WordPress Resources

As one of the many volunteers who help out from time to time with WordPress on the WordPress Support Forum and WordPress.com Forums, I found myself repeatedly giving out link references so I started keeping notes and have put together a list of some of the link references most needed and asked for on the forum.

Some of these are links to articles on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress users, but others are answers posted on the forums, or other sites with the answers to common problems or situations that arise when using WordPress.

The WordPress Lessons on the WordPress Codex are really expanding, providing extensive step-by-step information to help anyone at any level.We hope these help you and others find their way around WordPress.

For help on using WordPress.com, check the many articles I’ve posted here in the WordPressdotcom category, and on the WordPress.com FAQ blog, as well as within the WordPress.com Forums.

Also check out the Site Map on Lorelle on WordPress for an extensive table of contents listing of the many helpful articles on this blog covering WordPress and WordPress.com tips, techniques, and tricks, as well as extensive information on website development, web design, and blogging.

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New to WordPress: Beginners

Learning anything new can be overwhelming but there are a lot of resources that will take you through the process step-by-step.

• A Guide to the WordPress Codex, The Online Manual for WordPress Users
• Introduction to Blogging
• First Steps with WordPress
• WordPress Lessons
• WordPress Blog Design and Layout
• Using WordPress Themes
• WordPress CSS Information and Techniques
• Creating individual Pages
• WordPress Versions: How Many and What’s the Difference
• Getting Started With WordPress
• Make Blogging with WordPress Part of Your Daily Routine
• First Step to WordPress Help: Search First
• What I needed to learn about WordPress
• Are You Using the Right Blogging Tool – Over the Long Term

Installing WordPress

• Installing WordPress
• WordPress Famous 5 Minute Installation
• First Steps With WordPress
• New To WordPress – Where to Start

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WordPress.com Only

• What Do I Do With My New WordPress.com Blog?
• What Can You Do With WordPress.com
• What to do with your free wordpress.com blog
• Getting Help With wordpress.com
• Designing Themes for WordPressMU – Fill In All The Details
• Attention WordPress Theme Designers – Designing Themes for WordPressMU

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Themes and Template Files

WordPress uses Themes to handle the website design and layout elements. Template Files and template tags are the files and tag tools that generate the results of each web page within your WordPress site. WordPress Pages are web pages within your site that feature information like “About Us”, “Contact”, “Schedule/Events”, and “Site Map”. The following resources will help you to learn how to use these to design your site.

Resources for Themes

• Choosing a WordPress Theme
• WordPress Theme Directory (official)

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Themes and Templates

• Stepping Into Templates
• Stepping Into Template Tags
• WordPress Lessons on Designing Your WordPress Site
• WordPress Template Files
• WordPress Lessons on Template Files
• WordPress Lessons on Template Tags
• WordPress Template Tags
• Using WordPress Themes
• Developing WordPress Themes
• Designing A WordPress Theme From Scratch
• Designing A WordPress Theme – Building a Sandbox
• The Secret of Successful Editing of WordPress Themes
• My WordPress Theme is Broken
• WordPress Design Sandbox Article
• Working On CSS and the WordPress Theme (using a sandbox)
• Template Tag Layout In Simple To Read Form
• Chris J Davis’s Sillyness Spelled Wrong Intentionally – Secrets of a WordPress Theme
• Max Design – Example Page Layouts
• Attention WordPress Theme Designers – Designing Themes for WordPressMU
• Designing Themes for WordPressMU – Fill In All The Details
• Finding Your CSS Styles in WordPress
• WordPress Tips and Tricks for Template Files
• Secrets of WordPress Theming
• Conquering Site Validation Errors

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Design Tools and Accessories

• Free Text Only Editors for Templates, PHP, HTML, CSS, and More
• HTML, CSS, PHP, and More Cheat Sheets
• Designing a Rainbow – Sexy Hot Colors
• More Must Have Bookmarklets for Your Browser and Blogging
• Adobe Kuler color theme matcher

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WordPress and CSS

• WordPress CSS Information and Techniques
• Styling Lists with CSS and WordPress
• Codex – CSS Fixing Browser Bugs
• Codex – CSS Troubleshooting
• WordPress Tips and Tricks for Style Sheets
• Using WordPress Themes
• Developing WordPress Themes

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CSS Browsers and Positioning

• Codex – CSS Fixing Browser Bugs
• Codex – CSS Troubleshooting
• Positioniseverything
• Position is Everything’s 3 Complex Column – Perched on a Lily Pad
• Position is Everything Piefecta Rigid 3-Column Layout

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WordPress Pages

• Individual WordPress Pages
• wp_list_pages tag
• Who The Hell Are You? About The About Page

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Customizing Your WordPress Site

The following resources will help you move beyond the WordPress Theme you’ve choosen to customize how your WordPress site will look and respond. If customizing a site is new to you, check out the WordPress Lessons on Designing Your WordPress Site first.

