No, you are not required to know HTML or CSS. You can create an excelant site without even knowing what the code looks like (see wordpress.com) . But… it is not that difficult to hack at bits and pieces of the theams and css to create a site you can call you own. WordPress is a great package.. It Just Works!
Scott Newkirk
You don’t need to know html and css to use wordpress. There are WYSIWYG buttons for the html portion, and just about every thing is self explanatory in regards to posting. Once you get the itch to customize your site’s look (though there are 100’s of themes to choose from), then CSS and some basic PHP will be neccessary. As far as using WP as a photoblog, there are a couple of themes designed for that purpose, a quick search of the forum should turn them up.
EDITED* I noticed miklb posted while I was writing this, so I don’t have to include the part about the “signature” then lol!!
No you’re not required to know CSS or HTML, but it will help you if you do know those two, especially when trying to add something or change something in your blog’s theme. =P
As for the photos, it depends on what you’re using to add those photos? A possible plugin, or the upload option in WordPress’s control panel. What I do, is manually upload them using the FTP client, into a “image” folder and then call those photos, images or whatever up in the WRITE POST part.
Also, making sure of their widths, so it won’t break the theme you’re/I’m using at the time as well. For the plugins, I’m not too sure about them, because I never used a photo related plugin before sigh.
spencerp
miklb, pretty much covered it, so you really don’t need to read my reply lol.
Thread Starter
ronam
(@ronam)
thanks a million for your replies. i bought my dreamhost account on 2/22/06 and i have yet to blog, because i was not sure how/where to begin. i think i am getting there. thanks again.
ronam, the support forums are always here, but for someone just starting out, using the Codex and searching will generally yield all the first time questions that we all went through when starting with WordPress. But if something comes up you can’t find, by all means check back here!
I think you are delusional to think you can modify a wordpress site to get the results you want if you think you don’t need to understand xhtml and css.
honestly. When things blow apart or when you need to understand a “block” of content, if you don’t get html and css, you won’t know how to fix things.
That’s comparable to saying you don’t need to understand the big picture of what a dynamic site is all about to use wordpress. Maybe you don’t, IF you just use it as it comes – out of the box – but to make any mods, you WILL need to know what controls what and how.
sync – i have several clients i’ve installed wordpress for, guided them to the theme sites so they could choose one, shown them how to install them, and they manage their sites happily all the time.
it’s not JUST using it “out of the box” – with the plugins and themes out there, you STILL don’t need to know HTML and CSS in order to have a fully functional, good looking website.
yes, if you want blue links instead of red, you’ll have to know it. but there are hundreds of great themes out there, and new ones almost daily these days, that can get people something they like without having to make HTML or CSS based mods.
… and to follow up on that HTML and CSS are a whole lot easier than COBOL. 😉
(man, I hate Cobol…)
Thread Starter
ronam
(@ronam)
i used to be a cobol programmer for about 5 years of my life and i have spent the last week or so learnign html and css. i am having fun learning them and playing around with the codes on my computer. the design for my site that i have in mind is not out there, therefore i am going to have to design my own theme and i am now feeling more comfortable learning the codes that control the sites.
once my site is up and running my way, i may be back here asking questons again. this seems to be a great place to be to ask questions. but the one question i would like someone to respond to me would be this: if i know how to code html and css, why do do i need wordpress. wordpress is now installed on my brand new site.looking forward to your response.
ronam – short answer: if you know HTML and CSS, you don’t know PHP, which is what wordpress is based on. 🙂
PHP is what makes wordpress work – HTML and CSS are what make it look pretty.
You can build a site with HTML and CSS, sure – but as far as the old Ronco Popeil saying… “Set it and forget it.” You won’t need the HTML and CSS once you get the site looking the way you want, because wordpress will manage the content for you in a much simpler way. 🙂
It’s not necessary to know HTML or CSS, but it really helps, especially if you want to customize the site to be “your own.” 🙂
