The document outlines a comprehensive introduction to WordPress, covering its installation, features, and functionalities such as posts, pages, themes, and plugins. It distinguishes between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, providing insights into their capabilities and use cases across various platforms. Additionally, it highlights resources for theme and plugin development, along with community support options, including meetups and online forums.

1. Beginning WordPress
Jon Bishop
Kurt Eng
June 1st, 2013
LaborGuild: Weymouth, MA

2. Today’s Schedule
Period A
● Introduction to WordPress
● WordPress installation
● The Admin Dashboard
Break ● Questions
Period B
● Content Types & Media
● Theme, Widgets & Plugins

3. What is WordPress?
● Blogging software
● Content management system (CMS)
● Engine
● E-commerce
● Subscription / Paid Content
● Job Boards
● Business Directories
● Discussion Forums
● Wiki
● Product Reviews
● Social Network

4. Flavors of WordPress
WordPress.com
● Hosted by Automattic, no server needed
● Limited selection of themes & plugins
● Basic sites are free, paid add-ons
available
● Self-hosted (your own server)
● Complete control (themes, plugins, etc.)
● Open source and completely free
WordPress.org

5. What can you do with WordPress? 1
Higher Ed

6. What can you do with WordPress? 2
Magazine

7. What can you do with WordPress? 3
Blog / Corporate

8. What can you do with WordPress? 4
Mixed Platform

9. What can you do with WordPress? 5
Community

10. What can you do with WordPress? 6
http://en.wordpress.com/notable-
users/

11. Features of WordPress
● Control panel
(web-based & mobile)
● Users & profiles
(authentication & roles)
● Content types
● Taxonomy (content
organization)
● Media management
● Link & navigation management
● Built-in SEO*
● Comments
● Themes & widgets
● Plugins
● Feeds
● API
How does WordPress make my life/job easier?

12. Installation

13. Content Types
● Built-in content types in WordPress
● Posts: blogging/news, chronologic, appears in RSS feeds
● Pages: static content (e.g., “About”, “Contact”), hierarchical
● Comments: enable visitors to discuss your content

14. Posts

15. Posts
● Title
● Arguably one of the most important aspects of content (include relevant/rich
keywords related to the content – SEO!)
● Responsible for building the content URL
● Content
● Actual post/page content (“body”), w/ text, images, videos, links, shortcodes, etc.
● WYSIWYG (similar to Microsoft Word) w/ Visual & HTML edit modes (and full-
screen!)
● Publishing
● Preview posts before publishing
● Set status (draft, pending, published) and visibility (private, password-protected)
● Set date (specific date in the past, scheduled date in the future)

16. Posts (cont.)
● Excerpt
● Write a custom post excerpt/teaser for category/archives pages or home page, as
opposed to auto-generated excerpts
● Taxonomy (Defaults: Categories & Tags)
● Categories are hierarchical (parent/child) and useful for navigation menus
● Tags are “labels” assigned to
● Have separate pages in the Dashboard to manage
● Additional Meta Boxes
● Discussion settings, comments list
● Custom functionality from themes (featured image/thumbnail)
● Custom functionality from plugins (SEO plugins to edit title, meta description &
keywords…)

17. Posts (cont.)
● Permalinks
● Auto-generated from title
● SEO-friendly or “pretty” permalinks need to be enabled manually on default WordPress
installations!
● http://bostonwp.org/2011/07/bwpm-june-2011-creating-better-content-w-shortcodes/
● http://bostonwp.org/?p=505
● Can be customized per post/page on edit screen
● Trackbacks/Pingbacks
● Send automated notices to other websites & services when you change content
● Pingback: Include a link to 3rd
party article, save it, WP pings that article and adds a
pingback to the 3rd
party website article page
● Trackback: Outdated? Similar but not automatic. You find the trackback URL on 3rd
party website or article page (if enabled/advertised), paste into WordPress to send a
trackback

18. Posts (cont.)
● Revisions
● Autosaves and previously saved versions available for rollback or reference
● Author
● Change post/page author
● Custom Fields
● Stores all other metadata specific to your project
● Previously used to enable/disable certain theme-specific features
● Key/value pair format

19. Pages
● Pages
● Content that is “timeless” (About, Contact)
● Hierarchical (a parent page can have child pages)
● Page order (a number can be assigned for displaying pages in arbitrary
order)
● Can use custom page templates for completely different designs/layouts
per-page. Page templates can include other template files, WordPress
Template Tags, and PHP code

20. Pages

21. Pages (cont.)
● Pages are not Posts!
● Pages do not show up in the RSS feed
● Cannot be organized using category and tag taxonomies
● Typical page permalinks take the form of: http://mysite.com/the-page-
slug
● Can be added to Menus, or to sidebars using the Pages widget

