Getting started with Drupal

Drupal is a wonderful thing.  If you are reading this, you probably already have some idea of what it is, and are interested in actually learning how to use it. If you don't know what Drupal is, and wish to, here is an excellent round-up of resources:

http://drupal.ucdavis.edu/blogs/triskal/2009/04/13/how-learn-drupal

There are *tons* of tutorials out there already, mostly screencasts.  Screencasts are awesome, I've watched many of them.  However, I found them (initially) to be less helpful then written instructions.  It is possible to find out how to do almost anything with Drupal, via a simple google search.  The trick is knowing what exactly you need to learn to do, and when you need to learn it.  I came to Drupal without any background in programming, css (or anything useful, really).  What I wanted to find was a series of posts that laid out, in detail, the steps that one needed to take to get up and running with Drupal.  (Spoiler alert: I couldn't)

I couldn't find one.  (I hope I didn't ruin that for you with the spoiler) Now that I have a (small and tenuous) grasp on building a website with Drupal, I am going to make one. (Not to mention that my Aunt asked me to help her get started with Drupal, so I've already written most of this stuff up in a series of e-mails. I'm always in favor of getting the most out of my work...)

Here are a few caveats:

• I work on a Mac, and this will all be Mac specific information.  I don't have anything against PC's, but not all of this stuff will be the same on a PC.
• All of this will be D7 specific.
• I am in love with the concept of using Panels Everywhere, and will therefore be gearing all of the site setup towards using that.
• I am not an expert!!  It is entirely possible that something I write will be less then 100% correct.  If it is, and you realize it, PLEASE mention that in the comments, and I will fix the error.
• I like bullet points.  I will probably be overusing them.
• Because I wrote this up as a series of back-and-forth e-mails, there are often questions in a section.  I will post the answers at the end of a blog post for any questions that are in the post.

Thus ends the introduction.  Stay tuned for the first lesson!