where to start with a MAC – is this really for beginners?

Yes WordPress is for beginners. You could go down the localhost route by installing a bundle of software like a MAMP package etc. BUT there is a much simpler way that will get you going without as steep and demanding a learning curve.
You already have everything you need, at your godaddy hosting they will have an express install for WordPress under your domain name. If you want to you can make the WordPress directory a password protected directory, this way only you and people you give the username / password details to can even see your website, then when you are happy with it you can make it accessible to the world.

You will manage your WordPress site using your usual web browsers (probably safari maybe firefox or chrome). You will also use your godaddy hosting management login to do some website support actions.

At a later date, maybe when you are developing themes or plugins, and need the immediate response and control, then you may go to the trouble of installing WordPress on a localhost website server, however many people never find the need to do this.

All the info you need are here:
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Installing_WordPress
There are instructions for
Fantastico
Installatron
Softaculous
One of which I am sure is avaliable at godaddy.
There are also instructions for localhost installs.
Work through the doc step by step, lots of it is not relevant to you and can be skipped.

Ok, being a Mac user I can explain… WordPress is not an app. It is a bunch of php files that store your web content in a database and then show it in theme files.

MAMP is a program that runs Apache web server and SQL so you can serve the php files locally on your Mac. Just like hosting the files on GoDaddy but locally on your Mac. The address would be https://localhost:8080/Wordpress

There is also a way to run WordPress on a Mac without installing MAMP because Mac has Apache web server built in. https://mallinson.ca/osx-web-development/
This tutorial will get everything set up to run natively on your Mac but is for “Power Users” only.

If you want to do it all on GoDaddy you can do that too. In your cpanel account on GoDaddy you should be able to install wordpress and create the databasse with PHPMyAdmin.

Use Google, there are tutorials for EVERYTHNIG. If it is still too hard for you to grasp hire a pro-

By the way, if you want an *easy* way to put WP on your Mac for development, I recommend “Local by Flywheel” over MAMP. https://local.getflywheel.com/

Hey

This method is pretty straight forward!

If you are a beginner and want to start working on WordPress without spending much time on infrastructure try Kalabox

If you want to learn a lot!

Try to use docker with terminal, if you get stuck you can go and use the docker GUI Kitematic or vagrant(vagrant takes a lot of time to get used to)

Hope this work for you!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by jascore7.

thank you for the responses. (I am tying to install WP under Godaddy cPanel)
Looks like however that my australian registered domain is not being ‘re-directed” properly as the Wordress Godaddy keeps showing an error when I ty to install/link it. the nightmare continues as each company says it’s the other’s fault and no-one can give proper standard simple instructions on how to point it (aside from “you ONLY need to change the domain servers names” – done) and the order of things to be done and tested. :-/

So, is your site on GoDaddy? All you need to do is point the A record for the domain (and create a CNAME for WWW) to the IP address GoDaddy tells you to use.