WordPress All-in-One For Dummies

The book goes from Dummies to Dumbledore level in it's 600+ pages. Starting with whether ti choose wordpress from the .com or the .org site to writing PHP code, the book covers the landscape. Generally, I will be using this book (after reading it cover to cover) as a reference guide for my WordPress sites. The downside is that the book is not up to date on the latest releases of WP, and falls further behind by the day. The more detailed elements, such as PHP, are very solid, but the interactions at the plug-in, widget and UI level are getting out of date. For this reason, it will likely be a 3 star book by 2016 - not for lack of information - but because books can't keep up.

I see why they call this book For Dummies. I will never again purchase a For Dummies book if I want to learn advance higher concepts of any particular subject. What For Dummies basically means that they will never go into depth on any particular subject. It's all about introducing concepts but then leaving you guessing the rest of the way. This book advertises that it is All-In-One which to me implies that everything you need to know about WordPress in this case should be included in this book. However that statement is not true and is very misleading. After reading through the exhaustive 800 pages of this book I am not much closer to being fully equipped to customize, edit, publish, or develop in WordPress than when I started. If anything I'm left with more questions. The first 300 pages was a complete waste of my time because all I learned was how to navigate the Dashboard, which is pretty much self explanatory and does not need 300 pages dedicated to explaining very basic functions. I think this book was poorly written and is a complete waste of time. If you really want to know how use WordPress just save yourself some time and money and visit the free WordPress Codex online. Which this author suggests that you do anyways and truthfully its what you going to have to do if you want to learn WordPress because this sure does not teach you anything worth learning. Except when it comes to securing your blog, some great techniques there and search engine optimization. Which can also be found in the online codex so there you go.

Question: If I'm a Ph.D. who has taught computer science at the graduate level, and can't understand a book written "For Dummies." what does that say about me?Another reviewer said that this is a great reference book, and I suspect that's very true. But I didn't think I was BUYING a reference book; I wanted something more like a tutorial.Truth in reviewing: I haven't finished the book. I just finished the first three chapters. I have learned more than I care to know about the Open Source movement, the GNU General Public License (GPL), trackbacks and pingbacks, the history of Wordpress and how it evolved from b2, how to upload abd download files using FTP, how to use chmod, the functions of PHP and MySQL. I've even been taught how to write a web page in HTML, using PHP and MySQL (didn't work, in Firefox).What I have NOT learned, so far, is one single thing about how to build a blog or website using Wordpress.As Kindle books go, this one is expensive: Originally $35, now marked down to $26. It's also long, at over 800 pages. As I've already conceded, I think it may make a wonderful reference book, containing everything you ever wanted to know about web authoring. and a lot of stuff you don't care to know.But if that's what it's for, it needs a new title. I bought it because I hoped it would teach me all about how to use Wordpress effectively. So far I've been very disappointed.

With some sintax errors but still good book to start learning WordPress and PHP

I'm not sure why I chose a 4-star rating since I am finding this book less helpful than I had expected. I think it's because I am a a rank beginner, and want an explanation for everything.

Great resource for anyone starting out in Wordpress!NOTE: This product was a personal purchase for myself at the normal retail price. I'm reviewing it solely because I want to share my experience with other potential customers. I have received no compensation for my review, nor do I have any relationship with the seller or manufacturer of this product.

This is my go-to reference for WordPress. Takes a lot of guess work out of the platform. Highly recommend this to anyone who has just started a Wordpress blog.

It's good. But in reality the bulk of the info is available on the net.

Have taken over a community web site which was developed using WordPress, Wanted a (very quick) 'kick start' to make some changes and fixes. I could only find pages 262-265 relating to static pages (used for websites) the rest refers to 'posts' (Blogs). Have bought and recommended dozens of Dummies books over the years, This is first one I've been dissatisfied with. Have returned it.

Gets you going, builds your confidence but really tough going as it keep referring to other parts of the book.

This is a very thorough guide to setting up and using WordPress.As a fairly new user of this blogging platform, this book has proved essential for understanding the blog concept and the capabilities of this popular blogging platform.

As expected

This is a great reference tool for WordpressI use this book all the time this is the second version and I wouldn't be without it