WordPress 2.7 Complete Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book helped me figure out how to convert an existing site to a WordPress theme, an especially challenging project since my existing html page design didn't have any clear header, middle, footer arrangement. I was able to figure out where I wanted to take things with my own theme development mostly from reading Chapter 6. (Getting under the engine with the WP template tags is far more empowering than following a tutorial that has you start out by fiddling around with an image in Photoshop.) Well written, too.

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Written in a clear, easy-to-read style, the book takes you through the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book. This book is a guide to WordPress for both beginners and those who are slightly more advanced. It's for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner, and it's also for people who want to learn how to customize and expand the capabilities of a WordPress web site. It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT-confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog.

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WordPress 3 Ultimate Security Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been using WordPress since version 2.5 and when I first heard about this book, I was wondering how the author could fill 240+ pages on securing WordPress.
As many veteran WordPress users know, Automattic, the company that oversees the development of the open source blogging platform, does an excellent job keeping it secure, with regular updates. The problem here is many users think that Automattic does everything to keep WordPress sites secure. Do not fall into this trap. Users have to take responsibility too.

So it came as no surprise that the first four chapters are spent explaining how the bad guys work and how to protect your computer and network. The author covers a broad range of topics from how to secure Windows, Mac, and Linux workstations. He gives advice on where to obtain, install and configure personal firewalls and anti-virus software. He suggests ways to avoid spam and make your web browser safe for browsing.
The chapters on WordPress security are just as informative. He explains how to back up your WordPress site (which you are probably already doing. Right?) How to set up file and user permissions. He explains which WordPress files and features should be disabled or removed to avoid hackers and why you should use SSL, SFTP and hardened shell accounts to access your site.

If your site does get hacked, there is a disaster recovery section that explains how to get your site back online and make sure it doesn't get hacked again.

I am an IT consultant and have worked with PCs in some form since 1982 and built my first website in 1995. I thought I knew a lot about security, but this book taught me many new ways to secure websites and computers. It was a quick read and brought me up to date on the fast changing world of Internet security.
This book can help all users, from WordPress beginners to IT professionals. I recommend reading it to keep both your website and PC/Mac/Linux computer safe.


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This is a comprehensive essential guide to WordPress security written in a light style, which converts learning a really serious topic to an enjoyable read. It is packed with copy-paste solutions to security to suit all levels of security know-how. Just as WordPress is used by a broad spectrum of website owners, with varying degrees of security know-how, so WordPress 3 Ultimate Security is written to be understood by security novices and web professionals alike. From site and server owners and administrators to members of their contributing team, this essential A to Z reference takes a complex and, let's face it, frankly dull subject and makes it accessible, encouraging, and sometimes even fun. Even if you are a total newbie to security, you can transform an insecure site into an iron-clad fortress, safeguarding your site users, your content and, sooner or later, your stress level.

