Dad of Divas' Reviews: Book Review - Head First WordPress

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Book Review - Head First WordPress

About the Book
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.

My Take on the Book
I was on blogger for the first two years of blogging (on my main dadofdivas.com) and found it to be very easy to use but a bit limiting to what I could do to customize it without extensive html knowledge. Thus, this past year I made the switch to be self-hosted on wordpress. Needless to say I was excited, while terrified as well as I knew that this would be a change and at the same time, a move forward. In my transition I heard about this book and thought it would be a great resource, and I was not disappointed.

This book allows all wordpress users a glimpse into what wordpress is and what it can be. It walks the reader step-by-step through detailed descriptions on how to first download and install it or how to use the "one click" method. After this the book helps you understand how to post and include images. This is an important section as the wordpress platform is a bit different than other platforms (at least different than blogger). It also covers things like widgets and templates as well as provides a good overview of HTML, PHP and CSS and how you can use it to modify your sight.

There is so much in this book that has been helpful to me thus far and I still have a few chapters to go. I hightly recommend this book as it is easy to understand and helps you truly move into wordpress more confidently and gives you the tools to make your wordpress site a strong one that readers will want to come back to again and again!

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site's Disclaimer  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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