More Related Content Similar to Introduction to WordPress 2016 (20) Introduction to WordPress 20162. © 2016 www.lumostech.training
Rick Radko – R-Cubed Design Forge
Software, web and app designer/developer, trainer, speaker.
Creating custom web sites since 1996, and WordPress sites
since 2008.
Jasmine Vesque – Digital & Design Officer, MI
Digital marketer, teacher, speaker, web & graphic designer.
Web evangelist helping people share their stories and ideas
online since 2009.
We're:
Co-organizers of: WordCamp Ottawa 2013, 2014, 2016.
Co-organizers of: The Ottawa WordPress Group.
LumosTech - www.lumostech.training
Slides are posted at: slideshare.net/lumostech
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We are:
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WordPress is feature rich:
Ask questions.
Everyone was new to WordPress at one time.
WordPress is the easiest CMS to use.
Goals for this session:
Familiarization for WordCamp
Terms
Features
Concepts
Visual aspects
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Learning about WordPress
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WordPress:
Is a dynamic Content Management System. (CMS)
A tool to help you build a website.
Like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice,
LibreOffice or Pages that help you create documents.
Displays web pages (HTML) dynamically.
Users need no knowledge of: HTML, PHP,
JavaScript etc. (for basic content)
WYSIWYG editor to help create content easily.
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What is WordPress?
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Looks similar to a lot of word processing applications.
This image shows the WordPress post editor with an
extended editor plugin added (TinyMCE Advanced)
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WordPress is WYSIWYG
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WordPress:
The first version of WordPress was released May
27, 2003
Is currently the most popular CMS in use on the
Internet.
Runs millions of websites.
Stats suggest that WordPress sites represent:
25% of the worlds websites.
60% of CMS based websites.
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What is WordPress continued…
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3 different WordPress versions:
Hosted on wordpress.com
1. Single site
Often referred to as “.com” WordPress.
Self Hosted from wordpress.org
2. Single site (default version)
3. Network or Multisite
We need to be aware of which one we are talking
about, reading about or using, there are some
differences.
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WordPress versions
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Wordpress.com is a service (by Automattic)
They provide:
WordPress and hosting
WordPress needs a web server, PHP and MySQL to run.
Free service restricted to URL's:
<somename>.wordpress.com
Has limitations compared to self hosted:
Added costs for customizing
Limited ability to customize
Many things covered in this presentation you can’t do
on wordpress.com – like add plugins
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wordpress.com
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Home of the open source version of WordPress.
Free!
Just download it
Needs a web server with PHP and MySQL to run.
Hosting service for public sites.
Local server to run it on your pc/laptop
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wordpress.org
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Costs! - Some things that may not be free:
A web host (sever)
A domain (your website address)
Some WordPress / Web knowledge
Add-on themes and plugins
Limitations: None!
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wordpress.org - Is it really free?
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You can add plugins to make your site:
Multilingual. (numerous techniques & plugins)
a social site like Facebook. (BuddyPress)
You can add plugins to add:
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr connections.
a forum. (bbpress + others)
much, much, more. (1000’s of plugins available)
Add themes to change the look and sometimes add
function. (1000’s of themes available)
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wordpress.org customizing
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Caveat:
The more extensive the customization, the more
WordPress knowledge that is required.
Many free resources to help:
wordpress.org (more later)
Other online resources.
Some low cost resources:
WordPress meet-ups.
WordCamps.
Books.
May need to hire a WordPress expert.
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wordpress.org customizing
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The third version of WordPress is multisite
(network).
Was once known as WPMU, a separate program.
Allows multiple websites on one install.
It is not obvious to users that it is one install.
What wordpress.com runs.
Needs some knowledge to set-up.
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wordpress.org networks or multisite
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WordPress needs to be installed on a web server in
order to use it:
Lots of install guides – not going to cover installing
here, it’s a whole session in itself.
codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
This presentation is based on a .org install.
Some of what we do will work on wordpress.com
but many things may look/be different.
Things like installing plugins and themes will not
work.
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Installing WordPress
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The "public"
part of the
site that
your site
visitors see.
Default:
Twenty
Sixteen
theme.
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WordPress front-end
WordPress has 2 interfaces for users: the front-end
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WordPress back-end or “dashboard”
This is private space where you manage the site.
To see the dashboard:
login at:
<your-domain>/login
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WordPress back-end, admin or “dashboard”
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Select what you want to see, un-tick the rest.
In the case of the main Dashboard page, you can
even bring back the welcome screen here.
Look for screen options on each admin page:
Options change for each page.
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Screen options
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The drop down help tab has:
On the left side:
General WordPress help.
May have added help from plugins and/or themes.
On the right side:
links to the official WordPress documentation and
support areas.
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The help tab
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On the left side of the admin screen is the main
navigation menu:
Access all your
content.
Control
WordPress
settings.