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WordPress 2.8 Theme Design Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I seem to be reading quite a few WordPress books of late, and there are certainly a few to choose from. Packt Publishing's WordPress 2.8 Theme Design's tagline is 'Create flexible, powerful, and professional themes for your WordPress blogs and websites'.
WordPress themes are of interest to me since they fuse a visual aspect with PHP code, and there's no doubt that they appeal to many other people too.
Chapter Overview
1. Getting Started as a WordPress Theme Designer
2. Theme Design and Approach
3. Coding it Up
4. Debugging and Validation
5. Putting Your Theme into Action
6. WordPress Template Tag, Function, and CSS Reference
7. AJAX/Dynamic Content and Interactive Forms
8. Dynamic Menus and Interactive Elements
9. Design Tips for Working with WordPress
The book's author Tessa Blakely Silver starts very gently with an introduction to WordPress themes and why downloading a theme that's already been coded and designed may not always be the best solution. Subsequently, the book develops a theme from scratch and examines core technologies such as WordPress, CSS, XHTML and PHP.
The second chapter starts with a discussion of theme design in general, followed by the beginnings of the theme that's developed throughout the book. There are further discussions on semantic markup, typography, fonts and layout.
The following chapter focuses on the code aspect of theme design, and suggests a workflow strategy as well as template tags, hooks, and the WordPress loop. Comments are then discussed in some detail, the topic including pagination and threaded comments.
Chapter four examines the process of debugging and validating. A thorough chapter includes references to the W3C validation services, Firefox's JavaScript/Error console, Firebug and some of the issues that the budding theme developer will face when dealing with IE6.
Chapter five looks at the style.css file, which provides descriptive information about a theme, together with packaging the theme into a ZIP for distribution and running test installations of the theme package.
Chapter six adopts a more reference based approach, with an in depth examination of WordPress template tags, the WordPress template hierarchy, the loop and shortcodes.
The following chapter looks at AJAX and JavaScript, as well as preparing your theme for plugins and widgets.
Chapter eight builds on Chapter 7's JavaScript discussion by developing a drop-down menu for the theme. There is also a discussion of Flash and how that can be used with WordPress themes.
Chapter nine rounds off the book with a number of design tips that apply not just to WordPress theme design, but web design in general.
The book's about 250 pages in length, and is generally well written. I did, however, notice a few errors in code samples (mostly misplaced quotes), and a couple of examples in the prose itself. Another minor niggle was that the author talks about semantic markup, and then introduces 'sidebarLT' (sidebar left) and 'sidebarRT' (sidebar right) IDs into the markup.
The back of the book states: This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill set or level, you'll be walked through the clear, step-by-step instructions. But familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.
It seems as through Packt have tried to convince the potential reader that this is the book for them, regardless of whether they're fairly inexperienced in some areas, or a a highly skilled developer. I'd say that the book covers a lot of ground, and that it does so at a pace that would be suitable for an inexperienced developer. Much of the content, however, would already be familiar to a skilled web developer, and so I feel that they'd think that the really useful content is a little thinly spread.
Overall, it's encouraging to see more books about WordPress; although the internet is a fantastic resource, books still have a very important role in my opinion. The content of this one is great for beginner-medium level web developers, but more experienced readers will be left wanting more.


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Theme design can be approached from two angles. The first is simplicity; sometimes it suits the client and/or the site to go as bare-bones as possible. In that case, it's quick and easy to take a very basic, pre-made theme and modify it. The second is "Unique and Beautiful". Occasionally, the site's theme needs to be created from scratch so that everything displayed caters to the specific kind of content the site offers. This book is going to take you through the Unique and Beautiful route with the idea that once you know how to create a theme from scratch, you'll be more apt at understanding what to look for in other WordPress themes. This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you'll find clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.

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Head First WordPress: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)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.

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Whether you're promoting your business or writing about your travel adventures, Head First WordPress will teach you not only how to make your blog look unique and attention-grabbing, but also how to dig into the more complex features of WordPress 3.0 to make your website work well, too.

You'll learn how to move beyond the standard WordPress look and feel by customizing your blog with your own URL, templates, plugin functionality, and more. As you learn, you'll be working with real WordPress files: The book's website provides pre-fab WordPress themes to download and work with as you follow along with the text.

Gain immediate experience with WordPress 3.0, the June 2010 release of the software
Get your site up and running by setting up a MySQL database and creating configuration files
Work with the Wordpress platform to create posts and pages, learn the difference between tags and categories, edit content, moderate comments, and manage spam
Explore how to extend Wordpress with plugins and templates
Convert custom designs (in HTML and CSS) into functional themes and use them in WordPress

We think your time is too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First WordPress uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.

