WordPress Resources

Building a web portfolio can be an overwhelming experience, even for a technologically savvy user. The problem with portfolios is that they need to showcase your talent, but they can't take a lot to maintain. Learning to use HTML and CSS is easy, but if those are not the primary tools of your trade, having to warm up to remember those skills every time you need to update your portfolio can be cumbersome. Your portfolio is a representation not only of the work you've done, but of the active engagement you have in your field. If you can't throw a new work sample up on your portfolio in a matter of minutes, you're going to put it off until an update of your portfolio becomes a monumental undertaking. Luckily for you, we are quickly approaching a golden age of web development. Every day there are more and more tools being created to take web development to the level of word processors and page layout software. Web development is no longer the sole demain of web developers. There are many solutions out there for those looking to build a web portfolio that is robust and easy to manage. WordPress is perhaps one of the fastest growing and best at balancing sophistication and usability.

WordPress is perhaps the herald of the golden age of web development. WordPress began its life as a blogging platform and has grown well beyond that. It is now considered by many as a full-blown CMS. Although it doesn't have quite the same openness of Joomla, even advanced users will be able to do much the same with both thanks to the open source nature of WordPress and the ability to develop your own themes for it.

There are three ways you can create a WordPress site:
  1. You can download the current installation of WordPress from WordPress.org and install it on whatever web server you use.
  2. Most web host services will have a simplescript for WordPress. When you sign up for a web hosting service, you can go to your control panel and click to install WordPress on your site—much like installing software on your computer.
  3. WordPress.com offers both free and paid WordPress hosting services. You can have your site up and running in under a minute.

Explore this resource unit to learn more about WordPress and how to set up a web portfolio using it. If you are interested in testing your skills, use the student task list as a guide to discover how to navigate and use WordPress.