Videos
Beyond Simple Contact Forms: Collecting Data with Gravity Forms
Beyond Simple Contact Forms: Collecting Data with Gravity Forms
WordPress is a great web publishing system, but when it comes to collecting user data through a web-based form you’ll need to turn to a plugin to extend the core WP system. If you just need a simple contact form there are many good options to choose from, including CForms, Contact Form 7 and the Dagon Design Contact Form.
Frequently, though, you need more functionality than a simple contact form plugin provides. You might have more sophisticated data validation requirements, or maybe you want to allow users to upload files, or you might need to schedule your form to only accept submissions during a limited timeframe. While most competent web developers can easily create scripts to meet these requirements, let’s face it — it’s tedious work. Fortunately WordPress developers have a new power tool at their disposal: Gravity Forms.
Gravity Forms makes the creation of complex data collection forms easy. Not only that, it also manages the submitted data for you.
In this video I demonstrate the Gravity Forms plugin by creating a moderately complex job application form. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is.
If you just need a simple contact form, then Gravity Forms probably isn’t for you. It’s a premium plugin — that means you’ll have to pay for it. If, on the other hand, you have even slightly more advanced needs, then Gravity Forms will pay for itself in the time you save by not having to build custom data collection forms.
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Managing Tags
Tags are a key tool for organizing content on your blog. While categories are general, tags are specific. The WordPress tagging system allows you the flexibility of tagging your posts with very specific terms.
This video will show you how to manage tags in WordPress.
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Manage the WordPress Media Library
One of the nicest enhancements in the latest version of WordPress is the new Media Library. This new feature is a significant improvement over the previous method for managing uploads.
This is the tool you’ll use to managing your images, videos, and audio files.
Using WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins allow bloggers to easily add additional functionality to their blogs. There are a huge number of plugins available that extend the functionality of WordPress.
What can you do with a WordPress plugin? Just about anything. There are plugins to block spam, help you publish a podcast, and to improve the performance of your WordPress blog. If you have some specific need that is not yet accommodated by the core WordPress code-base, chances are there’s a plugin to meet your needs.
This video is an introduction to working with WordPress plugins.
Working with WordPress Widgets
In the past, modifying your blog sidebar required mucking around with your theme code, and even knowing a bit of PHP. Fortunately, WordPress widgets eliminate the hassle by allowing bloggers to easily configure a custom sidebar with drag-and-drop ease.
The WordPress community has developed a large and growing collection of widgets that will allow you to plug all sorts of things into your WordPress sidebar. From Flickr photos to your Twitter status, if there’s something you’d like to add to your blog sidebar, chances are there’s a widget to help you do it.
This video is an introduction to installing and using WordPress Widgets.
Installing and Activating WordPress Themes
One of the coolest features of WordPress is the ability to dramatically change the design of your blog by simply activating a new theme.
The WordPress community has created hundreds (possibly thousands) of free, high-quality themes that you can use on your blog. This video will show you how to find, install, and activate themes.
You can download free themes from the WordPress Theme Viewer.
Configuring WordPress Settings: Miscellaneous
This video is a continuation in a series of videos detailing each of the WordPress Settings pages. This video will focus on Miscellaneous Settings.
The Miscellaneous Settings page is sort of a catchall configuration screen for various options that don’t fit anywhere else.
Configuring WordPress Settings: Privacy
This video is a continuation in a series of videos detailing each of the WordPress Settings pages. This video will focus on Privacy Settings.
Privacy Settings are fairly new and somewhat minimal at this point. They can be used to turn off update notifications in an effort to hide your blog from search engines. As noted in the video, this is far from a fool-proof solution, but it can be a useful feature in certain situations.
Configuring WordPress Settings: Discussion
This video is a continuation in a series of videos detailing each of the WordPress Settings pages. This video will focus on Discussion Settings.
Discussion Settings allow you to better control comments on your blog. Various settings allow you to easily define which comments should automatically require moderation, and what information commenters need to include in order to post a comment.
Configuring WordPress Settings: Reading
This video is a continuation in a series of videos detailing each of the WordPress Settings pages. This video will focus on Reading Settings.
Reading Settings control the number of posts that appear on a page, whether your RSS feed includes full or partial posts, default page encoding, and article compression.