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WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)WordPress Theme Design is a short book, 204 pages and offers an experience very much like that given by the Peachpit Press' Visual QuickProject Series. This is not a definitive guide to WordPress theming. Tessa Silver walks us through the creation of a WordPress theme intended for a monthly magazine site. As much CMS/beyond-the-blog flexibility of WordPress needs to be implemented by creative theming, this project offers an insight into how to customize WordPress for sites other than plain vanilla blogs. WordPress core features like "the loop," are mentioned but we are referred to the WordPress Codex documentation for more information. That's pretty much the way the book works, features or concepts, such as the loop or drop down menus are discussed, but for expanded explanations we are pointed to external web documentation.
The writing is clear and conversational and is targeted towards someone with a reasonable grounding in HTML and CSS, I'd say advanced novice to early intermediate. Those without an understanding of HTML will find it over their heads. A very basic understand of PHP syntax is also helpful. Except for WordPress specific code, experienced, standards aware coders will find much of the material pretty basic. Ms. Silver does create her design with modern web standards best practices, which she describes in a standards based context. The theme we create by following the tutorial is functional and illustrates some of WordPress' advanced capabilities, which can be accessed only through clever theming. Basic SEO is mentioned, and some advanced WordPress plug-ins and capabilities are briefly covered.
Chapter 6 offers a short overview of WordPress functions and a nice template tag reference. In Chapter 2, Silver offers brief descriptions describing her design workflow process and some of the tools she uses. In chapters 3-5 we create the basic theme and are introduced to WordPress themeing conventions. Chapters 7-9 briefly discuss some advanced WordPress capabilities, mostly gained through the use of plug-ins and widgets.


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In Detail
This title will take you through the ins and outs of creating sophisticated professional themes for the WordPress personal publishing platform. It will walk you through clear, step-by-step instructions to build a custom WordPress theme. From development tools and setting up your WordPress sandbox, through design tips and suggestions, to setting up your theme's template structure, coding markup, testing and debugging, to taking it live it reviews the best practices. The last three chapters are dedicated to additional tips, tricks and various cookbook recipes for adding popular site enhancements to your WordPress theme designs using third-party plugins.
Whether you're working with a pre-existing theme or creating a new one from the ground up, WordPress Theme Design will give you the know-how to understand how themes work within the WordPress blog system, enabling you to take full control over your site's design and branding.
What you will learn from this book?

Set up a basic workflow and development environment for WordPress theme design
Create detailed designs and code them up
Enhance your sites by choosing the right color schemes and graphics
Debug and validate your theme using W3C's XHTML and CSS validation tools
Customize and tweak your theme's layout
Set up dynamic drop-down menus, AJAX/dynamic and interactive forms
Download and install useful plug-ins and widgetize your theme
Improve post and page content using jQuery and ThickBox
Add interactivity to your themes using Flash
Includes a reference guide to WordPress 2.0's template hierarchy, markup, styles and template tags, as well as include and loop functions
Approach
Theme design can be approached from two angles. The first is simplicity; sometimes it suits the client and/or the site to go as bare-bones as possible. In that case, it's quick and easy to take a very basic, pre-made theme and modify it.
The second is "Unique and Beautiful". Occasionally, the site's theme needs to be created from scratch so that everything displayed caters to the specific kind of content the site offers. This book is going to take you through the Unique and Beautiful route with the idea that once you know how to create a theme from scratch, you'll be more apt at understanding what to look for in other WordPress themes.
Who this book is written for?
This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors.
Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you'll be walked through the clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.

