WordPress

Review by D. Day:

Let me preface this review by saying this is NOT a beginner WordPress book. That said, the folks who leave a mediocre review for this book due to this being over their head are ridiculous. If your looking for a book that teaches you “how to get started” with wordpress this is not your book. You will NOT find sections on how to create a post, add tags, install plugins, etcetera. This book is to teach you how to do advanced secure installs, understand the wordpress framework, template tags (the code snippets that make things work), how to create themes and plugins, and start working with some examples.

This book was an amazing for me because of where I am at in my wordpress development. Before reading this book I knew how to install wordpress, set up permalinks, work with .htaccess files, create posts, add plugins, and even do some minor tweaking. I did not however understand the core code concepts of wordpress that make it work, thus I could not advance beyond an “advanced beginner.” When I would go to read advanced wordpress books they were all written in techie speak and I always ended up feeling lost.

Enter Smashing WordPress:

From the moment I started reading this book it was right at the level I needed. I had finished my knowledge of the beginner to mid level stages of wordpress and Smashing WordPress took me to a solid level of advanced wordpress techniques and theme/plugin building. It is written in PLAIN ENGLISH and not techie speak like most advanced technology books (please remember you must have a solid beginner level understanding or this book will seem complicated).

If your looking to start understanding all that code that makes themes and plugins work and you have a solid understanding of the basics of wordpress this book is for you.

From the very first chapter this book I stated to absorb the wordpress code concepts and advanced techniques I was craving to learn. I am half way through this book and I am quickly becoming the advanced wordpress theme creator that I have been wanting to be. (This book will also give you a solid ability to modify even the most advanced themes)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO WORDPRESS USERS READY TO UNDERSTAND AND BUILD OR MODIFY WORDPRESS THEME AND PLUGINS.

Review by Mark Luetke:

I am fairly new to web design and wordpress theme development and have been searching for ways to go beyond the typical wordpress theme. This book gives you exactly what it says it will. It really does go beyond the blog. This is by far the most thorough wordpress themeing book I have found. The content within this book is dense and every bit of it is useful.

I would not recommend this book to the absolute beginner unless you really like jumping headfirst into the very deep end. You really need to have at least a moderate understanding of html css and php to get through this book. The author is able able to cover as much as he does in large part by assuming you can keep up.

The biggest problem with this book and the only reason I am not giving it 5 stars is the layout. I have heard this complaint regarding other books from smashing magazine and unfortunately it is very true. The guys at smashing mag are brilliant web designers but would do well to hire some equally brilliant print designers to layout their books. The biggest problem is the inner margins of the book. They have been designed as though this book were to be read on a vertical blog with identical margins on both pages instead of reflected margins resulting in having to force the book open to read the left page. Sorry to go on about this but it really is a big problem and I hope they will fix this in future versions (or at least in future publications).

Pros:

1. Spectacular content not found in any other single book

2. Covers up and coming wordpress features such as child themes

3. Tutorials for designing functioning job boards, faq knowledge bases, e-commerce sites, portfolio sites and more

4. 2 chapters on functions.php and plugin development

5. Too many great things content wise to list!

Cons:

1. Not recommended for the beginner

2. Layout of the book is quite poor and makes reading difficult

Overall:

If you are serious about creating your own wordpress themes and have experience with css html and php then this is absolutely the book you want.

Review by B. Com:

I was somewhat hesitant to buy a tutorial book that had not been reviewed yet (this book is copyright 2010 and came out Dec. 09), but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. This book offers from-the-ground-up instruction with all the basics from how to install WordPress to customizing a template.

The author, George Plumley, has a pleasant style that is neither condescending to the newbie or goofy like I have found some of the “yellow books” to be. I haven’t found any fluff here, just solid step-by-step advice and lessons.

I really was just following along and not thinking about whether the book is “good” or “bad”, just going through it. Then, in Lesson 7: Working with the Text Editor, I found myself recognizing one of the many gems in this book. As someone who has struggled with more than one text editor until I found out that if you copy/paste from someplace else you need to get rid of the formatting first, I know that this author had the non-geek in mind when he wrote this. His advice is to open a text program such as Notepad and paste the text in there, then copy/paste from Notepad into the editor in WordPress and the excess coding will be stripped away. Now, this is basic information for a lot of people, but remember the first time you tried to figure out why that Word formatting kept showing up in your WordPress text editor? Yes, this author had that person in mind and gently drops in a paragraph with a couple of sentences in it addressing the problem and suggesting a solution.

I have hired a designer to do websites in WordPress for a couple of clients and I wanted to learn to do it myself. I am confident that I’ll be able to do it myself next time, thanks to the information provided in this book. The author spends some time going over some of the basics of site planning and organization, basic design, SEO, and backups. If you are a budding website builder, you’ll get a lot of time-tested information here. Yes, many books go deeper into each of these subjects, but for the person wanting to put their first site together or get a refresher on the basics, why buy another book if you don’t have to? There’s plenty of meat to digest here.

The CD is a great bonus, too.

