WordPress Tutorial for Beginners

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the open source, online web development tool based on PHP and MySQL. Now it has evolved into the Content Management System-(CMS). You can create a simple blog as well as a fully operational website. It contains thousands of free plugin, theme, widgets and other tools.

Features of WordPress

  • Ease of use
  • No HTML and FTP
  • SEO friendly Website
  • Add extra functionality through plugins
  • Plenty of widgets
  • Theme customization
  • Auto upgrade and support

What is CMS?

CMS is an application with the ability to create, modify and publish digital content. It supports multiple users, allowing them to work in collaboration.  CMS contains two major components:
  • A Content Management Application (CMA) can be referred to as a GUI. A user can create, modify, remove and publish content without having knowledge of HTML or other programming languages.
  • A Content Delivery Application (CDA) is responsible for the back-end services that manage and deliver content after it is in the CMA.

Difference Between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

Both are the ways of hosting a WordPress site. The thing that varies with these two methods is the actual host. By using WordPress.org, you may download the script free of cost and host it on a local machine or with a hosting provider. While WordPress.com take care of all that by hosting the site for you. You need not manage a web server, but you will have to pay for hosting. If you don’t want to have your own hosting or managing a web server, then WordPress.com may be the way to go. It is free and can be quickly set up. You will also have various features and options for your site’s customization. However, it comes with a price. Your website will include WordPress.com in the URL and you will not be able to upload custom themes or plugin. The self-hosted version from WordPress.org provides more flexibility and control over your site. You will be able to use your own domain name, upload themes, plugin and install them. You will also have access to your WordPress files, database, and code, meaning that you will be able to modify it according to your liking.

Installing WordPress Step By Step

For installing WordPress following software are required:
  • XAMPP Control Panel
  • WordPress

How to Install XAMP on Windows

Step 1- Download XAMPP Control Panel from https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html Installing WordPress Step By Step   Step 2- When you double click on downloaded file a warning will appear. Click on OK button. Wordpress Dialogbox Step 3- Select the path where you want to install XAMPP and click on Next button. Wordpress Install XAMP Step 4- Select a Language and click on Save button. Your installation is complete. Start your XAMPP Control Panel and click on the Finish button. Select Language Step 5- XAMPP Control Panel is now running. Click on the Start button which starts Apache and MySQL. Start XAMP Apache and MySQL Step- 6 After starting Apache and MySQL it will look like this.

starting Apache and MySQL How to Installing WordPress

Step 1- Download WordPress from https://WordPress.org/download/ Download WordPress Step 2- Extract the downloaded zip file. Extract and Download WordPress Step 3- Create a folder with any name, WP in my case. Move the extracted file into it. Copy the folder and paste on the location C:\xampp\htdocs. Now cut all the files from the WordPress folder and paste into the created folder (WP). Delete the folder named WordPress. Create Wordpress Folder Step 4- Open your browser and type localhost/phpmyadmin/ in the address bar and press enter. The following page will appear. Open and Browser PHP MyAdmin Step 5- Click on Database tab, type name of the database name and click Create button. Click on Database tab Step 6- Now open a new tab in the browser and type localhost/WP in the address bar and press enter. Select language and click on the Continue button. click on the Continue button The following page will appear and then Click on Let’s go! Button. then Click on Let’s go! Button Step 7- Write Database Name, Username and Password (optional) and click on Submit button. Write Database Name, Username and Password Steps 8- After clicking on Submit button following page will appear. Now click on Run the installation button. Run the installation button. Step 9- Enter Site Tile, Username, Password,  and Your Email. Click on Install WordPress button. Click on Install WordPress button Step 10- Now WordPress has been installed. Now click on the login button to view your dashboard. Now WordPress has been installed After Login, WordPress dashboard looks like this. WordPress dashboard Dashboard The main idea of the dashboard is to provide a place where you can get an overview of what’s happening with your blog or website. All the content of this dashboard grouped into widgets. Position of these widgets can be changed. The dashboard contains the following widgets:
  • Welcome to WordPress
  • At a Glance
  • Quick Draft
  • Activity
  • WordPress Events and News

