How do i test this service without paying for a year.

  • Unknown's avatar
    alifaresboulos · Member ·

    Hello,
    I am about to start a volunteer position for a nonprofit foundation and they have asked that I look into working with WordPress prior to my first day. I’m expected to be able to do custom css and some web accessibility things, all things that require pro. I know how to do these tasks outside of WP but I’d like to spend a week familiarizing myself with how to navigate this cms. I’m not looking to purchase a year of service when I know I won’t be needing my own pro account. I simply want to practice on a test site before working on the foundations actual site so I can be familiar with how your cms works.
    I can’t seem to find a way to do this without paying $180 upfront.

    What do you recommend I do in this type of situation?

    WP.com: Yes
    Correct account: Yes

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to moderators and staff)

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    It sounds like you might be working with the open source version of WordPress, rather than WordPress.com, so another option is to use a local installation of WordPress instead. If you want to get familiar with WordPress in general, rather than specifically the version we use here on WordPress.com, that’s really the best way to learn.

    How that works is you’ll download the open source version of WordPress from WordPress.org, and run that directly on your computer (i.e. completely offline), using special software that creates a virtual server on your computer. So you still interact with the site in your browser, but all the files are directly on your hard drive, rather than on the web.

    I recommend an app called Local for this – it lets you spin up a new WordPress site with just a few clicks:

    Home

    Once you’ve created a site using Local, you’ll be able to download and install plugins and themes just like a normal WordPress site, the site files will live directly on your hard drive so you can edit them there, and you can even access the site database via the Local app. And if you mess up, just reset/spin up a new site and start over.

    Does that sound like something that will work for you?

  • Unknown's avatar
    alifaresboulos · Member ·

    Ahh I see… I didn’t know that there was a difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. I managed to get things set up locally and was able to work with building custom themes in a code editor. Exactly what I was looking to practice.
    Thank you! :)

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Excellent :)

    I glad that option works for you.

    You can find detailed documentation for the open source version of WordPress you’re using over on WordPress.org, here:

    https://wordpress.org/support/

    And if you run into any questions, the community over there has their own forums where they support that version of WordPress, including a subforum specifically for problems with local installations like you’re using now.

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