The Basics of WordPress

The Basics of WordPress
Presented by Thom Allen
SMCSLC September 2009
http://thomallen.com

Topics For This Discussion
Differences between WP.com and WP.org
Easy installation either through cpanel or install.php
Easy import from a dozen other blog platforms
Easily apply a theme from within WP
Easily install most plug-ins from within WP
Posts vs. Pages
Tags vs. Categories
Security, the importance of staying updated
Q and A

WP.com or WP.org
wordpress.com is a commercial product supported by Automattic. No real technical expertise is required. Automattic manages your installation and updates.
wordpress.org is an open source project. It’s not a commercial application. It requires you have some level of technical expertise.

WordPress.com
Get a blog up and running in a matter of minutes, for free!
Provides a number of themes you can choose from.
Doesn’t require monthly web server costs.
Email support and large user forums.
Offers a number of upgrades to improve your wordpress blog (own domain, extra storage, custom css, and more)

WordPress.org
Must have your own web server.
Must have your own domain.
No email support (but there are plenty of other resources)
But… full control over design, themes, css and plugins.

5 Minute Installation
If you choose the WordPress.com option, you can be up and running in 5 minutes.
If you are hosting WordPress yourself, once you have your web server environment setup, you can be running in a matter of seconds.
Most web hosting companies provide an application called cPanel, install from that if possible.

Import from an existing Blog
You can import posts from other blogging platforms like Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal, and many more including RSS.
Importing isn’t 100% all the time. You may have to do some editing.

Easily Apply Themes
You can easily apply themes to both wordpress.com and self hosted wordpress.
WordPress.com users pick from a list of available themes.
Self hosted WordPress installations can pick from the ThemeDirectory right in WordPress, or you can upload a theme.

Easily Install Most Plugins
The basic WordPress.com doesn’t allow you to add your own plugins.
A self hosted installation allows you to search for and install plugins from within WordPress.
You can also upload plugins to your web server and activate them in WordPress

Posts vs. Pages
A post is basically blog content. It’s the standard or typical way of presenting content to your viewers.
A page is basically static content.
Using a combination of posts and pages, you can create a true Content Management System.
Pages can also be used in site navigation.

Tags vs. Categories
Think of a categories as a buckets or groups.
Think of a tags as something buckets hold.
You may assign a post or page to a single category but assign many tags.
Tags are key to searching for content.

The Importance of Updates
Patches are applied to wordpress.com sites without you needing to do anything.
You must apply app security patches on self hosted installs.
If you don’t apply patches you run the risk letting hackers destroy your blog.
Backups are just as important as security patches. Do it often.

Q and A
What questions do you have?
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