Wordpress Training

WordPress Course Description

WordPress is a free open source blogging tool and content management system. WordPress can be used to create a traditional blogging site; however, it can also be used to create a standard website for business or personal use. This course focuses on creating websites using WordPress. No previous experience is needed. This course is structured in a way to help all students, regardless of their experience, learn WordPress.

Students will learn how to:

Set up a domain and hosting account
Set up a MySQL database on their server
Install WordPress on the MySQL database
Plan their website by choosing color schemes, fonts, layouts, and more
Search for themes in WordPress
Select, install, and activate a theme
Add posts to their website
Create website pages
Add images, photo galleries, and more
Create tags for SEO and categories to organize their posts
Use WordPress as a content management system (CMS)
Use widgets and plugins
Create an ecommerce site
Integrate WordPress with social media
Customize a WordPress site using PHP, CSS, and HTML
And more.

Each lesson covers a different aspect of WordPress and contains sections to teach students what they need to know. Step-by-step instructions, along with screenshots and demonstrations, make learning to use WordPress a breeze. By the end of the course, all students will be able to successfully create their own customized website using the information they’ve learned.

Course Requirements

You should have a high school reading level and be competent in basic computer usage and terminology.

Course Topics

Lesson 1: Introduction to WordPress

A brief history
More about WordPress
WordPress Blogs vs. Websites
A brief introduction to WordPress themes
Getting started with WordPress

Lesson 2: Finding a Home for your WordPress Site

Finding a domain
Registering a domain
Choosing a web hosting package
WordPress feature through your host

Lesson 3: Installing WordPress on Your Site

How to install WordPress
The MySQL database
Uploading your files
The install script
About WordPress Release Cycles
Upgrading WordPress

Lesson 4: Content Management using WordPress

Archiving content
The purpose of categories
Naming a category
Creating a new category
About static page parents and children
Permalinks
Dressing up links
Customizing links
Checking Links with Your Server
Syndicated content (RSS)
About Feed Readers
RSS options
RSS and Social Media

Lesson 5: Selecting the Right Tools

Picking a text editor
Picking a web browser
About cross-browser compatibility
An introduction to FTP
Setting up for FTP
Using an FTP client
Transferring files
Editing files (FTP)
File Permissions

Lesson 6: Image Formats

Image types and formats
Comparing image formats
About graphic design software programs
Raster based software
Vector based software
Image optimization
Image libraries

Lesson 7: Fonts and Colors

About Color
The color wheel
The color models
Color schemes
Color combinations
Creating colors using codes
About fonts
Web safe fonts
Fonts for graphic design
Installing fonts on a computer

Lesson 8: Designing Your WordPress Site

Choosing a site width
Fixed widths
Fluid widths
Responsive Layouts
Columns
Navigation
Content display options
The Sandbox environment

Lesson 9: The WordPress Default Layout

About the layout and structure
Customizing the header image
Choosing a header image
Creating your own header image
Custom navigation
About widgets
Using widgets
Adding widgets to a sidebar or footer
The text widget
The RSS widget

Lesson 10: Themes and Templates

About WordPress themes
PHP and MySQL
Defining PHP
The template tag
Using PHP
Managing your database
Template files
How templates work with WordPress themes
Stylesheets
About the Main Index and The Loop
The different templates
Template tags, values, and parameters
Using template tags in blog posts
Connecting templates
Using more than one stylesheet

Lesson 11: More on Widgets and Template Tags

Common template tags
Calendar
List pages
Post archives
Categories
Content types
More template tags
Adding widget areas
Registering widget ideas
Adding widget areas to template files
Using template files
Named templates
Template parts
Page templates
Adding support

Lesson 12: Parent and Child Themes

Understanding parent and child themes
Creating a child theme
Loading a parent theme style
Customizing the parent theme style
Using images in child theme designs
Edit theme structure with child themes
Overriding parent template files
Adding new template files
Removing template files
Modifying theme functions file
Preparing a parent theme

Lesson 13: Creating a Custom Site

Getting acquainted with CSS
CSS Selectors
Classes and IDs
CSS properties and values
Changing background mage or colors
Adding a custom background
Changing the background with CSS
Positioning your header image using CSS
Repeating or scrolling background images
Changing theme elements
Adding effects
Setting font, color, and size
An introduction to basic HTML
Inserting images
Inserting links
Inserting lists

Lesson 14: Using WordPress as a Content Management System

Creating the front page
Creating a static page
Using a static page as your front page
Making a blog look like a website
Creating blank blog pages
Assigning the new page as a blog page
Creating custom page templates
The default page template
Comparing templates
Using different sidebarand footer templates
Custom styles for sticky, category, and tag posts

Lesson 15: Using WordPress Plugins

Installing plugins using the dashboard
Finding plugins
Installing and activating plugins
Installing plugins manually
Ecommerce plugins
Photo galleries and portfolios
Inserting images onto pages or into posts
Creating web forms using plugins
About BuddyPress
Integrating plugins with social networks