This book gives readers the tools they need to create beautiful, functional WordPress-powered sites with minimal hassle. Using the WordPress user interface as a baseline, authors Jessica Neuman Beck and Matt Beck walk new users through the installation and setup process while providing valuable tips and tricks for more experienced users. With no other resource but this guide, readers can set up a fully-functional and well-designed WordPress site that takes advantage of all the features WordPress has to offer.
WordPress: Visual QuickStart Guide
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From the Back Cover
This book gives readers the tools they need to create beautiful, functional WordPress-powered sites with minimal hassle. Using the WordPress user interface as a baseline, authors Jessica Neuman Beck and Matt Beck walk new users through the installation and setup process while providing valuable tips and tricks for more experienced users. With no other resource but this guide, readers can set up a fully-functional and well-designed WordPress site that takes advantage of all the features WordPress has to offer.
About the Author
Jessica Neuman Beck is a writer, editor, and Web designer. She is the managing partner at CouldBe Studios, a small-business-focused Web design agency located in Portland, Oregon, that specializes in Shopify and WordPress sites.
Matt Beck is Jessica's business partner at CouldBe Studios, a designer, and a PHP/MySQL developer. He has a solid background in IT and MIS management, including lots of experience with WordPress design and customization.
Find out more about Matt and Jessica at: www.couldbestudios.com --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Matt Beck is Jessica's business partner at CouldBe Studios, a designer, and a PHP/MySQL developer. He has a solid background in IT and MIS management, including lots of experience with WordPress design and customization.
Find out more about Matt and Jessica at: www.couldbestudios.com --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I wanted to build a new website (not necessarily a blog) with Wordpress. Although I have a little experience of HTML and CSS I had no knowledge of how to build a Wordpress site. With this in mind I bought this book because it was based on the then current version 2.8.
Version 2.9 of Wordpress was out nearly before the book arrived in the post, although thankfully it has not changed much in relation to this book. If you are looking for a fairly easy reading book which explains all the basics then this is just the book to buy.
It suits me because I don't work on my website all the time, and therefore tend to forget exactly what to do when I want to change a page. This book acts as a great reference to check what procedure I should follow.
The last chapters provide an idea of what to do if you want to create your own theme without going into great depth. This is fine if you only need the basics, but if you want to be at the forefront of web design then you will need a more advanced theme subject.
The book has covered just what I want and explained it with images of what and where to click to avoid confusion. Unlike some other books on this subject it quite clearly states that it is for Version 2.8; some tend to shy away from mentioning which version is being examined - check when each book has been published.
Version 2.9 of Wordpress was out nearly before the book arrived in the post, although thankfully it has not changed much in relation to this book. If you are looking for a fairly easy reading book which explains all the basics then this is just the book to buy.
It suits me because I don't work on my website all the time, and therefore tend to forget exactly what to do when I want to change a page. This book acts as a great reference to check what procedure I should follow.
The last chapters provide an idea of what to do if you want to create your own theme without going into great depth. This is fine if you only need the basics, but if you want to be at the forefront of web design then you will need a more advanced theme subject.
The book has covered just what I want and explained it with images of what and where to click to avoid confusion. Unlike some other books on this subject it quite clearly states that it is for Version 2.8; some tend to shy away from mentioning which version is being examined - check when each book has been published.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am a fan of the clean, simple Visual QuickStart approach but unfortunately this book is too light on detail. It does not get far beyond the obvious and just when you want to know more the section ends. This, combined with the fact that it refers to an older version of WordPress (2.8), makes it little use. I would love to see a more in-depth, up-to-date version because WordPress could do with a book like that.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars
10 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent introduction to WordPress 2
27 Jan 2010
By Damodar Chetty
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I was looking for a very quick introduction to WordPress, and I was fortunate to chance upon this book.
The authors have done a stellar job in creating an extremely approachable guide to WordPress. This is one of those books with a very high Return On Investment for your time spent reading it. Plan on spending about a weekend, and make sure that you have a hosting service handy (ideally with cPanel and Fantastico) to try out the examples.
The book is targeted at WordPress 2.7 - and does a very decent job of describing all that you need to know about installing, configuring, and using WordPress. If you want to know how to manage your posts, pages, tags, categories, links, media, widgets, plugins, RSS feeds, and themes - this book covers it all.
The only downside that I might point out is that the book devotes a lot of space to the creation of custom themes - which could be considered a topic that is simply too complex for a visual style workbook. There's a lot of ground to cover here in addition to just WordPress ... PHP, HTML, CSS ... and this is where the book tends to lose some of its simplicity and purity of focus. (Note that if you're somewhat familiar with these technologies, you should have no problem following along.)
Notwithstanding that caveat, if you want to get a quick grasp of the lay of the land, this book works out just great. It was a highly enjoyable read for me - hence my 5-star rating.
Happy Blogging!
