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WordPress How to Build a WordPress Theme Content Strategy with WordPress Installing and Setting Up WordPress Locally

Rachel Lee
Rachel Lee
1,611 Points

Didn't require local setup of WordPress

When I went to localhost, I clicked on my folder and was able to see the barebones version of the html I had written (minus CSS). Do I have Wordpress set up or is this different?

2 Answers

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Do I still need to set up wordpress locally and use wordpress.org to be able to build a custom site for her?

It's considered a best practice to separate your live production site from your development site, historically the easiest way to do that was to set up Wordpress locally. These days it's probably simpler to use cloud9 to develop a Wordpress site than install Wordpress locally.

Testing out code and even simple changes before they are live on the Internet is always a good idea.

further reading

Rachel Lee
Rachel Lee
1,611 Points

So if I already have html and css files that I've created and tested locally on my server (non-Wordpress), could I simply upload them as a "new theme"?

Rachel, you could but it's best to install Wordpress locally so that it simulates your live site as closely as possible so that you test that everything looks like you want it to before putting it live. This way, it's less likely for something to go wrong when you upload it and you're less likely to end up in a big panicky situation of undoing things.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Wordpress requires PHP and PHP requires a web server like Apache.

Rachel Lee
Rachel Lee
1,611 Points

I'm building a site for a friend who has her site set up on wordpress.com. Do I still need to set up wordpress locally and use wordpress.org to be able to build a custom site for her? (Sorry, very very new to Wordpress and not sure where to start when trying to build template for .com)