22. Comments

23. Comments
● Enabling/disabling
● Site-wide
● Per post or per page
● Moderating
● Always require administrator approval, or require the first to be approved per visitor
● Blacklist or hold in moderation queue by URLs, email address, IP addresses
● Nesting
● Replies are visible beneath the parent comment, and indented
● Gravatars
● Show commenter Gravatars next to comments (gravatar.com)
● Replacing built-in comments
● Disqus, IntenseDebate

24. Break

25. Themes
● A theme is a skin for your website
● Separation between the data layer and presentation layer
● Front-end: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and some PHP
● Themes can also add functionality to WordPress
● Custom content types (a “Cake” for a bakery website)
● Custom taxonomies (flavors & occasions)
● Custom widgets (search box)

26. Theme Resources
● WordPress Theme Directory: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
● 3rd
party, free themes: Smashing Magazine, ThemeLab, WPSalon,
Mashable.com, Google search (of course)
● Premium Themes
● Support from developer & community
● Documentation
● Often higher quality, and feature-rich, and with child themes/variations
● Multiple licenses (individual, developer, etc.)
● Theme frameworks

27. Premium Theme Examples
● Press75
● WooThemes
● StudioPress
● Genesis
● Headway
● Pagelines Platform
● ElegantThemes
● ThemeForest

28. Child Themes
● Inherit the functionality of a parent theme
● Typically override:
● Styling (colors, fonts, margin/padding)
● Addition or removal of functionality (functions.php)
● Templates
● A good way to modify third party themes without hacking the original
code
● Provide several “flavors” of a parent theme

29. Install a Theme

30. Plugins
● Plugins extend the functionality of WordPress
● Add new menus & configuration options to the Admin Dashboard (post
types, spam filters, content importing)
● Add new features to the frontend of your website (social sharing tools)
● Change the way your site is displayed (mobile)
● Collect stats (analytics)
● Automate tasks (backup)

31. Plugin Resources
● WordPress Plugins Directory: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
● Premium Plugins:
● WishList Membership Plugin
● Gravity Forms
● Scribe (copy-writing & SEO)
● WP e-Commerce, Shopp, PHPurchase
● WP Review Engine (reviews/star-ratings)
● WPtouch (mobile theme)
● Language translation

32. Plugin Recommendations
● Jetpack
● Disqus/Intense Debate
● WordPress SEO
● Akismet (already built in)
● Google Analytics for WordPress
● Gravity Forms
● VaultPress/Backup Buddy
● W3 Total Cache
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ Many other plugins freely available!

33. Install a Plugin

34. Widgets
● Draggable & configurable modules that can be reused on WP sites
● Widgets are dragged into sidebars (widgetized regions), declared by
the theme
● WordPress contains many useful default widgets (the Text Widget is
powerful!)
● You don’t add new widgets directly: plugins & themes add new
widgets
● The more “widgetized” regions your theme contains, the more easily
configurable the page layout will be from the Dashboard, instead of
modifying code

35. Configure Widgets

36. Additional Resources
● WordPress-related blogs
WPRecipes.com, WPTavern.com, ...
● WordPress video tutorials from the source: http://wordpress.tv
● WordPress.org free theme & plugin directories - submit your work here!
● Commercial themes: custom admin panels & premium support
WooThemes, ThemeForest, StudioPress, ElegantThemes, Press75
● Theme frameworks: video tutorials and extensive documentation
Thesis, Genesis, Hybrid, Headway, Thematic
● WordPress Codex (Template Tags, loop query parameters, etc.)
● LiveWP.tv – WordPress news, tips, and banter…unscripted & live from Boston!

37. Book: Digging into WordPress

38. Book: WordPress for Dummies

39. Boston WordPress Meetup
● Monthly events at Microsoft NERD (last Monday of
every month)
● 1700+ members
● 2nd largest WordPress Meetup in the U.S.
● Support forums
● Past presentation slides & videos available online
● Free pizza!
● http://bostonwp.org
● @bostonwp on Twitter

40. HostGator
● Cheaper hosting with unlimited storage, bandwidth and domains
● Great if you plan on starting more than 1 WordPress site
● Plenty of support for the server and you don’t need to have WordPress
on it (self-install)
● Lots of software, room to experiment!
Use code TechDayCamp for 25% off hosting plan

41. WP-Engine
● WordPress only hosting
● Cheap, integrated, automatic backups, updates
● Set it and forget it!
● Secure, fast, reliable
Use code WPMeetupBoston2013at http://j.
mp/boswpshop for 1 free month

42. Questions
Open Q&A

43. Thank You
Jon Bishop
AMP Agency
Twitter: @JonDBishop
http://www.jonbishop.
com/
Kurt Eng
Twitter: @kurteng
http://www.kurteng.com/

44. Thanks for Viewing
Copyright 2013 Boston WordPress.
All rights reserved.
None of the material contained within this presentation may be used without authors’ written consent.