If you have dabbled with WordPress but knew you were only scratching the surface, do yourself a favor and invest in this book. Certainly, there are those that will say that all of this information is available for free on the web. Yeah, but not in step-by-step form and not in a format you can carry along with you when you’re waiting somewhere or need to find the information quickly.

I don’t know this author, but I do know that if he writes any other books about a subject that I’m interested in, I’m quite likely to buy it based on my experience with this book/CD combo. I buy and read a lot of techy type books and if I ever owned a book that deserves “6 stars”, this is it. This is the gold standard by which all tech-related books should be measured for common sense writing style.

Review by D. Rosenberg:

I am just amazed at how thorough this book is, yet how easy it is to use and understand. Everything is in layman’s terms and shown, as well as having written explanations.

I was initially bummed at the price of the book but now that I’m using it I realize what an absolute STEAL it is at this price. I am SO thankful I found this guide.

Review by Cosmic rain:

I think having read it thoroughly, the author by saying “beginner’s guide to WordPress” is saying beginner to the WordPress platform and not to web design/development.

Let me explain my level of understanding before I started reading. I’m 19 and web design/dev has been a hobby of mine for about one year now. I’ve a reasonable grasp on HTML/CSS JavaScript having spent hours watching free video tutorials and reading two books. I’m able to build a basic website from scratch with the help of past examples and some developing tools like notepad++. I understand JavaScript and because the concepts of PHP are similar to JavaScript, I can make educated guesses on what code does what. These prerequisites and time are enough to get through this book.

Honestly installing WordPress was the hardest part, your first time is confusing for about 15mins. The simple answer to getting through the first chapter is signing up for a basic Dreamhost hosting plan as Dreamhost has a one click install button for WordPress in their web panel. Once you’ve installed WordPress the rest of the book is a walk in the park.

The first 6 chapters are concerned with working through the layout of the platform, explaining what everything does, and the book does a great job at that. After the 6th knowing HTML, CSS is essential for continuing, moving onto the Chapter 7 it helps to have dabbled in PHP. The book does a great job explaining [HTML,CSS] to WordPress conversion, Which Online blogs I’ve read could not comprehensively do. If you’ve got this far you’ll be able to go to the end without many problems.

TLDR; to get the most out of this book prerequisites are HTML, CSS, & some PHP, & a dreamhost account.

Review by timreadsbooks:

Firstly, I believe the bad reviews to this book are are somewhat unjust. When the author says beginner, she is not referring to the user who is creating blogs using WordPress for the first time. This book is geared towards the budding web developer/designer who is new to using WordPress as a tool to build custom websites, not just blogs. The author even mentions on the back cover of this book that this book was meant to between the “how do I setup WordPress to be a blog” and the more advanced books on WordPress. Ironically, she does spend the first few chapters explain how to install WordPress from scratch–which I still found helpful.

If you’re anything like me and know “just enough” HTML, CSS, Javascript & maybe some PHP, then you’ll be able to follow this book. The author provided exactly what I was looking for, which is easy to grasp instructions on how to build your own WordPress themes and plugins. This book essentially shows you how to use WordPress to build your own custom websites.

If this relates to you, please don’t let the negative reviews discourage you from checking out this book. If you’re new at creating your own WordPress themes and plugins, I would recommend this book. As long as you know just enough” HTML, CSS, Javascript & little PHP, this book will be a resourceful additional to your library.

Note to the author/publisher — maybe the title should be teak somewhat to attract the right audience. Personally, I think the book is aimed at the right audience, but I can see how someone new to WordPress and blogging would buy this book (especially if they didn’t see it in a store first)

Review by Steven Chambers:

I absolutely love the Head First Series of books and, while they are not the most in depth and complex books on a subject, I consider them the most user friendly way to quickly and easily learn a challenging and difficult topic. So when I learned they were coming out with a book on WordPress I quickly preordered it and then waited, and waited, and waited until…now. At last the book arrived and I’m not disappointed. For the average user (and let’s face it, even the above average user) this is everything you need to know about how to install and use WordPress for all but the most advanced website tasks.

While most people will choose to install WordPress using the “one click” installation service offered by their hosting provider, the Headfirst book starts with a detailed description of how to download and install it the old fashioned way…manually. Even if you were to choose not to use the “one click” method (which I would advise against), reviewing this section gives you a good idea of the nuts and bolts of your WordPress installation.

Next they cover the basics of posting and using images in your posts, including basic problems, troubleshooting and even covering file permissions. When it comes to changing your blogs appearance they do a very good job of describing templates, including third party templates, and also provide a solid overviews of HTML, PHP and CSS and how you can use it to modify your sight. Widgets are covered in depth as well.

The aspect of WordPress I was most interested in learning more about was how to use it as a Content Management System (CMS) and the book covers the subject well, including a very good discussion on how to structure your website, how to modify your permalinks, set up the navigation bar and to use the visual editor.

