An .htaccess file is a hidden file like any other beginning with a dot. They are else called dotfiles. An .htaccess file is an ASCII file. In fact, .htaccess is not the name of the file, it is a file extension. It is not somename.htaccess file, it is just .htaccess.

For the safety, it is better to upload .htaccess files to the subdirectory. At least, test them there. Mistakes in the code of htaccess file located in the root directory can cause very serious problems with access to your hosting account through cPanel or FTP.

To see if my hosting account allows to use me hidden files, I went to cPanel, the “Files” section and clicked on the icon of the File Manager. The dialogue “File Manager Directory Selection” appeared before entering the File Manager. There I checked the box “Show hidden files (dotfiles)”.

I saw dotfiles in my root directory, so I could also create and use such files.

I created a plain text editor file. The file can be empty. (At this step you can already put the code line in the text file but note that the word-wrap should be disabled as most code lines in .htaccess should be written in one line.)

I named it as I liked.

I uploaded it to my server to the proper directory through the File Manager in cPanel.

I renamed the file into .htaccess in the File Manger.

I edited it with the text editor, pasted the necessary code.

I set permissions to 644 for this file.

Note that if there is already an .htaccess file in your directory/subdirectory, and you are going to upload another .htaccess file, it will be replaced by the new one. So, search carefully for dotfiles before creating the one.

Web hosting

Web hosting is a web service that enables businesses and individuals to have web sites on the Internet. The web sites can then be accessed and viewed with a web browser or any other web-aware application.

In order for the web pages to be displayed and viewed a web server is needed. The common ones are Apache and Microsoft IIS. These are applications that run on the server computer and allow everybody else on the Internet access your site. It is a pretty complicated process that is controlled and managed by web hosting provider.

When you need a web site you will need three main things:

1. Domain name
2. Web hosting account
3. Application or a web development service to build your site

Most web hosting providers offer the first two but it makes sense to find one that understands web development in general and how applications work.

It makes sense to buy domain name and web hosting package from the same provider. Although before making any decisions make sure you will have complete control of your domain and your hosting account. Not all providers give you that and it is very important to have as it is your intellectual property.

The admin area of WordPress offers simple way to manage plugins.

I entered Plugins — > Add new in the admin panel of your blog. I was suggested to search through the plugins right in the admin panel of my blog. When looking through the plugins via the admin panel there is an opportunity to install them by just clicking the “install” button next to the name of the plugin.

I was taken to the page containing information about the plugin. I pushed “Install now”.

I entered the data for the FTP connection to my host server in the proper fields.

That’s it! I had to only activate it.

You have to just put the plugin archive to the wp-content-plugin directory in your wordpress files and extract it. This means you install it. To start using a plugin you have to activate it.

The admin panel of your blog provides an easy way to install plugins through the option “add new” under the “plugin” button. There is a convenient search there. Next to the search option there are other options (1). By clicking them I can upload plugins stored on my computer, look through featured, popular, recently uploaded and newest plugins.

I can also search by keyword, author or tag (2) and look through the tag catalogue (3) if I’m not sure about what to look for.

It is simple to manage the installed plugins by clicking “Plugins” — > “Installed”.

Bulk actions can be applied to the number of plugins by checking boxes next to the necessary plugins. The function lets you delete, activate, deactivate plugins in bulk. It is very convenient when it is necessary to switch off all the plugins at once, for example, when you need to upgrade your blog or move it to another hosting.

There are two default plugins – Akismet and Hello, Dolly. Akismet fights against the spam comments in your blog. To activate it, you have to receive the wordpress.com API key. You should get the wordpress.com account for this. Follow the instructions next to the name of the plugin.

Edit plugins means to change code in the plugin files. Go to plugins — > editor. In the right hand corner there is the select button for selecting plugins. Plugin Files are displayed under it. The editor is in the center. But you should use this function only if you are sure about what you are doing. This is for advanced users. Besides, you need to have your plugin files writable.

Plugins are add-ons to your wordpress blog. They extend the functionality of your site. There are thousands of plugins for wordpress, they are free and most of them are upgraded regularly. They can also be easily switched off. This makes wordpress very convenient, flexible and easy-to-customize software.

Plugins are software scripts. Plugin is usually a number of files compressed into archive that can be downloaded to your hard disk from plugin directories or from the site of the plugin. This is the official plugin directory: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ You don’t need to have programming skills when using most of the plugins but you have to read carefully the instructions given by the plugin author and follow them. If something is wrong with the plugin you should consult the plugin author. When selecting a plugin you should see to compatibility of the plugin with the version of your wordpress blog. Very often it is written in the description of the plugin. It is strongly recommended to make backup of your site in case something go wrong, before installing a plugin.

The registered users of your blog have different rights. Subscriber has fewer rights than any other user of your site. It has the access to the admin panel. But subscriber can’t see all the functions of the admin panel.

He can only change its profile and return to the site, where he can leave his comments. The comments won’t be published until the administrator of the site approves them.

Contributor can post comments and add posts from the admin panel of the site, but they won’t be published until the admin of the site approves them. More functions are visible for him in the left sidebar of the admin panel. This type of user can add tags but he can’t create categories – he can only use the existed ones.

