When Tatiana and I decided to create a blog, we had to decide which blogging software we were going to use. We chose WordPress because: it was recommended to us by Michael Cheney (more on him later), it was easy to install through our GoDaddy.com hosted account (the famous 5 minute install is true!), and we had seen a few references to it in other literature. We didn’t really test any other blogging software out at the time. Instead we decided to load WordPress and see how it would work for us.

As it turns out, we made a good choice. Since we installed it, we’ve come across many other references to WordPress and how easy it is to use. As we became more familiar with WordPress, we decided we needed to know and understand all the configuration options available to us. This is when I decided to pick up the book WordPress for Dummies at the local book store.

WordPress for Dummies was written by Lisa Sabin-Wilson and published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. Lisa is a blogger and web designer and has used WordPress since its inception in 2003.

Since the publishing of this book in November 2007, the WordPress software has undergone several updates. When we started with WordPress in the summer of 2008, I believe we started out with software version 2.5. Since then, several software updates have been available, the latest being version 2.7. Although this book was written for a WordPress version earlier than 2.5, the content of the book is still relevant! The look and feel of the WordPress administration pages in the current software version has changed (improved in my opinion), but all the material and configuration settings described in the book are still relevant and available in the software.

One thing to note is that at the time of writing this post, there is an updated version of the WordPress for Dummies book due out in early 2009. I am seriously considering getting a copy of the new book, since the newer versions of the WordPress software have many features that the old book didn’t describe. I am confident that Lisa will do a great job in describing all these new features.

The remainder of this post will deal with the November 2007 version that I read.

When I picked up my copy of the book, my original intent was to skim it and use it as a reference. But as I started reading the book, I found myself reading it from cover to cover…well, almost. There were a few sections in the book that were not relevant to our situation, so I skipped over those sections. The sections I did find useful, I read completely.

I found this book very easy to read and well organized. My impression is this book was written for novice users to WordPress, since it covers everything from choosing the correct WordPress installation to use (there are 3 choices as listed below), installing the software, selecting a theme to use for your blog, and configurations that can be made to the software. For the more advanced individual or a technical person, it delves into some basic fundamentals of HTML, and how to create and edit your own HTML pages.

The WordPress for Dummies book is organized as follows:

• Part I – describes what WordPress is and how it can help you. It also talks about the 3 different types of WordPress installations you can have, which are described in detail in Parts II, III and IV.
• Part II – deals with the WordPress.com hosted blogs. This is where you can have a blog hosted directly by WordPress.com. I skipped this section, since Tatiana and I are using the self-hosted installation.
• Part III – deals with the WordPress.org self-hosted blogs, which are blogs hosted on your own Web Server under your own domain name. This section is comprised of 6 chapters and walks you through the following steps:
  • Getting a domain and hosting account
  • Installing the self-hosted WordPress.org version
  • Configuration options in the WordPress administration panel
  • Creating posts and customizing their appearance with more configuration options
  • Creating your own HTML templates
  • Using Plugins to enhance your blog
  • Using professional services to design your blog
• Part IV – deals with Multi-user WordPress MU blogs. This option is for a community of bloggers who each want their own blog, but all the blogs are hosted on one domain. Again, I skipped this section since it was not relevant to Tatiana and me.
• Part V – describes how to import an existing blog site residing in another software package into WordPress. It also describes how to use and customize WordPress to look like a regular web page (i.e. static pages) instead of a blogging site.
• Part VI – Lisa describes 10 of her favourite WordPress themes that you can choose from. This section also describes some of the more popular plugins that you can install into your WordPress software in order to enhance its functionality.

I now use this book as a reference anytime we need to make any tweaks to our WordPress installation. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is starting out with WordPress or wishes to configure more options in their current installation.

Happy reading!