Bud E. Smith - WordPress In Depth, 2nd Edition

Second Edition

Bud E. Smith
Michael McCallister

800 East 96th Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46240

WORDPRESS IN DEPTH, SECOND EDITION

Copyright 2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-4107-3
ISBN-0-7897-4107-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file.

First Printing: July 2011

Editor-in-Chief
Greg Wiegand
Acquisitions Editor
Michelle Newcomb
Development Editor
Todd Brakke
Managing Editor
Sandra Schroeder
Project Editor
Seth Kerney
Copy Editor
Chuck Hutchinson
Indexer
Cheryl Lenser
Proofreader
Jovana San Nicolas-Shirley
Technical Editor
Paul Chaney
Publishing Coordinator
Cindy Teeters
Cover Designer
Anne Jones
Compositor
Bronkella Publishing, Inc.

Trademarks

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Que Publishing cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

WordPress is a Registered Trademark of Automattic, Inc.

Warning and Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an as is basis. The authors and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this book or programs accompanying it.

Bulk Sales

Que Publishing offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales. For more information, please contact

U.S. Corporate and Government Sales
1-800-382-3419

For sales outside of the U.S., please contact

International Sales

Bud Smith wrote his first book for Que about buying computers fifteen years agoand had to do his online research for it using dial-up Internet. Since then, hes lived and worked in Silicon Valley; London, England; Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand; San Francisco and Oakland, California, and written a dozen more books. And he does most of his online work at broadband speedsexcept when hes using the Web on his cell phone, which is as slow as his old dial-up modem. Bud runs a WordPress-based blog at RunawayDaily.com.

Michael McCallister is devoted to the idea that technology need not be feared and can be mastered by anyone. He has been writing about technology in general, and open source software in particular, for the whole of the twenty-first century, and part of the previous century, too. He tries to help build the open source community, from which derives WordPress and so much else that is good, true, and pure in life (the parts of life that run on computers, anyway). While Bud has moved hither and yon, Michael has lived the relatively boring, stable life in the central United States (Milwaukee, Madison, and Boulder). Michael has been running Notes from the Metaverse on WordPress since 2006 at metaverse.wordpress.com. Find out more at www.michaelmccallister.com.

Bud dedicates his portion of the book to the open source community, godparents of WordPress, and pioneers in what we hope becomes the new normal: doing what you like, because you like to do it, to help other people, not because someone told you to. Linux Journal says that 86% of all blogs use WordPress, a powerful testament to the power of open source.

Michael echoes Buds thoughts, and further dedicates his portion of the book to Jeanette, who puts up with so much.

We would like to acknowledge the help and support of our excellent acquisitions editor, Michelle Newcomb; our dedicated and tireless technical editor, Paul Chaney; and our patient and personable development editor, Todd Brakke.

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and want to know what were doing right, what we could do better, what areas youd like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom youre willing to pass our way.

As an editor-in-chief for Que Publishing, I welcome your comments. You can email or write me directly to let me know what you did or didnt like about this bookas well as what we can do to make our books better.

Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book. We do have a User Services group, however, where I will forward specific technical questions related to the book.

When you write, please be sure to include this books title and author as well as your name, email address, and phone number. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the book.

Email:

Mail: Greg Wiegand
Editor-in-Chief
Que Publishing
800 East 96th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46240 USA

Visit our website and register this book at informit.com/register for convenient access to any updates, downloads, or errata that might be available for this book.

Were glad that youve purchased, or are considering the purchase of, this book. WordPress, in its various forms, is remarkable blogging software. Its also an amazing project; a shining example of human collaboration; a great example of open source at work; a fascinating business; and much more.

In less than a decade, WordPress has become the most important tool around for blogging, which itself is the channel for one of the great uncensored, unedited, unrestrained outpourings of creativity in human history. WordPress blogs often serve as a home for breaking news or insightful comments that affect other media. As such, WordPress is important to people who dont like blogs and even to people who dont like computers.

WordPress is a serious and tremendously flexible tooland also a framework for creating more tools. WordPress blogs include some of the biggest websites around, as well as spur-of-the-moment creations that attract a few posts, perhaps a few comments, and then go the way of the dodo.

Along with the blogs themselves, one of the amazing things is the power of blogs as a network, referring to each other, with blog entries and comments forming a meshwell, a web, actuallyof comment, criticism, and encouragement. (Even a criticism can serve as a form of encouragement, inspiring a blogger to answer a complaint or to post a better entry next time.)

Another powerful feature of blogs in general, and WordPress blogs in particular, is the strong community thats formed around them. Thats partly because of the popularity of WordPress blogs and partly because of the open source nature of WordPress software. The WordPress community seamlessly intermixes reaction to blog postings with advice and help on technical aspects of running a blog. Its often hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, but thats part of the fun.