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WordPress All-in-One For Dummies Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Here is a quote from Page 57 of "WordPress All-in-one for Dummies" that ought to be highlighted on the cover of the book. "The self-installed version from WordPress.org is the primary focus of WordPress All-in-one for Dummies." What does that mean?
WordPress is the popular software that allows for the creation of blogs and it comes in two versions. The version of WordPress found on the .com site (which I think of as the on-line version) allows the user to set up a free, full featured blog that will satisfy the basic needs of many bloggers and that is slightly customizable at no charge, and then, still more customizable for some small fees. The .org (or self-installed) version is meant to be loaded onto a hosting computer and is fully customizable although one will have to be familiar with the workings of software and capable of writing code to accomplish this.
Like the self-installed version, the on-line version operates from a main "dashboard", which is by no means instinctive. Its use can be learned from the software's help facility but a guide devoted solely to this version would be extremely useful. Some of that information can be gleaned from this book, like the method of installing one's own graphic in the header, instead of the WordPress defaults, but one will have to sort through the information in the book. If you just want to set up a blog, for whatever purposes, or if you just want to make a start in getting into blogging, the on-line version will prove adequate, and, especially if one is willing to invest in upgrades which are available for a small fee, can be tailored to give a distinctive enough look.
Most of this book will help you if you want to set up a blog that you can tailor to your own desires, including even showing you how you can set up the software for multiple users. On the other hand, you will probably have to learn to code Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and even a little HTML and to read the WordPress code to make adjustments. The book will explain to you, for example, that you can change the width of a sidebar, and even tell you which file on your host you must open and alter to do so. However, the authors could easily have included the code for, say, a theme, and then showed you how to change that code rather than talking in general terms. The reader who doesn't know CSS and HTML coding will be disappointed.
Although there is plenty of information here, there is nothing to tell you about creating the content for your blog, or suggesting which of the easily installable widgets that allow you to do things like add convenient indexing to your blog pages will be most helpful to you in achieving the purpose of your blog. Similarly, even though WordPress can be used to set up something like a photographer's gallery, there is no discussion of other options for achieving the same purpose, like creating straight web pages with HTML or software like Dreamweaver.
The bottom line is that if you are interested in setting up a blog to convey your ideas, you probably can get started with the on-line version of WordPress and can pass this book by. On the other hand, if you are intent upon tailoring your blog to a specific layout, and are willing to learn and use coding, this book may be a good start,


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A convenient how-to guide for maximizing your WordPress experience
WordPress is a state-of-the-art blog publishing platform with nearly ten million active installations. Eight minibooks provide you with expanded coverage of the most important topics to the WordPress community, such as WordPress basics, theme designs, plug-in development, social media integration, SEO, customization, and running multiple sites. Veteran author Lisa Sabin-Wilson leads an authoritative team of authors who offer their unique knowledge and skillset while sharing invaluable advice for maximizing your site's potential and visitor experience.
Presents straightforward and easy-to-understand coverage of the basics of WordPress, the most popular blog software in use today
Delves into the topics that matter most to the WordPress community, such as theme design, plug-in development, and social media integration
Addresses ways to handle a variety of WordPress security issues
Examines the WordPress network

The word on the street is that WordPress All-in-One For Dummies presents everything you need to know about WordPress in one convenient book!

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Getting Started with WordPress: Design Your Own Blog or Website Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It must have taken me an hour to decide which book on Wordpress to choose. I needed a book that would take me by the hand and walk me through every step slowly and surley. Mr. Kelsey makes it easy and is right there the entire way without speaking above your head. Buy this book if you need help building your site!

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If you're a beginning blogger looking for an easy-to-follow, friendly guide to help you produce an attractively designed blog or website, this is the book for you. You'll learn the basics of WordPress, one-click installs, and customizations. There's also coverage of SEO, categorizing blog posts, and social media promotion strategies, such as importing your blog into a Facebook page. This book's approach starts out simple using step-by-step examples and builds from there, enabling you to gain confidence in building your blog. You'll soon feel comfortable with a variety of helpful techniques: writing the text for your blog, adding pictures to your posts, publicizing your blog, tracking the number of visitors you've had, customizing the look and feel of your blog, managing comment spam, and even exploring ecommerce. You'll see sample blogs in the book and on the companion website so you can get an idea of what other bloggers are doing. Readers await your blog!

