Sabin-Wilson - WordPress for dummies

WordPress For Dummies, 5th Edition

by Lisa Sabin-Wilson

Foreword by Matt Mullenweg

Cofounder of WordPress

WordPress For Dummies, 5th Edition

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. WordPress is a registered trademark of WordPress Foundation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport .

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012949805

ISBN 978-1-118-38318-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-38314-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-38316-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-38317-9 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Lisa Sabin-Wilson has worked with the WordPress software since its inception in 2003 and has built her business around providing technical support, hosting, and design solutions for bloggers who use WordPress. She reaches thousands of people worldwide with her WordPress services, skills, and knowledge regarding the product. Lisa is also the author of WordPress All-In-One For Dummies and WordPress Web Design For Dummies.

Lisa operates a few blogs online, all of which are powered by WordPress. Her personal blog ( http://lisasabin-wilson.com ) has been online since February of 2002; her design business at E.Webscapes ( http://ewebscapes.com ) has been online since 1999. Lisa is also the co-founder and Lead Creative Designer at Allure Themes ( http://ithemes.com/find/allure ) a commercial theme company providing ready-to-use WordPress themes designed for women.

When Lisa can be persuaded away from her computer where she is usually hard at work providing design solutions for her WordPress clients she sometimes emerges for public speaking appearances on the topics of design, blogging, and WordPress. She has appeared at national conferences such as the annual South By Southwest Interactive Conference, BlogWorld & New Media Expo, BookExpo America, American Association of Journalists and Authors, and various WordCamps nationwide.

Lisa consults with bloggers both large and small. Bloggers come in thousands of different flavors, from business to personal, from creative to technical, and all points in between. Lisa is connected to thousands of them worldwide and appreciates the opportunity to share her knowledge through WordPress For Dummies. She hopes you find great value in it, as well.

When shes not designing or consulting with her clients, you can usually find her at her favorite coffee shop sipping espresso, on a mountaintop somewhere hitting the slopes with her husband and kids, or 100 feet beneath the ocean waters, scuba diving with her husband and swimming with the fishes.

Dedication

For my father, Donald Sabin for him, his love, and his undying support and encouragement of my crazy choices in life. I miss you, Dad... rest in peace.

Authors Acknowledgments

Many, many thanks and kudos to Matt Mullenweg, the WordPress core development team, and every single person involved in making WordPress the best blogging platform available on the Internet today. To the volunteers and testers who destroy all those pesky pre-release bugs for every new version release, the WordPress community thanks you! And to each and every WordPress plugin developer and theme designer who donates his or her time, skills, and knowledge to provide the entire WordPress community of users with invaluable tools that help us create dynamic blogs, thank you a thousand times! Every person mentioned here is an invaluable asset to the overall WordPress experience; I wish I could name you all, individually, except that there are literally thousands of you out there!

Extra special thanks to my friends and colleagues within the WordPress community who inspire and teach me every day.

Huge thanks to Amy Fandrei and Leah Michael from Wiley for their support, assistance, and guidance during the course of this project. Just the mere fact they had to read every page of this book means that they deserve the Medal of Honor! Also, many thanks to technical editor, Mitch Canter, and other editors of the project who also worked hard to make sure that I look somewhat literate here.