Readers of this blog will not be surprised that I am a fan of WordPress as both a blogging platform and a content management system. So much a fan that it is one of the only software packages we use at my web design firm. The beauty of WordPress really lies in the fact that out of the box it is very simple yet it has the power to do just about anything you would like it to.
One of my main issues with most content management systems is that they are simply too large, bloated and complicated for 90% of the sites out there. They focus too much on functionality and not how it is executed. The result is bloated code, poor administrative interfaces and complicated configuration. With WordPress this is not the case, out of the box you can build and manage a simple site and when needed you can extend it to do anything from run a social network, do e-commerce or work as a full functioning web application.
In order to fully harness WordPress for my projects (and my company projects) it is critical that I have a clear and efficient understanding of what WordPress can do. From there it is also important that my employees have the capability to develop with the WordPress platform to make this happen. Now I could come up with a training program or try one of the off the shelf books (which I have read through and were not impressed), but I have found Digging Into WordPress to be an excellent solution.
What You Get
Digging into WordPress is available as a PDF download or as a print version. If you are like me and have no problem reading through a book on screen, the PDF version is an easy reference guide and has the added feature of searching and chapter click through. However I am sure there are plenty of people who would rather have a hard copy to reference while they are working away on their computer.
The book is a whopping 434 pages of content and on a broad level covers critical WordPress concepts such as:
- How to set things up
- Building themes
- Keeping sites secure and optimized
- Making the most of WordPress
More specifically the book has chapters on:
- WordPress basics (how to install, optimize and maintain it)
- Setup and optimization (permalinks, categories and tags, publishing, users, themes and plugins)
- Building WordPress themes (Theme files, page views, header, the loop, comments, sidebar, foots, functions & search)
- Advanced theme design (customizing the loop, sidebars, footers, side content, child themes, styling, widgets)
- Functionality (plugins, custom functions)
- WordPress as a CMS (custom content, page templates, dynamic menus, roles & permissions, great Plug-ins)
- Working with RSS Feeds
- Comments and customizations
- Search Engine Optimization (duplicate content, permalinks, appeasing google, tracking)
- Maintenance (security, comment spam, upgrades, backups)
- Bonus Tricks (option panels, free themes)
- WordPress Updates
As you can see the book is packed with just about anything you could possibly want to know about WordPress. Well Beyond what I had the time to read and learn about my first time through, but I am sure there will be instances where I will need to know how to really customize my RSS output and this book will be the perfect reference manual to do so.
The Excellent Points
There are several incredible parts of this book regardless of your skill level. Having used WordPress for about four years now I have gotten to a fairly high level of fluency, however I still found lots of great information about how to do things that I either didn't know how to do or wasn't even aware was possible. However there is plenty of great content for beginners as well, I was able to hand the book over to one of my new interns and by the end of a few days she had developed her first WordPress theme. Considering it was the first "non-static" site she had ever worked with this was extremely impressive.
Additionally the book does a great job of not only teaching the technical elements of WordPress, but also the practical elements as well. You will learn how to maintain, protect and optimize your blog for faster page loads, higher rankings and more stability. All of these are critical elements to the success of a site after it has been developed and launched (the longer portion of the site life cycle).
What Could Be Improved
The book is a huge wealth of information, that is for sure. However I wonder if this made it difficult to organize. There were more than a few points where the book seemed to jump around a bit in terms of the content and how it all fit together. The first chapter for example, seems to cover a bit of a variety of different topics that range from beginner to advance despite it's label of "WordPress Basics." That being said I would rather have more information and have to hunt a little bit for it than getting a book that left me searching the internet for what I need to know.
Overall...
If you do ANYTHING in WordPress you really should purchase this book. You will not find a more comprehensive reference guide or set of tutorials anywhere. The small cost of $27 will be outweighed by the time saved and the increased capabilities you will gain by reading through and understanding the book.
Have some feedback? Leave a comment
I would really like to get my hands on a copy of that, let me know if you got any special discounts
I don’t think there are any special sales or discounts, but it is worth the small cost if you use WordPress frequently!
I for one would really love to get my hands on this book, I find it really hard to read digital books whilst working on my websites etc I would much rather have a hard copy on my desk that I can just jump into at any point. Also having the opportunity to take my eyes away from the screen will definitely do me the world of good. Do you know if this book is purchasable from actual book stores like border and waterstones?
Cheers for sharing a useful book with us.
Warren
Hi Warren,
While I don’t think the book can be obtained at Borders or Waterstones you can get a hard copy version of the book from the digging into wordpress website.
You won’t get it instantly but it is looks like it has high quality printing and I am sure shipping isn’t too long.
“While I don’t think the book can be obtained at Borders or Waterstones you can get a hard copy version of the book from the digging into wordpress website.”
I gree your point!
thanks for your seo tips, it helps my seo job.
Thanks for the tips. Its good to apply.
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Both themes have options panels for setting various theme-specific options. They are built in a “framework” style, so that adding your own or adjusting what options are there is pretty easy.you have a great post.i really want Thanks.
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