I could really use this but I will be driving to Austin.

Don't worry! There will be more to come. I need to buy my ticket, but I'll be traveling there as well.

Looking forward to it.

Thanks to all who attended last night. We hope you were able to leave with some valuable info and/or good contacts.

If you have questions about anything WordPress, feel free to post them here and we'll do our best to help you out.

Sorry I missed this one. I attended the Wordcamp but didn't hear about this meetup until today. :(

Kermit, If you have any general questions, feel free to post them here & we'll do our best to answer them for the group. Hope to see you at the next one.

I wanted to say that I am looking forward to the classes in April. Thank you for all the great information!

Thank you for putting the event on. It was helpful and I look forward to future events.

You guys were very thorough and knowledgeable. I am a total newbie and my head is swimming with questions. Dave... I have a personal wp site that I'm working on from home and want to convert our business site to a wp format and probably go with godaddy for hosting...we are a very small company and do not have a server to do our own hosting which I gathered is ideal but if I'm working on the site from home but also want to work on site from office...will that be a problem.

Thank you for having this event. I was a little bit late but some aspects of the discussion were helpful to me and gave me some insights. Important is the security and putting the default not on the root but to a folder or subfolder. I will continue to do my own experiments though. Would there be meet-ups for other cms such drupal? I saw one but it is in Virginia beach. I am looking forward to do jellying. I do not know what will happen there but I will be there. but I will be there.-:)

@Marion, I just moved from GoDaddy to BlueHost for my WP site and have found it to be much better. The GoDaddy shared servers seemed constantly overwhelmed so my site was always slow or down.

Hi Everyone - new here and unfortunately missed the meeting Tuesday! @Marion - I'm sure everyone has their own opnion, but for someone to host your wordpress site I would recommend Dreamhost. They have one-click wordpress installation and their servers are "optimized" for wordpress. Plus they have a very simple control panel - much easier to understand than G-Daddy's. Just my two cents! Look forward to meeting some of you at the next meeting!

I would probably recommend another host over GoDaddy as well. They can tend to cause unnecessary pain for you at times whether it's their horrible control panel or their servers having too many sites placed on them and becoming overwhelmed.

Every host has their good times and bad times. I would say do some googling around about any hosts you'd like to use and see what folks are saying about them. Match that up with your budget and you should be in good shape.

Thanks so much for your input everyone! I am going to do a little more investigating before I move our business site. Please keep input coming!

I'll have to put in a "NO" vote on Dreamhost. Their control panel is non-standard, if easy to use. Try Bluehost, Hostmonster or Hostgator. They all use Cpanel which is a standard control panel. This is important because if you ever move up to a VPS, Cloud, or dedicated server many companies can directly import a site from a cpanel site.

QUESTION:
I want to add an item to a horizontal menu called "services" that doesn't navigate to the page called "services". I just want it to be the parent for a list of services that populate the submenu for this item. I did a search on "absentee parents" and got a list of dues that weren't paying child support. Is it possible to do thisin WP?

In doing a comparison on bluehost and dreamhost, blue has a little better offer by a few dollars. Otherwise it feels like a crap shoot to figure out which one is better...easier...less downtime, etc. Thanks for the input and keep it coming.

@Marion - I wouldn't spend too much time doing a comparison. I've looked at various reviews, and have found there to be people FOR and AGAINST just about all the common shared server hosting platforms out there (GoDaddy, BlueHost, Dreamhost, Hostgator, etc.).

Whenever you go with a shared server, you'll get a super-low price (~ $3.95 - $7.95/mo), but there's always a possibility that, at times, it will run slowly. If I had to pick based on speed, I'd prob go with Hostgator.

Just to chime in here on the host wars: i just switched over to Rackspace. CDN access (what they call "cloud files") is fantastic. I wouldn't recommend GoDaddy as a host, but doing domain names through them is easy enough if you know how to forward DNS - otherwise, host your site and your domain at the same place for ease of use.

Also, @Sam, as far as the menu option goes, here's what you need to do. Head over to Appearance > Menus, and create a custom link in the menu with the URL "#" (no http:// or www.!!!!), give it a name ("Services"), and add it to the menu. To add a submenu to it, simply drag other options under it and pull them to the right just slightly so they offset "under" the Services menu. This should work if your site's theme has support for a submenu (most of them do).

@Sam - If you're using the native WP Menus (under Appearance > Menus), you can add a custom link as a menu item, and enter in whatever URL you want.

If you don't want it to go anywhere when someone clicks it, use "#" (without quotes). From a usability standpoint, I don't recommend this though.

Instead, I'd take whatever the 1st page in your dropdown list is, add that as a menu item, and change the "Title" of it to "Services".

Email me & I can send you a screenshot if you need more help.

@Arn - Right now there aren't any plans for Meetups about other CMSs. We're focusing on WordPress for now.

