Need Recommendations For Learning WordPress

First and foremost learn some HTML and CSS > https://codeacademy.com

Then there are literally millions of WordPress tutorials out there, just use Google. https://www.google.com/search?q=wordpress+for+beginners&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Tweaking anything requires CSS and the browser’s developer tools.
https://www.google.com/search?q=using+developer+tools+to+change+css&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Lastly, if you have trouble, ask here!

Thanks for that advice, which all sounds good!

Providing those links will especially be helpful. I will definitely check each one of them.

I have read so many times that you can totally break a website by messing around with CSS code, so now I’m afraid to try anything. However, yesterday, I think that I found a way to undo any mistakes/bad revisions made on a WordPress website, so maybe I will now be a little less fearful to try some things. I’m not so sure that it works, though, so it’s still a bit scary.

I’m not sure what you learned, I recommend making all changes through FTP Clients. By downloading files to your local computer, you can easily make backup copies before making your changes. Should your changes break anything, simply upload your backup copy and all will be well again. Nothing to worry about!

When editing normal CSS files, you will never completely break your site. It may look terrible and be difficult to use, but it will still basically function, particularly the backend. It is editing PHP files of active plugins or themes where the danger lies. Mistakes here can result in the “White Screen of Death”. This is understandably very scary, but it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds if you are using FTP and making backups. Even “fatal” PHP errors can be corrected by uploading known working backups through FTP.

A big part of customizing WP can involve simply trying something to see if it works. Failure is a normal part of learning, not something to fear. You need to be confident that you can recover from any blunder in order to feel free to try things. Get past your fears, learn from your mistakes, enjoy getting your custom code to work and nothing can stand in the way of your learning even more! Have no fear, and most importantly, celebrate every success ??

Thanks, bcworkz, for that good advice and encouragement. It’s comforting to know that I’m staying pretty safe by using FTP, so I guess that I’m going to have to learn about it, too. I have already followed HudsonValleyWebDesign’s advice had have begun learning HTML via the Codecademy’s lessons, which are well-organized.

You guys are great!

How do you edit a reply, anyway?

Here in the forums? After 60 minutes you don’t. In any case, even if you are within that time, you cannot delete a reply, only remove what you typed as you did in the reply before last. Mods are allowed to remove empty (like I did for your reply before last), spam or duplicate posts, but other posts will remain unless they violate certain parameters like security or abuse. This is documented in the guidelines.

If you have any trouble with anything that fits within those parameters (or anything else for that matter), contact any mod in the #forums channel of WP Slack.

Okay, well, thanks for that info. I only wondered because I just wanted to fix a mistake in my post, but couldn’t see how to go back and do it. Most forums have a little “Edit” button that you can click, in order to correct misspellings, grammatical errors, etc., but I couldn’t find one for this forum. It’s certainly not a big deal and I’m not complaining, because this forum is great and very helpful, especially for those who are new to WordPress, like myself. I was just wondering if I was just not seeing something.

Thanks again.