We’re rolling out a new sub-category on Nettuts+: reviews. Sporadically, when a new book or piece of software is released, either myself or one of our writers will write a review detailing the pros and cons.
A couple weeks ago, Packt Publishing sent me a copy of the recently released “WordPress 2.7 Complete.” Though the platform has already moved on to 2.8, I was still quite pleased with the final product.
Truthfully, reviewing a book like this for a web development site is difficult. As with any book, you have to keep the target reader in mind. So for Nettuts+, when deciding whether or not to recommend it, I came to the following conclusions about our little community.
- Is it likely that they’re 100% new to WordPress and blogging? No.
- Will they already know how to create posts and assign categories, among other elementary tasks? Yes.
- Will they benefit from five chapters which teach how to add comments, manage posts, etc? No.
WordPress 2.7 Complete teaches you from the very beginning, assuming that you have little to no knowledge of WordPress. This is fantastic for someone like your parent, who has minimal experience with web development; however, for those like myself or the huge majority of you, the first five chapters will be of absolutely no use. Unless you need instructions on how to create pages, leave a comment, assign categories, and other relatively mindless tasks, you’ll be a bit surprised when you find yourself skipping to the middle of the book within the first few moments.
The Parts you’ll Read
With all of that said, I’d still recommend this book to any of our readers who are hoping to learn more about theme design with WordPress. While you’ll most likely, as I mentioned, skip the first five chapters, the remaining ones will keep your attention.
- Chapter 6: Developing your own Theme
- Chapter 7: Feeds and Podcasting
- Chapter 8: Developing Plugins and Widgets
- Chapter 9: Community Blogging
- Chapter 10: WordPress as a CMS
- Chapter 11: Administrator’s Reference
My best guess is that any of our readers who might be interested in picking up a WordPress book are hoping to learn how to convert their HTML/CSS designs into working WordPress templates; beyond that, perhaps some lessons on plugin development. If that’s your hope, these remaining chapters (particularly #6) will do the trick!
If, on the other hand, you’re a skilled WordPresser hoping to further refine your chops, this probably isn’t the proper choice, as it’s obviously intended for newcomers.
The Hands-on Approach
This book is super helpful because it takes you through the process of building a complete WordPress’ified website, complete with custom pages, RSS feed, search functionality, widgets, and more. Once you’ve completed the coding (the design portion is not covered), you’ll then begin learning how to develop custom plugins and widgets for your site, starting in Chapter 8.
Take me for example: I’ve worked with WordPress for quite some time, and still enjoyed the entire read (well, at least the second half) – and managed to pick up a bunch of helpful tips! For about $39, the knowledge gained is more than worth the purchase.
Pros
- Well written and easy to understand.
- Though helpful, it doesn’t require that you sit at your computer while reading.
- Moves at the perfect speed for beginners, and never throws too much code/jargon at you.
Cons
- For most of our community, the first five chapters will be completely ignored. This leaves you with about 150 pages to learn from.
- I would have liked to see a final chapter that focused more on advanced topics. Though, understandably, this book was meant for beginners.
The 30-Second Review
- Is your mom hoping to start her first blog, and hopefully move on to coding her own theme? Fantastic choice.
- Are you comfortable working with WordPress (installing themes, minor editing, etc.), and want to take things a step further? This will do the trick!
- Hoping to convert your static HTML/CSS design to a dynamic WordPress site? Pick it up!
- Need a crash-course in plugin development? This will show you the ropes.
- Been working with WordPress for years and desire a master level book? Keep looking. This one will bore you. :)
If interested, the book can be purchased at your local bookstore, or through Packt’s website.
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By Jeffrey Way
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Thanks for the review!
Based in your review I will buy the book. I’m 100% WP newbie, so this is targeted for me :-)
Thanks JW!
Love the new category, and nice review! :)
Pretty sweet. I want this book now…
It’s a tad out of date, though. WordPress is on 2.8.4 now (not that you can blame them–a lot happens in the time it takes to publish a book).
sorry, boring. shameless plug’s to sponsors / friends are bad.
Not a plugin – a review.
If it was shameless Jeffrey would have said “Everybody buy it!!” Instead he was open and honest about the target audience which is probably not a lot of the people leaving comments.
I like the fact that Net Tuts will review a book. I rely almost entirely on search engine results for learning new information on WordPress and if a reputable site like Net Tuts was to review a book that fit my technical level I would seriously consider purchasing it.
I’m sure there are still a lot of NetTuts readers who aren’t very familiar with WordPress. I work with programmers who spend most of their time working with proprietary code and don’t fully understand what goes on behind the scenes of WordPress.
Don’t be a tool Joe. Reviews are a legitimate type of content.
Thanks for the review,
i was searching for this kind of book.
This is a really good book. Was using WP on and off and this book helped me to understand a lot more about WO.
Like the shape of this review, very direct!
why buy a book about wordpress version that vurnerable to hacking?
because a lot of the information is still applicable to 2.8+. Someone could buy the book and still apply a lot of it to 2.8. By the time they were comfortable with the topics in the book I’m sure a 2.8 book will be out.
Books are also usually written by better qualified authors than half the forum post I have to sift through on a daily basis to get any decent information.
By the way, nice site Reza, I’ll read more on it once I have some free time.
As someone who is completely new to WordPress this looks like a great choice for myself. I am aware that it is a powerful tool that can be used in a number of ways, so am interested in getting to use it soon.
I was unaware until recently that WordPress can be used as a content management system. Having previously only used software such as Adobe Contribute (which does the job well, but isn’t that customisable) I was interested to see what exactly WordPress could do, and after reading the notes on here regarding features such as RSS and personalised widgets I’ll certainly be looking into this further.
It’s a great move to start having book/softare reviews like this on the site, so I’m much looking forward to seeing what will be reviewed next. Possibly a regular update of Creative Suite CS5 could be included too?
Nice book for who new in wordpress.
Awesome article; great review, Jeff!
I thought this book was lovely but most of the pages were rubbish!
so many books to buy arg!
thanks for the review :)
Though I haven’t read it, I would assume much of chapter 8 “Developing Plugins and Widgets” would now be outdated as WordPress 2.8 changed a lot of the widget structure.
I have the book and i can say it’s a good book!
worth it!!!
Create Review! I like this book
Fraud, therefore, is immediately being committed when the act of issuing pseudo-receipts takes place. ,
I go through a day without having rape culture rear its ugly head. ,
Wp is just great, and it’s improving!
this is great one