Presentation delivered to ISTC (Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators) Southern Area Group on May 13th 2014. The presentation is an introduction to using WordPress, and how it can work for you if you need a website, for your business or your own personal blog. I cover a bit about the history of WordPress, how it works, adding content, getting a WordPress website, and general maintenance when you've got one.

1. Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk
@coolfields
What is this thing called Love?
Graham Armfield
Web Accessibility Consultant
WordPress Developer
graham.armfield@coolfields.co.uk
@coolfields

2. What I’m going to cover
• What is WordPress?
• How WordPress Works
• Adding content to your WordPress website
• How to get a WordPress website
• Maintaining a WordPress website
2

3. 3
What is WordPress?

4. What is WordPress?
Some history
• Created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little
in 2003 as a development of b2/cafelog.
4

5. What is WordPress?
Some history contd
• Received a boost when Movable Type
started restricting free use.
• For years WordPress was primarily a
blogging platform
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6. An Early WordPress Site
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7. More Features
Extra features added, so the possibilities are
now almost endless.
WordPress can now support many types of
website. For example:
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• consumer review sites
• job boards
• membership sites (inc
with subscription)
• business websites
• community portals
• e-commerce websites
• classified ads

8. Increasingly the World's Choice
You can allow others to contribute content to your site.
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9. Increasingly the World's Choice
WordPress now 'powers' 20% of all websites
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from builtwith.com

10. 10
How WordPress Works
Core
Themes
Plugins

11. WordPress is a CMS
All content is stored in a
database…
… not in separate HTML files.
Which makes things very flexible.
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12. WordPress Core
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The WordPress core is what makes the site go
from prewarminor.com

13. WordPress Core
• Built with PHP
• Open source
• Maintained by volunteers, and developers
from Automattic
• Updated regularly
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14. WordPress Themes
Themes govern the look of a WordPress website
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolymatt/

15. WordPress Themes
• Only ever 1 theme active at any time
• Handles layout of site and styles – so, the
overall look and feel
• Most themes are free and developed by
volunteers
• Themes can be swapped in and out fairly
easily (in theory)
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16. WordPress Themes
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolymatt/

17. WordPress Plugins
Plugins are your optional extras
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/etheltheaardvark/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/

18. WordPress Plugins
• A site can (in theory) have any number of
plugins active at any time
• Plugins are available for many different
needs:
Improve SEO, protecting against spam, social
media, membership, forums, handling images,
improve usability of admin, improve site
security
• Most plugins are free and developed by
volunteers
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19. The Whole Picture
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http://mysite.com/about-us

20. 20
Adding Content into WordPress

21. WordPress Admin Screens
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22. Posts vs Pages
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Posts
• Time sensitive
• Blog entries, articles
• News about something, events,
assignments
• Can be categorised
• May be presented in a list
Pages
• Non time sensitive
• More permanent content
• Could have hierarchical structure
• Examples: Home Page, About Me,
Contact Me

23. List of Posts/Pages
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24. Add a New Page or Post
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25. Adding an Image
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26. Image and Categories Added
26

27. Published Post
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28. 28
How to Get a WordPress Website

29. Two Versions of WordPress 1
wordpress.com
• Hosted by WordPress
• Free and quick to signup
• Basic choice of themes + plugins
• URL format: mysite.wordpress.com
• Paid for features
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30. Two Versions of WordPress 2
wordpress.org
• Self hosted – need a hosting area
• Own the domain name
• Free to download
• Unlimited choice of themes + plugins
• Bespoke themes possible
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31. Choosing a Theme
For wordpress.org version
• Free themes -
http://wordpress.org/themes/
• Premium themes -
http://wordpress.org/themes/commercial/
For wordpress.com version
• Integrated into admin area
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32. Choosing Plugins
For wordpress.org version
• http://wordpress.org/plugins/
For wordpress.com version
• Very limited but integrated into admin
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33. Getting a Developer Involved
For wordpress.org version
• To design and build a theme for you
• To create extra functionality as required
• Install and configure more advanced
plugins
• Tailor the site to your needs
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34. WordPress and Accessibility
Front end is as accessible as:
• Chosen theme
• Chosen plugins
• What your content authors do
Admin screens:
• Not fully accessible
• But getting better
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35. 35
Maintaining a WordPress Site

36. Upgrading Versions
WordPress core
• Automated updates for
minor releases
Themes
Plugins
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37. Comments and User Accounts
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Comments
• You can manage all the comments
you've received
• Edit, delete
Users
• Guest authors
• Co-authors
• Editors
• Administrators

38. Choosing a New Theme
Your content is still intact, but…
• You may need to reattach
menus
• You may need to rebuild
your widgets
• Some functionality may
stop working
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39. Choosing New Plugins
Useful ones include:
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• Akismet
• WordPress SEO
• Relevanssi
• Cyclone Slider 2
• Tablepress
• WP to Twitter
• Subscribe 2

40. Spam
Should you allow comments on your site?
• Comments demonstrate that people are engaging
with your content
• The presence of comments encourages more
comments and engagement
• BUT you will start to get spam comments
• Ensure you use a spam protection plugin
• Akismet comes with WordPress but it's not free for
anything other than a personal site
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41. Site Security
Most WordPress sites will come under attack
at some time - usually 'brute force' attempts
to break in to the admin screens.
Usernames and Passwords
• Never use 'admin' or 'administrator'
• Always ensure passwords are strong – you
can use letters (uppercase and lowercase),
numbers and some punctuation symbols
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42. Security Plugins
Wordfence Security
• Blocks or throttles multiple page requests
• Blocks IP addresses for multiple logon
failures
• Scans website for latest version of core,
themes and plugins.
• Also scans for malware in your
WordPress folders
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43. Security Plugins (Advanced)
Audit Trail
• Logs activity on the admin area of the
site
WordPress File Monitor Plus
• Spots changes to any files on the site
Rename wp-login
• Moves your login page to a different
place
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44. Thanks for listening
graham.armfield@coolfields.co.uk
@coolfields