May 10th, 2007 | Book Progress | No Comments
Today (Thursday) I wrote mainly about how to prepare a computer for blogging with WordPress: what kind of tools, software one will likely need in order to manage all the tasks during the setup and later while blogging. For example, for those who plan to post many pictures I would strongly advise to have an image editing program to avoid uploading a 900KB 1200×1000px picture in a narrow column blog.
(Even if you think no normal person would do something like that, believe me, it happens…)
And after the yesterday’s dilemma regarding the html vs. dynamic site - I ended up with a nicely illustrated simple explanation of how the two web site types work. I gave it to a friend to read it and got very positive feedback. Which makes me to plan further simple clarifications about web related issues. Of course, the keyword here is: simple.
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May 9th, 2007 | Book Progress | 2 Comments
Whole day I was struggling with this question: how much general information regarding the WWW should I include in the introductory chapters?
I am fully aware there is a huge amount of information out there, even with a simple search anybody could find it. But in the WordPress Support Forums I have had to answer question like:
OK, I downloaded the WP files, they are on my Desktop, now what? I don’t understand what all that blabla is about server and config file. Where should I upload it? Do I need a domain? How do I upload the files. I am completely new to this, so be gentle…
You can imagine the desperation of any helper when seeing a question like this. Where to start? What should I explain first? - and the same questions are very valid even in the case of a book that is targeting the non-technical beginners.
Do they have any basic understanding how the web works? Have they ever heard at least the “word” html?
Strictly speaking, you don’t need to understand how a static HTML web page works as opposed to the database driven dynamic web sites. On the other hand, if you do know the difference - you will never end up in the Forum saying “I saved all the files from my old host/server and installed it on my new server/domain but my blog is empty! HELP, pleeeeease…”
Those are the idiots who never realized that nothing is stored in their files. Except your customized theme you can throw out all your files. You can find them anywhere, no need for them. Really. Everything that is dear to you - is in the database. Therefore I ended up with a brief comparison of the traditional HTML sites and the database driven dynamic sites using PHP. I could understand this basic concepts when my programmer son explained to me the first time… even without understanding one line of PHP code. I think my readers are not dumber, so they will understand it as well.
The many, many hours spent in the Forum gave me this enormous advantage: I know precisely what kind of mistakes to expect from a newbie. If you see the same mistake repeated by hundreds of users, you know there must be a problem, so better address it to help them.
Yes, I know, it also means there is a problem with the documentation, which is mainly written by geeks for geeks - with a few exceptions. Let’s leave that for a future post…
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May 7th, 2007 | Book Progress | 3 Comments
For a month I am away from home and from the usual daily tasks. I have decided this time should be used to complete my project of writing a book about setting up WordPress on your own domain - a kind of WordPress 101 for absolute beginners. During the coming weeks I’ll post about the progress of the book, trying to document the “birth” of my book, which for now it has the work title WordPress 101. It might not be the most unique title but it covers exactly the content.
I plan to publish it in print (on demand) and in a digital format (e-book), too.
If you are interested in following the progress of this book and also the building of this blog, subscribe to the RSS feeds!
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