There is an entire chapter devoted to embedding and handling video on the site which I felt was very important. Again, they covered not just how to embed video, but how to keep the video on your site organized and well structured, as well as various plugins that can be used to add extra functionality to the site. One part I didn’t expect was the information on how to podcast, which I thought was interesting. This was covered in conjunction with advice on setting up syndication and using Feedburner. I personally have never done any podcasting, but it’s nice to know that the information is there if I need it. I did appreciate the discussion on syndication however and thought it made getting set up on Feedburner easier and less confusing I remember it being.

There is a chapter devoted to WordPress security which, having suffered from malware and virus attacks on my WordPress blogs in the past, I thought was a good idea. One can never be too secure when it comes to the Internet and the advice in this chapter is solid.

If your new to WordPress this is a excellent book to get you started. I highly recommend it. I found this more user friendly and readable than any other WordPress book I have read or reviewed. If you use WordPress but want to understand it and get more out of it I highly recommend this book as well, especially if you want to learn how to go into the code to modify the appearance of your site. IF you want to use WordPress to it’s full functionality get this book.

Review by C. Miller:

Recently, I seem to be receiving quite a few WordPress books for review. For anyone investigating building your blog initiative, Head First WordPress is the best I have read yet. The Head First books always present the information numerous ways to catch your attention, highlight key areas and make you contemplate new topics before moving along.

Head First WordPress starts the reader with a basic understanding of the platform, quick install, dashboard and a quick walk through making your first posting. While I run many blogs (including this one) on WordPress, I appreciated the way anyone could have read this first chapter and felt comfortable in posting via WordPress.

Chapter 2 moves into simple and advanced design changes with a ground floor introduction to the anatomy of WordPress, PHP usage, templates, themes, stylesheets, widgets and more. With these 40 pages you should be able to make simple changes, add widgets, change a few PHP files and create a custom homepage.

Chapters 3 and 4 work together in organization and showing how WordPress can be a content management system using categories and the strength of using tags in conjunction. Simplifying navigation and changing colors is a focus in the CSS section. Roles of users and commenting ability rounds out the 70+ pages in these two chapters.

Podcasting and video embedding are a major focus in social media right now and Chapter 5 covers all aspects. Even a sample breakdown of xml usage and possible plug-ins are listed so anyone could begin sharing media quickly. I appreciated how they showed numerous examples of hosting your own, embedding and pulling content from remote sites in Chapter 5. They carried this into Chpater 6 with the explanation of RSS and how this shares your content further than anyone just reading your blog on the web.

Now even I learned some tricks in Chapter 7 for locking down your WordPress servers. From security in accounts, directory security, backups and the power of plug-ins was covered in a middle level with plenty of diagrams, pictures and step-by-step tutorials.

Chapter 8 dove into external versus self hosting, WordPress speed improvements, tracking (such as Google Analytics) and caching of your files. I knew of some of the plug-ins they explained and suggested, but the breakdown of how they functioned was incredibly helpful.

Just when you felt they were done they toss another 10 pages of 10 tips that didn’t quite fit anywhere else in the book. The book is based on recent WordPress versions as they used the beta of 3.0 for examples and screenshots making it a must have for anyone upgrading and new to WordPress.

This will make it into TheSocialNetworker book selections. I place the top technical books I have reviewed there.

Review by Todd Hawley:

Over the last few months, I’ve read a few books about WordPress, all of them quite good and ones I’d recommend. I’d highly recommend this one for the so-called “average, everyday person” wanting to get started with a WordPress blog. Ms. Sabine-Wilson gives detailed step by step instructions for every WordPress task and explains in detail various options and settings. When you first look at a WordPress dashboard, one may get daunted by all of the options present and Sabine-Wilson gently leads you through all of them. This second edition was delayed because WordPress latest major upgrade (2.7) was itself delayed. This book has the latest WordPress screen shots in its figures, which helps avoid confusion.

Among the topics Sabine-Wilson covers are getting set up with a blog at WordPress.com or WordPress.org (if you decide to find a site host already running WordPress), how to manage your blog, what all the Admin panel options mean, adding images and/or audio files, themes and plugins. To someone just getting started, WordPress might seem bit difficult to master. But it’s actually pretty straight forward to use once you get familiar with it. This book is a good way to become familiar with using WordPress.

Review by R. Riley:

I have (slowly) been building a website for the purpose of advocating for more action worldwide to minimize fire-related deaths in dwellings. Having started with a CMS (content management) application installed by my webhosting company and ending up with much (newbie-caused, not blaming anyone else) frustration, I investigated WordPress and found that it is a Blogging-CMS package that can be a powerful tool for setting up a website. I bought two books from Amazon about WordPress. Both are excellent, the other being “Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read.”

“WordPress for Dummies” is an excellent and thorough introduction to the power of WordPress. It covers the use of WordPress in several settings, including but not limited to: 1) the WordPress.com setup and 2) a situation like mine, where WordPress is provided by a webhosting site. In both cases, the book provides excellent coverage of the software’s dashboard, organizing a blog, dealing with allowing for both comments and new articles from others (if you desire), adding third-party articles, etc.

The book covers much more than I have listed above, but for people like me who are new to setting up software for blog/website building, “WordPress for Dummies” (Second Edition) is simply an excellent tool which I strongly recommend.