WordPress is a popular free open source system that provides a very different alternative to Dreamweaver.
Anyone can get up and running with a blogsite within minutes with free domain and hosting via the WordPress.com site (I set up impstv.wordpress.com) but for the full Website experience you need to download about 10mb as a zip file from the WordPress.org site, expand the zip and put the contents into a folder on your Website, upload this folder to your host and fill in a couple of boxes to activate the database. Full details are in a 'readme' file in the zip package. Some sites include an easier installation with just a click on their site.
MakeUseOf.com provide a free pdf guide to creating a WordPress Web site along with several other guides available just through free registration. Sign up!
To use the Wordpress.org system requires using a hosting company that provides some database support such as MySQL (you don't need to actually do anything with the database except through the WordPress interface).
Some hosts that include support:
- freehostia (free!)
- easyspace.com starterplus is £3.99pcm
- evohosting.co.uk
- and Joe Jenkins can provide unlimited cloud hosting at moonworkspublishing.com (discount for students on Totton Web Design course - contact Joe to get half-price hosting)
WordPress has evolved to become much more than just a tool for bloggers, it's a good choice for creating portfolios and among the millions built using WP are prestigious sites such as number10.gov.uk and whitehouse.gov.
CreativePro WordPress tutorial part 1, part 2, part 3 Using Dreamweaver CS5 for WordPress
To personalise your WordPress presentation you can buy themes or create your own.
WordPress has about 22,200 plug-ins available as of 13 November 2012 including:
- a number of e-commerce solutions
- a way to show your favicon
- free social networking plug-in buddypress to create your own Facebook-like features such as groups and friend requests.
Joe runs moonworkspublishing.com amongst others. Tonight's link: totton.wp-user.com
Joe's blog details the procedure for installing WordPress
widgets are a type of plug in. More info at automattic
To improve your Google friendliness Joe recommends that you set your Permalink preferences (in Site Admin > Options) using Custom Structure to /%category%/%postname%/ edublogs.org
WordPress Support
The WordPress Codex
The Codex is the encyclopedia of all things WordPress. It is the most comprehensive source of information for WordPress available.
The Development Blog
This is where you'll find the latest updates and news related to WordPress. Bookmark and check often.
WordPress Planet
The WordPress Planet is a news aggregator that brings together posts from WordPress blogs around the web.
WordPress Support Forums
If you've looked everywhere and still can't find an answer, the support forums are very active and have a large community ready to help. To help them help you be sure to use a descriptive thread title and describe your question in as much detail as possible.
WordPress IRC Channel
Finally, there is an online chat channel that is used for discussion among people who use WordPress and occasionally support topics. The above wiki page should point you in the right direction. (irc.freenode.net #wordpress)