Design with Design Counts

WordPress Basics

WordPress is open source software used to publish content on the Internet. Open source means that it has been created and supported by a community of users and if free to use. While WordPress started as software to publish a blog – basically an online journal or diary, it now is recognised as a full content management system. WordPress allows you to create and publish online content, articles, journals and diaries, pictures and multi-media on the Internet. The information you create is stored in a database (usually MySQL) that can be updated, modified and backed up (stored offline). WordPress also provides tools that help get your published website noticed and indexed by search engines, and this then helps people find your content when they search online

Before you start using WordPress Before you start using WordPress you should consider what you are planning to use it for, and the way you plan to organise your online content. If you plan to create an online blog, or daily (or less often) journal then WordPress can be uses out of the box so to speak. However there are other options based on what you want to do with your website. There is two ways to publish your content (or what you write, add pictures or multimedia to), namely WordPress Posts and WordPress Pages.

WordPress Posts

For typical diary / journal – blog use then you can use a post to write an article and publish it onto your blog or website. A post is time related and as you write and publish more articles / journal entries the post will gradually disappear from the blogs front page and is often archived off on a monthly basis. Archived posts are still available to read, they just represent articles you have written in the past. A post is a very useful way to publish information on a topical or current topic, to keep your readers up-to-date with your current exploits or views.

WordPress Pages

For more permanent information, that is information that will not go out of date and contains information that is long lasting and useful over a period of time then you should consider using WordPress Pages. A page is just like publishing using website publishing software such as Dreamweaver or Microsoft Exchange – you create a website page that is relatively static, the information you add to the page can be updated and changed, however after you have created the web page content most of it will remain unchanged and useful over a period of time.

What should I use – a Post or a Page?

If you are writing about a current topic or a view on a subject that has just been in the news then use a “Post”; if you are writing content that is of permanent interest i.e. your holiday in Spain, with pictures you have taken and places you have visited – then this would be suited to a permanent Page. There is no right / wrong with this, you can use a combination of posts and pages to create interesting online content that other people will be interested in reading. One thing to consider is that by using WordPress Pages you can create a navigation or menu system to help your readers find the content they are interested in.

WordPress Themes WordPress themes are used to create the layout and design of the WordPress powered website or blog. You will find that WordPress installs two templates or themes by default and they can be used and modified by you to suit your needs. Just remember if you make any changes to the default template it will be overwritten by any subsequent WordPress upgrade, so rename the theme so that it is under a different name, this will preserve any changes you make to the theme.

Free WordPress Themes As WordPress is open source and supported by a community of enthusiastic people you will also find many free templates available to download and use. While many of these themes are brilliant and well designed there are a number of “free” templates that come with hidden encrypted code, with links to websites that promote gambling or other activities. If you plan to have a family friendly website then you will not want to have links on your site to websites that promote gambling or other activities you have no control over. If you plant to add advertising from companies including Google (Google AdSense) and Amazon then you will find that their affiliate or advertising agreement with you states that you do not promote gambling, pornography or racially abusive sites. So using a free template with encrypted code in the footer will not be a practical or helpful. Encrypted code is simply programming code that is designed to be unreadable by humans, so basically you can’t change it. You can of course delete the code (often in the footer file) this however may end up removing the design of your page footer from your WordPress powered website.  There are many thousands of free templates / themes that can be found on WordPress.org under the themes http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ area. You will also find other free templates on other websites where website designers or enthusiasts have created free templates / themes for you to use with WordPress. They usually contain a link in the footer (or below the footer) to the originating website. This is giving the author / designer of the theme an acknowledgment (attribution) of the work done and is consistent with the Creative Commons licence used by many designers and content creators for licensing creative content.

Buying a WordPress template You can of course buy a pre-designed template or theme for your WordPress powered website and the advantage of this is that you usually have themes and designs created by professional website designers, a typical template would cost $45-60 or about £20-35. When you consider the time it would take you to learn how to do this yourself, buy the software required and create a design then it offers excellent value for money. You can also arrange for a unique template design to be made just for you, for this you can expect to pay a lot more.

Make your own WordPress template Another alternative is to create your own WordPress theme, you can do this by reading how to do it from various websites and documentation, buying book(s) on the subject (always a good idea) or by buying template generating software. I use Artisteer to create my templates used with WordPress for myself and others. It provides an excellent start point for creating professional looking WordPress (and other blog/CMS software) and costs start at the price of a good technical reference book. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you have complete control over what appears on your blog / website and you know there is no hidden nasty code that has been added by other people.

Reference links http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons