WordPress Web Design For Dummies

Book description

Your full-color guide to creating dynamic websites with WordPress

Are you familiar with the fundamentals of WordPress, but want to take your skills to the next level? From bestselling author and WordPress expert Lisa Sabin-Wilson, this new edition of WordPress Web Design For Dummies quickly gets you up to speed on the latest release of the software and shows you how to use it as a tool to create a customized, compelling, and cost-effective website—without losing your cool.

WordPress can be used to create a custom design for your website using complimentary technologies such as graphic design, CSS, HTML coding, PHP programming, and MySQL administration. With the help of this hands-on, friendly guide, you'll discover how to create an effective navigation system, choose the right color palette and fonts, and select different layouts. Plus, you'll find out how to tweak existing website designs with available themes, both free and premium, and gain the confidence to translate your design skills into paid work.

  • Create dynamic, custom websites with the self-hosted version of WordPress
  • Use free themes and enhance them with CSS and HTML
  • Create a responsive design for mobile devices and tablet users
  • Get to grips with the newest release of WordPress

Whether you want to use WordPress to spruce up your existing website or create a brand-new one from scratch, this do-it-yourself guide has you covered.

Table of contents

    1. Cover
    2. Introduction
      1. About This Book
      2. Foolish Assumptions
      3. Icons Used in This Book
      4. Beyond the Book
      5. Where to Go from Here
    3. Part I: Establishing a WordPress Foundation
      1. Chapter 1: Exploring Web Design with WordPress
        1. Delving Into the Differences Between Blogs and Websites
        2. Using WordPress as a Content Management System
        3. Discovering the World of WordPress Themes
        4. Checking Out Premium WordPress Themes and Frameworks
        5. Getting Your Site Up and Running
      2. Chapter 2: Understanding WordPress Requirements
        1. Establishing Your Domain
        2. Finding a Home for Your Website
      3. Chapter 3: Installing WordPress on Your Web Server
        1. Installing WordPress
        2. Discovering WordPress Release Cycles
        3. Keeping Track of WordPress Development
      4. Chapter 4: Managing Content with WordPress
        1. Archiving Content with WordPress
        2. Customizing Permalinks
        3. Syndicating Your Content with RSS Feeds
    4. Part II: Choosing the Right Tools
      1. Chapter 5: Exploring Editors, Browsers, and FTP
        1. Choosing the Right Text Editor for You
        2. Understanding and Choosing a Web Browser
        3. Introducing File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
        4. Setting Up FTP on Your Hosting Account
        5. Transferring Files with an FTP Client
      2. Chapter 6: Choosing Graphics and Software Resources
        1. Exploring Image Types and Formats
        2. Exploring Graphic Design Software
        3. Using Online Image-Optimization Tools
        4. Finding Online Image Libraries
      3. Chapter 7: Choosing Colors and Fonts
        1. Understanding Color
        2. Creating Color Schemes with Helpful Tools
        3. Understanding Typography Essentials
        4. Finding and Using Fonts for Graphic Design
      4. Chapter 8: Planning Your Design Strategy
        1. Choosing the Width of Your Website
        2. Choosing the Number of Columns
        3. Determining Website Navigation
        4. Understanding Content Display Options
        5. Testing Your Design in a Sandbox Environment
    5. Part III: Working with WordPress Themes
      1. Chapter 9: Finding and Installing a WordPress Theme
        1. Finding and Installing a Theme from the Theme Directory
        2. Deciding to Use a Premium Theme
      2. Chapter 10: Working with the Default Theme: Twenty Fifteen
        1. Exploring the Layout and Structure
        2. Customizing the Header Image
        3. Uploading Your Own Header Image
        4. Including Custom Navigation Menus
        5. Enhancing Your Website with Widgets
      3. Chapter 11: Dissecting Themes and Templates
        1. Understanding How PHP and MySQL Work Together
        2. Exploring PHP Basics
        3. Managing Your MySQL Database
        4. Viewing the Template Files in a WordPress Theme
        5. Examining the Templates That Make Up a WordPress Theme
        6. Exploring Template Tags, Values, and Parameters
        7. Customizing Your Blog Posts with Template Tags
        8. Putting It All Together
      4. Chapter 12: Displaying Content with Widgets and Template Tags
        1. Exploring Common Template Tags
        2. Adding New Widget Areas to Your Theme
        3. Using Template Files
        4. Adding Theme Support for Built-In Features
      5. Chapter 13: Understanding Parent and Child Themes
        1. Customizing Theme Style with Child Themes
        2. Modifying Theme Structure with Child Themes
        3. Preparing a Parent Theme
    6. Part IV: Building Your Custom Website
      1. Chapter 14: Using Basic CSS and HTML to Customize Your Site Design
        1. Styling with CSS: The Basics
        2. Changing the Background Image or Color Used in Your Theme
        3. Defining and Positioning Your Header Image with CSS
        4. Changing Basic Elements to Create a Unique Look for Your Site
        5. Understanding Basic HTML Techniques to Use on Your Site
      2. Chapter 15: Designing for WordPress as a CMS
        1. Creating the Front Page of Your Website
        2. Adding a Blog to Your Website
        3. Creating Custom Page Templates to Achieve Different Layouts and Styles
        4. Creating Different Sidebar and Footer Templates for Your Pages
        5. Creating Custom Styles for Sticky, Category, and Tag Posts
      3. Chapter 16: Enhancing Your Website with Plugins
        1. Installing WordPress Plugins via the Dashboard
        2. Installing Plugins Manually
        3. Exploring E-Commerce Plugins to Use on Your Site
        4. Creating Photo Galleries or Portfolios
        5. Creating Web Forms for Your Site with Plugins
        6. Building a Social Community with BuddyPress
        7. Using Plugins to Integrate Popular Social Networks with Your Blog
    7. Part V: The Part of Tens
      1. Chapter 17: Ten Powerful Plugins for WordPress
        1. WordPress SEO
        2. BackupBuddy
        3. WP-Print
        4. AppPresser — Mobile App Framework
        5. Jetpack
        6. Sucuri Sitecheck Malware Scanner
        7. Facebook
        8. WooCommerce
        9. WP Super Cache
        10. Google XML Sitemaps
      2. Chapter 18: Ten Well-Designed Sites That Use WordPress as a CMS
        1. IconDock
        2. Kate Rusby
        3. Katy Perry
        4. LIVESTRONG
        5. Microsoft News Center
        6. Discovery Communications
        7. Time
        8. WebDevStudios
        9. WeGraphics
        10. WordPress.org
      3. Chapter 19: Ten Free WordPress Themes
        1. Hybrid
        2. designPile
        3. Responsive
        4. P2
        5. Annotum Base
        6. Blackbird
        7. iTheme2
        8. Esquire
        9. WP-Creativix
        10. Gridline
    8. About the Author
    9. Cheat Sheet
    10. Connect with Dummies
    11. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: WordPress Web Design For Dummies
  • Author(s): Lisa Sabin-Wilson
  • Release date: October 2015
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9781119088646