Can I learn to develop wordpress site by myself?

sudeepgiri

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Apr 28, 2014
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I just wanted to learn to design wordpress site. But my friend said that it is very much easy and I can find the whole system and methods on the internet regarding this. But I am confused where to search the resources. Can anyone here help me regarding this? I am very much interested in learning wordpress design on my own.
 

fisicx

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Try using a search engine. There are thousands of tutorials available.
 
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That Bates Girl

One of the best things about Wordpress being an Open Source project is that all the information you could ever need about the platform is out there on the net. One of the most frustrating things is that there is so much stuff out there, and some of it is so variable, that it can be really hard to actually find the stuff you need.

And in a technical community with such a wide range ability when it comes to expertise, it can be pretty difficult to even know which questions you should be asking in the first place.

For instance, by 'design Wordpress sites' are you talking about theme design (the way the site looks) or are you talking about more structural stuff in terms of database management and functionality (the way the site works)?

My advice would be to go through something like this Wordpress user guide (for the sake of disclosure, I know the company that produces that guide and have done some work with them in the past - they really know their stuff when it comes to WP). It might be that everything you need to know is already in there - and if you want to learn more about how to design Wordpress sites it'll give you a good understanding of how it all works, so you have a better idea of which specific areas you want to learn more about.

Lyds
 
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fisicx

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Lyds,
Naraindas Mulrajani (aka sudeepgiri) has a website already. They probably aren't interested in WP, they just want you do visit their dodgy watch site.
 
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That Bates Girl

You're probably right, but 95% of forum activity comes from people who read but don't post - and it's not an unreasonable question to ask. So even if sudeepgiri doesn't really care about WP, chances are there are people out there who could do with someone to point them in the right direction.

Lyds
 
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asbesting

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Apr 7, 2014
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are you a designer\developer? if not, you can use wordpress templates. there are many websites. if you want to create a unique design, you need to start from the official wordpress documentation or to use the search: "theme development", "how to create my own theme wordpress"
 
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TODonnell

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Sep 23, 2011
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Sure, you can learn to make a website using Wordpress. If you have time. Lots of time.

That said, Wordpress makes web design as easy as it can be made, given the medium.

Jut be ready for a few "why is it doing that?!!" moments.

If you have money, get someone else to do it. Just show them a few examples of sites you like and say "I want this, this and this feature". Or at least buy their help with the parts you can't do.
 
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Sam@UTS

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May 7, 2014
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I learnt WordPress themes from the site below, its not basic stuff and requires knowledge of PHP, CSS and HTML to have any hope of producing something that looks good and works well, having said that if you are keen to learn it then the tutorial below is the perfect starting point.

Correction: Can't post link, the website is called ThemeShaper and a quick Google should take you to the right site, the link for the tutorial is in the top banner.
 
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fisicx

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fisicx

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No but I have used YouTube to learn many things... ...however it is a good place to start.
No it's not. A good place to start is the 'getting started with wordpress' pages.
 
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That Bates Girl

If you want to learn how to use Wordpress you start with learning Wordpress, you don't need to start with HTML, CSS or PHP.

That's like telling someone who wants to learn how to dance/choreograph that they should start by taking a course in human anatomy.

Lyds
 
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Nuno

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HTML and then CSS are invaluable when learning WordPress. WP has a tendency to strip bits of code out or to make nonsense when using the WYSIWYG, (eg whole para goes to H1). Knowing HTML markup lets you get on with things, especially in poorer paid-for themes which seem coded by people for whom thinking is a second language.

(BTW didn't some old geezer learn human anatomy to do drawing proper? Leonardo da something or other.....no, not Leonardo dan brown.. :))
 
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That Bates Girl

I'm not denying that, I'm just saying that if you want to start to learn how to build things in wordpress, you should start with wordpress.

If you want to learn how to dance well, start by just getting up and dancing.

Even Da Vinci started to learn how to draw by picking up a pencil and drawing. The anatomy classes came later.

Lyds
 
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tony84

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So you open up the .php files and are confronted with technical jargon - < p > < img > etc etc - how on earth would you know what is what if you dont understand basic html?

I still stand by what i said. There are many ways to learn the something, but for me you need to understand the basics before you start to try and develop a wordpress theme/site.

Your analogy by the way isnt particularly great, If you had said that its like telling someone who wants to learn to dance that they need to learn how to walk first... then i would agree. But i dont think you need to learn about parts of the body to be able to dance. Although if someone says shake your ass, i suppose you need to know where your ass is.
 
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That Bates Girl

Your analogy by the way isnt particularly great, If you had said that its like telling someone who wants to learn to dance that they need to learn how to walk first... then i would agree. But i dont think you need to learn about parts of the body to be able to dance.

You're missing my point.

Understanding human anatomy tells you a lot about the mechanics of how the human body moves. It's complicated, detailed and technical. In that way, it's like PHP.

Walking is a simpler, easier way of moving than dancing. Learning PHP is not simpler and easier than learning the fundamentals of wordpress and it's capabilities.

Of course any good resource to help someone learn wordpress will include elements of HTML, CSS and PHP - and there will always come a point where you need more than the built-in functionality gives you, but you still start with what wordpress gives you.

I'm reminded of the first step of a recipe for jugged hare from an early cookbook which (apocryphally) said "first catch your hare"*. The whole point of wordpress is that it has already caught, skinned, deboned, cubed, packaged and refrigerated the hare for you.

Lyds

*turns out that that's actually a misreading, it actually said "case your hare", i.e. skin it. But it's too useful a saying to be ruined by the boring old truth. :)
 
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tony84

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I dont think you need to learn php... just html/css.

I dont see how you can make a theme how you want without knowing some html.

If your just wanting to add text and pictures and use a pre made theme then yes you are fine with a basic how to use wordpress tutorial or just have a play around with it.
 
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fisicx

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I dont think you need to learn php... just html/css.

I dont see how you can make a theme how you want without knowing some html.
If you want to build your own theme you need php far more than html/css. Most of the HTML lives in the loop, just everything else is PHP
 
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