Mister Nifty

If you’re new to WordPress, here’s a quick primer I put together for you.  I’m referring to the self-hosted version rather than WordPress.com hosted blogs.

What is WordPress?

Straight from the horse’s mouth – WordPress.org:

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

In other words, WordPress is a software you install on a web server that allows you to easily push information to the web. WordPress can be used as a blog OR a regular website. The WordPress software gives you access to the following:

• Thousands of free third-party plugins that help you make your site even more awesome. (Twitter feeds, contact forms, calendar etc) Plugins can be added from within the interface with no code knowledge whatsoever.
• Thousands of free themes to change the appearance of your site. There area also dozens of premium theme websites that provide professional designs at affordable pricing. Free themes can be added from within your WP console.
• Online access to edit your website instead from anywhere in the worldof relying on your church geek who uses proprietary software to update your web presence. You can also add other users to add/edit content.
• Easy learning curve – if you can create a document in Microsoft Word, you can add/edit content on a WordPress site. WP contains a WYSIWYG console that gives you a visual before your data ever gets published.
• One of the most mature and widely used platforms. This means there are tons of articles and support forums to find answers to your questions.
• Content and design separation so you can easily change the look of your site without re-entering content.

To boil everything down, WordPress is one of the easiest ways for you to quickly set up your website with no fuss.

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If you’ve read my posts, you know I’m a huge WordPress fan.  For those who don’t know what WordPress is, check it out at WordPress.org. One of the latest themes that has caught my attention is the P2 theme that turns WordPress into a Twitter-like interface.  It’s a great way for your team to communicate and post items of interest in real-time on the web.   When a user posts, it automatically updates on the post list of everyone who’s viewing the site.   Users can reply up to five levels depending on your configuration.  Here’s how I got my own installed and working.

Install WordPress

• Install WordPress – I used a subdomain (http://team.mydomain.com)  Most hosting companies have a One-Click application installer so you don’t have to mess with setting up a database or ugly FTP interfaces.   All you have to do is fill out a simple form where you want WordPress installed, give it a few minutes, and viola, it’s up-and-running.

Install the P2 Theme

• Log in to the admin interface (http://team.mydomain.com/wp-admin/) and go to Appearance->Add New Themes
• Search for “P2″ in the search box and install the theme.
• Activate the theme under Appearance->Themes
• If you have problems, download the theme files to your computer and upload them to your WP directory using an FTP client.

Make your WordPress Private

• You probably don’t want the world reading your posts, so let’s make your WordPress private.  Go to Plugins->Add New
• Search for Private WordPress and install the plugin (Install button is to the right of the search results table)
• Make sure Private WordPress is activated under Plugins->Installed

Setup Your Preferences

• Go to Settings->General and give your portal a name and description.
• Go to Settings->Reading and enter the number of posts you want to appear on each page under: “Blog pages show at most”
• Go to Settings->Discussion and enable threaded nested comments (Choose how many levels you desire – this is basically how many levels down people can comment on other’s comments)
  • To keep non-users from commenting, check “Users must be registered and logged in to comment”
  • Un-check “An administrator must always approve the comment” and “Comment author must have a previously approved comment

Force Posted Links to Open In New Pages

• Go to Plugins->Add New and search for “Target Blank In Posts And Comments”
• Install and activate this plugin.  The functions will work automatically without any additional settings.

Add Your Team Members

• Go to Users->Add New  Create profiles for your team members.  Assign them the role of author so they can only edit their own posts.  To assign a moderator, give them a role of administrator, or editor.
• Team members can have their own personalized user icon by registering the same email address in their profile at: http://gravatar.com  This is a universally recognized avatar that will work on any site they use the registered email address on.

Install Additional Features

• Try installing other plugins for added functionality.
• Allow users to be notified of additional comments with the plugin “Subscribe To Comments”
• There are dozens of YouTube plugins that allow users to embed videos right in their posts.