Getting Started with WordPress

his chapter will guide you through the process of setting up WordPress and customizing its essential features. You can choose between a couple of options regarding where your WordPress website will live. WordPress is a relatively small package of software (less than 10 MB) as well as being easy to install and administer.

Here's what's important:

• WordPress is available in easily downloadable formats at https://wordpress.org/download/
• WordPress is a free, open source application and is released under GNU General Public License (GPL), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License

This means that anyone who produces a modified version of the software is required to maintain the same freedom that the GPL provides, and then people buying or using the software can also modify and redistribute it. Thus, WordPress and other software released under the GPL are maintained as open source.

In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following:

• Set up WordPress on an external web host
• Install WordPress manually—both on an external host and also locally for development and testing
• Perform basic setup tasks in the WordPress admin panel (the wp-admin)

These are your absolute WordPress fundamentals. Learning what's in this chapter will give you a good start in the world of WordPress.