WordPress: Tutorials and Resources for Designers and Developers

Do you know what WordPress is? Of course you know… everyone knows – the best open source and most advanced blogging platform. It has great plugins and one of the best if not “the best” community ever. And through this post I want to capture all the movement around this great tool: themes, developers, tricks, cheat sheets and other.

1. WordPress

wordpress-hompage

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. – from WordPress.org

There are 2 versions available for users:
- WordPress.org (self hosted version) – You can download the package and install it on your hosting account
- WordPress.com (no hosting needed) – You can create an account on WordPress.com

2. WordPress Cheat Sheets

cheatsheet

Cheat Sheets are those documents that can help you when you want to save time. These files have all the basic information you need. And there are several good cheat sheets for WordPress including my own.

1. My WordPress Cheat Sheet
2. WPCandy Cheat Sheet
3. DBSWebsite Cheat Sheet
4. WPToy Cheat Sheet
5. Bueltge.de Cheat Sheet

3. Installing WordPress

Although WordPress is quite easy to install, there are many people that are less technical and that could use some tutorials on this topic. Here is a list with links to help you install your WordPress instance.

6. WordPress.org Codex – Installing WordPress
7. Installing WordPress with FTP
8. HowToInstallWordpress.com
9. Sitground WordPress Install
10. How to install WordPress 2.8

4. WordPress Tutorials

chriscoyer

In this section I will list some of the most important tutorials from the blogosphere regarding WordPress. Just watch some of these tutorials and they will boost your WordPress skills. We will start with some very comprehensive tutorials on how to create a WordPress Theme.

4.1 Theme Tutorials

Here you can find basic and some advanced instructions of how to create a WordPress theme. It will take you some time before you know all the steps, but at the end you will see that the process has an intuitive flow.
11. So you want to create WordPress themes huh?
12. Designing for WordPress: Complete Series & Downloads
13. New WP Video Series
14. How to Create a WordPress Theme from Scratch
15. Creating a WordPress Template

4.2 Theme’s Menu Tutorials

Menus can be tricky depending on your needs. Here you have several tutorials about different types of menus. Dropdowns or Rounded Corner Menus are available in this next list, so make sure to check it.
16. Rounded Corner Tab Menu Using CSS
17. Making a Categories Drop-Down Menu
18. WordPress: “Magazine style” Horizontal dropdown menu
19. WordPress Menu Tricks
20. Creating Two-Tiered Conditional Navigation in WordPress

4.3 Comments Tutorials

The comments module is a tricky one. You will have to watch several tutorials in order to be familiar with the standard and threaded comments.
21. Separating Trackbacks from Comments
22. Unraveling the Secrets of WordPress’ Comments.php File
23. How to Highlight Author Comments in WordPress
24. Rearrange WordPress Comments (Latest On Top)
25. WordPress 2.7 Comments Enhancements

4.4 Advanced Tutorials

Here are some advanced WordPress tutorials like: Control Panel for a custom theme, How to Build a Newsletter, Thumbnail Selection. For other advanced tutorial you should search the web because there are tons of tutorials dedicated to WordPress.
26. How to make a control panel for your WordPress theme
27. Build a ‘WordBurner’ Email Newsletter Manager using WordPress and FeedBurner
28. Build a Featured Posts Section for WordPress
29. Integrate a slideshow in your wordpress theme
30. Advanced WordPress Thumbnail Selection

4.5 Plugins Tutorials

At some point in your WordPress designer/developer timeline, the need for a plugin will come. Here are some introductory tutorials on how to create a plugin.
31. How to Make a Social Bookmarking WordPress Plugin – Step by Step
32. Writing a Plugin
33. How to Write a WordPress Plugin
34. How to Create a WordPress Plugin from Scratch
35. How to Create a Simple WordPress Plugin

5. WordPress Tips and Hacks

36. Hodgepodge of WordPress Tricks
37. WordPress Theme Hacks
38. 40+ Most Wanted WordPress Tricks and Hacks
39. 20+ WordPress Recipes (Codes)
40. WpHacks

6. WordPress Free Themes

41. Gallery
gallery-theme

42. Facebook Theme
facebook-theme

43. WP Premium
wp-premium

44. Magazeen
magazeen

45. Modern Clix
modern-clix

46. Irresistible
irresistible

7. Great WordPress Books

The next WordPress Book come from very talented designers and developers. Make sure to check some of these book for advanced topics and information.

47. WordPress for Business Bloggers – by Paul Thewlis
48. WordPress Plugin Development – by Vladimir Prelovac
49. How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer – Collis Ta’eed & Harley Alexander
50. WordPress 2.7 Cookbook – Jean-Baptiste Jung

8. Awesome WordPress Developers

51. Alex King
52. Chris Wallace
53. Elliot Jay Stocks
54. Adriaan Pienaar – Adii
55. Matt Mullenweg

9. Automattic – WordPress Products Family

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1. Akismet

Akismet, or Automattic Kismet, is a spam filtering service created by Automattic, the corporation which employs most of the main developers of the weblog platform WordPress, and released on October 25, 2005. Akismet attempts to filter link spam from blog comments and spam TrackBack pings.

2. Gravatar

A gravatar is quite simply an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things.

3. IntenseDebate

IntenseDebate is the premier commenting system available on the Internet for blogs and websites. IntenseDebate comments enhances and encourages conversation on your blog or website.

4. PollDaddy

PollDaddy provides polling and survey widgets to over 500,000 users around the world. Launching in October 06, we have gone from strength to strength and have grown to become the number one provider of poll widgets online. Our polls are used on social networks, blogs, corporate websites etc.

5. VideoPress

VideoPress is an upgrade that makes it easy to upload, embed, and share video on your WordPress.com blog or any site around the world, even in full HD.

6. P2

A group blog theme for short update messages, inspired by Twitter. Featuring: Hassle-free posting from the front page. Perfect for group blogging, or as a liveblog theme. Dynamic page updates. Threaded comment display on the front page. In-line editing for posts and comments.

7. BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a suite of WordPress plugins and themes, each adding a distinct new feature. BuddyPress contains all the features you’d expect from WordPress but aims to let members socially interact.

8. bbPress

bbPress is forum software with a twist from the creators of WordPress. bbPress is focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed. We’re keeping things as small and light as possible while still allowing for great add on features through our extensive plugin system.

Conclusion

I know your question: Where are the plugins? The plugins are not listed here because it would’ve made the article impossible to follow. Overall, the basic resources and tutorials from WordPress were covered in this post. Hopefully this will be useful. Cheers!

Andy Gongea is a passionate UI/UX designer with a great appetite for technology and trends. Currently he owns, a future wife, a loan that comes with a monthly fee and some strange ideas about user interface and user interaction. Cheers!

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