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Main navigation
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Posts and pages are the basic content holders for a
WordPress site.
Posts:
Individual pieces of a collection of content.
Usually used for blogs or similar types of content.
Each content piece is associated with a date:
URL: your-domain/2008/11/30/post-title.
Posts have categories and tags.
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Posts and pages
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Can be displayed many ways (dynamic):
Usually listed in reverse chronological order.
Sticky posts. (show at the top, need theme support)
Archives, by date, by author.
Categories and tags.
Many different sidebar widgets can be used to create
lists and indices to posts, or collections of posts
indexed in various manners.
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Posts
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Sidebar here is
the same as the
posts listing page,
but it could be
different.
Comments are
shown with box
to add a new
comment
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Single post display
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Pages:
Are individual static stand alone content blocks.
Good for things like an About page.
(any web site pages)
Usually in site menus.
Do not use tags or categories.
Not tied to date.
URL: domainname.com/page-title/
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Pages
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Only one way to
display the page.
May have
sidebar.
No date, tags or
category
information on
page.
May have
comments
section.
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Page display
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We can also change publishing options:
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More post related items (and pages too)
Published/Review/Draft
Publishing dates
and future publishing.
Visibility and passwords.
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We can also:
Add images and other media including videos.
Click the add media button to upload images
As of 3.9 you can simply drag an image onto the
editor area and the image uploader will launch.
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Pictures and videos
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The image uploader has a few options:
Add or
change the
title, alt text
and captions.
Change what
it links to.
Change the
image size
and the
alignment.
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Image options
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A post with videos and images
If you want more
control over the
video display,
you can add the
embed code in
the TEXT view.
The bottom
video was added
by using the
embed code.
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Use TEXT view to:
Embed HTML code like YouTube snippets.
Change the HTML directly, sometimes needed to
get things just right.
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TEXT view
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You can compose in MS Word or Excel and paste
into WordPress, but:
There can be issues with formatting
Word adds a lot of junk to it’s HTML.
Use the paste as text mode.
You may loose formatting, tables, lists etc
do final layout/formatting in WordPress.
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Pasting from Word/Excel
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To change hierarchy, you change the page parent.
Can be important for URL structure. (permalinks)
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Pages can have hierarchy
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Permalinks settings change the way the URL is
displayed.
Default sample page permalink:
http://your-domain/?page_id=2
Default child page permalink:
http:// your-domain/?page_id=36
Default post permalink:
http:// your-domain/?p=4
Not very “pretty” or readable, Google does not like
them either! No hierarchy for child page.
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Permalinks
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Here, month and name is set - common choice.
There is also a custom box where you can edit the
permalink
if you need
something
unusual.
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Settings - permalinks
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The sample page is now:
http://your-domain/sample-page
The child page is now:
http://your-domain/sample-page/sample-child-page
It shows the hierarchy (if a page parent was set)
Our post is now:
http://your-domain/2012/05/hello-wpottawa
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The URL’s with permalinks
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You can override permalinks – use edit
If you change your title, you should consider
updating the permalink.
Note: if you change the permalink, you may want to
add a redirect for the old url.
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Permalink also shows in editor
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For some themes, default menus are created from
the page list.
Hierarchy and order are taken from the page list,
with home added at the start.
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Menus
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Widgets are tools
or content items
that you can add,
arrange, and
remove from the
widgetized areas
of your theme.
The most common
widgetized area is
the sidebars.
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Widgets
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Widgets started in sidebars…
Now themes can have many areas for them:
Sidebars
Headers, footers
Special page spaces.
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Widgets can be anywhere a theme defines them
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wordpress.org, the official source for all things
WordPress. (wordpress.org)
Theme repository – get free and commercial
themes.
Plugin repository – get plugins.
The “codex”. (documentation)
Support forums – get help.
Also WordPress TV: WordCamp and other videos
wordpress.tv
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wordpress.org
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Google WordPress + some topic
Caution, many articles are out of date and may no
longer be relevant.
Books:
Lots of books, make sure it’s current.
Print editions are usually not current.
Tao of WordPress is a great ebook for beginners.
Digging into WordPress is a also great ebook, but
may not be for absolute beginners. Lots of articles
on their blog.
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Other help
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WordCamps:
“WordCamp is a conference that focuses on
everything WordPress.” – WordCamp Central
Montreal: July 23-24, 2016.
Toronto: Aug 6-7, 2016.
All sorts of WordCamps world wide:
central.wordcamp.org
WordPress Meetup Groups:
Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, and other cities.
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Other help
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The plugins page shows plugins installed on the site.
Can't add plugins if you are using wordpress.com.
You can only enable/disable which ones you are
using, and change settings.
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Plugins Page
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The search results:
Plugins matching the keywords are shown.
Descriptions, ratings, last updates and compatibility
are shown for each plugin.
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Add plugins search results
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A screen showing the install status will appear.
