WordPress is Beautiful
A few weeks ago, I installed WordPress blog software on my site. After using it for a few weeks, I have to say that WordPress is a beautiful piece of software and I give if 5 stars! Beautiful? That’s right. This software impressed me so much that the first word that came to my mind was beautiful.
Here’s why:
- WordPress was very easy to install - The basic instructions tell you everything you need to know. Of course, it helps if you are familiar with creating a database on your web server and installing php scripts, but if you’ve ever installed a database-driven php script before, Word Press blog software is a model for easy installation.
- WordPress is easy to use - Without reading any instructions, I created several blog categories and started writing the blog posts to go in them. The text editor is simple and easy to use. Plus, you can view the html code if you want to. A nice feature if you want to insert scripts or html code not available in the editor. One especially handy feature is that you can create a category WHILE you are in the Write/Post editing screen. Often, I create a blog post first and then think of a new category under which to post it. In WordPress, I can easily create the category while writing the post. Plus, it’s a snap to add the blog post the several categories.
- WordPress is easy to Customize - I wanted WordPress to fit seamlessly into my site design, so I made a copy of the default template and start modifying it. Because the code design is so clean and elegant, I was able to create my custom template in a couple hours.
- WordPress has GREAT documentation - Even though WordPress is very easy to use, if you want to change the defaults or add plugins, the thorough WordPress documentation is there to help. A lot of free, OpenSource software, as great as it is, has sparse or no documentation. As a result, the only way to find out how to use it is by searching the software’s forum or by posting a question on the forum. Although you can usually find the information you’re looking for, this method is a slow and tedious way to learn new software. As a technical writer, I appreciate the work the WordPress writers have put into the help files.
- WordPress is designed in CSS and Validates - WordPress pages load quickly and it is relatively easy to make global modifications to the look and feel by editing the template’s css style sheet. Plus, the clean css design makes is much easier for a web designer to read the code. And finally, the default WordPress template’s css validates completely.
- WordPress has a GREAT image upload feature - If you need to add images to your blog posts or pages, WordPress’ image upload feature is easy to use. Again, even though there is documentation to explain how to use it, you probably won’t need it.