Installing WordPress Locally – Hassle Free

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Before I updated the look of IamNTB, I wanted to do some experimenting by installing WordPress locally. I looked everywhere for ways to install WordPress on my computer. There were tons of suggested methods and most involved setting up my own server. For me this was not too scary of an option but I knew there had to be an easier way.

In walks InstantWP!!

Here is a totally free piece of software that you can download which gives you the option to fiddle with WordPress without having to worry about crashing your blog. One of the best features, other than the ability to test your themes, is the fact that the program does not install anything on your computer. The software can also be run off of a USB memory stick. You can even have multiple copies to test out different theme designs.

The first thing you will want to do after running the program is to update the version of WordPress that comes with it. Everything you do is just like as if you were actually online so there are no differences in the updating process.

Going live after installing wordpress locally

Once you have your design looking the way you want it to, migrating to your live blog is fairly simple. The developer even has a few pay-for eBooks available which gives the steps to handle this. Since I am using the Thesis theme, all I had to do was:

1. Hit the button to save a copy of my design options
2. Create a copy of my custom CSS file
3. Create a copy of my custom PHP file
4. Grab a copy of all my images from its folder
5. Write down the names of the plugins I added
6. Activate the live copy of my theme
7. Install the new plugins from my list
8. Import my design options
9. Copy the custom CSS and PHP files to their locations
10. Put the images in their folder

After these simple steps, my blogs new look was up and running. There were a few tweaks that I had to do but nothing  major. This involved having to change a few CSS callouts because the widgets had different textual titles but were easily found using the Firebug add-on in Firefox.

One thing to keep in mind is make a copy of all the information inside of your locally installed widgets. This data needs to be moved and altered manually.

In my opinion, this has to be one of the best ways to test out your design ideas by installing WordPress locally without having to go through all the hassles of setting up a server, creating databases and dealing with installation issues. If you want to do some testing, then InstantWP is the way to go.

 Content related to Installing WordPress Locally:

• Premium Theme – Choosing The Right One
• Color Scheme – Picking It The Kuler Way
• Mind Map Your Blog

Products related to this article:

• The WordPress Classroom 2.0
• WordPress Crash Course Videos
• Learn WordPress Quickly With Video Tutorials