A successful XAMPP installation looks like this, but you’ve still got
a little ways to go before you’re done.5 Installing Wordpress
Unzip the Wordpress files to your
/htdocs directory, a subset of
wherever you installed XAMPP.
While that’s happening, fire up the
XAMPP main screen in your brows-
er and click phpMyAdmin under the
Tools menu. Once you’ve logged in,
look for the Create New Database
prompt. Then type wordpress,
and select “utf8_unicode_ci”
instead of “collation.”
Head over to your /htdocs
directory, and pull up “wp-config-
sample.php” in Wordpad. Type in
your MySQL username (root) andpassword, then save the file and
rename it wp-config.php. Go back
to http://localhost in your browser,
where you’ll get a prompt to auto-
install Wordpress. When it finishes,
log into your new Wordpress
installation and click the Options
tab. Under Wordpress Address,
type in the URL that you’ll use to
access your blog, which is usually
the same as your DynDNS Internet
address. Most people will put the
same info in the Blog Address field
as well.Setting up the Wordpress database in MySQL is as
easy as typing in the name and clicking Create, but
don’t forget to select “utf8_unicode_ci.”6 Getting Stylish
By now, Wordpress is basically good to go,
but you don’t want a default-looking blog; you
want a fancy blog. In that case, we recom-
mend you grab K2 ( getk2.com ), a template that
goes on top of your Wordpress installation andadds a bunch of advanced functionality. The
easy part comes on the installation side; just
unzip the K2 package to your /wp-content/
themes/ directory. Point your browser to your
Wordpress configuration page ( wp-admin ),
click the Presentation tab, and
select K2 as your current theme.
From there, you can hit up
the K2 Options Panel to set the
theme, or overall look of your blog,
and manage the specifics of your
blog’s header and sidebar modules.
If you’re really adventurous, you
can edit your site’s CSS templates
directly. But one of the nice things
about K2 is that it eliminates the
need to get elbow-deep in code,
especially when you want to install
new K2 -compatible plugins. With
one quick download and a few
clicks of the mouse, you can throw
just about any added functionality
you want into your blog.Use the blog, Luke; K2 wins major geek points for
having a Star Wars -based “scheme” as one of its
two default themes.january 2007 MAXIMUMPC 57
Our TOp pluGI n
recOmmendaTIOnSSOcIable: Gives your read-
ers an easy way to pimp your
posts to the Web 2.0 world.
akISmeT: Automatically
nukes spam comments.
FlickrrSS: Add flickr photos
to your blog and give them their
own RSS feed.
TIme SInce: Shows the
time since your last update. For
shame!
pOpularITy cOnTeST:
Lets you know which posts are
getting all the eyeballs.correctly, the top five components—at
minimum—will be green-lit. Now click the
Security link in the left-hand frame, and
you’ll find that your XAMPP setup lacks
any password-based security what-
soever. Click the link below the table,
and you’ll be given the option to pass-
word-lock your MySQL root and XAMPP
configuration. Double-click the tray icon,
restart MySQL, and you’re set.