WordPress Web Design for Dummies

by Lisa Sabin-Wilson

Updated, full-color guide to creating dynamic websites with WordPress 3.6 In this updated new edition, bestselling For Dummies author and WordPress expert Lisa Sabin-Wilson makes it easy for anyone with a basic knowledge of the WordPress software to create a custom site using complementary technologies such as CSS, HTML, PHP, and MySQL. You'll not only get up to speed on essential tools and technologies and further advance your own design skills, this book also gives you pages of great case studies, so you can see just how other companies and individuals are creating compelling, customized, and cost-effective websites with WordPress. Want to create cost-effective and fantastic websites with WordPress? This do-it-yourself book will get you there.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Website Design, Business, Technology, Design, Education

374 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2011

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of the best on WordPress I’ve read, because it covers the work I do with WordPress: administration, tweaking themes, and finding and using plugins. It shows how to create several types of sites with WordPress, and explains the HTML, CSS, and PHP needed to tweak themes or build them from scratch. It features colorful code snippets and screenshots. I really liked the many excellent plugin recommendations. The book is best for the intermediate to advanced WordPress designer, developer, or administrator.

I liked Chapter 11: Dissecting Themes and Templates, and Chapter 12: Displaying Content with Widgets and Template Tags. So far I’ve only tweaked themes, but these chapters made me eager to dive deeper into theme development. This book convinced me that I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible with WordPress.

Because of what I do with WordPress, this book was more relevant than the other WordPress For Dummies books: WordPress for Dummies (read my review) and WordPress All-in-One For Dummies (read my review).

Notes
Optimize images with the Dynamic Drive Image Optimizer or Web Resizer.
Create a portfolio page by creating a category called Portfolio, filling it with posts with featured images, then calling them with query_posts().

Hosts that support WordPress
• Blogs About Hosting
• HostGator
• Bluehost
• DreamHost

Free font resources
• UrbanFonts.com
• 1001 Free Fonts
• daFont.com
• FontFreak.com
• ActionFonts.com

Premium font resources
• Fonts.com
• MyFonts.com

Premium WordPress themes
• iThemes
• ThemeGarden.com
• Organic Themes

Plugin recommendations
E-commerce plugins
• Cart66 (premium) doesn’t require much theme tweaking
• WP e-Commerce (free) requires theme tweaking
• MarketPress (free) doesn’t require much theme tweaking, and is good for WordPress Network (Multisite) and BuddyPress
• Shopp (premium) requires theme tweaking

Gallery plugins
• NextGEN Gallery creates sortable photo galleries
• Organizer allows you to organize, rename, resize, and manage uploaded images
• Random Image Widget displays a random image from the image-upload folder
• Mini-Slides lets you create inline slideshows

Social network plugins
• Twitter Tools for Twitter integration
• WordBooker for Facebook integration

Miscellaneous plugins
• Advanced Text Widget allows you to execute raw PHP code and specify on which pages it should be displayed
• Custom Post Type UI provides an easy to use interface to create and administer custom post types and taxonomies
• WP Featured Content Slider makes a slideshow of recent posts with images
• Collision Testimonials Shortcode puts client testimonials on the front page, and creates a full testimonials page
• All in One SEO Pack for SEO
• PluginBuddy Mobile (premium) creates a mobile-ready version of your website.
• Subscribe to Comments to let visitors subscribe to individual posts
• ShareThis for adding social sharing icons
• WP Super Cache for caching
• WP Security Scan for improving security
• BackupBuddy (premium) for creating backups and migrating sites
• WPMU Premium (premium) is a collection of plugins including membership, classified ads, chat, domain mapping, and anti-spam
• WP Nivo Slider creates a slideshow that prominently displays content (good for front pages)
• Simple:Press creates a support forum

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really helpful! I feel like I could get more out of it if I had it around longer, but I need to return it to the library. Oh well - if I end up needing to do more web design, I might buy my own copy.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing insight into the WordPress CMS for beginners and intermediate WordPress users alike. As an experienced developer with WordPress I found this book a good refresher, a source of some new php functions specific to WordPress I wasn't familiar with, and as a valuable insight into what my clients are reading.

