Recently I’ve been helping a friend learn the basics of WordPress and something horrifying occurred to me.
WordPress is insanely hard if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Now, that might seem like a stupid statement but it’s been so long since I started out with this tool that I just assume everybody knows the basics. Helping my friend has reminded me that not everybody knows what a functions.php file is, or a custom post type, transient storage is a mystery to some, and setting up a MAMP network … nope.
So, here’s what I’m going to do. First I’m going to apologize for forgetting that not everybody has spent the better part of the past few years benefiting from some amazing tutelage, code reviews, and trial-by-fire type learning. Then, I’m going to start at the very beginning and try my best to show you how I learnt from some of the best sources out there.
This week, let’s look at four videos from WordPress.tv to get a very basic understanding of the technical side of WordPress.
Joshua Strebel: The Many Faces of WordPress
This is a great video to show the flexibility of WordPress as a platform, it demonstrates some of the many types of websites that WordPress can build, and shows examples of some very interesting sites.
It’s not a technical presentation, but instead focusses on what you can do with WordPress.
http://wordpress.tv/2013/01/18/joshua-strebel-the-many-faces-of-wordpress/
Shannon Smith & Kathryn Presner: A Beginner’s Guide to WordPress
One of my favourite presentations to go to at WordCamp Toronto and WordCamp Montreal is the Beginner’s Guide to WordPress by Shannon and Kathryn. I’ve seen it several times and each time it reminds me how much there is to learn about the package.
http://wordpress.tv/2012/11/08/shannon-smith-kathryn-presner-a-beginners-guide-to-wordpress/
Eric Mann- Questons you are too embarrassed to ask
This a great presentation that brings WordPress down to the most basic questions about WordPress. It’s a little more technical but Eric does a great job of simplifying it.
http://wordpress.tv/2012/09/05/eric-mann-questons-you-are-too-embarrassed-to-ask/
Sé Reed: WordPress 101 – Installing WordPress
Finally, the most technical presentation that I’ll highlight for the beginner is about installing WordPress. It’s fairly stress free, and walks you through the installation process.
http://wordpress.tv/2013/02/24/se-reed-wordpress-101-installing-wordpress/