The purpose of this presentation is to give a very basic introduction to the creation of a new plugin. The audience will learn about using the Codex, actions, filters, shortcodes, custom settings, and some best practices. The resulting custom plugin will be able to add custom css, insert fancy horizontal breaks, link to existing posts, add color to text, and find and replace content in WordPress posts and pages on display. An existing understanding of some PHP is required to get the most value from this presentation.

Topics covered:
– The Codex
– Creating a plugin file
– Hooks – Actions & Filters
– Shortcodes
– Admin settings page