• This introductory lesson will explain who we are, and why WordPress is such a great platform to use when building a website.
• Did you know there are actually two types of WordPress?  One limits what you can do on your site, and the other is an installable script that gives you total freedom. This lesson shows you both, and explains why you should use the latter.

• A list of WordPress terms and definitions that you will hear while working with WordPress.
• Where to Install WordPress?
• This lesson will show you the two options you have when installing WordPress:-  Installing WordPress on your local computer and installing WordPress on an online server. If you want a live website, then you will need a domain name and web host. We’ll cover that too.

• You will learn how to install and use Mysql, Server Software and Apache.
• Local Installation Issues
• How and where you get the wordpress installation files.
• This lesson explains the steps you take when installing wordpress on your local computer.
• When you install WordPress on your own computer, some plugins may not work, as many are developed for an online environment.  

IMPORTANT: Please Read this FIRST

• This lesson explains the steps you go through in finding and registering a domain name.
• This lesson shows you how to install WordPress on a web host.

A first look at WordPress

• The WordPress Dashboard
• Clearing out WordPress pre-installed content
• A look at the pre-installed demo content and how to get rid of it.
• Post & Page Editor
• When WordPress5.0 was released some years ago, it got rid of the WYSIWYG editor in favour of a page builder style editor. However, you can still use the older “Classic” editor if you prefer.  This lesson shows you how you can install the old editor and use it when editing content. 
• A Look at the “Classic” Editor
• The Gutenberg Editor
• This lesson looks at the basics of the Gutenberg Editor that was introduced in 2018.
• The Media Library
• The Media Library allows you to easily manage your images, lessons and other media types in one central location.

About Animations

• If you have problems with animations showing on your site, please read this.
• A Minor Interface Change
• This lesson shows a minor change to the Gutenberg Interface
• Gutenberg Overview
• This lesson gives an overview of the Gutenberg editor.
• The Interface
• A quick look at the Gutenberg interface.
• Anatomy of a Block
• This lesson looks at blocks, and how you can access all of their features.
• Inserting Images & Wrap
• This lesson looks at inserting images into your pages, and getting text to correctly wrap around those images.
• Cover Block
• Columns
• Reusable Blocks
• Finding More Blocks

The rapid pace of technological progress has revolutionized every aspect of our lives, leading to increased efficiency, connectivity, and access to information.

Setting up a Gravatar

• What is a Gravatar, why are they important and how can you set one up?
• Setting up the author profile on our site.
• General Settings in WordPress.
• Writing settings in WordPress.
• Reading Settings in the Dashboard
• Discussion Settings
• Discussion Settings in the Dashboard
• Allowing Comments & Comment Moderation
• This lesson offers some advice on dealing with WordPress comments
• Permalinks
• This lesson looks at the Permalink settings, and how to use them for maximum SEO benefit.
• Privacy Settings

WordPress4.9.6. was a privacy and maintenance release.  A new feature was introduced to help websites become GDPR compliant.  This lesson shows you how to add a privacy policy using the template that WordPress provides to make sure you have everything covered.

• An Introduction to WordPress Themes
• Plugins & Adding a Sitemap
• This lesson shows you how to add, delete and activate plugins.
• We’ll also make sure we have a sitemap up and running using the Yoast SEO plugin.
• Installing Premium Plugins
• Plugins are downloaded as a zipped files. You can easily install these zipped files in the Dashboard, and this lesson shows you how.
• An Introduction to WordPress Widgets, this lesson looks at “widgetized areas”, and how you can add content in the form of widgets to these areas.
• Settings, plugins and themes

WordPress Posts and WordPress Pages

• WordPress offers two main ways to add content to a site. Posts and pages. In this lesson, we’ll look at how posts differ from pages.
• This lesson looks at the Gutenberg editor options when creating WordPress Pages.
• This lesson looks at the Gutenberg editor options when creating WordPress Posts.
• A look at how to use categories to organize your posts.
• Tags can be used to further classify posts, and make it easier for your visitors to find specific posts.
• This lesson looks at excerpts and why they are so important to your site.
• This lesson looks at the importance of featured images to make your site look more professional.
• This lesson shows you how to schedule a post to be published in the future, and mentions a plugin that can help turbo drive your scheduling.
• Resizing & Optimizing Images
• Creating a WordPress Page
• Creating a WordPress post

The importance of the homepage

• Static Homepage vs Blog Posts
• Creating A Blog Style Homepage
• Creating A Static Style Homepage

• Creating a Contact page
• Creating an About Us page
• Terms, Privacy and Disclaimers

• Custom Menus
• Navigation Menu Widgets
• Related Post Navigation
• Latest Posts
• Internal Site Linking
• Website Navigation

• In this lesson, we will cover the basics of how you can keep a WordPress site safe from hackers.
• This lesson shows you how you can reset the settings of the All In One Security plugin if you do get locked out of your dashboard.
• In this lesson we’ll install a security plugin and enable the basic features to help secure the website.
• Stop Spammers Plugin
• WordPress Backup
• Keep automated backups of your WordPress site.
• There is one security hole that you might like to plug.  

• Social Sharing
• Contact form
• Elementor
• Visual Composer
• Yoast SEO
• Classic Editor
• Woocommerce
• Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security
• Classic Widget

This lesson shows you the three different site structures we are going to set up with WordPress.

• The WordPress Set Up Process
• Importing Demo Content
• This lesson has a .zip file attached as a resource.  The .zip file contains three demo content files you can import as you follow along with the course.
• The Astra Sidebar – This lesson explains how to enable the sidebar on posts AND pages on  

• In this lesson we’ll create a website using the business site structure we worked on earlier in the course.
• This lesson looks at the best way to organize your site navigation.

• In this lesson, we’ll set up a hybrid site structure.

• Install Woocommerce plugin
• Install Paynow for woocommerce plugin
• Creating A Paynow Merchant Account
• Create a Payment gateway account (Visit paynow.co.zw)
• Ecocash, Mastercard, VISA, Zimswitch Intergration

All in one wp-migration plugin

Post-Course Question

At the start of this course, you will be asked about problems you have had in the past in trying to learn how to use WordPress.  This will be a follow up question, to find out how much you have learnt, and whether or not you have overcome those issues.