Some plugins will auto-activate, most you need to
activate.
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Install status
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Plugins usually (and are supposed to) create option
pages under the Settings menu item.
Some plugins create menu items in almost any
other section.
Tools, Dashboard, and sometimes Plugins are
common spots for hiding settings pages.
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Plugin Settings
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ALWAYS BACKUP FIRST!!!
Updates are easy, just click the link.
Updates can break your site, back-ups make it easy
to undo.
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Updating plugins
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Choose plugins with:
good download volume.
recent updates.
responses in the forums.
high ratings.
good compatibility ratings.
Where do you find this information?
Some of it was on the plugin search listing.
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Finding/Choosing plugins
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All of the information
is in the plugin
repository.
Look at the last
updated date.
Check compatibility.
Is it popular?
(downloads)
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Choosing plugins
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Signs there may be problems
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A plugin with issues
No support – 5 weeks no
answer.
There will always be some
broken reports, but more
broken than works is not
good.
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A well respected
and rated and
popular plugin.
Note there are still
issues…
Look at over-all,
not absolutes
when evaluating.
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A good plugin
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Backup:
Good ones automate off-server backups.
Google Analytics:
Add options like excluding admin traffic from stats.
Some have dashboard summaries of stats.
Some add advanced tracking and tagging features.
Security:
Block brute force login, and other attacks.
Scan for malware.
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Suggested plugins
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There are many plugins not on the wordpress.org
repository.
Many of those plugins are very good.
Most good plugins not on the repository are
commercial.
Many are not good, and may even contain malware.
http://blog.sucuri.net/2012/02/new-wordpress-
toolspack-plugin.html
*plugins on the repository are not guaranteed to be
clean, but malware is usually spotted quickly by users
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Beware of unknown plugins
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Remove all unused plugins from your site, they can
be a security issue.
The Timthumb vulnerability did not need to have the
plugin be active in order to be exploited
Keep plugins, even inactive ones up to date!
Install a backup plugin AND USE IT!!!
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Plugin final notes
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A theme defines the look and feel of your site.
Sets the graphics, colors.
Sets the widget locations.
Defines column layout.
Can be changed relatively easily.
Beware lock-in.
Cannot add themes when using wordpress.com.
You can:
Choose one of the installed themes.
Change settings.
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Themes
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Some themes have
very sophisticated
home pages.
Neither posts or
pages are shown.
All content is in
options for the
theme.
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Theme driven front page
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As with plugins:
You get more detail
on wordpress.org.
But there is still
less info than for
plugins.
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Theme repository
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Choosing themes is less clear than plugins.
You need it:
to look good for you.
have the features you want.
have support:
check the forums.
check the last update date.
be good/reliable:
check the ratings.
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Adding/managing themes
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Many good commercial themes are not on
wordpress.org.
iThemes
WooThemes
Studiopress
Elegant Themes
Freelance themes on Theme Forest
and more….
Beware free themes not from wordpress.org
Google “Free WordPress Themes” and you are
guaranteed to find yourself some malware.
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Themes not on wordpress.org
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For a theme that is not on wordpress.org
Use the upload theme button.
Upload a .zip of the theme to be installed.
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Upload theme
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If you need to modify a theme's code:
You should use a child theme to modify themes.
If you alter the theme files without a child theme:
You will loose your changes if the theme is updated.
Can't update to get security fixes.
Not too hard to create a child theme:
Write your own from examples.
codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes
OR
Add a plugin - there are several on wordpress.org.
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Final notes for themes
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Standard WordPress User Levels
Least to most powerful:
Subscriber
Can not edit or change anything
Comment only
Contributor
Author
Editor
Admin - can do anything!
Super Admin – Networks (multisite) only
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User levels
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Subscriber
Can only manage their profile and comment.
Contributor
Can write and manage their posts but not publish
them + all Subscriber capabilities.
Author
Can publish and manage their own posts + all
Contributor capabilities.
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User roles
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Editor
Can publish and manage posts and pages as well
as manage other users' posts, etc. + all Author
capabilities.
Administrator
Access to all the administration features + all Editor
capabilities.
Super Admin
Access to the blog network administration features
controlling the entire network + all Administrator
capabilities.
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User roles
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Remove any user called "admin" if you have one.
Subject to brute force attacks
Do not use your administrator account on public
wifi if possible.
Use a lower level account
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User security issues
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Keep your site up to date
WordPress, Plugins and Themes
All have bug updates, security patches and new
feature releases.
Not keeping up to date increases the risk of hacking
substantially.
Before you update anything – make a backup!
Can’t emphasize this enough.
Often neglected.
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Maintenance
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Rick Radko
email: rick@lumostech.ca
twitter: @r3designforge
Jasmine Vesque
email: jasmine@lumostech.ca
twitter: @jasmineVesque
Slides at:
www.slideshare.net/lumostech
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Contact