Wordpress Noob - Where to start

[leporello]

Having read all the good things here and elsewhere, i've decided to give wordpress a shot. Can someone point me in the direction of a good noobs guide to Wordpress?

[OPC]

WPBeginner - Beginner's Guide for WordPress - provides a decent overview of WP features and offers some how-tos, and even a beginner's guide...

[leporello]

I had a look at the link, but it's not quite what Im looking for.

Im really looking to recreate something similar to what I can do in Joomla.

i've played around with a few templates to familiarise myself with them and can see how the various parts are bing constructed in the code.

But Im still completely clueless on how to create say a main menu with 5 buttons that link directly to pages 1-5.

Is there any tutorials or sites you could recommend that show to do this kind of thing?

I've see so many great sites on here, Slotsgeek.com, OnlineCraps.net and some of Randys sites that are exactly the kind of look I want to develop. But coming from a Joomla background I really dont have a clue how to go about using Wordpress as a CMS like this.

Any help would be great!

[OPC]

These two articles might be more of what you're looking for.

User:Lastnode/Wordpress CMS WordPress Codex

How to use WordPress as a Truly Customized CMS (Multiple Headers, Footers, Sidebars and more!) | Web Designer + Front-End Web Developer | Selene M. Bowlby

[MPC]

For the navigation, it's really different than joomla. The best way is to create a navigation file in php where you hardcode your menu items and their links. Then use a php include to add this navigation at the right spot in your template.

[Unknown Webmaster]

An alternative to writing your navigation into the theme is to use widgets. There are a few limitations, but I prefer them over editing the theme, since I won't have to mess around with copy-pasting if I want to update or change the theme.

[leporello]

thanks guys, managed to get a site up and running with some basic functionality.

[NickM]

Widgets are the way to go if you want to have control over your menus.