WordPress 3 Complete: Create your own complete website or blog from scratch with WordPress
April Hodge Silver
Pakt Publishing (2011)

Just about all that most people need to know

The reference to the word “complete” in this book’s title correctly suggests that almost anyone can read (preferably re-read) and then apply what is learned when creating a website or blog “from scratch.” In my case, I had retained professionals to do much of the work for me but reading this book as well as others published by Packt enabled me to become a much better-informed and more effective contributor to our collaboration. After identifying the “what” of that process, she devotes the bulk of her attention to the “how” and, whenever appropriate, the “why.”

Chapter 1: A “super easy-to-use” briefing on what WordPress offers
2: How to complete WP installations and connections
3: How to add and then manage content
4: A briefing/walk-through on non-blogging content and applications
5: How to manage the website’s basic look
6: How to make your own theme (i.e. design and layout)
7: A briefing/walk-through on RSS feeds and podcasting
8: A briefing/walk-through on developing plugins and widgets
9: How to manage members of a community of users
10: How to create a non-blog website
11: Coverage of most important administrator tasks for WP-driven website

Note: I invoke the term “walk-through” for Chapters 4, 7 and 8 because Silver literally guides her reader through a step-by-step sequence to complete hundreds of incremental tasks that first involve installations and then modifications and refinements.

I also appreciate so much the fact that, whenever appropriate, Silver and her associates create a context, a frame-of-reference, when explaining how and why one (apparently small) component functions in relationship (i.e. coordination) with others. This is especially true of explanations of plugins and cross-connections such as are now being developed at my website (www.bobmorris.biz) that involve book reviews, interviews, and commentaries.

I highly recommend other PACKt texts such as WordPress Theme Design, WordPress 3 Site Blueprints, and WordPress 3.0 jQuery. By no means have I gained a complete understanding of all that these books cover. Fortunately, I can rely on others for the expertise that I lack. However, to repeat, a careful reading of books such as these provide the information and guidance non-technicians such as I need to understand (a) options to consider and what they offer, (b) trade-offs and the probably implications of each, and (c) the most appropriate issues to keep in mind when working with professionals.

Those who purchase this book are provided with a wealth of value-added benefits and supplementary resources that are identified on Page 4 and then at various points throughout the narrative.