Using WordPress by Tris Hussey, Due July 2010
Next Saturday (May 29th) I get to teach one of my favourite classes: Building Websites with WordPress (for Normal People). Although it’s one of my favourite classes to teach, it’s also the one that poses logistical problems to teach it really well. First, here’s how the class is described in the UBC course catalogue:
Build a Website with WordPress
TRIS HUSSEY
Learn how to make a professional looking website using the WordPress blogging platform with little to no coding required. Led by one of Vancouver’s WordPress and social media experts, this half-day workshop teaches you how to use WordPress to build dynamic, elegant and professional looking websites quickly and easily. Learn the settings required to turn a WordPress blog into a website, how to tune it for search engines, what plug-ins to install and how to choose the right theme for your website. You don’t have to know how to code to have a great website, you just have to know how to click.
IM810W10A Sat, May 29, 9am-4pm; UBC Robson Square. $350+tax. Register Now
link: UBC Computers, Media and Technology – Multimedia Summer Programs 2009 – Summer Workshops
Sounds pretty good, right? Straightforward, covers all the bases for a great site, right?
Yeah, mostly.
I usually give people their first tour of WordPress onWordPress.com. Since you need an WP.com account to get your Akismet key and the interfaces are essentially the same this is usually a good start.
I cover content, categories, tags, themes, links; all the stuff that would be the same for WP.com and DIY WordPress (downloading and installing yourself from WordPress.org). I get into WP.com upgrades and all that good stuff, just to round things off.
The part that I start having trouble with is using WordPress as a website, using the static page as homepage feature (of course). Since you can’t edit the navigation bar on most WP.com themes, I can’t get into the whole editing the PHP file to exclude the “homepage” Page from the listing (so you don’t have “Home” followed by a link to the same Page. There is a trick to hiding the pages (here is the thread on WP.com), but it isn’t great.
The solution will come when WordPress 3.0 Menus are supported on WordPress.com (WP.com is running WP 3, but not the Menus part), until then, well it’s just a kludge.
Okay, that isn’t so bad, it’s manageable right? Where things start getting a lot more strange-problematic-dicey is talking about WordPress.org.
I’ve taught the class using XAMPP and MAMP, which goes pretty well, except for the whole, “it’s not exactly how it would go in real life” problem.
I’ve considered (and still toy with the idea of) having people who have bought domains and have their own hosting, use those for the class. The problem there is that one person with a strange host can throw off the entire class. Not to mention the whole domain propagation thing.
Right now my plan is to set up a WordPress 3.0 multisite site, and give the attendees the experience of using WordPress 3.0 and the new Menus system to create sites.
I think the words “fraught with peril” come to mind here. So, so much that can go wrong. This is why I’m going to start setting this whole thing up now (well this weekend).
All this said.
If you’re attending the class (right now 18 people have registered, so there is space for a wee few more), and want to learn how to work with WordPress “for real” on your own host and domain here is what I suggest you do before class, by Friday at the latest:
- Buy a domain. I suggest Namecheap (nope not even an affiliate link there)
- Choose a host. I use DreamHost and am happy with it. Because I like it, I’ve created a promo code for this class. So if you sign up with DreamHost and use the promo code “UBCCLASS” you get: a free domain for the life of the account, $25 off if you sign up for month-to-month, $50 off if you sign up for one or two years. This code is good for anyone to use. Disclosure: Yes, I get a referral fee, less the discounts I’m offering. If you don’t want to use DreamHost, I’ve heard that BlueHost is good.
- Get the host and domain set up to work with each other. If you use the DreamHost code above and register the domain through them, DreamHost takes care of that.
If you come armed with domain and host, I will help you with the whole WordPress install process (and set you up with WordPress 3.0 beta 2). Regardless if you’re going to use your own host or the multisite setup, you’ll get to use my child theme Twenty Ten dot Five (I updated it last night to use Josefin Sans Std Light for the title)!
No matter what, I know this is going to be a great class.
See you next week!
