile Theme
      2. Configuring WPtouch
    4. Backing Up a WordPress Site
      1. Using an Automated Backup Service
      2. Backing Up with a Plug-In
      3. The Online Backup for WordPress Plug-In
    5. Better Performance with Caching
  15. 10. Adding Picture Galleries, Video, and Music
    1. Understanding Embeds and Shortcodes
      1. Automatic Embeds
      2. The [embed] Shortcode
      3. More Shortcodes
    2. Showing Groups of Pictures
      1. Creating a Gallery
      2. Editing a Gallery
      3. Creating a Slideshow
      4. Themes That Make the Most of Pictures
    3. Embedding a Video
      1. Showing a YouTube Video
      2. Configuring the YouTube Video Window
      3. Showing Videos from Other Video Services
      4. Showing a Video from Your Media Library
      5. Premium Video Hosting
    4. Playing Audio Files
      1. Adding a Basic Audio Player
      2. Adding a Playlist
      3. Using a Music-Sharing Service
      4. Podcasting
  16. 11. Collaborating with Multiple Authors
    1. Adding People to Your Site
      1. Adding New People to a Self-Hosted Site
      2. Inviting People to Join a WordPress.com Site
    2. Working with Authors
      1. The Post Approval Process for Contributors
      2. Post Locking
      3. Revision Tracking
      4. Browsing an Author’s Posts
      5. Adding Author Information
      6. Removing Authors (and Other Users)
    3. Building a Private Community
      1. Hiding and Locking Posts
      2. Creating a Private Site
      3. Letting People Register Themselves on a Self-Hosted Site
    4. Creating a Network of Sites
      1. Creating a New Multisite Network from Scratch
      2. Converting an Existing Site to a Multisite Network
      3. Your Multisite Network: A First Look
      4. Adding a Site to Your Network
      5. Understanding How Users Work in a Multisite Network
      6. Rolling Out Updates
      7. Adding Themes and Plug-Ins
  17. 12. Attracting a Crowd
    1. Encouraging Your Readers to Share
      1. How Sharing Buttons Work
      2. Adding Sharing Buttons
      3. More Ways to Customize Your Sharing Buttons
      4. Letting People Like Your Site
      5. Using WordPress.com Ratings
    2. Keeping Readers in the Loop
      1. Signing Up Subscribers
      2. Emailing Subscribers
      3. Publicizing Your Posts on Social Media
      4. Sharing Your Tweets on Your Site
    3. Managing Your Site’s Feed
      1. Getting Customized Feeds
      2. Using a Feed Widget
    4. Search Engine Optimization
      1. PageRank: Scoring Your Site
      2. Making Your Site Google-Friendly
      3. Boosting SEO with a Plug-In
    5. WordPress Site Statistics
      1. Viewing Your Statistics
      2. Strategy 1. Find Out What Your Readers Like
      3. Strategy 2. Who’s Giving You the Love?
      4. Strategy 3. Play Well with Search Engines
      5. Strategy 4. Meet Your Top Commenters
  18. IV. From Blog to Website
  19. 13. Editing Themes: The Key to Customizing Your Site
    1. The Goal: More Flexible Blogs and Sites
      1. WordPress Sites That Aren’t Blogs
      2. Getting Ready
    2. Taking Control of Your Theme
      1. How WordPress Stores Themes
      2. Style.css: How a Theme Identifies Itself
      3. The Theme Editor
    3. Protecting Yourself with a Child Theme
      1. Creating a Child Theme
      2. How Child Themes Work
    4. Editing the Styles in Your Theme
      1. Taking a Look at the Style Rules in Your Theme
      2. Changing the Twenty Twelve Theme
      3. Puzzling Out the Styles in a Theme
      4. Using Fancy Fonts
    5. Editing the Code in Your Theme
      1. Introducing the Template Files
      2. A Basic Editing Example
      3. Delving into the Loop
      4. Extending WordPress with Functions.php
  20. 14. Building an Advanced WordPress Site
    1. Planning Your Site
      1. Picking a Theme
      2. Creating a Custom Copy of a Theme
    2. Adding New Types of Posts
      1. Defining a Custom Post Type in Code
      2. Creating Sample Content
      3. Making Your Custom Post Type Appear on Your Site
      4. Defining a Custom Post Type with a Plug-In
    3. Creating Custom Category Pages
      1. Adding a Category Description
      2. Finding the Right Template File
      3. Changing a Category Page’s Title
      4. Adding Extra Information
      5. Reordering Posts
      6. Removing Post Footers
    4. Building a Better Home Page
      1. Cleaning Out the Template
      2. Adding Text
      3. Creating the Links
    5. Making a Smarter Product Page
      1. Cleaning Out the Templates
      2. Custom Fields: Adding Extra Pieces of Information to a Post
    6. Adding eCommerce
      1. Signing Up with PayPal
      2. Installing a Shopping Cart Plug-In
      3. Adding the Shopping Cart
      4. Putting the Shopping Cart in Your Template
  21. V. Appendixes
  22. A. Migrating from WordPress.com
    1. Before You Begin
    2. Transferring Your Data
      1. Exporting Your Data from WordPress.com
      2. Importing Your Data into a Self-Hosted Site
    3. Cleaning Up Your New Site
      1. Migrating Your Theme
      2. Missing WordPress.com Features
      3. Permalinks
      4. Redirecting Your Website Address
  23. B. Securing a Self-Hosted Site
    1. 1. Crash-Proof Your Site with Backups
    2. 2. Change Your Posting Account
    3. 3. Be Cautious When Extending Your Site
    4. 4. Prevent Password-Guessing Attacks
    5. 5. Hide Passwords with SSL
  24. C. Useful Websites
    1. Chapter Links
      1. Introduction
  25. Index

Product information

  • Title: WordPress: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Matthew MacDonald
  • Release date: July 2014
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449341909