Taking over WP site, where can I copy and mess with?

A local install every time. It’s faster than having to mess with FTP and easier to troubleshoot & fix if you make a mistake and the site goes pear-shaped. That said, I’d only use the local install to develop theme & plugins and to play with content. Transferring an entire site from a local server to a remote live one is a right pain (see Moving_WordPress for the gory details).

Thanks for the reply. So if I copy a live online site to my local computer and get that going I can play around with the theme and content and when I am done I just have to upload WP-Content folder?

SC

I’d suggest that you don’t try to actually copy your remote site to your local server (did you read Moving_WordPress)? Instead, install WP locally, add your theme & plugins, then export the content from the live site and import into the local one. You’ll need to install the Importer plugin to carry out the import in the local site but it’s far easier than trying to copy an entire site.

OK I’ll try it, that does sound easier.

Do you have a personal preference over WAMP or Bitnami?

SC

Personally I use EasyPHP – which is a flavour of WAMP but far easier to set up. Bitnami seems to have some idiosyncrasies that can be difficult to wrangle.