Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog

This is the one! If you need solid useable info on real WordPress coding with next to no time wasted on beginner stuff that you must already know to even be looking at a book like this, you will be very happy with this book. Lots of great stuff on every page. The first couple of chapters that talk about WP installation may seem a little vague but things pick up soon once he gets to the heavy stuff. So many things have been clarified for me because of this book and I can see the difference in my sites. Fewer pages than many programming books but packs in more real information than most. And Thord's non-native English is actually more communicative most of the time than the average native English-speaking coding teacher! Go figure. Superb print quality too, in color no less! All in all, an excellent experience.

I am very happy with this book. There is some repetition, but it is mostly useful, and "in context".

It gives you all of the information you need to start diving deeper into making themes and editing the backend of your wordpress sites. Anything it doesn't cover, it refers you to the wordpress codex. While some may find that irritating, it is best to refer to the codex to get the most up to date information. This is not a be-all-end-all wordpress book but it has tons of information to help you out if your not on a pro level. DEFINITELY NOT FOR BEGINNERS!! Try the blogging wordpress book from Smashing before using this one.

This book is definitely not for beginners, but it is really comprehensive. The only way I could love it more is if it had tutorials in it, but that's okay.

Over-Priced and stuffed with padding and I don't mean a Chapter about CSS padding attributes. Yes, I gave it one star. The book is put together very well tip-wise but is too expensive for what is being purchased. John Wiley is known for marginally acceptable materials they markup as a marketing ploy to make the product appear like the extra money means the product is worth the higher price. I learned this when working as an architect and was compelled to buy technical books from John Wiley at $150 and more and then repeat the next year for the next "edition" and discovered after a year or two of their little publishing racket that next to nothing was changed except more added padding. I checked this book out from the library and except for the beginning which is where most padding occurs and without doubt was compelled to be included as such by Wiley to give the book more pages it is terse and down to the point. As a software developer it did help me out here and there BUT I scanned to pdf and copied to text the 2-3 parts I perceived as the best this book has to offer AND there are at least 25 if not more FREE very well written blogs with the EXACT same information (no to mention the WordPress codex the auther regurgitates) AND even better, the blogs I have found are written as single topic tutorials with code examples that can be copied and pasted for neccessary best practice edits before using in production. Finally, to prove my point about Wiley fluff most of us know the new REST API is the most useful part of what WordPress has adopted. Its really nowhere to be found in a "4th Edition" Hello? Publisher Padding Its my opinion this book is an e-book in disguise all padded out by demand of the publisher. Personally, I respect the author but he should go independent and sell his own work because he has what it takes. BTW - I also learned that lesson when working as an architect as I wrote my ass off and was ALWAYS cheated by the publishers. ALWAYS. If you have extra money to spend to put into the pocket of John Wiley and you haven't learned how to use Google yet this book is for you.

Too much program language for my needs. I just want to know how to navigate the Word Press blog I started. For those with programming background this may be wonderful.

I switched from Blogger to WordPress in 2006/2007. I wish that this book would have been around then, as I would have loved to have been able to tweak my blog on my own. As it was, I ended up hiring someone to create a theme for me, which wasn't cheap, and it was a disaster as I couldn't then make any updates on my own. This book would have helped me to close those gaps and allowed me to create the look I wanted to achieve. This book makes me want to go back to WordPress and try my hand at creating a great space again, though right now I'm delving into Squarespace and learning about that. Highly recommend. © Angela Risner 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Amazon or Angela Risner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Angela Risner with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Book received in a timely fashion and in pristine condition; Great easy read for blog setup.

Why is there a dictate on amount of words on the review. This makes me refuse time write a review and rate my purchases at all in the future. Annoying and it detracts from what you want from me. The stars is my review. Period.

Dans ce livre, vous vous familiariserez avec les nombreuses fonctionnalités de WordPress et verrez comment construire un site web qui répondra à vos besoins et vous permettra de vous démarquer sur le net. Vous apprendrez à utiliser et optimiser les différents outils et ressources à votre disposition et à créer un thème WordPress personnalisé. Vous découvrirez des astuces pour améliorer votre méthode de travail et utiliser les fonctions de WordPress de manière pertinente et créative. Enfin, vous verrez comment développer des plugins, ces extensions qui vous permettront d’étendre les fonctionnalités de votre site sans modifier votre thème de base. Pour qui ? Cet ouvrage s’adresse avant tout aux (futurs) développeurs de thèmes et de plugins WordPress mais il intéressera aussi les gestionnaires de contenu qui, comme moi, souhaitent exploiter pleinement les potentialités de ce CMS open source. ! Une connaissance de base en HTML, CSS et PHP est vivement souhaitée pour pouvoir comprendre et appliquer les principes présentés.

Started with this book to begin learning about WordPress and it lasted 2 days. Once I began trying to work with the "sample website" listed on the link in the book, everything fell apart. It was almost as if the author forgot his website was supposed to help readers of his book learn. NOW... this was a long time ago. I know WordPress practically inside out. If this isn't the case any longer, I will gladly correct my recriminations to reflect that.

Description was not in line with content, but for a tinkering Wordpress user it should be quite helpful. Too bad it does not show actual examples of tinkering as they should appear on screen, but I think it does explain quite well the inner workings of Wordpress beyond version 3.5

Forget Wordpress as blogging tool and start thinking of it as a site building tool. This book takes you there. You get introduced to what comes out of the box and the Wordpress Codex, which is the definitive guide to all things Wordpress. Then we get to learn about tweaking, expanding and integrating Wordpress. Some basic understanding of PHP would be helpful but the author explains his stuff in very straightforward language. This is pretty surprising for a technical book. If you want to learn how to customise your site, add new features or change the layout, this is very well covered. Some of the tips on which plugins and widgets to look for, and where to find them, are priceless. A real winner though, is some of the non-technical advice. How would you design a 404 page or make royalties from ad placement? All of that is here. I would find it hard not to get a sense of smug satisfaction for some of the inspiration that I have applied to my own sites. This book is really that good. The next stage is to look at the author's book on Wordpress Themes.