Visualanand

WordPress is one of the popular blogging software widely used by many sites. It surely beats all other blog products because of its simplicity, flexibility and availability of tons of plug-ins and themes. You can easily learn its usage without any help but many professional WordPress bloggers have written books. WordPress for Dummies, written by a leading designer Lisa Sabin-Wilson is a latest book published by Wiley.

The whole book is divided into six parts. Part 1 provides a basic introduction to the software including the basics of blogging. This chapter will be useful for beginners who don’t have any idea regarding blogs. Part 2 examines all the aspects involved with setting up and management of a self hosted WordPress blog. The chapters in this part provide the steps required to perform various tasks including upgradation related aspects.

The chapters in part 3 deeply cover the essentials of installation, configuration and management of a self hosted blog. I feel that this chapter will be very useful as this method is followed by nearly 90% of users. If you wish to publish articles which other users contribute then part 4 will help a lot as it discusses the implementation, management and maintenance of a multi-user blog.

The next part provides a step-by-step coverage of migration of an existing blog deployed using TypePad, MovableType and other blogging softwares. The author also examines the usage of WordPress as a full blown Content Management System (CMS). From my point of view, the book should showcase list of sites which makes use of WordPress as a CMS.

The final part provides a list of ten free themes and plug-ins with which you can enhance the look, feel and functionality of your website. I found that the author has repeated several URLs at various places which I feel is unnecessary. The book also includes an appendix which provides a detailed list of all configuration parameters with a short description and relevant code, which I feel will be a big bonus for advanced users. It will help them to customize their themes by inserting author name and other information easily. The author doesn’t provide a list of all leading WordPress designer. I found that the book has several repetitions at various places and the author seems to be promoting her own design company through the book.

The book enables users to explore WordPress in detail without spending long hours before PC referring to online tutorials. However, the author failed to discuss security related aspects and how to protect your blog from hackers. Moreover, the author doesn’t provide any coverage about the built-in anti spam tool Aksimet. The book also doesn’t feature the creation of themes and plug-ins which are the integral part of WordPress.

I feel that the book will not be useful and promising for advanced users and for those who are already well versed with WordPress. It will help only beginners who don’t have any basic idea about blogging. You can download a sample chapter and other required materials from the website of the publisher.

I give this book a 3 star rating (***).