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WordPress In Depth (2nd Edition) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A representative of Pearson Education spotted me on the LinkedIn WordPress group and offered me a review copy of this book, and a second one to give away at the East Bay WordPress Meetup. That was more than a month ago, but I wanted to do justice to all 432 pages and actually read the book in as much depth as it had been written.
Not surprisingly, my fine-toothed comb revealed a handful of typos and printing errors, which I've pointed out to Pearson so they can be corrected in the next edition. They're all fairly minor and I won't mention them here.
There was only one omission really worth the name, and it made me wonder how many other experienced WordPress users might have overlooked this feature when it came out, because I'm pretty sure the authors aren't the only ones. More on that in a minute.
The book is detailed but not excessively technical. I wouldn't give it to my mom, but anyone who is computer-literate should find it accessible. The style is clear, the directions easy to follow, and the decisions about what to put in sidebars and callout boxes logical. There are plenty of illustrations and some impressively detailed tables. The book design, like the writing style, is workmanlike: it gets the job done effectively, without being especially beautiful or inspiring. (You want a WordPress book that's beautiful, go take a look at Digging into WordPress.)
The most important thing to know about WordPress in Depth is that the first 226 pages are dedicated to WordPress.com. As the authors point out, there are very few resources, online or off, devoted specifically to WordPress.com users. When I first began using WordPress in 2005, WordPress.com didn't even exist, so I never learned anything about it. But with a meetup to run, I thought it would behoove me to learn. After reading this book, I feel much more confident answering questions about the differences between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress (often referred to as WordPress.org).
I'm sure that any WordPress.com user will be able to get the most out of that service with the help of WordPress in Depth. Though, really, the more I learned, the happier I was that I'd always installed WordPress on my own site and had the full range of themes and plugins to draw on. Hosted services (I used Blogger before converting to WordPress) are incredibly limiting.
In moving from WordPress.com to installing the WordPress software on your own site, the authors take us right off the deep end: setting up a web development server on your own computer with XAMPP. It's great to have this tutorial here, though by no means everyone who uses the .org version of WordPress is going to need a development server. It's also good to show the steps of a manual WordPress installation. On the other hand, most popular web hosting companies offer a "one-click" installation process for WordPress through Fantastico or whatever their control panel software is, and it wouldn't have hurt to see a screenshot or description of that process, too, though of course it differs somewhat from host to host.
The next two chapters cover themes and plugins, and here is where that omission comes into play. Every time Smith and McCallister talk about installing a theme or plugin from somewhere other than the WordPress.org/extend/ repository, they tell you to download, unzip, and upload via FTP. It seems that neither of them ever noticed the "Upload" option under "Add New" in the Themes and Plugins sections of the WordPress dashboard, which lets you browse for a .zip file, upload it, and install it.
I use this all the time, and it works extremely well, except in those few cases where the real theme folder is actually a subfolder, in which case you have to go back and move things around with FTP. Everyone who manages a self-hosted WordPress site should know how to use FTP, but why make things harder on yourself than they have to be? This feature came in with WordPress 2.8, and it's a handy one.
Another feature the book never mentions--and which I only noticed myself a few weeks ago--is the ability to set the number of columns for your edit window. So you don't actually have to switch to full-screen mode (a thing I didn't know existed until they recommended it on page 86) in order to get a wider window for your content: just choose 1 column under Screen Layout. (I don't actually like this very much, because I have to scroll down in order to do anything, but then, I normally work on a 17" laptop, and I normally write my posts in Windows Live Writer. On my netbook, it might make a lot more sense to use the single-column layout.)s
The brief overviews of CSS, XHTML, and PHP are certainly not enough to make you expert in any of those things, but they're surprisingly helpful. (And Pearson publishes titles on all those subjects, if you want to learn more about them. Just search on their website.) You're not going to become a ninja-class theme developer just by reading what's here, but having it would have saved me a bit of trial and error in my earliest days of tweaking themes. And since I really knew nothing of PHP beyond what I'd cribbed from the Codex, I found the description in Chapter 15 illuminating.
The book concludes with some handy appendices: a comparison of WordPress.com and WordPress.org, an examination of the existing WordPress documentation, some examples of famous WordPress.org and WordPress.com blogs, a map of the official WordPress sites, and finally a guide to importing your content from other systems into WordPress.
I would recommend this book without reservation to WordPress.com users and to anyone who is about to make or has just made the transition from WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress. If your main interested is in WordPress.org, however, you may find the first half of the book frustrating. While there are many things that work just the same for the two versions of WordPress, there are also quite a few differences, of the kind particularly likely to trip up beginners who are unfamiliar with the WordPress dashboard.
While not the best book for everyone, WordPress in Depth is a very good book for at least one segment of WordPress users.


