For all of its simplicity, WordPress requires many pieces to come together to end up with a functioning, complete web site. This talk will take attendees through a visual roadmap that acts like the photo on a puzzle box to help you pull it all together. We will review a series of diagrams of the environment in which WP is installed as well as visual guides to find the right place inside WP to make the changes you need.

Many people who use or want to use WordPress are not web site developers. To beginners, the WP environment gives little hint about which option to pick to make a change on their site: Dashboard? Theme? Plugin? CSS? Hosting Control Panel? mySQL? Etc.

Even with 13 years of experience behind me in creating web sites, it took significant effort for me to learn WP and be able to handle its challenges and surprises.

This presentation gives participants a road map (available nowhere else that I can find) that helps them figure out what to change and where to make the change when their site needs something updated. Then they can either do it themselves or find someone to help.

Learning Outcomes:

– Get the big picture of how all the major pieces come together to create a WP-run site: hosting, WP, themes, plugins, CSS, HTML, etc.
– Know where to look to find the correct place to change the desired characteristic of the web site.
– Conference participants will have online access to download the slides and a cheatsheet for navigating the various tools supporting their WP web site.
– NOTE: This presentation will NOT go into detail about how to choose the options available in each supporting function. It’s meant to help people at least find the right place to make the change because they’ll have a good idea of the keywords to use in a search.

Presentation Slides »