~Damodar
The authors have done a stellar job in creating an extremely approachable guide to WordPress. This is one of those books with a very high Return On Investment for your time spent reading it. Plan on spending about a weekend, and make sure that you have a hosting service handy (ideally with cPanel and Fantastico) to try out the examples.
The book is targeted at WordPress 2.7 - and does a very decent job of describing all that you need to know about installing, configuring, and using WordPress. If you want to know how to manage your posts, pages, tags, categories, links, media, widgets, plugins, RSS feeds, and themes - this book covers it all.
The only downside that I might point out is that the book devotes a lot of space to the creation of custom themes - which could be considered a topic that is simply too complex for a visual style workbook. There's a lot of ground to cover here in addition to just WordPress ... PHP, HTML, CSS ... and this is where the book tends to lose some of its simplicity and purity of focus. (Note that if you're somewhat familiar with these technologies, you should have no problem following along.)
Notwithstanding that caveat, if you want to get a quick grasp of the lay of the land, this book works out just great. It was a highly enjoyable read for me - hence my 5-star rating.
Happy Blogging!
~Damodar
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Functional rather than conceptual
22 Jun 2010
By E. Angell
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
WordPress Visual Quickstart is a thorough, step-by-step guide to installing, configuring and managing your own WordPress site. It will walk you through everything you can do with the basic WordPress configuration, as well as talk about some of the extensibility of the application. As a reference book for the beginner, you can hardly go wrong with it.
One thing to be aware of is that the book really is more functional than conceptual. The book does not attempt to guide you through the decision-making process when setting up your site, and only rarely makes recommendations for configuration choices...nor does it have a lot of sidebars explaining concepts like linkbacks and their importance, or talk in depth about best practices and the most effective ways to structure/organize your site (using pages vs. categories vs. tags etc.) I would have liked to see a little more discussion on some of these concepts -- but then, it does follow the most common pattern of VQSG's by Peachpit.
If you're new to Wordpress and to blogs, I'd suggest purchasing this book in combination with a more conceptual overview of the available Wordpress functionality.
One thing to be aware of is that the book really is more functional than conceptual. The book does not attempt to guide you through the decision-making process when setting up your site, and only rarely makes recommendations for configuration choices...nor does it have a lot of sidebars explaining concepts like linkbacks and their importance, or talk in depth about best practices and the most effective ways to structure/organize your site (using pages vs. categories vs. tags etc.) I would have liked to see a little more discussion on some of these concepts -- but then, it does follow the most common pattern of VQSG's by Peachpit.
If you're new to Wordpress and to blogs, I'd suggest purchasing this book in combination with a more conceptual overview of the available Wordpress functionality.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Quickstart? Hardly. Quick yes, but hardly starts at the beginning
1 Jun 2010
By D. Greenbaum
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Wordpress, as the saying guys "takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master." I had hoped the Visual Quickstart Guide would maybe help me move to at least the apprentice level. I was wrong. I was more confused than when I started
This book assumes you have access to and understand such things as MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin. If you don't, then much of this book will be lost on you. That's hardly a Quickstart. On the other hand, if you already know the ins and outs of databases and PHP, you probably will not need a book like this to learn about Wordpress.
Unfortunately, the book left me more confused then when I started. While it explained the very basics of adding posts, pages and categories, the book never really explained the proper use of these features and why they are important. It just covered the most basic functionality of the features laundry-list style without helping you understand what they are actually used for. Same is true for comments, media, and syndication. Most people understand these basics, so I can certainly understand why they were glossed over. However, this is supposed to be a beginner book.
Also missing were detailed explanations on how to setup up themes and plugins. These are the features most new Wordpress users are interested in as they are key in customizing a blog. The book didn't say much on these areas beyond reiterating the content of the basic help functions already built into Wordpress.
Pros: It's humbling.
Cons: Expects a high level of technical knowledge, yet only scratches the surface of all Wordpress functions. Leaves the reader more confused then when they started
This book assumes you have access to and understand such things as MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin. If you don't, then much of this book will be lost on you. That's hardly a Quickstart. On the other hand, if you already know the ins and outs of databases and PHP, you probably will not need a book like this to learn about Wordpress.
Unfortunately, the book left me more confused then when I started. While it explained the very basics of adding posts, pages and categories, the book never really explained the proper use of these features and why they are important. It just covered the most basic functionality of the features laundry-list style without helping you understand what they are actually used for. Same is true for comments, media, and syndication. Most people understand these basics, so I can certainly understand why they were glossed over. However, this is supposed to be a beginner book.
Also missing were detailed explanations on how to setup up themes and plugins. These are the features most new Wordpress users are interested in as they are key in customizing a blog. The book didn't say much on these areas beyond reiterating the content of the basic help functions already built into Wordpress.
Pros: It's humbling.
Cons: Expects a high level of technical knowledge, yet only scratches the surface of all Wordpress functions. Leaves the reader more confused then when they started
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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