Getting to Know WordPress May 2015

Anthony Hortin @maddisondesigns maddisondesigns.com

Getting to Know WordPress

About me

Designer/Developer @ Maddison Designs

WordPress Theme & Plugin Developer

WordPress Theme & Plugin Directory contributor

Provides support on official WordPress Support Forum

Created Easy WP Guide (over 150K downloads)

Co-Organiser Melbourne WordPress WordCamp 2013

Co-Organiser for monthly WP Melbourne WordPress Meetups

WordPress is web software you can use

to create a beautiful website or blog. We

like to say that WordPress is both free

and priceless at the same time.“What is WordPress?

WordPress is an Open Source software system used by millions of people around the world to create

beautiful websites and blogs.

It is completely customisable by the use of themes and plugins.

WordPress powers approx 60.3% of all cms sites That’s 23.8%* of the entire web!

source: http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all

Who’s using WordPress?

Bata Shoes

Who’s using WordPress?

TechCrunch

Who’s using WordPress?

Sony Music

Who’s using WordPress?

The Next Web

Who’s using WordPress?

Katy Perry

Who’s using WordPress?

Sweden

WordPress.org Vs WordPress.com

One Software Two Flavours

WordPress.org Vs WordPress.com

Self Hosting

Need own domain/hosting

Access to plugins

Install any theme

You are responsible for security and maintenance

Greater flexibility & customisation

Hosted

Fully managed website hosting

Easy to get up and running very quickly.

Security and maintenance managed for you

Automatically updated

Secure dashboard

Free with paid feature upgrades

WordPress.org Vs WordPress.com

Full Control

You have 100% control on:

Limited Control

Design

Themes

Plugins

Content

Monetisation

Performance

No custom plugins

No custom themes

No FTP access

The WordPress Dashboard

Dashboard Your main Dashboard ‘homepage’Provides brief stats on Posts, Pages & comments

Posts Where you create new Blog Posts. Also update Categories and Post Tags

Media Where your uploaded images, documents or files are stored

Pages Where you create new Pages

The WordPress Dashboard

Comments Where you manage blog Comments

Appearance Controls how your site looks. You can choose Themes and manage Widgets & Menus

Plugins Plugins extend and expand the functionality of WordPress

Users Where you add new users as well as manage their Roles

The WordPress Dashboard

Tools Gives you access to various convenient tools Import & Export data to/from your WordPress site

Settings This is where your site is configured

The WordPress Dashboard

First Things First

Setting up your site

General Settings Configure your basic site preferences such as the Site Title and Tag Line, the Administrator’s email address and the Date and Time format

First Things First

Writing Settings Configure default publishing settings such as defining the Default Post Category

First Things First

Reading Settings Configure how your site is viewed. You can define whether your front page displays a static Page or your blog Posts, and how many blog posts are displayed by default.

First Things First

Discussion Settings Define how your readers interact with your site. Configure whether readers can post Comments or not and how those Comments are moderated and displayed

First Things First

Media Settings Configure the default image sizes that are created when an image is uploaded

First Things First

Permalink Settings Configure the URL format that is displayed in the web browser when someone browses your site. This also helps with SEO

First Things First

Managing Users Configure who has access to your site

DON’T use “Admin” for the Username DON’T use the Username as the “Display name”

DO use strong passwords!

First Things First

source: http://xkcd.com/936

It can’t be stressed enough, use strong passwords!

Administrator Somebody who has access to all the administration features

Editor Can publish & manage posts and pages as well as manage other users’ posts, etc.

Author Can publish and manage their own posts

Contributor Can write and manage their posts but not publish them

Subscriber Somebody who can only manage their profile

First Things First

Adding Content

Pages Vs Posts

Posts Posts are typically blog entries. A series of articles, listed (usually) reverse-chronologically.

Posts can also be assigned Categories and Tags.

Pages Pages are used for more static content. Content that doesn’t change or changes infrequently.

Pages are also hierarchical and can have individual page templates.

Adding Content

Adding content to Posts & Pages is easy with the visual editor

Adding Content

Use the Visual Editor toolbar buttons to Bold or Italicise text content. You can also add bullet points, links, headings etc..

