Fig 1.0 Click on the DOWNLOAD WORDPRESS 2.8 link to continue
| INSTALL A WORDPRESS BLOG |
What is a Blog? Technical Answer: A Website Log (as in a Log Book) or Diary website. Basic Answer: A piece of software that emulates web pages (known
as blog pages) that allows you to easily publish articles/comments into those pages without any knowledge of website programming (HTML, CSS, JavaScript
and so on). This is why a blog is the preferred choice of many, because you do not need to be a website designer to use one. Just type, or copy &
paste, your articles/comments into a blog page (known as: Writing A Post) and then sit back while your readers read them and hopefully comment on them.
A blog can help you build up your visitor numbers, visitor interaction and search engine ranking/position depending on what you want to use the blog
for. Many people make the mistake of thinking a blog, collectively, is a website - It is not. You cannot do with a blog what you can with a website.
They are two different formats. I would say that if you are selling a product and/or service use a website and if you are writing "How-To" Tutorials or
a Diary use a blog. You can have both if you wish because the two would live inside your web space as separate entities.
At this time, Wordpress is one of the more popular Blog Publishing Software downloads. To install it you must first go to the wordpress download webpage
(http://www.wordpress.org/download/) and click on its DOWNLOAD link - The following instructions
will guide you through the installation of Wordpress 2.8.
At the time of writing the current version of Wordpress is 2.8. If when you read this section the current version is 3.9.5 for example, unless there
are changes in the Wordpress installation process you can take the installation process below as being applicable to that newer version of Wordpress.
After clicking on the DOWNLOAD WORDPRESS 2.8 link a File Download message requester will appear, asking you if you want to Save or Open the compressed (zipped) file called wordpress-2.8.zip. Clicking on the OPEN button will download (save) the wordpress-2.8.zip file, into the system (Windows Vista) folder called TEMP, and then open (unzip/decompress) it for you. However. In this example, to keep it simple and because you might want to use the wordpress-2.8.zip file again, click on the SAVE button to save (download) the wordpress-2.8.zip file into a folder of your choice.
Clicking on the SAVE button, above, brings up the SAVE AS file requester. You need to navigate it to the folder where you would like to save (download) the wordpress-2.8.zip file. In this example I have navigated it to the DOWNLOADS folder, but you can navigate it to some where like the DOCUMENTS folder, a Flash Drive folder or a sub-folder on a Floppy Disk if you wish. Once you have navigated the SAVE AS file requester to your chosen folder click on its SAVE button to start the download (saving) process (Fig 1.3).
After choosing a folder to save the wordpress-2.8.zip file into and then clicking on the SAVE button (Fig 1.2 above) the
wordpress-2.8.zip file will begin to download (save) into the folder you chose. Depending on your internet connection you
may see the above Download message requester (i.e. on a P.A.Y.G Dialup connection) or one with a green guage on it (i.e. on
a Broadband connection). Either way, do not worry too much about it. As long as the wordpress-2.8.zip file downloads. Its
current file size is: 1.8MB.
At any time throughout the download process, decompression process (exampled later) and upload process (exampled later)
you can click on the CANCEL button, if a CANCEL button is available of course. However. In the case of the decompression
process and upload process, even if you click on a CANCEL button its process might have gone too far for it to be stopped,
cancelled and/or reversed. So think very carefully before deciding to install a blog.
| EXTRACT THE CONTENT OF WORDPRESS-2.8.ZIP |
With the wordpress-2.8.zip file successfully downloaded the next step is to open the folder where it was saved (downloaded). In this example the DOWNLOADS folder. From there. Right click on the wordpress-2.8.zip file to bring up its Options (context/pop-up) menu and then select (left click on) the EXTRACT ALL menu-item. This tells Windows Vista to unzip/decompress/extract the content of the wordpress-2.8.zip file and put that content into a new folder. In this example I am assuming you do not have a file de/compression utility installed, for whatever reason(s). However. If you do have a de/compression utility installed, such as WinZip, you can use its EXTRACT TO option instead.
