Rating:  -
First, the content of the book itself is awesome. Fabulous, logical, clear explanations. Author addresses the questions any potential WordPress user would want to know in order to decide whether WordPress is what he/she should use and, if so, which level of WordPress (free, host-it-yourself, WordPress MU). Then she gives excellent step-by-step instructions about how to achieve your WordPress goals.
This Kindle version, however, is another story. It has at least two major problems:
(a) This book has some very important tables of text. Yet, the Kindle translation mangles them. It's not just that the text in rows wraps around in hard-to-decipher ways; more than that, it appears that often text at the end of the rows is simply dropped, unable to be found.
Amazon needs to do a better job in its translating textual tables into Kindle format.
(b) This Kindle version appears to be much older (November 9, 2007) than the current non-Kindle version (February 9, 2009). See WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
Note that the non-Kindle version has a link that directed me to this older Kindle version, but never mentioned that the Kindle version is not the same edition as the non-Kindle version.
So... despite already having paid for the Kindle version, I'm going to order the non-Kindle version as well so that (a) I can read these important tables and (b) I won't have older, potentially obsolete information.
Rating:  -
Overall, a good guide that is well structured and helpful. This does not mean, however, that some additional explanations defining all terms and their usage for the benefit of the truly technologically challenged readers would not be even more helpful. If the author included some before and after illustrations and how implementation of the topic at hand would look and work after it is finished, the work would gain even greater reviews and probably result in increased sales. Realizing that even the most basic of terms for people in the know are truly puzzling for those of us who are not into the enlightened lingo of geeks and techys would make this guide the essential reference that should be on everyone's work desk.
Rating: -
I picked this up after switching my blog from blogger to Wordpress using my own URL and hosting service (I am using the .org version of Wordpress). I quickly realized I was way over my head and that's where this book came in. It is incredibly comprehensive and detailed and addresses virtually everything you would need to know in setting up a blog with Wordpress (both .com and .org). My personal favorite was the section on coding & CSS since while I was able to figure a lot of other things out from reading message boards and visiting others' blogs this was the one area I found myself getting stuck. Wilson deals with this subject, among others, in a very conversational and approachable manner and even without any coding experience I was able to get up and running.
Overall, this is a great book. A lot of the contents you may be able to figure out on your own from playing around in the Wordpress interface and reading message boards but some it's valuable to have it all in one place so you can save the time you would have spent digging. Many websites that talk about establishing a Wordpress blog assume you have some coding and website knowledge so it was a relief just to find a book that broke it down to square one.
Highly recommended.
Rating: -
I've found the book worthwhile. Knew a little about WordPress, but had questions. This book answered them. I'm finding it a good resource.
Rating: -
I'm a new WP user. Someone else set up my web and blog on it. I have always been very good at word processing, but all the codes I need to know just to edit a simple page is ridiculous. This book did not cover how to edit/code the web pages. Blogs are simple. It's the pages in the website which are driving me crazy.
|