Advance Praise for Head First WordPress “There are a lot of WordPress books out there, but Head First WordPress once again proves that [this] series is the gold standard for smart, readable, easy-to-use reference guides for creative web users everywhere.” — Paul Andrews Blogger, author, and journalist; editor of bikeintelligencer.com “This friendly book offers tips that I haven’t seen in other books, and features useful, real-world scenarios to help get you up to speed with the latest version of WordPress quickly. ” — Jim Doran Software engineer at Johns Hopkins University “Administering and managing a WordPress blog can be daunting for the uninitiated. Head First WordPress walks you through the basics to help you ramp up your WordPress site quickly. ” — Ken Walker Business analyst Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Praise for other Head First books “Building websites has definitely become more than just writing code. Head First Web Design shows you what you need to know to give your users an appealing and satisfying experience. Another great Head First book!” — Sarah Collings User experience software engineer “Head First Web Design really demystifies the web design process and makes it possible for any web programmer to give it a try. For a web developer who has not taken web design classes, Head First Web Design confirmed and clarified a lot of theory and best practices that seem to be just assumed in this industry.” — Ashley Doughty Senior web developer “I Y Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML—it teaches you everything you need to learn in a ‘fun- coated’ format!” — Sally Applin UI designer and artist “The Web would be a much better place if every HTML author start off by reading Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML.” — L. David Barron Technical Lead, Layout & CSS, Mozilla Corporation “Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML is a thoroughly modern introduction to forward-looking practices in web page markup and presentation. It correctly anticipates readers’ puzzlements and handles them just in time. The highly graphic and incremental approach precisely mimics the best way to learn this stuff: make a small change and see it in the browser to understand what each new item means.” — Danny Goodman Author of Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Guide “Oh great, you made an XHTML book simple enough a CEO can understand it. What will you do next? Accounting simple enough my developer can understand it? Next thing you know we’ll be collaborating as a team or something.” — Janice Fraser CEO, Adaptive Path Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Praise for other Head First books “Behind the Ajax ball? Get out of the shadows with Head First Ajax. You’ll wrap your mind around the core concepts, and have some fun in the process.” — Bear Bibeault Web application architect “Ajax is more than just revisiting existing technologies, making some small changes to your web application and then delcaring it Ajax-enabled. Rebecca M. Riordan walks you through all of the steps of building an Ajax application in Head First Ajax, and shows you that Ajax is more than ‘that little asynchronous part’, but a better approach to web design altogether.” — Anthony T. Holdener III Author of Ajax: The Definitive Guide “Head First Design Patterns manages to mix fun, belly laughs, insight, technical depth and great practical advice in one entertaining and thought-provoking read.” — Richard Helm Coauthor of Design Patterns “Head First Design Patterns is close to perfect, because of the way it combines expertise and readability. It speaks with authority and it reads beautifully. It’s one of the very few software books I’ve ever read that strikes me as indispensable. (I’d put maybe 10 books in this category, at the outside.)” — David Gelernter Professor of Computer Science, Yale University “Head First Rails continues the tradition of the Head First series, providing useful, real-world information to get you up and going quickly. [It] is an excellent book for people learning Rails, as well as those brushing up on the latest features.” — Jeremy Durham Web developer “Head First Rails is a great, broad introduction to iterative Web 2.0 development. This book will show you how quick and easy it is to develop robust, next-generation websites.” — Matt Proud Systems administrator and developer Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Other related books from O’Reilly Learning Web Design Website Optimization CSS: The Definitive Guide Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual Other books in O’Reilly’s Head First series Head First C# Head First Java Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA&D) Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML Head First Design Patterns Head First Servlets and JSP Head First EJB Head First SQL Head First Software Development Head First JavaScript Head First Physics Head First Statistics Head First Ajax Head First Rails Head First Algebra Head First PHP & MySQL Head First PMP Head First Web Design Head First Networking Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Head First WordPress Wouldn’t it be dreamy if there was a book to help me learn how to build WordPress sites that was more fun than going to the dentist? It’s probably nothing but a fantasy… Jeff Siarto Beijing • Cambridge • Kln • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Head First WordPress First Edition by Jeff Siarto Copyright © 2010 Jeff Siarto. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly Media books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://my.safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our corporate/ institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or To Allie, for putting up with the late nights and busy weekends. This would not have been possible without you. Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> the author Jeff Siarto is a user experience and web designer currently calling Chicago home. He has two degrees from Michigan State University and was a student of the standards-based web design movement—aspiring to the likes of Cederholm, Zeldman, and Meyer. Jeff is a die-hard coworker and helps organize Jelly Chicago, a coworking group that meets twice a week in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. When Jeff isn’t pushing pixels, he enjoys cooking and eating (OK, mostly eating) and spending time with his wife on Chicago’s west side and in Michigan with friends and family. viii Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> Jeff