This document discusses plugins, widgets, and themes in WordPress. It provides an overview of each topic and includes exercises for users to complete to learn how to use plugins to extend functionality, widgets to customize different areas of a site, and child themes to modify an existing theme. The goal is for users to understand these core WordPress components and be able to implement plugins, widgets, and child themes on their own sites.

1. Plugins, Widgets and Themes

2. Today's Plan
● Review
● Plugins
● Widgets
● Themes and extension - "child themes"
Goals
● You will understand what widgets are and how to use them
● You will know the 'definition' of a plugin
● You'll have the basics of child themes down, and might have one
of your own!

3. Review Exercise
● Name the two ways we can add a theme to our site
● What's a permalink?
● How do you get to the WordPress backend?

4. Review Exercise (Answers)
● Name the two ways we can add a theme to our site
Searching for it within the backend & file transfer
● What's a permalink?
The 'permanent' location of something on our site; ex /about
● How do you get to the WordPress backend?
MYSITE/wp-admin

5. Plugins extend the
functionality of
WordPress.

7. Exercise: Plugins
Complete/Answer the following:
● Toggle the activation of the Hello Dolly plugin. What does it
do?
● Delete the Hello Dolly plugin. What are the two components
of deletion you're warned about?
● Go to Featured plugins and install and activate the Stop SOPA
Ribbon plugin.
Gold Star! [Extra Credit]
● Add the Hello Dolly plugin back. You miss it.
● How can you find the lines that Hello Dolly
choses from?
● Search and add the WP PHP widget to your site.
Activate. [You'll have more to play with in the
Widgets exercise!]

8. Widgets are a form of plugin that
can add functionality to different
areas of your site, without needing
to code.

9. Exercise: Widgets
Complete/Answer the following:
● Use a widget in your site's theme
● How can you remove a widget but keep its settings?
● Can you use a widget more than once?
Gold Star! [Extra Credit]
● If you installed the PHP widget, play with running
"Hello World" PHP code in a widget area
● Does the PHP widget support HTML?
● Change themes - did widget support change?
Widgets.

10. Child Themes: The What
● A Child Theme is a theme based on another theme (the
parent)
● It uses all components of the parent theme unless you
specify otherwise

11. Child Themes: The How
A folder and a style.css file

12. Exercise: Child Themes
Make a Child Theme.
Gold Star! [Extra Credit]
● PLAY
(start customizing the theme!)

13. Lessons Learned
Can you ...
● Define what plugins (and widgets) do?
Are you ...
● Able to install and activate plugins?
Are you ...
● Able to customize your site with widgets?
Do you ...
● Understand the concept of child themes?
Are you ...
● Able to make and activate a child theme?

14. Homework!
● Search for and implement plugins
and widgets on your site
● Make a child theme of a theme you'd like to modify (if you
haven't already)
● If you have hosting, download FileZilla and install it on
your machine