After clicking on the EXTRACT ALL menu-item (above) a message requester appears (below) asking you for a Destination folder. This is the folder where
the, unzipped (decompressed/extracted), content of the wordpress-2.8.zip file will be stored. In this example just leave the Destination folder as it
is set by the message requester - It is set to extract the content of the wordpress-2.8.zip file into a new folder called the WORDPRESS-2.8. It will
be created for you inside the DOWNLOADS folder, in this example and normally by default (normal behaviour) too. Therefore, the WORDPRESS-2.8 folder
will actually be a sub-folder inside the DOWNLOADS folder. If you do want to change the Destination folder simply click on the BROWSE button and then
navigate the SELECT A DESTINATION folder requester that appears to your desired folder.
The setting called SHOW EXTRACTED FILES WHEN COMPLETE is normally ticked to denote that you want to have the destination (WORDPRESS-2.8) folder opened,
once the content of the wordpress-2.8.zip file has been extracted into that destination folder. And in this example that is what you want to happen
as well, so make sure the SHOW EXTRACTED FILES WHEN COMPLETE setting is ticked.
With the destination folder set click on the EXTRACT button to continue.
After clicking on the EXTRACT button (Fig 2.1 above) the content of the wordpress-2.8.zip file is extracted (Fig 2.2 above) into the newly created
folder called WORDPRESS-2.8. When the extraction (green guage) has finished the new WORDPRESS-2.8 folder will open automatically and display
its content (Fig 2.3 below) which is a folder called WORDPRESS. So you will have Downloads >> WORDPRESS-2.8 >> WORDPRESS. With the WORDPRESS folder
displayed double click on it to open it. Once it is open look for a file called wp-config-sample.php (Fig 2.4) and rename it to
wp-config.php.
The just said applies even if you use a de/compression utility, such as WinZip, to extract the content of the wordpress-2.8.zip file.....into a folder
called WORDPRESS-2.8. In fact, it does not really matter what the destination folder is called in that case because either way you will end up with
a WORDPRESS-2.8 folder or sub-folder.
The wp-config.php file is the configuration (settings) file used by Wordpress to set up (initialize) your empty
MySQL Database and configure certain Wordpress settings amongst other things. Therefore, you will need to create an empty
mysql database before continuing (see the Create An Empty MySQL Database
section). This is because Wordpress looks inside the wp-config.php file for the required mysql database Database Name, User Name
and Password so that it can then fill the empty mysql database with blog settings and so on. In this example I am going
to use an empty mysql database called website1_blog with the username website1_john and the password myblog2009.
Once you have created an empty database continue by double clicking on the wp-config.php file (Fig 2.5 below) in
order to open it and change the DB_NAME, DB_USER and DB_PASSWORD entries (Fig 2.6) inside it, located in the middle of the
file. Ideally, you should use a program such as Notepad to open the wp-config.php file because opening it with Microsoft
WORD 2007 for example may change its format - It may add code lines, paragraph markers and so on to the text which may
then make it unreadable by Wordpress. This is only a precaution but a habit you should get used to (using Notepad) when
editing settings files in general.
In Fig 2.6 above I have highlighted the DB_NAME entry for you, so that you know where to begin editing (PUT YOUR DB
NAME HERE). If you then look below that entry you will see the DB_USER (USER NAME HERE) entry and the DB_PASSWORD
(YOUR PASSWORD HERE) entry. In this example (Fig 2.7 below) I have replaced these entries with website1_blog, website1_john
and myblog2009 respectively. These are the only three entries you need to change. Do not worry about the DB_HOST and DB_CHARSET
entries as they can be left to use their default settings (LocalHost and UTF8 respectively).
After editing the three entries inside the wp-config.php file select Notepad's FILE menu and then click on the SAVE
menu-item. This will update (save) the wp-config.php file, now with your mysql database name, username and password
inside it. From there. Come out of the WORDPRESS folder so that you are then looking at that WORDPRESS folder as a
sub-folder inside the unzipped WORDPRESS-2.7 folder (see Fig 2.3 above and Fig 3.0 below).
