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Web design Course

Course Syllabus: Creating WordPress Websites

Course Description

WordPress is a free open source blogging tool and content management system.   WordPress can be used to create a traditional blogging site; however, it can also be used to create a standard website for business or personal use.   This course focuses on creating websites using WordPress.  No previous experience is needed.  This course is structured in a way to help all students, regardless of their experience, learn WordPress.

Students will learn how to:

  • Set up a domain and hosting account
  • Set up a MySQL database on their server
  • Install WordPress on the MySQL database
  • Plan their website by choosing color schemes, fonts, layouts, and more
  • Search for themes in WordPress
  • Select, install, and activate a theme
  • Add posts to their website
  • Create website pages
  • Add images, photo galleries, and more
  • Create tags for SEO and categories to organize their posts
  • Use WordPress as a content management system (CMS)
  • Use widgets and plugins
  • Create an ecommerce site
  • Integrate WordPress with social media
  • Customize a WordPress site using PHP, CSS, and HTML
  • And more.

Each lesson covers a different aspect of WordPress and contains sections to teach students what they need to know.   Step-by-step instructions, along with screenshots and demonstrations, make learning to use WordPress a breeze.  By the end of the course, all students will be able to successfully create their own customized website using the information they’ve learned.

Course Requirements

You should have a high school reading level and be competent in basic computer usage and terminology.

Course Topics

Lesson 1: Introduction to WordPress

  • A brief history
  • More about WordPress
  • WordPress Blogs vs. Websites
  • A brief introduction to WordPress themes
  • Getting started with WordPress

Lesson 2:  Finding a Home for your WordPress Site

  • Finding a domain
  • Registering a domain
  • Choosing a web hosting package
  • WordPress feature through your host

Lesson 3:  Installing WordPress on Your Site

  • How to install WordPress
  • The MySQL database
  • Uploading your files
  • The install script
  • About WordPress Release Cycles
  • Upgrading WordPress

Lesson 4:  Content Management using WordPress

  • Archiving content
  • The purpose of categories
  • Naming a category
  • Creating a new category
  • About static page parents and children
  • Permalinks
  • Dressing up links
  • Customizing links
  • Checking Links with Your Server
  • Syndicated content (RSS)
  • About Feed Readers
  • RSS options
  • RSS and Social Media

Lesson 5: Selecting the Right Tools

  • Picking a text editor
  • Picking a web browser
  • About cross-browser compatibility
  • An introduction to FTP
  • Setting up for FTP
  • Using an FTP client
  • Transferring files
  • Editing files (FTP)
  • File Permissions

Lesson 6:  Image Formats

  • Image types and formats
  • Comparing image formats
  • About graphic design software programs
  • Raster based software
  • Vector based software
  • Image optimization
  • Image libraries

Lesson 7:  Fonts and Colors

  • About Color
  • The color wheel
  • The color models
  • Color schemes
  • Color combinations
  • Creating colors using codes
  • About fonts
  • Web safe fonts
  • Fonts for graphic design
  • Installing fonts on a computer

Lesson 8:  Designing Your WordPress Site

  • Choosing a site width
  • Fixed widths
  • Fluid widths
  • Responsive Layouts
  • Columns
  • Navigation
  • Content display options
  • The Sandbox environment

Lesson 9:  The WordPress Default Layout

  • About the layout and structure
  • Customizing the header image
  • Choosing a header image
  • Creating your own header image
  • Custom navigation
  • About widgets
  • Using widgets
  • Adding widgets to a sidebar or footer
  • The text widget
  • The RSS widget

Lesson 10:  Themes and Templates

  • About WordPress themes
  • PHP and MySQL
  • Defining PHP
  • The template tag
  • Using PHP
  • Managing your database
  • Template files
  • How templates work with WordPress themes
  • Stylesheets
  • About the Main Index and The Loop
  • The different templates
  • Template tags, values, and parameters
  • Using template tags in blog posts
  • Connecting templates
  • Using more than one stylesheet

Lesson 11: More on Widgets and Template Tags

  • Common template tags
  • Calendar
  • List pages
  • Post archives
  • Categories
  • Content types
  • More template tags
  • Adding widget areas
  • Registering widget ideas
  • Adding widget areas to template files
  • Using template files
  • Named templates
  • Template parts
  • Page templates
  • Adding support

Lesson 12: Parent and Child Themes

  • Understanding parent and child themes
  • Creating a child theme
  • Loading a parent theme style
  • Customizing the parent theme style
  • Using images in child theme designs
  • Edit theme structure with child themes
  • Overriding parent template files
  • Adding new template files
  • Removing template files
  • Modifying theme functions file
  • Preparing a parent theme

Lesson 13:  Creating a Custom Site

  • Getting acquainted with CSS
  • CSS Selectors
  • Classes and IDs
  • CSS properties and values
  • Changing background mage or colors
  • Adding a custom background
  • Changing the background with CSS
  • Positioning your header image using CSS
  • Repeating or scrolling background images
  • Changing theme elements
  • Adding effects
  • Setting font, color, and size
  • An introduction to basic HTML
  • Inserting images
  • Inserting links
  • Inserting lists

Lesson 14: Using WordPress as a Content Management System

  • Creating the front page
  • Creating a static page
  • Using a static page as your front page
  • Making a blog look like a website
  • Creating blank blog pages
  • Assigning the new page as a blog page
  • Creating custom page templates
  • The default page template
  • Comparing templates
  • Using different sidebarand footer templates
  • Custom styles for sticky, category, and tag posts

Lesson 15: Using WordPress Plugins

  • Installing plugins using the dashboard
  • Finding plugins
  • Installing and activating plugins
  • Installing plugins manually
  • Ecommerce plugins
  • Photo galleries and portfolios
  • Inserting images onto pages or into posts
  • Creating web forms using plugins
  • About BuddyPress
  • Integrating plugins with social networks
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