Few days ago, a new WordPress book has been released. Right now book is available in PDF format, but the print version is expected soon. Book is written by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr, experienced WordPress developers who made over 100 WordPress driven websites so far.

Format

PDF gives a certain freedom in book layout that can usually be expensive for printing. It will be interesting to see how the book will look in print, but this PDF looks amazing. It’s in landscape format of 10×8 inches. Both layout and typography, use of images makes this PDF very easy to read and follow.

Page from the book

Page from the book

One thing I didn’t like (and I don’t like this in any book), are long sections of source code. The other thing I didn’t like is the fact that table and contents and index are not linkable. It will be great if you can click on chapter title or index term page and go to the actual content. Maybe this can be changed in some of the next revisions.

Book Contents

Book is very current, covering the latest main WordPress release (2.8). Releasing as PDF first is better when it comes to speed, because while print edition is released, content is usually outdated.

Book follows very logical steps from introducing WP, explaining the interface, security, installation, basics of plugins and themes. After first two introduction chapters, next two chapters are about theme development. This is done really great, explaining the theme structure and use of different files, basic filters and actions used by theme and more. And after all that you will learn about advanced things: customized loops, complex page structure using multiple sidebars, comments and archive templates, adding Twitter support and more.

Digging into WordPress

Click to buy 'Digging into WordPress' for $27.00

Plugin chapter is orientated more to the usage of plugins, and adding some smaller functionalities into plugins. This is understandable because plugin development is very complex issue that can’t fit into chapter or two. Rest of the book cover RSS feeds including advanced setting using .htaccess rewrites, complex feeds URL’s, customizing feeds and using Feedburner. New threaded comments are explained in great details with code examples, controlling track-backs and customizing display of comments.

SEO optimization is important part of the book with some 50 pages, and that is one of the strongest parts of Digging into WordPress. This chapter will teach you everything you need to know about building solid SEO base for your blog. Last chapter is about maintenance, tracking and blog security with some great practical examples of using htaccess file and some of the WordPress filters.

Rating

Features9/10
Writing Style10/10
Code Examples8/10
Value For Money9/10
Overall10/10
9.3/10
Average rating: 9.3

This book is for beginners and intermediate WordPress users. But even the experienced developers can find interesting stuff, or use the book as a handy reference.

Conclusion

This is a great book. I really enjoyed reading it, and even finding some interesting tips I didn’t know about. With excellent writing style and good choice of quotes that are used before start of each chapter, this book is a refreshing addition to currently available choice of WordPress books. Highly recommended.

Win free copy of this book

Thanks to Chris Coyier for providing full book for this review, and also providing one more copy for the giveaway. So, if you want the copy of this book you need to do follow these simple steps:

1. Tweet the following message:

Digging Into #WordPress book giveaway. If you want to win, follow @milangd and retweet http://dv4p.com/digwp

2. You can enter and retweet as many times as you like and more you retweet the more chances you have to win.
3. Wait for the Sunday noon (15.Nov 2009, 12:00 CET) for winner announcement.
4. Make sure you’re following @milangd, so I can DM the winner.