Adding Content

Any media you upload will be added to the Media Library

Adding Content

Customising Your Site

There’s various ways to customise your website. Some are Theme dependent, some are built into WordPress core

Themes (incl. Theme Options)

Custom Header

Custom Background

Widgets

Plugins

Customising Your Site

Change the look of your site by adding new themes

Customising Your Site

Official WordPress Theme Directory All themes are free and code reviewed for quality http://wordpress.org/themes

Customising Your Site

Theme Shops There are an extensive range of Theme Shops that sell ‘Premium Themes’

Some of the more dependable Theme Shops are:

http://www.woothemes.com http://www.elegantthemes.com http://array.is https://thethemefoundry.com http://tokokoo.com http://www.themezilla.com http://press75.com

Customising Your Site

Theme Options WordPress has some built in options that allow you to customise your theme. It even gives you a live preview

Customising Your Site

Theme Options Lots of themes also have their own Theme Options pages for theme specific settings & customisation

Customising Your Site

Custom Header Add a custom header to your website

Customising Your Site

Custom Background Change the background image or colour for your site

Customising Your Site

Widgets Widgets are independent sections of content that can be placed into any widgetized area provided by your theme.

Customising Your Site

Widgets Widgets are commonly found in the sidebar or footer area

Customising Your Site

Extending Your Site

WordPress Plugins

Plugins extend and expand the functionality of WordPress

There are both Free and Premium (Paid) plugins

The easiest (& best) place to find free plugins is the official WordPress Plugin Directory - http://wordpress.org/plugins

Best to use plugins that are updated regularly & recently

Currently over 35,000 free plugins available

Extending Your Site

Install & Activate Plugins Once installed, plugins need to be activated

Some plugins will have settings pages for configuring them

Extending Your Site

Official WordPress Plugin Directory All plugins are free and code reviewed for quality http://wordpress.org/plugins

Extending Your Site

Recommended Plugins (Free) The following are useful, reliable free plugins

WooCommerce - A powerful, extendable eCommerce plugin

Easy Digital Downloads - Sell digital downloads through WordPress

JetPack - Supercharge your WordPress site with powerful features

WordPress SEO by Yoast - Improve your WordPress SEO

Meteor Slides - Create easy to customise, responsive slideshows

WordPress Backup to Dropbox - Backup your media & database to Dropbox

Akismet - Checks your comments for spam

WordFence Security - An enterprise class security and performance plugin

Extending Your Site

Recommended Plugins (Premium/Paid) The following are useful, reliable paid plugins

Gravity Forms - Build complex, powerful contact forms, easily http://www.gravityforms.com

BackupBuddy - Backup, Migrate or Restore your site quickly & easily http://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy

VaultPress - Daily & realtime, offsite backups http://vaultpress.com

Envira Gallery - Easily create beautiful, responsive image galleries http://enviragallery.com

Events Calendar Pro - Create & manage events with ease http://tri.be/shop/wordpress-events-calendar-pro/

Extending Your Site

Recommended Plugins (Free & Paid) Some plugin developers provide the core plugin for free & then have (optional) paid extensions that provide extra functionality

WooCommerce - Free core plugin for selling products online. Paid extensions for Payment Gateways, Product Add-ons etc. http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce

Easy Digital Downloads - Free core plugin for selling digital products. Paid extensions for Payment Gateways, Checkout Fields Add-ons etc. https://easydigitaldownloads.com

Advanced Custom Fields - Free core plugin for providing powerful custom fields for developers. Paid add-ons for extra functionality http://www.advancedcustomfields.com

Extending Your Site

Updating Your Site

Keeping WordPress Safe & Secure

From time to time, Themes, Plugins & WordPress will require updating

Updates typically happen when developers release security patches or add extra functionality

It’s good practice to keep your Themes, Plugins & WordPress version updated to the latest versions

The top two reasons for sites being hacked are insecure passwords & outdated (vulnerable) software

WordPress will (attempt to) automatically update for minor versions (e.g. v3.9.1, v4.1.4, v4.2.1)

Updating Your Site

Updating Your Site

Resources

Like any website, WordPress requires a web server to operate.

Specifically, WordPress requires:- PHP (version 5.2.4 or greater) - Server Side Scripting Language MySQL (version 5.0 or greater) - Database software

Running on (preferably) Apache or Nginx

If you want to play around with WordPress locally (i.e. on your own computer), you can setup a test environment using MAMP (Mac) or XAMPP (Windows)

Installing WordPress Locally

MAMP (Mac) Setting up MAMP http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-locally-on-mac-using-mamp/

XAMPP (Windows) Setting up XAMPP http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/install-wordpress-locally-on-windows-with-xampp/

Installing WordPress Locally

WordPress Codex

Easy WP Guide

WP Beginner

SiteGround

Learn WordPress.com

WP101 Video Training

Where to Go for Help

http://codex.wordpress.org http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

http://easywpguide.com

http://www.wpbeginner.com

http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress

http://learn.wordpress.com

http://code.tutsplus.com/series/wp101-basix-training

I’m Anthony Hortin You can find me here

@maddisondesigns maddisondesigns.com

@easywpguide easywpguide.com

Thanks! Questions?