EggXpert

I'm a future webmaster who's going to build my first website using WordPress. I'm wondering if I'll need to learn HTML and CSS in order to perform basic maintenance and editing. In order to help answer that question, I'll describe what the purpose of my website is:

I'm thinking about starting one or maybe two different sites. The first one will be a basic blog. I would like to be able to add and remove videos, pictures, and ads to the blog whenever the need arises. The second site would be one where I sell a product or two, or an e-commerce site. I'll want to be able to add and remove images and videos and all the other stuff that needs tending to.

I've heard a lot of good things about WordPress. People say that it's pretty easy to set up and maintain. In order to meet my objectives, would I need to learn HTML and CSS?

For basic blog operations, you do not need to know HTML or CSS, however it is based on the theme's HTML structure and CSS provided, so if you want to tweak these.. then it would make a lot more sense to know the basics of XHTML/CSS. Installation of the WordPress can either be a one-click install based on your hosting..  or you have to upload the files.. and run the database config and account information.

For your ads, usually the ad provider gives you code that you can copy and paste, so no big need. But it will make it easier as you will have to either define this inside the theme template code... or have a plugin that handles the ad code.

For e-commerce, there are fairly simple open source ecommerce solutions, but many of them.. to fully integrate it into the site, you will have to know some programming. However ones like PayPal.. you fill out the product information, and they provide the HTML code for the button. From there, just insert the code into the site.

It would be best for you to learn basics of HTML and CSS. This is the base structure of all web sites.. and will make it easier to maintain your WordPress sites.

Thank you, Wilzdezign. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question and it was a great answer at that :)

 (Sorry for the red X in my avatar window. I don't know what's going on with that. I've loaded avatars too many times to count, so something on this site is unlike any other. I've downsized images many times using image editors. This site has a history of taking a long time to load, something else I don't experience anywhere else. I run broadband, IE7 and Firefox. Wish I had time to fix it. Lifes too short for me to spend an eternity looking under the hood for something that should be as easy as ABC.)