It's been a year now since I was first properly introduced to WordPress and started using it to create an online archive of my work
. Over the last 12 months I have grown to appreciate the power and flexibility of this piece of online blogging software and feel the need today to go in to a little more detail.
WordPress is a free and open source publishing application which gives home users the ability to quickly and easily create an online blog using their own domain name. Blogging is the term used to describe the chronicle of information on a website and has become incredibly popular recently as more and more people realise the internet can be used to broadcast their ideas and opinions to the world.
For most, the prospect of coding a website from scratch is not just a daunting but potentially impossible task, and so it is down to worthy applications such as WordPress to make blogging accessible to the masses. Undeniably a small amount of technical knowhow is required however the process of the initial installation couldn't really have been made any simpler.
Begin by registering your domain name (for example, I chose www.computerarticles.co.uk) and sort out a hosting package. The hosting of your blog shouldn't cost more than around 25 a year and you may want to use the same company for this that you used to register the domain.
With this process complete, download the WordPress application from www.wordpress.org and upload it to your web space before running a single installation file which will configure the software to work with your web host and allow you to set up initial settings such as a user name and password. Someone with a basic knowledge of setting up a website should be able to complete the process in a couple of minutes however even basic users should find they are able to complete the installation in around 20 minutes by following the step by step guide online.
Once you've installed the program you can quickly begin by adding content and editing it with features such as bullet pointing, text alignment and effects without having to do all the coding yourself.
So far this is all fairly basic stuff however WordPress comes in to its own when you start to play around with some of the settings relating to the look and feel of your new blog. You can change the theme of your site using the theme selector which allows you to set the style of your site from a choice of thousands. Not every WordPress site will look the same however. The theme you use will radically change not only how your blog looks but also how it feels; for example, the entire navigational layout of the site can be changed simply by selecting a new theme.
Updating the blog and providing additional functionality for both you and your users is also easily achieved but unfortunately I've reached my word limit so this will be continued next week.
About the author
Chris Holgate writes a weekly article of all things tech related. He is a director and copyrighter of the online computer consumables business Refresh Cartridges http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk An archive of the articles can be found at .