WordPress: The Missing Manual 2nd Edition

Its a really great book, however if you have some experience building web sites (like i do) you might want to skip it. Author assumes you don't even understand html or css. I read the whole book anyway and saved myself some time of clicking around wordpress dashboard, but i could have done that instead. I really liked the way author explains things, especially when he is talking a little bit about php at the end, i think it should be easy to understand for beginners. I read lots of web design and programming books and i can tell that M. MacDonald has a really good style of writing, he doesn't skip anything and makes everything clear and easy. So if you don't feel like exploring wordpress on your own and want to sit back and relax while learning i think you should get this book. Well not really, you still need to open your wordpress dashboard and explore as you read. Author also mentions a lot of useful links and websites that might be helpful in the future, i didn't know some of them but I'm glad i do now.

I bought this book about a week ago, and since then I've given myself a bit of a WordPress intensive. I decided to buy it because I'd tried to start with WordPress by using various online resources, and I quickly discovered that it was way beyond me. Just to give you some idea, here are some of my early missteps:- I signed up for a wordpress.com account, then tried to install a theme (a friend had suggested one). I soon discovered that I couldn't, which left me completely confused. A bit of online research revealed that there's wordpress.com and wordpress.org and the two are quite different. A day wasted, and a frustrating waste of time.- I then went to wordpress.org and discovered an 'easy 5 minute install'. Great, I thought, I'm in the right place. So I started to do it and soon discovered I was out of my depth. Download the zip file, open it, go in and change a line of code, upload various files to your web server using ftp... again, completely bamboozling for someone who was hoping for a 'drag and drop' website creator. I happened then to be on an online forum and saw mention of 'softaculous'. I then went into my web host's cPanel (somewhat nervously) and discovered that you can actually install WordPress with ONE CLICK. Another day wasted.I share this because it will hopefully give you some sense of my level of experience. Not exactly an experienced developer, but also reasonably comfortable with searching online to find answers.I also share it because once I decided to actually buy this book, I discovered that the first chapter was about the distinction between wordpress.com and .org, and the second chapter was about how the 'easy 5 minute install' is actually quite difficult, and it's much easier to install it through cPanel using a one-click installer like Softaculous.In other words, what had taken me two frustrating days to discover, I could have learned in 10 minutes of reading.Since then I've burned through the book and I am now feeling very confident with the basics of WordPress. I saw some comments on the previous edition saying it focused too much on wordpress.com, but I would have to disagree. If anything, I was oblivious to wordpress.com throughout, and in general he simply says "this is how it works on wordpress.com, but on self-hosted wordpress.org sites, here's how it works". Regardless of the actual specific weighting either way, I found it provided me with all the information I needed to know.One comment I would have is that there was a plug-in mentioned that I tried to use, only to discover that it was no longer working for the latest version of WordPress (3.9.1 at time of writing). This was One Click Child Themes - so it would probably be worth having a site with the most up-to-date plug-ins. I tried using it and it didn't work, and it took a while to discover that it was only compatible up to WordPress 3.2.1.Another thing I couldn't see mentioned were tools like the Firebug extension for Firefox, or Chrome's Developer Tools, which reveal the CSS for web pages. Very useful.But overall this book was exactly what I was looking for, and my only regret was that I didn't buy it earlier. For $9.99 I've gone from a frustrated WordPress noob to a pretty confident WordPress user in under a week - although a fairly focused week - doing pretty much everything I need to do.If you're looking into WordPress, I'd recommend it. One thing I would say is that WordPress is NOT a basic drag-and-drop system like a Squarespace or Virb. (I've built sites with Squarespace and it's much easier for the everyday person). It helps a lot if you have some familiarity with html or css in particular, which is something I hadn't expected. It also comes with its own security issues, and you do need some familiarity with ftp and your web host. So while it's achievable, I wouldn't call it lay-down easy. I ended up buying Web Hosting for Dummies just to get my head around some of that stuff, and in combination the two books have been exactly what I needed.

An excellent, up-to-date introduction to WordPress. Good for beginners who have little or no experience with website creation, as well as for those with some familiarity with HTML, CSS and PHP (the basic building blocks of WordPress).Even at almost 600 pages, it can't cover everything, but MacDonald provides plenty of links to more info on the web (including the "missing CD" with links organized by chapter).One area the book ignores is the idea of setting up a local development environment on your own computer, rather than on a live, publicly-viewable site. While it's fine not to tackle that in detail in a beginner-friendly book, some basic guidance for readers and some links would have been a good idea.I've read the book from start to finish, and am combining it with an online video training course. In sum, a very well-written, well-organized learning tool, to take you from newbie up to at least an intermediate level.

Of all the books on web design Ive ever used "Learn Visually" "Teach Yourself" the ..."Bible" and other this is by far the least impressive. Sure, you can dig thorough it and stumble your way through various tasks but it is not as user friendly as some of the others. If you already have a good understanding of Word Press and you want to fine tune what you know this might be a good choice for you but if you are somewhat new to Word Press you might be better off with another more descriptive book. If you are new to web design don't even bother, you will be totally lost; find something basic and learn that first.

I am a "reluctant" webmaster, sucked into the role for our non-profit website. On my own, I've learned enough to add new features to our site, search for and replace a tiny bit of code, etc. This book meets my needs. Much of the early chapters is a 'review' for me, but that's okay because it verifies I do know what I think I know. I have about 8 post-its marking the little gems I found to help me do more on our website on my own. I bought this book to help expand my understanding of WP capabilities and intelligently work with a webmaster when needed. It's well written and well organized. Useful appendixes. Illustrations are numerous and support the text (although some screen grabs appear more grey than black and white). Highly useful.