Theme, Media, and Plugin Management in WordPress

Managing your WordPress website’s appearance and how it functions can be achieved through various methods with the use of themes and plugins.

A theme is not only a design change, but it is a collection of files called template files.  These files work together to produce an interface on how the site is displayed and operates.  WordPress comes with three default themes. However, there are many other themes in the WordPress theme directory that are free to download and use or you may create your own theme.

A plugin could be thought of as an “add-on” using a small program that enhances your site in a more specific way.  There are plugins that manages spam, emails, or forms for example.  There are also plugins that help in sales, track analytics, design, or just about anything imaginable.  While some plugins have a nominal fee, other plugins made by a collaboration of the WordPress open source community are free.  It is recommended that the description and installation instructions be carefully read for each plugin, especially since some plugin codes can interact adversely with other plugin codes.

Besides changing the overall appearance of your website with different themes and plugins, media can be added to posts and pages of the site.  Media can also be uploaded to be stored in the media library for use at a later date. File type, to name a few, that are support by WordPress are; images (.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif); documents (.pdf, .doc, .ppt, .pptx, .psd); audio (.mp3, .m4a, .off, .wav), and videos (.mp4, .mov, .wmv, .ogv).   These files can be organized through galleries and tag keywords.

 WordPress for DummiesFor additional help managing your WordPress site, WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson 7th edition is a good recommendation.