Headers

• Kubrickr Utility Changes Header in Kubrick
• Designing WordPress Headers
• Problem Solving the WordPress Header

Customizing Your Sidebar

• Customizing Your Sidebar
• Developing Your Post Meta Data Section (sometimes found on the sidebar)
• Stepping Into Template Tags

Template and Template Tags

• WordPress Template Files
• Conditional Tags

Content and Excerpts

• Customizing the “read more” tag
• the_content() template tag
• the_excerpt() template tag
• The Excerpt Reloaded Pluginfor styling the front page excerpts

Conditional Tags and the Loop

• The WordPress Loop
• The Loop in Action
• Conditional Tags
• Understanding the is_ functions

Sorting Categories

• http://wordpress.org/support/topic/32174
• http://wordpress.org/support/topic/18387
• http://wordpress.org/support/topic.php?id=22575
• Changing category order by ID Discussion

Styling Categories Differently

• Custom WordPress Category Templates
• Discussion on styling the WordPress Loopand contains an example of how to customize categories.
• The Loop in Action has a great section on setting up different looks for different categories.
• Then go through the following discussions:
  • Creating Multiple Single Posts for Different Categories
  • http://wordpress.org/support/topic.php?id=25166
  • Show Just One Category in WordPress Categories
  • http://wordpress.org/support/topic.php?id=24988
  • http://wordpress.org/support/topic.php?id=20048
  • http://wordpress.org/support/topic.php?id=22567
  • Discussion on CSS that changes with post or category
  • Restructing category pages to show only specific categories
  • Understanding the is_ functions

Tags and Categories

• Tags and Tagging in WordPress
• Categories versus Tags – What’s the Difference and Which One?
• A Tagging Bookmarklet for WordPress and wordpress.com Users
• Adding Post to Spurl Button on Your WordPress Posts
• Adding Del.icio.us, Digg, Technorati and Slashdot Links to Your WordPress Blog
• The Ultimate Tag Warrior WordPress Plugin

WordPress Power User Odds and Ends

• How to Limit Number of Posts with WordPress
• Permalinks including categories
• Integrating WordPress with Your Website
• WordPress Design Details
• Navigating Your WordPress Site
• Customizing WordPress Administration Panels
• Search and Replace in WordPress MySQL Database
• Find, Search, Replace, and Delete In A WordPress Database – WordCast
• WordPress Power User Features – Just Press It
• Bring WordPress Press It Window to the Front of the Class
• Separating Comments and Trackbacks in WordPress – The Answer
• Putting the Description Back Into Your WordPress Head
• Using Javascript in WordPress
• Taking Notes in WordPress

WordPress Add-ons, Extensions, and Plugins

While WordPress out-of-the-box is great and has amazing power, there are literally hundreds of add-ons called “Plugins” and other scripts which extend the functionality of WordPress.

WordPress Plugins Lists and News

WordPress Plugin Directory
• Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugins Announcements and News
• How to Write a Simple WordPress Plugin

WordPress Foreign Language Issues

• WordPress in Your Language
• Exploring WordPress in Your Language
• WordPress Documentation in Dutch
• WordPress Documentation in Spanish
• WordPress Documentation in French
• WordPress Documentation in Italian
• WordPress Documentation in Japanese
• WordPress Documenation in Korean
• Discussion On Doctype Foreign Language Issues

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WordPress Site Tools, Development, Maintenance, and Tasks

There is a lot of power features for WordPress, but there is a lot of work, too. The following are resources you may need to help you work with WordPress, including validating and developing your site, tools, maintenance, and things you should do to keep your WordPress site in top condition.

WordPress Site Development

• Validating Your WordPress Web Pages
• WordPress Housekeeping
• WordPress Site Maintenance
• Using Meta Tags in WordPress
• Blog Maintenance – Check For 404 Page Not Found Errors
• A Day in the Life of a Paranoid Website Administrator
• My Daily WordPress Tasks
• Lorelle on WordPress Articles, Tips, and Techniques

Backing Up and Restoring Database

• Backing Up WordPress
• Backing Up Your WordPress Database
• Restoring Your WordPress Database from Backup

Moving WordPress

• WordPress Codex: Moving WordPress Instructions
• Moving Your WordPress Blog to a New Directory

RSS Feeds

• WordPress and RSS and Feeds
• Customizing Your Feed Titles

Trackback and Ping Testers

• Tamba’s Trackback Tester
• Understanding Pings and Blogs
• Pinging With Pingers

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WordPress Community

There is a lot going on within the WordPress Community if you want to get involved and keep up with WordPress activities and efforts. The following should help you find more information on the WordPress Community.

WordPress Support Forum and Volunteers

Many people want to give back to this exciting free and open source program by volunteering to help others learn how to use WordPress. Before getting involved, you might want to check out these resources first.

• Using the Support Forums
• Getting More WordPress Help
• Introduction to Blogging (for terms and terminology)
• New to WordPress – Where to Start
• First Steps With WordPress
• WordPress Support Forum Volunteers Mailing List
• IRC Freenode #WordPress Channel – Live Chat with WordPress Users and Techies

WordPress Codex

The WordPress Codex is the documentation site for WordPress. This is where the manual for WordPress is under development. Volunteers are needed to edit, write, and maintain the documentation.

• WordPress Codex Community Portal
• About the WordPress Codex
• How to Contribute to WordPress
• WordPress Codex Guidelines for Submissions
• WordPress Codex Documentation Mailing List

WordPress Contests

• WordPress Plugin Contest Wiki Page – Completed
• Alex King’s WordPress Theme Contests – Completed with Great Themes!

WordPress Development

If you are into PHP and programming and you want to really get in and get your hands dirty, WordPress is ready for you.

• WordPress Development
• Developer Documentation
• Submitting WordPress Bug Reports
• Bug Tracker – Reporting and Fixing WordPress Bugs
• Overview of How to Use SVN – Subversion with WordPress
• WordPress Testers Mailing List
• WordPress Hackers Mailing List

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