WordPress newb, advice would be fantastic and much appreciated!

Hi there everyone,

So I’ve decided to install WordPress to host my personal website which will primarily be used as a portfolio.

I’m posting here as like I mentioned, I am a complete beginner when it comes to WordPress and while I’ve read bits about using a kind of CMS to host websites, I must admit I’ve never actually put it into practice. So really, I just need a bit of advice on what I’m likely to need to know before I get started and while I’m developing my site.

I work mainly in graphics and occasionally with the web, but as much more a designer than a developer. I know my way around XHTML and CSS fine, and have learned PHP to a mid-beginner level I guess you could say. I’m comfortable using includes and building relatively simple functions as well as a very basic knowledge of mySQL. Certainly any advance database calls or heavy PHP programming is out of my depth.

What I want to achieve is a probably a 3 page website, an About page with contact info, a Portfolio page, and a Blog. Now the part I’m not sure about:

I would love to have a couple of content areas that display on all pages that contain thumbnails of recent projects that automatically updates as and when I add a project to my portfolio. I guess in a similar way to how blogs display recent post boxes. Also a Flickr pool box wouldn’t be bad either if that’s possible.

So with all that in mind, is my level of ability likely to cover all bases, I know you haven’t seen what I can do, but from what I outlined, is this going to be a non-starter or should I be able to accomplish my goals?

Also, I know the Codex is very extensive but are there any other places I should check out that may help me along the way?

Many thanks in advance.

Tom