Long back, when Arun told me about setting up WordPress offline, I thought – why do I need an offline blog when I have it online? But out of curiosity I created one offline.
Soon I found the local installation quite useful. Many a times, I found myself spending time with the offline WordPress blog than the online one. Most of the posts in the articles tagged WordPress Hacks and Plugin Killer are a result of this.
Why go for an Offline Blog, when you can Blog Online?
An offline WordPress installation has a lot of advantages for most of the people.
Testing and Experimentation
This is probably the biggest of all. Try out new plugins and themes without wrecking your blog. Experiment with codes, customize your themes and surprise your readers with a fully functional new look, unlike others who edit the theme after uploading the default theme.
Will your Backup’s Work?
How will you know that the database back-up you took is valid and working? What if you find that a backup is corrupt right when you need it the most? Take backups and see if they are working by testing them out in the local installation of WordPress.
An Offline File Comparator
You can use WordPress to compare two files. You can easily find what are different between two versions of the same file. Details here: WordPress as a File Comparator.
Handle Outages
You are in a mood to blog, unfortunately your server is down or your internet is unavailable. With a local installation, you can write the post offline and copy paste it when you are back online.
Word Processor
WordPress has a decent Word Processor. Combine that with the spell-checker in Firefox, its a much better editor. You cannot save text or handle formats, but the editing part is pretty good.
How to Setup WordPress Offline
- Download WordPress.
- Download WAMP.
- Use this guide to Setup WordPress on your local machine.
Can you think of any more uses? Happy Blogging (offline).
16 Comments
I didn’t tried the same, but wamp installed in my system.
I guess you have other uses for wamp then, there are a bunch of free scripts that you can try with wamp
I too used offline wordpress in my pc for a while. Its great for experimenting with themes plugins etc.
I remember that, hope you know a lot about WordPress already
EasyPHP is a great alternative to WAMP. I use it for my offline blog and it runs fine.
WAMP is a bit tough for newbies, let me try this one, maybe its easier. Thanks for that tip!
Yes, it is very easy. All you need is to install it, go to localhost/home in browser, create a new DB from MyPHPAdmin and you can install WP using 5 min. install after that.
Although I haven’t tried WAMP yet but I don’t think it can get easier than this!
Its similar in WAMP, but the interface is crappy, the old style way. EasyPHP looks easier
I use another program called XAMPP !although i prefer WAMP for it’s ease of use!
and as @ArunBasilLal said , wordpress , used offline is a great way to check out themes and plugins which othrwise takes ages!!
XAMPP should be really tough for me then, I would say WAMP is poorly designed. EasyPHP looks much easier.
Thanks for the share and for dropping in. Good to see you here.
WordPress on local system is very useful for testing and other purposes. You can study wordpress on localsystem. It is really good.
Thanks for the comment Sanjeev
Thank you, this will be handy
My pleasure, thanks for dropping in
Well I am always having WordPress in my PC since I am doing various tests and development in it and then will implement in my blog.
Meanwhile, I didn’t hear about that WordPress as a Word Processor. It’s quite a good idea.
its not a great, but it does some basics, simplicity is always good.