Digging into WordPress Review, and Free Copies: Winners Announced!

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from Chris Coyier, of CSS-Tricks, containing a review copy of his recently released “Digging into WordPress” e-book. Expecting it to be more of a mini-book, I nonchalantly told him that I’d post a review that Friday; little did I know that this was a full-fledged book, packed full of knowledge.

Update: Winners Announced

Congratulations to the following three readers who were randomly selected!

• Kaj Rietberg
• Rodrigo Flores
• Mark Christianson

If your name is listed above, please contact nettuts@tutsplus.com to claim your prize!

“Written by WordPress veterans Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr, Digging into WordPress is 400+ jam-packed pages of everything you need to get the most out of WordPress. WordPress is great right out of the box, but unless you want an ordinary vanilla blog, it is essential to understand the full potential of WordPress and have the right tools to get the job done.”

Those of you who read CSS-Tricks will be well aware that Chris writes in a very easy-to-understand fashion. Rather than flooding each article with high-level jargon that only the most knowledgeable of us can understand, he instead dumbs each article down to the fundamentals – even to the point of being honest enough to convey when he doesn’t quite understand the reasoning behind some line of code.

As a result, he’s built a wonderful community and reputation for himself in the last few years. This book, co-written with Jeff Starr, is no different: straight-forward, easy-to-understand, and simple.

Simple Learning

Thanks to the use of fun, and helpful illustrations, even those who are brand new to WordPress will be able to dig their heals in — with minimal confusion.

The 400 page ebook covers everything from navigating the admin panel, to creating a comments form, to even more advanced topics like plugin development. And though it’s generally good practice to point out a few negatives in one’s review, it’s difficult to do so when a book is such a pleasure to read.

Heart of a Teacher

Chris and Jeff, in this book, have proven that they have the hearts of teachers. Even for intermediate to advanced WordPressers, there’s something to be learned — and at $27, the purchase is a no-brainer!

“Digging into WordPress is perfect for WordPress users in the beginner to intermediate range, but contains plenty of great information for the advanced user as well. If you have any level of experience working with web design or WordPress, this book is written to help you take WordPress to the next level.”

400 Pages of Practical Information

“There is much to learn about the World’s most popular publishing platform.
From your first steps of learning about WordPress all the way through
maintaining a site throughout the years, this book is packed with truly
practical information.”

Lots of Code Samples

“We go into depth about the anatomy of a WordPress theme. How they work, and how
to write the code you need to do the things you want. This means real code that
you can sink your teeth into, as well as copy and paste. Beyond theme
building, we introduce many tricks your functions.php file can pull off and show
you ways to increase performance and security through HTAccess.”

What About the Free Copies!?

Chris has generously offered to give away a few copies to our community. To enter, simply leave a comment, and be sure to check back on Friday to see if you were randomly chosen!

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