@Marion - Regardless of the host you choose, you should be able to work on the site from anywhere in the world (that has an internet connection).

All hosts will allow you to manage the site from your admin panel (yoursite.com/wp-admin), as well as upload files directly using FTP.

You can download an FTP program on any computer. But for someone who doesn't need to get real technical, just using WP's admin panel should be enough.

Oops! I meant to type "dudes" not "dues".

@Doug and @Dave fantastic! Thanks for the assist. I had been researching for hours and didn't get anywhere close on my own.
I went with the "#" in the custom link because it seemed to suit
this site better. I am proud to say not tables were used inappropriately in solving this challenge :).

Any recommendations for online resources for Newbs like me?
My favorites thus far are :
www.w3schools.com (for learning html and CSS; eventually more)
Wordpress.org forums
Artisteer forums and support (Great for Wordpress and Artisteer Questions)
@Marion what was the name of the paid site you mentioned with the tutorials?

For WordPress resources, here is the video tutorial site that I found. Looks legit, but I have not used it. Right now you get a lifetime membership, with all future updates, for $19 one-time fee.

http://www.wp101.com/signup/

lynda.com is fantastic, though it does have a monthly membership fee (but no contracts).

@Sam...creativeedge.com very similar to lynda.com...both of these sites are reference sites containing thousands of books and videos for a monthly/yearly subscription price. I have used them both and am currently using creative edge and it is a wealth of support for me!

I just successfully figure out how dreamweaver cs5 works with wamp and wordpress. I got this site that teaches you how to do it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErkX8iHZIJw . This was the thing I was looking for.

@Matt and @Dave -- A follow up to my question about installing WP locally...In what cases does it make sense to set up a local host? In what cases does it make sense to just install it on my web host? Thanks for any insight!

I think I've jumped in over my head. I want to move my current company site and use wp with the new hosting company. If I want to completely customize the site, what's the best way? I've been reading, researching, watching videos all week (UGH!) and AM MORE CONFUSED THAN EVER! Does the site need to be "locally hosted" to use your own "theme"? I have a wireframed site using CS4 Illustrator...just not sure what to do next. Any help is appreciated.

Marion - you need to look into converting that set of images to HTML, then converting THAT to Wordpress. it's not something that will be done for you magically. I push Lynda.com a lot, but they have a FANTASTIC series on converting a theme to HTML. if you get confused with any topic, you can pause the video, watch it again, look up something they don't fully explain, etc.

Also, you can load any theme into Wordpress, unless you are hosting a free blog through Wordpress.com. you need to download

Marion - WordPress.com (the free blogging site) does not allow custom themes nor plugins. So if you signed up marionsite.wordpress.com you are limited to the themes they offer. If you go with a hosting company that offers WP, such as DreamHost, then you can upload your own custom themes and utilize third-party plugins.
Hope that helps.

@ Doug and Joshua Yes this helps then I am on the right path. Wanted to have new site finished and then go LIVE so I will trudge on.

UPDATE: I am setting up my personal blog as well as company site and had a genius idea - I called godaddy who is hosting my personal site and voila filled some of the holes I had fallen in! So have put 2 and 2 together and it's making 4! It's hard to learn something with a very small, aged brain in tow!!

I'm glad things are adding up for you :-) Good luck!

I am facing the challenge on a wordpress website that requires me to put a different header image on each of several pages. I have a header image up that I placed on the theme in Artisteer before loading the theme but it has to be replaced. Any tips on where I need to search in the CSS (php?) to make the changes and add the different headers. I'm off to scour the help forums in the meantime.

It's both Sam and I can help if you want to call or email me.

@Kermit thanks! I have found some help online at:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-add-different-h...

If I can't get it working using that info I'll holler out to you.

what was the software's name for me to let me transfer all the data from an old wordpress to a new one and a new provider? I am not referring to an opening source. Forgot the name. I am in the midst of doing an overhaul but I need to get all the data from an old wordpress and transfer them to a new host with a new and nice template. - A

can we set up some sort of forum or google groups for this meetup? the meetup comments section is not really made for this kind of discussion.

Doug, good point... ...

I have setup a Google Group to further the discussion. Please request access to the group here --> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/rva-wordpress ... ....

Thanks guys,
Dave

Dave, I just went to the link and attempted to join. I managed to +1 it on Google + but couldn't seem to get anywhere with the join group button. Will try again later.

Sam, it looks like there is an issue on Google's end with the application process of joining. I just made the group completely public, so anyone can now join. Try again, and click the "join group to post" button. Should work now.

What!? Now how are we going to keep out the unwashed masses and
those who use tables innappropriately? Thanks :D

hoping for some skills classes SOON. I am in the early stages of learning and it's confusing to separate doing things a certain way for .com and .org and you constantly run into those situations when troubleshooting a problem...which I have too many of! I have a lot of frustration and think that step-by-step hands on would help immensely...just really need it today!