WordPress Basics

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WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

  • When we say WordPress, we mean the Content Management System (CMS) available at WordPress.org for download/installation on a Web server like Apache.
  • WordPress "instances" are individual installations (blogs) that can be installed anywhere. At WordPress.com, you can sign up for an account that will give you a WordPress instance on the WordPress.com server.
  • We recommend you install WordPress locally for testing, sign up for an account on a Web host, or request a WordPress instance from Diggity on the testing server for classes.

Helpful Resources

Based on the presentation by Hans Schoenburg, available as a PDF here.

Anatomy of a WordPress theme

http://yoast.com/wordpress-theme-anatomy

Best Practices

Planning Session

  • What am I going to do with this?
  • Who is going to read this?
  • What kinds of information will I be posting?
  • Why am I doing this?
  • Who am I doing this for?
  • How often am I going to be posting and adding information?

Picking the Right Theme

  • Search the web for the name of it. What does the web say?
  • Premium themes are better quality but may cost $

Considerations

  • Niche
  • Speed
  • Usability
  • Premium or free?
  • Tech support (official or community)?
  • Read about the themes reputation online
  • Use Minimalist themes
  • Try to pick responsive themes. What is responsiveness?

Make a Child Theme

  • http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes
  • Inherits the parent theme, allows you to tinker around without risking everything
  • folder theme-childtheme
  • make file theme-childtheme/style.css
  • info header for the top of style.css

Templates

Theme Recommendations

  • Portfolio Press: Exactly what it sounds like, tailored toward visual artists.
  • Academica: Three-column theme for "academic" sites, but really it has a clean and clear style for any purpose.
  • Titan: Nicely balanced theme for websites of all kinds, with multiple color schemes. This and other The ThemeFoundry themes are good starting points, but keep in mind you may have to pay for premium features (e.g. extra options and theme settings). If you can hack the HTML/JS/CSS/PHP yourself, this is not much of an issue, but be prepared for increased cost as time goes on if you're a beginner.
  • Wu Wei: Simple and "zen-like", as the name implies
  • Ice Cap: Another good minimalistic theme with solid typography.
  • zeeBizzCard: This theme is tailored to look like a profile page in a social networking site, and is good for a simple "hey guess what, I'm on the web".
  • Pinboard: Nice blog theme with a grid system.
  • Annotum Base: Designed for an open-access journal, but a very attractive theme for informational (text-heavy) websites of all kinds.
  • iFeature: Very nice "Apple-ish" theme, that looks good on mobile devices. This and other CyberChimps themes are good starting points, but keep in mind you may have to pay for premium features (e.g. extra options and theme settings). If you can hack the HTML/JS/CSS/PHP yourself, this is not much of an issue, but be prepared for increased cost as time goes on if you're a beginner.
  • Photolistic: Geared toward photographers, focuses on image galleries.
  • Desk Mess: Looks like a desk, feels like a blog.
  • Eclipse: Eclipse, a solid, dark, responsive theme. This and other CyberChimps themes are good starting points, but keep in mind you may have to pay for premium features (e.g. extra options and theme settings). If you can hack the HTML/JS/CSS/PHP yourself, this is not much of an issue, but be prepared for increased cost as time goes on if you're a beginner.
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