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WordPress has grown into the #1 blogging tool in its category: several million bloggers have downloaded this powerful open source software, and millions more are using WordPress.com's hosted services. Thirty-two of Technorati's Top 100 blogs now use WordPress. WordPress InDepth, 2/e, is a comprehensive reference for everyone who wants to use either WordPress or WordPress.com more effectively -- regardless of their experience with WordPress or with blogging. It offers comprehensive guidance for every aspect of using WordPress -- from downloading, installing, and securing it through blog design, templates, themes, posting entries, working with comments and email, and managing WordPress blogs. WordPress software has moved from Version 2.9 to Version 3.0 and this new edition has been fully updated to reflect the changes, including: -New look. The software has a more sophisticated look. Some menu items have been moved around, and the font is different. -Menus editor. WordPress now allows users to create and manage menus -Graphics editor. -New default theme. The look and functionality of the default theme have changed -Merger of WordPress and WordPress Multi-User (WordPress MU) -Use of WordPress as a CMS.

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Using WordPress Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)WordPress has established itself as the blogging software of choice for millions of people looking to put their thoughts online. Using WordPress is a solid intro to get you up and running with a blog of your own.
The book walks you through all the big and not-so-big steps of make a WordPress blog; from install and updates, to using themes, plug-ins and widgets, to handling audio and video files, to keeping your blog secure.
Almost all of the content in this book is geared toward the install on your own site "wordpress.org" version of WordPress, but it does try to cater to the "wordpress.com" the stripped-down version hosted by WordPress itself. If you have a wordpress.com blog and are looking to upgrade to your own site down the line, this book'll show you how.
The big selling point of this book is the online content. With a quick signup and a simple authentication to prove you actually own the book, you're rewarded with a complete online version of the book (with color photos) as well as video walkthroughs of the various steps you'll be taking in the blog miking process. The only topic that's missing the multimedia treatment is converting a static HTML site over to WordPress, which would've been good to see.
There are also audio sidebars with additional thoughts on each chapter's topic. They may useful if you're curious for more info, but the fact that there's no visuals makes it a bit hard to follow what they're saying. Some topics like using the WordPress image editor are done in an audio sidebar with no visuals to guide you.
My other complaint about the companion site is that there's no easy way to access just the multimedia stuff. You basically have to scan through to the page you want. A list broken up by chapter would've really been nice.
As a whole, Using WordPress is a great beginner/intermediate book to get you on your way to running a fully functioning blog.


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Get comfortable with WordPress fast, with this media-rich, customized, hands-on learning experience!


Covers the upcoming release of a major upgrade to WordPress, WordPress 3.0
Tightly integrated with online video, screencast tutorials, podcasts, and more: the total learning experience for new WordPress users
Companion website provides supplemental media including video, screencasts tutorials, podcasts, and much more.
WordPress has grown into the #1 blogging tool in its category: several million bloggers have downloaded this powerful open source software, and millions more are using WordPress.com's hosted services. Thirty-two of Technorati's Top 100 blogs now use WordPress. Using WordPress is a customized, media-rich learning experience designed to help new users master WordPress quickly, and get the most out of it, fast! It starts with a concise, friendly, straight-to-the-point guide to WordPress. This exceptional book is fully integrated with an unprecedented collection of online learning resources: online video, screencasts, podcasts, and additional web content, all designed to reinforce key concepts and help users achieve real mastery. The book and online content work together to teach everything mainstream WordPress users need to know. This practical, approachable coverage guides readers through getting started fast; and will cover the upcoming release of WordPress 3.0. This major upgrade will include built-in image editor and the ability to host multiple blogs from one WordPress install.

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