WordPress

WordPress is an open-source Content Management System that is totally based on

PHP and MySql and used to create a dynamic website. It was developed by Matt
Mullenweg and Written in PHP. WordPress is one of the most popular that allows
customizing and managing the website from its back-end content management
system.
Advantages:
 You can choose any design because WordPress has available thousands of free themes.
 There are thousands of Plugins available.
 It is responsive for all-screens.
 It has a huge community that helps you to get answers to your questions.
 It is completely free to install on your server so you have low-cost pay.
Disadvantages:
 It has no built-in SEO functionality.
 It is Open Source that’s why it has open room for possible hackers.
 It does not have drag and drop web building tools if you do not have coding skills, it
will be difficult to make a lot of changes.
 PHP Knowledge is required to make modifications or changes to the WordPress
website.
WordPress Installation-
Installing local server: Xampp (https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html)
Go to the link: https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html, choose your
platform (windows / Linux, mac), and click on download.

1. After installing Xampp, go to programs and run it, you should see
something like this.
2. Just click on start in front of Apache and MySQL, this will start your
local server.

3. Now that your localhost is running, check it by typing “localhost” in

your browser URL “You should see the following screen.

4. Goto phpMyAdmin is located under “Tools” in the bottom left

corner. This is your MySQLdatabase, here all the information on your
website (comments, posts, username, password, etc.) is stored. You can
run SQL queries here, make tables, etc.
 Till now we’ve configured our localhost, now let’s move to the next
step of installing WordPress, download it from here:
https://wordpress.org/download/
 Now go to C:\xampp\htdocs and paste the zip file you downloaded in
step 6 here.
 Extract the zip file in the htdocs folder and you should see a new
folder named “wordpress” created.
 Go to your browser and type “localhost/phpmyadmin/” and click
on New
5. Write any name you want under “Database name” and click on create.
Remember this name, this is the name of your site’s database.

6. Type the URL “http://localhost/wordpress/” in your browser and you

should get this screen.

 Click on “Let’s go”. On the next page fill in the following details:
 Database name: The database you created in step 9.
 Username: root
 Password: Leave it empty.
 Database Host: localhost
  Table prefix: It’s “wp_” by default, you can change it whatever
you want, but you can’t keep it empty.
 Click on submit.
 Click on “run the install”

 On the next screen just fill in all the details like site name, username,
password, and email. Remember the username and password you
choose are the Admin login credentials, so keep the password secure
and robust, anyways you can change it later if you want. Click on
“install WordPress”.
 On the next screen, you’ll be asked to log in using the credentials you
created in step 13, do it to make sure everything is working.
 That’s it, you are good to go!
7. Go to the URL “http://localhost/wordpress/index.php” and you’ll see a
default homepage something similar to this

 Enter the URL “http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/” and you’ll

see the admin dashboard similar to this, here you can customize your
website.
 How to make a website using WordPress
1. First of all start by entering the URL “localhost/WordPress” (or “localhost/your-
site-name”). Here you’ll see a screen similar to this. Click on the dashboard or
enter the URL “localhost/WordPress/wp-admin”

2. The name of my site is “demo”, you might use a different name. Also, I’m
using port no. 1234 but it might be different in your case. Therefore,
whenever you use the URL as “localhost:1234” in the screenshots,
replace “1234” with your apache’s port number.
Now you’ll get the following screen.
 The above screen can have more options in the left-hand toolbar
depending on the theme and plugin that you’re using.
So let’s start exploring all the features of the toolbar.
3. Dashboard
Here you see quick access to everything related to your website. Your
latest posts, pages, comments, etc. Also, you can see all the updates to
your theme, plugins, and WordPress here.
It’s strongly recommended to update all the themes, plugins, and
WordPress whenever an update is available (unless you’ve compatibility
issues with the new version). Doing so keeps you safe from all security
threats.
4. Posts
A post is just a content entry that fills most of your website. Posts usually
have comments and are included in your site’s RSS feed.
To add a post just go to post->add new and start writing the content.
To add pics to it click on “Add Media” and upload the files. You can see
two options at the top: Visual and text. For easy use click on visual and
start using WordPress the same way you use Microsoft word.
The featured image is displayed at the top of a post. It’s the image that is displayed
in the thumbnail when you share your content on facebook/google+.

You can categorize your post content into categories by going to

posts->categories. For example, if you write a blog about computer
science students then you can have categories like “Data structures”,
“web designing “, etc.
You can also add “tags” to a post by going to posts->tags.
You need not publish the post always, you can save it for editing it later
by clicking on “save draft”.
5. Media
Here all your media items like pictures, videos, audio files, etc are shown.
You can click on any item and edit it in WordPress itself. Editing tools
include crop, resize, etc.
6. Pages
Pages are static and don’t have categories, comments, tags, etc like
posts have. You can create any number of pages you want. Pages can be
customized by using sidebars.
7. Same as in the post here also you have got a visual and text editor. You
can also add media here as you did in the post.
You might have seen a website where if you hover on the menu a
submenu appears. You can do that by selecting the parent on the right-
hand side of “Add new page”.
8. Comments
This section shows all the comments on the blog of your website. Here
you can approve/unapproved a comment, or even delete it.
9. Appearance
This section plays a major role in customizing the looks of your website.
Let us see the sub-sections step by step.
10. Themes
Here you see all the installed themes. Currently, I’m running twenty-fifteen
themes. You can download the theme of your choice and upload its zip file
by clicking on “add new theme”
11. Customize
This is the easiest way to customize your website. Whatever changes you
make in this section take place instantly for preview, it’s up to you to save
it or not. Here you can change the site name, background colors, and
header image, and add widgets (like a search bar, recent posts,
categories, etc.)

12. Widgets
Widgets are for adding features to your website’s footer and sidebar. You
can show recent posts, search bar, archives, comments, and tag cloud in
the sidebar using these widgets.
13. Menus: Most of the sites have 2 menus, primary and secondary.
For ex: On geeksforgeeks.org the main menu is

And the secondary menu is

You can create these menus in the “Menu” section. The menu can
contain pages, categories, or other custom links you want.
14. Header & Background
Header & background again takes you to the Customize section so that
you can change the look of your header and menu.

15. Editor
The editor lists all the template’s PHP files that are used in creating
pages. If you want to make changes in the coding you can do it from here
 by editing the PHP code. You can also change the styling of your website
by editing the “style.css”.
Don’t use this option if you’re a beginner.
16. Plugins
Here you can view the currently installed plugins as well as install new plugins.
Browse through various plugins and click on “Add new ” to upload a plugin.

17. Users
This section shows all the registered users on your website. You can
change the role of a user(say from author to admin ) under this section.
You can also edit a user’s profile in this section.
18. Tools
It provides you with a set of tools to make your website more user-
friendly. For ex: the tool “press this” lets you publish a post on any web
page without going to “add new post” in the dashboard.
There is another good use of Tools. Suppose you start building your
website on your local server. At one point you’ll need to shift your whole
website from a local server to a web server. This is when the
“tools->export” option comes in handy. It can also be used while you’re
moving your website from one web host to another without losing the
content of the website.
You can see in the picture below that how export works. WordPress asks
you whether you want to move the whole content or some part of it.
19. Settings
Under settings, you can edit the main and essential information about
your website like site title, email id of your site, permalink structure,
comment moderation, media upload size, etc.