moving into the wordpress world

[shamai]

so now that I’m comfortable using html, css, and php I’ve decided to make the leap to wordpress!

right now i have my website (which is still not finished fully) at http://www.baseshamai.com hosted at dreamhost.

now it is a static website and I have never used wordpress so I’m guessing i will first need to play around with it and learn to use it.
dreamhost offers a one click install but i don’t want to install it to the root because my static website is there.
is it normal to install it to a subdomain like blog.baseshamai?

is that bad? will it attract spam or what?
I bought the book from digwp and I am currently reading it.
great book!

[shamai]

i already have xammp
or i can use my dropbox folder!
can i remake my site exactly the way it is into wordpress?
even the home and portfolio pages?
or will they have to change their appearance?
I mean I don’t want any posts or threads on those pages.

as you can see I am very new to wordpress

[tobeeornot]

Wordpress is useful if you want to run your website using a CMS and a blog. If you are happy with a static content site you might choose not use it. You can run any HTML and CSS from WP without a problem; you just have to get used to the template structure and how it works. CSS-tricks has some great starter videos on WP including the WP loop – a very important function. A good idea is to run the site locally using WAMP/XAMMP before going live so you test the site. Good luck.

[shamai]

thanks
yeah I’m reading digging into wordpress now so I’m learning about this stuff.

[shamai]

if i run the wordpress site on my computer using xampp i don’t need to create a database or anything?
just run mysql and thats it?

[tobeeornot]

you will need to create a DB on mysql.

[shamai]

is that hard?
also whats better for using wordpress?
i hear mamp has no problems with file permissions

[tobeeornot]

it is fine using wamp or xammp. they both effectively do the same thing. it’s not hard to create the db but you are better off doing some reading about the set-up process before posting here.

[smutek]

Hey Shamai – It would really benefit you to sign up for a membership then watch the Lynda.com titles on wordpress, particularly the Essential Training and the Creating Custom Themes title. The later is by Chris Coyier, the owner of this site and co-autor of Digging into WordPress.

Both of them will be a huge help to you in getting started.

Lynda.com | WordPress Essential Training

Lynda.com | WordPress Creating and Editing Custom Themes

[shamai]

thanks.

first I’m going to read the book. I bought it and I think its going well.

then I can check out those links

[smutek]

Cool, enjoy! I ordered the printed copy of Digging Into WordPress last week and I’m pretty sure it is supposed to come in the mail today. I can’t wait! :-)

[shamai]

mine came yesterday!
i got mamp working with a database and wordpress is up and running.
yay!

…now i have no idea what I’m doing in the dashboard…. i mean…i know how to post but thats it… i have to read more

[shamai]

so I’m learning slowly. its a lot to wrap my head around.

i have a question.

i see there are many template tags which call functions like get_sidebar()
but how does it know where those functions are actually located and declared?

[TheDoc]

Things like get_sidebar() and get_header() are built into the core functions of WordPress. These functions should not be edited under any circumstances.

[Author]

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