The WordPress version used in this book is a few versions behind because it was published in 2011, but much of the information has the same basic principals and locations on the WordPress dashboard.

All in all, I would recommend this to anyone who wanted to know what WordPress is and what it can do for the average website. This isn't necessarly a reference manual, but highly informative non-the-less. I believe that the "PHP and MySQL for Dummies" is a good next book to progress to for anyone wanting to learn more about and dive deeper into web programming.

[PD Storage]

شركة تصميم مواقع
شركة تصميم مواقع الكترونية
تصميم مواقع الكترونية
شركة تصميم مواقع ويب

[Amila Gamage · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for beginners to learn webdesign.I started reading this book with some basic knowledge with WordPress.I could enhance my knowledge to design a website.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

An updated version of the worthwhile 1st edition on designing and building WordPress-based sites. It covers installation, administration, basic theme development, and plugin use. It features colorful code snippets and screenshots. Most examples use the Twenty Thirteen theme.

I liked Chapter 11: Dissecting Themes and Templates, and Chapter 12: Displaying Content with Widgets and Template Tags. There are several good plugin recommendations throughout the book, but I would've chosen different ones for Chapter 17: 10 Powerful Plugins for WordPress; I routinely use only 2 of the 10 listed, and can think of others more valuable and more commonly used than those listed.

There's bonus content on the Dummies site, including Firefox add-ons, recommended premium themes, SEO tips, and recommended free themes.

I won a copy signed by author Lisa Sabin-Wilson. I had had the privilege of meeting Lisa at a WordCamp.

Notes

• Use IETester to test different versions of IE (Windows only).
• Use Responsinator to test your site at various mobile sizes.
• Used named template files to offer a fallback. For example, if you call header-main.php but it doesn't exist, WordPress will use header.php.
• When you duplicate sections of code in numerous template files, place the code in a separate file and load it using get_template_part.
• Use template_directory in standalone and parent themes, and stylesheet_directory in child themes.
• The Advanced Text Widget plugin allows you to execute raw PHP code and specify on which pages it should be displayed.
• The Custom Post Type UI plugin provides an easy to use interface to create and administer custom post types and taxonomies.

WordPress hosts

• Page.ly
• WPEngine (affiliate link)
• ZippyKid

Free font resources

• UrbanFonts.com
• Google Fonts
• daFont.com
• FontFreak.com
• Font Squirrel

Premium font resources

• Fonts.com
• MyFonts.com

Image Libraries

• iStockphoto has stock photos, vector graphics, video, audio, and Flash.
• Dreamstime has stock photos and graphics.
• VectorStock has only vector graphics.

[MaryLynn Bast · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reason for purchasing this book was to get step by step help with setting up and navigating wordpress. My fault for not looking into the preview and reading on the first page that this book is not for those who are not familiar with wordpress. Since I was a tiny bit familiar I could still follow along and understand. The book is very well written with lots of pointers, but definitely requires prior knowledge on how wordpress actually works. The reader needs to have some bit of coding experience to understand as well (which I had none until my aunt helped me out). Overall, this book was very helpful and I would recommend to my friends.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was full of useful information, but the author bounces between being way too basic and repetitive to glossing over steps in the more advanced sections. There's also little to no logical progression. Some of the more advanced practices are in the middle of the book and the last quarter of the book should have been the first few chapters. But I did manage to learn something.

[Tamara]

If you are using a self-hosted version of WordPress that you downloaded from the official WordPress site at wordpress.org and are interested in finding out how you can customize the look/feel using WordPress templates or custom graphic design elements, this book is for you.

[Jamie Cawley · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a "for dummies" book I had the expectation that the content would be aimed at beginners.

Unfortunately, the author assumes that the reader already has knowledge of many areas and does not include examples, making it difficult to follow.

Overall - very disappointed

[Kellyyyylynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well the books was good and I found some topics very helpful but the reality is I still have a long way to go in order to figure out how to get my firm's website to do what I want it and look the way I want it to look. But this was a good start.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. A few interesting things but most of the content I had already figured out for myself.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was all about wordpress.org, not wordpress.com. For that, you need to read WordPress for Dummies.