Level 2.0 was all about two menus: Settings and Tools. And today we are moving on to Level 3.0: WordPress Themes and Plugins. Do you know what makes themes and plugins interesting? Both of them are developed by third-parties.

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The idea of this article is to explain what different WordPress theme and plugin settings means to me and you. First things first. There's every chance that you will come across few terms like WordPress Framework, Child Theme (also known as Skin), and WordPress Hooks to name a few. So let us just explore those terms before getting started.

WordPress, Themes, Framework, Child Theme

WordPress is like the engine of your car, WordPress Framework is like the frame and body of your car, and a Child Theme is like the paint job done on your car. A decade back there was no such thing called WordPress Framework or Child Theme because then it was all about WordPress plus a Theme. That is, we install WordPress on our web server and install a theme of our choice. That's it. In the past few years, WordPress has evolved and became more popular with a developer base like never before. So, it led to the rise of WordPress Frameworks. That is, WordPress theme makers started building a foundation (known as a framework) for their themes. And it means all the themes developed by a theme maker has the same core features (in terms of design, security, SEO. etc.). It also enables developers to easily create a child theme (or a skin) for a specific framework without having to code from scratch. WordPress Hooks lets you change the default functions or add your own functions without changing the core WordPress files. You can go here to learn more about it (if you're not a coder then I hope it won't make you sick).

WordPress is a jungle. Seriously. When I first planned to write this series of WordPress posts, the idea was to get some essential WordPress topics published on my blog so that I could link to it from related blog posts and can supplement few upcoming blog posts as well. And then I realized it's not easy. I mean, it became a struggle to keep it short and simple as there are a lot of things surrounding even a tiny WordPress option or a menu. It's kind of difficult to decide what to include and what not to. So, make sure that you take enough time and explore each feature/settings by yourself --- especially if you have zero experience with WordPress. Now as you might have already imagined, this is the second part of my WordPress Settings & Features That You Should Know series. Just in case, if you missed the first one, here you go:

Don't Miss: 12 WordPress Settings & Features That You Should Know [Level 1.0]

I split this series into 3 levels as the idea is to explain all the WordPress settings that you see when you first login to your WordPress-powered site. Today, I've picked only two settings and it's all about two menus (and its submenus). There's every chance that you won't have to visit these menus often as they're like "set and forget" kind of options. And do keep in mind that you shouldn't play with these options unless you know exactly what it does to your WordPress site.

WordPress has two flavors, WordPress.com (the free hosted version — like example.wordpress.com) and WordPress.org (the self-hosted version — like maheshone.com). WordPress.com is a version of WordPress.org that is hosted by Automattic. WordPress.org is the self-hosted version of WordPress which means that when we install the WordPress software on our web server, we own it and manage it.

Don't Miss: WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org: The Ultimate Comparison

I will be focusing on WordPress.org, and yes, this blog is powered by WordPress.org and is an example of the self-hosted version of WordPress. When it comes to WordPress installation and setup, I (probably you too) have noticed a ton of WordPress tutorials and guides that says how to start a WordPress blog in 10 minutes or even 5 minutes. Basically, it's all about how to buy a domain name, web hosting plan, and install WordPress. The reality is that it doesn't work that way as there are a lot of other things that you should know and do after installing WordPress. It's not really true if someone tells you that blogging on WordPress is easy, and not complicated. Because starting and maintaining a blog takes time, effort, and some money too. Of course, you can start a WordPress blog in less than 5 minutes but it will only look like this and never like this.