Hi all,

I was wondering if someone can explain what Wordpress is please. I have seen it mentioned in posts and wasn't sure what it is used for. I have been on the Wordpress website, but before I went too far into it I thought that I'd ask you guys first

Thanks

WP is a CMS mostly used for blogs.

It's VERY easy to install/integrate/design for.

CMS is a content management system by the way

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_content_management_system

You can install Wordpress onto your webhost server too and use your own domain name.

It's initial purpose was for blogging but others have found other ways to use it..
I used it for blogging and found it super easy to set up.

The best way to describe it is as a content management system. Once you have added a template, you can add pages and blog entries through an easy to use interface. For the average user this is far simpler than coding the pages from scratch. Functionality can easily be added through the use of plug-ins. Overall its not a bad a software package.

What I want to know is, if you've got a site already and you just want to incorporate a blog into one page of it, can you plug wordpress into just that one page, but using the website design that you've already created? I was trying to figure it out from the wordpress site, but got all very confused

I don't agree.. Wordpress is and will be Blogging software, which you can also use as a cms..

I have 2 sites running Wordpress. One of them is Rotate Canvas ..

Easy to write pages, easy to install plug-ins.. I like it..

Thanks for that guys.

Can I just download and run from my PC or do I have to have it running on Web host as well??

You need PHP and MySQL to run WP (so ... XAMPP)

If you want other people view it then yes, you require a web host to use it.

The Wordpress-server can also host the site for you. Go to www.Wordpress.com and sign up for free..

Yeah, you can use any kind of design with Wordpress. All you need to do is just integrate the Wordpress code into your design.

There are also hundreds, if not thousands of Wordpress plugins & hacks available which can expand the capabilities of Wordpress even further.

This post has been edited by Padraig: Mar 28 2008, 12:19 PM

Thanks Padraig. I guess the problem I have is that there is so much information about Wordpress and different ways of using it that it can be difficult to find the right bit of info for what you need. I suppose I'll just have to play around with it till I can figure out how to do what I want to do, but at least I now know that what I want to do is possible, so that's always a good start!

You should be able to teach yourself template design.

I recommend doing the following.

Select default theme. Copy it, rename it.
Delete contents of CSS file.

You can now begin from scratch, if you do not know what a bit of php does. Delete it, save, refresh your webpage. Play spot the difference. If you want to keep it click undo and save.

You should be able to use this method to apply your default site theme to wordpress

Thanks Jason, that's actually really helpful. What you've just said is probably very obvious to a lot of people, but it wasn't to me. I didn't know where to start and now I do

I am a little rusty on wordpress but I am pretty sure that the very top of the stylesheet contains information about the style. I would suggest you edit this instead of deleting it.

Furthermore do not use the wordpress style editor, if you make a mistake in it then you cannot undo it.

Final tip is to go slow, look at what you need and what you don't need. Cut out what you don't then style the rest. If you are unsure about your next step then SAVE and make a back up! If you go down the wrong route then you can easily restore your back up.

If you get stuck post a message here and I will come to your aid.

I'll hold you to that! It's going to be a good few days before I can start looking at this properly, so look out for pathetic help messages in about a week!

That's exactly what I did for my blog. Well ... I didn't "delete" everything. I just commented some stuff out and add my own. Then commented more stuff and replaced it with mine.

Use the "classic" theme

That is such a great tip Jason!