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What can WordPress
Do?
Ive found that
the most exciting and fun part of
running a WordPress blog is
exploring the flexibility of the
software. Hundreds of plugins and
themes are available to let you
create a blog that functions the way
you need it to.
If you think of your blog as a
vacuum cleaner, plugins are the
attachments. The attachments dont
function alone. When you add them to
your vacuum cleaner, however, you
add to the functionality of your
vacuum, possibly improving its
performance.
All WordPress blogs are pretty much
the same at their core, so by using
plugins, you can truly individualize
your blog by providing additional
features and tools to benefit
yourself and your readers. When you
come upon a WordPress blog that has
some really different and cool
functions, 98 percent of the time,
you can include that function in
your own blog by using a WordPress
plugin. If you dont know what plugin
that blog is using, feel free to
drop the blog owner an e-mail or
leave a comment. WordPress blog
owners usually are eager to share
the great tools they discover.
Most plugins are available at no
charge. You can find out more about
WordPress plugins and where to get
them in Chapter 10. Chapter 17 lists
my choice of ten popular WordPress
plugins available for download.
In addition to using plugins, you
can embellish your WordPress blog
with templates and themes. WordPress
comes prepackaged with two themes to
get you started. Figure 1-1 shows
the famous Kubrick theme, created by
Michael Heilemann from http://binarybonsai.com,
which is displayed by default after
you install and set up your blog.
The themes default form is blue and
white, but a handy application built
into the preferences lets you change
the color of the top header.
This theme includes all the basic
elements that you need when starting
a new WordPress blog. You can extend
your WordPress blog in a hundred
ways with the use of plugins and
themes that have been released by
members of the WordPress community,
but the Kubrick theme is a nice
place to start.
Take part in the
community
Allow me to
introduce you to the fiercely loyal
folks who make up the user base,
better known as the vast WordPress
community. This band of merry ladies
and gentlemen comes from all around
the globe, from California to Cairo,
Florida to Florence, and all points
in between and beyond.
In March 2005, Matt
Mullenweg of WordPress proudly
proclaimed that the number of
WordPress downloads had reached
900,000 an amazing landmark in
the history of the software. But the
real excitement occurred in August
2006, when WordPress logged more
than 1 million downloads, and in
2007, when the software had more
than 3 million downloads.
Dont let the sheer volume of users
fool you: WordPress has bragging
rights to the most helpful blogging
community on the Web today. You can
find users helping other users in
the support forums at http://wordpress.
org/support. You can also find users
contributing to the very helpful
WordPress Codex (a collection of
how-to documents) at http://codex.
wordpress.org. Finally, across the
blogosphere, you can find multiple
blogs about WordPress itself, with
users sharing their experiences and
war stories in the hope of helping
the next person who comes along.
You can subscribe to various mailing
lists, too. These lists offer you
the opportunity to become involved
in various aspects of the WordPress
community, as well as in the future
development of the software.
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