Wordpress is a simple and powerful way to start blogging. If you're not an IT expert but want to use a state of the art blogging system to give your blog the best chance of success, while giving you the time to focus on content and your readers, WordPress is the right system for you, and this book is the right place to start. It will give you a rapid and straightforward introduction to the rich and powerful features of WordPress and get you up and running with a state of the art blog as quickly and painlessly as possible. WordPress is an open source blog engine released under GNU general public license. It allows users to easily create dynamic blogs with great content and many outstanding features. It is an ideal tool for developing blogs and though it is chiefly used for blogging, it can also be used as a complete CMS with very little effort. Its versality and ease of use has attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users. If you want to create powerful, fully-featured blogs in no time, this book is for you. This book will help you explore WordPress showing you what it offers and how to go about building your blog with the system. You will be introduced to the main aspects of a blog - users, communities, posts, comments, news feeds - and learn how to manage them using WordPress. You will develop the skills and confidence to manage all types of content, be it text or images, on your blog, and also understand how users interact with the blog. In working through the book you'll be inspired as well as informed, and have the capability and the ideas for make your blog cutting edge and exciting to maximise its impact. From this book you'll learn about: Installing and configuring WordPress on a local development machine or a web hosting service Managing posts and comments Working with Image galleries, calendars, etc. Organising users and Communities Creating and Installing themes to control the page layout Linking to the outside world - Feeds, Syndication, and Podcasting Customising Widgets and Plugins Using WordPress as a regular CMS Written in a clear, easy to read style, the book takes you the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book. Who this book is written for This book is a beginner's guide to WordPress, for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner. It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog. The table of contents is: WordPress and the World of Blogging Getting Started with WordPress Choosing and Installing a Theme Blog Your Heart Out Non-Blog Content Feeds, Syndication, and Podcasting Getting the Theme Tailor-Made for You Managing Users and Building Communities Widgets and Plugins Administrator's Reference