Are you familiar with the fundamentals of WordPress, but want to take your skills to the next level? From bestselling author and WordPress expert Lisa Sabin-Wilson, this new edition of WordPress Web Design For Dummies quickly gets you up to speed on the latest release of the software and shows you how to use it as a tool to create a customized, compelling, and cost-effective website—without losing your cool.

WordPress can be used to create a custom design for your website using complimentary technologies such as graphic design, CSS, HTML coding, PHP programming, and MySQL administration. With the help of this hands-on, friendly guide, you'll discover how to create an effective navigation system, choose the right color palette and fonts, and select different layouts. Plus, you'll find out how to tweak existing website designs with available themes, both free and premium, and gain the confidence to translate your design skills into paid work.

• Create dynamic, custom websites with the self-hosted version of WordPress
• Use free themes and enhance them with CSS and HTML
• Create a responsive design for mobile devices and tablet users
• Get to grips with the newest release of WordPress

Whether you want to use WordPress to spruce up your existing website or create a brand-new one from scratch, this do-it-yourself guide has you covered.

Lisa Sabin-Wilson is the co-owner of WebDevStudios, a development company specializing in custom WordPress plugins, themes, and deployments. She is a popular conference speaker and bestselling author of WordPress For Dummies and WordPress All-in-One For Dummies. Find her on Twitter @LisaSabinWilson.

Introduction 1

Part I: Establishing a WordPress Foundation 5

Chapter 1: Exploring Web Design with WordPress 7

Chapter 2: Understanding WordPress Requirements 17

Chapter 3: Installing WordPress on Your Web Server 25

Chapter 4: Managing Content with WordPress 43

Part II: Choosing the Right Tools 61

Chapter 5: Exploring Editors, Browsers, and FTP 63

Chapter 6: Choosing Graphics and Software Resources 83

Chapter 7: Choosing Colors and Fonts 99

Chapter 8: Planning Your Design Strategy 113

Part III: Working with WordPress Themes 135

Chapter 9: Finding and Installing a WordPress Theme 137

Chapter 10: Working with the Default Theme: Twenty Fifteen 141

Chapter 11: Dissecting Themes and Templates 159

Chapter 12: Displaying Content with Widgets and Template Tags 197

Chapter 13: Understanding Parent and Child Themes 245

Part IV: Building Your Custom Website 259

Chapter 14: Using Basic CSS and HTML to Customize Your Site Design 261

Chapter 15: Designing for WordPress as a CMS 283

Chapter 16: Enhancing Your Website with Plugins 301

Part V: The Part of Tens 333

Chapter 17: Ten Powerful Plugins for WordPress 335

Chapter 18: Ten Well-Designed Sites That Use WordPress as a CMS 345

Chapter 19: Ten Free WordPress Themes 353

Index 359