by Sam Sammie

Created on: June 27, 2010

WordPress is a free open-source Content Management System (CMS) for website publishing and blogging. Programmed with PHP and mySQL, WordPress comes in different languages, which makes it a very flexible multilingual publishing platform. WordPress enables webmasters with little or no knowledge of programming to create and modify contents of their websites with ease.

Getting Started: Hosting and Installation

Basically, WordPress is a script installed to work as CMS for websites. This means, by standards, it should be installed on the same webhost with the website to be used with it. Alternatively, it can be installed on a web server on a local computer and made to synchronize with or connect to the webhost of the website to be used with it. Both methods work well.

WordPress is best run on Apache or Nginx. It also works very well with other platforms like phpMyAdmin and cPanel.

The latest version of WordPress can be found at WordPress’ official website. After downloading WordPress in the intended language, the next step would be to install it on the webhost or localhost web server. The official website of WordPress outlines some requirements for a webhost or server to suitably run the WordPress script. These requirements are updated as new versions of WordPress are released.

As part of the installation process, WordPress requires new users to edit the main configuration file and Template files using a text editor. Tutorials on how to edit these files are available at WordPress’ website.


Features

WordPress comes with some very friendly features which makes it an interesting platform to use. WordPress Themes and Templates is one of the features webmasters are on the look for. Though WordPress doesn’t require previous programming experience to use, users without knowledge of web design still find it very handy as a result of the already-made themes and templates to set a website in motion right off the bat.

Since the first release of WordPress in May 2003, different Templates and Themes have been created in their thousands, most of which are available for free download at the official website of WordPress and other unofficial WordPress sites.

Another good WordPress feature is the Plugins and Hacks. Plugins allow WordPress users to modify the codes for customization purposes. The Hacks also come with very great functionalities, some of which allow interconnectedness and synchronization among multiple sites.


Helps/Tutorials

Like every well-built open source software program, WordPress has a very good community support containing user guides and troubleshooting tutorials for WordPress.

WordPress official website has a “Support” page dedicated to tutorials and guides ranging from installation, upgrading, modifying, and efficient usage of the WordPress software.

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