Author can add posts and comments without administrator’s permission. Author can’t edit or add pages but can add media files.

Editor can edit everybody’s posts and comments without the permission of the admin. He can also edit and add categories and pages.

Editor is limited only in managing the functionality of the blog itself. Editor has no access to plugins, to the users profiles, he can not change the appearance of the site or manage other important settings which refer to the functionality of the site.

Administrator role allows to manage the entire site, its functionality and correct work. The administrator has the right to change the code from the admin panel if the files have special permissions. He can approve or disapprove comments and posts of other users and he can also change their roles in their profiles.

Since the administrator is the most important person who runs the blog, it is better not to give anyone such role except for the owner of the blog.

As I have created my blog, I had a default page called “About”. I didn’t know about it because it was not displayed on the main page of the blog.

I logged into my Administration Panel. I clicked on the “Pages” button in the left sidebar. First I had to edit the default page.

I saw the status of the page right under the title “edit pages”. I hovered a mouse over the name of the page and clicked edit. The dialogue for creating pages is the same as the one for posts. I edited the content of the page. In the right sidebar there is the “attributes” column. I had only one page, so I couldn’t select the parent page so far. I changed the order of the page because it is important what page my readers would see first.

I added some more pages. It is convenient that I can edit “Pages” in bulk. This function is not available with categories and tags. I clicked “Pages” to see the list of my pages. I selected necessary pages. There was the “bulk actions” drop-down menu. I clicked on the arrow and selected the “edit” function. I clicked “Apply”.

I saw the options I could change for the selected pages. To see your pages displayed learn how to add widgets.

When I created my blog, I noticed that all content is organized there in reverse chronological order, and the oldest articles are not on the page. Writing posts in my blog was like making notes in a diary. However, I felt the need for creating some “timeless”, static content, that is, the content which won’t be moved by recent posts and can be accessed easily from the home page. I would like to add some information about the concept of my site, about myself and to give some contact information. There is a tool to easily do that in WordPress. This can be realized through “pages”. A Page in WordPress shouldn’t be confused with a regular web page or a home page. Home page of your blog can consist of several posts, so it has a dynamic content. When you click on a certain post at your home page, you move to a web page where this post is displayed in full. So, every post has its own web page. WordPress Page, however, is completely different. It’s a tool for creating static content. Pages have title, content, hierarchy and they can have the same appearance as the rest of your blog, just like posts. There are, however, many things in which they are different from posts.

Pages can not be organized in categories or assigned to tags. Pages are timeless (they have no date). Pages are not published on the main page of your blog where all the posts are. They can be easily accessed from the navigational bar. Pages can have their own design which can be different from the design of your blog. While posts in a blog can be compared to diary notes, pages with its hierarchy structure can be compared to a book with chapters.

Special plugins are used to extend the abilities of the “pages” option. For example, you can integrate posts in a page. With the proper combination of posts and pages amazing results can be achieved. You can create a multi-functional site instead of ordinary blog.

Most bloggers would like to have others comment in their blog. It is not necessary to allow registration for this. This function is enabled for you by default. I checked the option by entering settings section — > discussion — > default article settings — > allow people to comment on new articles. The box should be checked.

There is an easy way to add and edit registered users of the WordPress site. I entered the admin area of my blog. In the left sidebar there is the “Users” submenu. The registration of new users is disabled by default. Still, I can register them myself through the admin panel using the “add new user” function. It’s safer to not give anyone the role of the administrator.

When I wanted to let people register on my blog, I entered the admin panel — > settings — > general. The checkbox next to the line “Membership” was unchecked. I checked it. The next line “New user default role” sets the role of the user as soon as he/she registers.

Later it will be possible to change the role of the user at the “Authors & Users” section.

The administrator can edit any user profile: add contact info, change password and address. It is possible to change user nickname and use it for public display. The user name can’t be changed.

I can change my profile in the “your profile” section.

From that moment anyone could register on my blog. So, I had to protect my blog from spam registrations and I had to be careful about giving users the appropriate roles.

To recover password for wordpress is easy. I clicked “Forgot password?” link in the log-in form. I had to input my username (it could also be e-mail) and wait for the message to come to the e-mail box that was registered in my user profile. WordPress prompted me to check the email.

In the mail I received the link and clicked on it. That was made for the sake of safety. As soon as I clicked the link, WordPress displayed another message.

In my email box I found another mail with the new password.

Once I entered the site, I had to change the automatically generated password for an easier one in my profile.

The task is getting more difficult if I forget not only the password, but also my administrator username and the e-mail – the one I got registered in the site. It is impossible to recover it by means of WordPress. But I could easily retrieve it through the databases where all information about my WordPress site is stored.

I entered cPanel — > databases — > phpMyAdmin.

In phpMyAdmin I selected the database domatest_wrdpr1 – the one used by my WordPress blog. There I selected the table “wp-users” and clicked on the “browse” icon.

I found my username and clicked on the “pencil” – the “edit” button.

Next step was to change the password. I could also change the name and the e-mail address by simply typing them in proper fields. The password in database looks very unusual because it is encrypted. I typed in the new password I was going to use, and it was automatically encrypted. When I typed in a password, I had to select the “MD5” function. I pressed “Go”.

In a new tab I opened my site and entered it with the new name and password.