Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide (Visual QuickStart Guides)

Visual QuickStart Guides, designed in an attractive tutorial and reference format, are the quickest, easiest, and most thorough way to learn applications, tasks, and technologies. The Visual QuickStart Guides are a smart choice and guide the learner in a friendly and respectful tone. Visually presented with copious screenshots, the focused discussions by topic and tasks make learning a breeze and quickly take you to exactly what you want to learn.

The free and open-source package Drupal is one of the most user-friendly and popular web content management systems (CMSes) available. Sites built on it are highly visible and include The White House and Amnesty International. Its web-based interface allows those with little or no experience to create professional-looking sites quickly while its flexibility gives them access to such features as blogs, polls, and forums.

Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide uses plenty of screenshots and step-by-step instructions to walk a reader through the process of building a site using Drupal. To begin, the book details the process of downloading and unpacking Drupal, creating the MySQL database, and installing Drupal. It then moves on to explain the administrative interfaces, how to select a visual theme and create and customize content, and how to improve access to that content. Next the book walks readers through managing user accounts, customizing Drupal's look and feel, and extending Drupal with modules.

Although Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide is written for beginners, it goes beyond the basic package to ease readers into advanced topics. A glossary and cross-references throughout the book give readers complete possession of the concepts, vocabulary, and steps necessary to reach Drupal mastery. From start to finish, it's a complete guide for getting up and running with Drupal 7.

The free and open-source package Drupal is one of the most user-friendly and popular web content management systems (CMSes) available. Sites built on it are highly visible and include The Onion and Amnesty International. Its web-based interface allows those with little or no experience to create professional-looking sites quickly while its flexibility gives them access to such features as blogs, polls, and forums.

This Visual QuickStart uses plenty of screen shots and step-by-step instructions to walk a reader through the process of building a site using Drupal. It starts with installation and initial configuration, discusses content and user management in depth, and concludes with ways to improve your new site's appearance and interactivity.

Tom Geller (Oberlin, OH) is a full-time freelance writer whose recent clients have included Apple, IEEE, ACM, Nature.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Safari Books Online, and Lynda.com.

INTRODUCTION

GETTING DRUPAL UP AND RUNNING

ESTABLISHING YOUR DRUPAL SITE

CREATING AND MANAGING CONTENT

CUSTOMIZING CONTENT

MAKING CONTENT INTERACTIVE

IMPROVING SITE ACCESS

WRANGLING USERS

CUSTOMIZING THE LOOK AND FEEL OF DRUPAL

ADDING FUNCTIONALITY

APPENDIX A

GLOSSARY OF DRUPAL TERMS