Well done! The hard part is over! The blog files (WORDPRESS folder) are now ready to be transferred (copied & pasted) over to your web space (public_html website folder). So the next thing to do is connect (sign-in) to your web space and then go into your PUBLIC_HTML folder. To see how this is done read the Connect To Website Folder Via FTP section.
| TRANSFER THE WORDPRESS FOLDER INTO PUBLIC_HTML |
Now you should have two folders (windows) open - The WORDPRESS-2.8 folder and your PUBLIC_HTML folder. Go to the WORDPRESS-2.8 folder and right click over the WORDPRESS folder to bring up its Options (context/pop-up) menu. From there, left click on the COPY menu-item. You will then have a copy of the WORDPRESS folder (and its content) in memory, ready to be PASTEd into your PUBLIC_HTML folder.
With a copy of the WORDPRESS folder (and its content) in memory go to your PUBLIC_HTML folder and select (left click on) its EDIT menu. From there, left click on the PASTE menu-item to transfer the memory copy of the WORDPRESS folder into the PUBLIC_HTML folder.
Depending on your internet connection, and your web hosting provider's server, the transfer of the WORDPRESS folder (and its content) may take a few minutes or up one hour. It really does depend on many factors. If you transfer using a FTP Client program, such as AceFTP Pro, it should be noticeably quicker. And the good thing about a FTP Client is that they usually handle scenarios such as File Corruption and Dropped Internet Connection, during a transfer, quite well.
| INITIALIZE THE WORDPRESS BLOG |
The last stage of the blog set up (initialization) is to run its install.php script from your web space, by typing its path name into your web browser's (i.e. Internet Explorer's) Address Bar edit box. This means your web browser connects to your web space in order to run the script. In this example I have typed the path name http://www.websitecreationhelp.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box, because my domain name is websitecreationhelp.com, but if my domain name was inthekitchen.com then I would need to type the path name http://www.inthekitchen.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php instead. When you have finished typing the path name either press the ENTER keyboard key, or click on internet explorer's blue arrow (GO) button, to run (execute) the install.php script.
When the install.php script begins the first set up webpage you will see is the one above. It needs to know your Blog
Title, which is the name you want your blog known as, and your contact Email Address for the general public. Your blog
title is very important because it acts like the title of your website - It is what some directories, search engines and
so on will list you for. So if your domain name is inthekitchen.com, and you are a blog about cooking, you would choose
a title such as "In The Kitchen" or "Traditional Kitchen Cooking" for example. And although the blog title can be changed
later on it is a good idea to think of, or already have a good idea of, your blog title now.....Just as you would decide
upon a domain name before purchasing some web space and so on.
If you want your blog to be private, unknown to search engines and so on, you should untick the ALLOW MY BLOG TO APPEAR
IN SEARCH ENGINES... option. You may want a private blog if you are providing private services, selling limited offer
promotional products or writing a "private diary" blog for family members only for example.
When you have entered your blog title, contact email address and decided on a private or public blog click on the
INSTALL WORDPRESS button to continue. Doing so will provide you with the default Username of admin and a Random
Password (below) that you can change once you are logged-in to your blog Administrator Account.
You should write down the random password, or copy & paste it into memory (highlight over it, right click over the highlight and then select the COPY menu-item), before clicking on the LOG IN button (above) to log-in to your Administrator Account. Saying this, you will be emailed your username and password automatically by the wordpress script, but if you want ot login straight away do the just said. The Administrator Account takes you to the Wordpress Dashboard (Control Panel) where you can change the random password for your own password, write (post) articles, change the blog's theme (layout/look) and so on. Some of the main dashboard features will be explained/exampled in the next section.
That's it for now! Going back to the WORDPRESS folder. Ideally you should rename it to the name of your domain name, product(s) name and/or service(s)
before copying and pasting it into your public_html folder, so that when it is spidered/crawled/searched by the search engines that wordpress blog
folder's title, now renamed website_creation_help for example, is indexed. In other words. Do not become famous for www.???.com/wordpress, become famous
for www.???.com/helpful_blog or www.???.com/cheap_car_rental.
In the next section I will teach you how to Create A Category, Post (Article), Page (i.e. About John) and Favourites (Website/Blog) Link for your
Wordpress Blog. I will also teach you how to Upload/Import A Media File so that you can insert it into a post and naturally build up a Media Library.
All HTM, CSS, PHP and MySQL files in the websitecreationhelp.com folder and its sub-folders are (c) John White, 2009. All Rights Reserved. Email: John