Welcome to WordPress

You can customize your site by clicking on the customized button. It contains different links like Write your first blog post, Add an About page, Set up your homepage, and View your site, etc. At a Glance It shows the WordPress version and theme you are running. It counts how many posts, pages, and comments you have. Quick Draft This is a mini post editor that allows instant content creation from the dashboard. You can include the title and content of your post and save it as a draft. Activity It gives you a bit more information about your latest post and comments. It also shows the status of all comments. If you hover your mouse over one of the listed comment, action links will appear. your mouse over one of the listed comment WordPress Events and News This widget provides information about nearby events organized by WordPress by entering your city name in the box. It also displays the latest WordPress news. Screen Options There is a Screen Options widget which allows you to enable and disable different widget as per your need. You can minimize and drag a widget according to your need. Admin Bar This is a black bar at the top of the page. It is only displayed when admin is logged in. It contains links to the most commonly used administrative function and resources. most commonly used administrative function Sidebar Menu This option allows easy access to different areas of your sites. It contains the following options:
  • Posts: Manage posts on your blog
  • Media: Manage media content libraries like images, audio, and video.
  • Pages: Creating and managing posts.
  • Comments: It allows your website visitors to have a discussion with you and each other.
  • Appearances: Change the appearance of your site.
  • Plugins: The primary purpose of plugins is to expand WordPress functionality without coding.
  • Users: Shows all users of your site.
  • Tools: It contains tools to perform some non-routine management tasks. You can check site’s health, import and export data to and from other CMS.
  • Settings: This is the central hub to configure setting for different sections of a WordPress website. It also adds their setting pages as a menu under the setting tab.
  • Collapse menu: All nav menu items are collapsed by default, but you have the option to store the collapsed/expanded state for the menus on a user-by-user basis.
Following window shows all widgets of the WordPress dashboard. widgets of the WordPress dashboard

How to Create a WordPress Website

  • Choose a domain name and host: You need a domain name and a hosting space to get your website online.
  • Create new pages: Create new pages for your website.
  • Add content: Write the content which you want to display on the webpage.
  • Install plugins: There are some necessary plugins which must be installed are as follows-
  1. Yoast SEO: This is a WordPress SEO It handles the technical optimization of your site and assists with your optimizing content.
  2. Contact Form 7: It allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms, use Captcha Verification, and ensure that all spam submissions are filtered out with Askimet.
  3. WordFence Security: It offers a both free and paid version of WordFence Security. It gives you access to an abundance of tools including Malware, virus and backdoor scanning,

Changing Theme of Your WordPress Website

Step 1- Click on Customize Your Site. Customize Your WordPressSite Step 2- Click on Change button at top left corner of the page. Change button at top left corner Here you will get two options: Installed themes and WordPress.org themes (Premium). Installed themes are already downloaded on your system and Wordpres.org themes are required to download. You can choose any one of them by clicking on the Live Preview button. After this click on Activate & Publish button at the top left corner of the page. Now a new theme is applied to your website. click on Activate & Publish button

How to make a WordPress theme

To build a theme you should have a little bit of knowledge of the following:
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • PHP
  • Database
  • JavaScript
WordPress Plugins Plugins are the program written in PHP scripting language that extends the functionality of the website. It provides additional functions to applications. Choosing a plugin Before choosing a plugin you should follow the following points:
  • Create a list of your requirements.
  • Read a review of the plugin which you want to download.
  • Check the compatibility of the plugin with currently using WordPress version.
  • Take a look at the screenshot of the plugin.
  • Read FAQ.

Install WordPress plugin

Step 1- Click on Plugins menu in the sidebar, and then click on Add New button. How to Install Wordpress Plugin Step 2- A new pages with plugins will appear on the screen, select any one of them which you want to install and click on Install Now button. select any one of them which you want to install Step 3- After installing the plugin is required to activate. Click on Activate button. installing the plugin is required to activate Now the plugin has installed successfully. Step 4- Click on Plugins in Sidebar menu. All installed plugins will show here.  Here we install Contact Form 7. Click on Setting link of Contact Form 7. Click on Setting link of Contact Form 7 You will get a shortcode at the top of the page, copy this code and paste into any new page or widget. shortcode at the top of the page It creates a Contact Form or Widgets as shown below. creates a Contact Form or Widgets