You've Installed WordPress
Now What?
March 20, 2012 | WPNYC Meetup | Rindy, Krista, Dana and Kevin | New York City

Settings
A Brief Overview

Settings > General
"Anyone can register"
● When unchecked, this "Register"
link will disappear from the login
page.
● Helpful for preventing bot accounts
(spammers)
● Does not prevent commenting

Settings > Writing
XML-RPC
Wha???
"Enable the WordPress, Movable Type, MetaWeblog
and Blogger XML-RPC publishing protocols."
Translation: Publish from your phone.

Settings > Reading
● Front page: Latest posts or static page?
● Number of posts per page (applies to archive
pages as well as front page
● Full or summary RSS - this only affects your
feed

Settings > Discussion
● Pingbacks and trackbacks - generally, turn
these on if you are building a traditional
"blog"
● Regulate comments, or turn them off

Settings > Privacy
● Turn off search engine indexing for test sites,
not-ready-for-prime-time, etc
● This does not hide your site - it's still online!
● Not all search bots respect this

Settings > Permalinks
● Make your links readable and SEO-friendly
http://mysite.com/tags/parties/fourth-of-july
vs
http://mysite.com/?p=241
● Customize, but beware! Best to use one of
the options. Details at http://codex.wordpress.
org/Settings_Permalinks_Screen

Pick a Theme
● Change themes without changing content
● Search from within the dashboard
● Change at will!

Themes

What is a theme?
A group of files that affect how your site looks.
Theme files are stored separate than WP core, plugins
and your content.

Free vs Premium
Free Commercial/Premium
· Try as many as you like · A good developer, will
for free! provide good support.
· Most are unsupported so · If building a niche website,
you rely on community for some are built with industry-
help. specific features.
Is one better than the other?

How do we find themes?
· wordpress.org/extend/themes
1,518 free themes available in .org/extent theme repository
· wordpress.org/extend/themes/commercial
65 commercial theme development companies listed

Where else?
· Developer websites - Elegant Themes, Themify, WPMU
· Lots of developers sell their work on other marketplace sites
such as themeforest.net (owned by Envato) and mojo-
themes, as well as many others
· Theme reviewers - WPCandy, WPTavern, Smashing
Magazine..
BEWARE!!
Do not use Google to do random non-specific theme searches,
BUT instead use it to find a specific theme or developer by name
that you may have heard about or read a review on.

Things to look for and consider
· Visual design
· Fits your needs
· Supports WP core features
· Options and Features
· Browser compatibility
· Software compatibility
· Last updated
· Available Support
· Comments
· Price

How do you choose?
Know what you want, but be open to
creativity and ideas.

Plugins vs. Themes
● Plugin applies to all themes, it's not limited
to a specific theme
"Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost
anything you can imagine."

Plugins

How to search for Plugins
● Free (WordPress.org)
● Premium (links from WordPress.org)
● WordPress Information Sites
○ WP Candy (http://wpcandy.com/)
○ WP Mail (http://wpmail.me/)
○ WP Beginner (http://www.wpbeginner.com/)
○ WPMU (http://wpmu.org)
○ WP Lift (http://wplift.com/)
○ Smashing Magazine (http://wp.smashingmagazine.com/)

How do I know it’s a good
Plugin
● Version Check
● Developer
● Downloads
● Changelog
● Conflicts
● Forums
No Multiple Plugins same purpose

Activation

Must Have Plugins
● Backups
○ Backup Buddy
○ WP-DB-Backup
● Related Content
○ YARPP
○ nrelate
● Spam Control
○ Akismet
○ Anti-Spam Bee
○ SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam

Must Have Plugins
● Widgets
○ Display Widgets
○ Widget Logic
● Email
○ WP SMTP Mail
○ Better Emails
● Sharing/follow
○ Social Sharing Toolkit
○ Sociable
● Caching
○ Super Cache
○ W3 Total Cache

Widgets and Menus

Widgets
Code free way to add options
and features to your site
Place to display content and
bring forward functionality
from your theme and plugins
Widgets are placed in areas
defined by your theme

"Core" Widgets
Widgets are theme dependent, but certain
widgets come with the core install
Search
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Pages
Archives & Calendar
RSS
Text Widgets

Manipulating Widgets
Drag and Drop
Recent Posts, Comments and Archives
Re-order and change options
Display Widgets Plugin
Additional functionality in a code free way
Removing a Widget
Delete vs. Inactive

Menus
Main Navigation area of your site
They tell your visitors where to find and access your content
Style
Old Style of Menus was hard coded in theme :(
New Style is User configurable in the admin panel
Theme Support is required for the new menus
How Do I know? From Dashboard go to Appearance --> Menus

Building Menus
Start with Menu name
Save and you should see 'Theme locations'
Add the menu to the theme location
Add Pages (5)
Point out Top Level auto add
Order them through Drag and Drop
Special Home item (view all)
Add Categories (3)
Order them
Custom Link
wpnyc.org

Useful Links
Widgets
The Codex Article
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Widgets
Creating Widget Areas (Advanced Topic)
http://justintadlock.com/archives/2009/05/26/the-complete-guide-
to-creating-widgets-in-wordpress-28
Menus
The Codex
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Menu_User_Guide

Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks
Dashboard 101
Screen Options
What do we want to see, columns
Drag and Drop

Tips and Tricks
Post Screen
Searching for posts
Sorting
Quick edit / Bulk Edit
Add New and Review Screen
Options
Preview

Tips and Tricks
Drag and Drop
Media Gallery
Link URL

Presented by
Rindy Portfolio
@portfola / rindy@crosscutsoftware.com
Krista Gonzalez
www.720creations.com
Dana Skallman
dana@glocalwebtech.com
Kevin Cristiano
wpnyc.org/members/kcristiano