Please help an old newbie

I think that link thing might be practice.dixonsforum.com, but not sure. some documentation and help chats use “Website” and “domain” interchangeably, some say they’re two different things. Some use the word “page” meaning the whole site. Another site I’m working with is staging.dixonsforum.com. These are pretend pages for now; after I learn the basics I will build the actual real pages? sites? I still don’t know what terminology to use.

I recommend starting here: https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/first-steps-with-wordpress-block-editor/

As for the editors, if you’re working on posts/pages, check out https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/wordpress-block-editor/

And, if you’re working with the Site Editor, check out https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/site-editor/

One note, Paragraph Blocks can look invisible until you type something in them.

If you prefer videos, I recommend:

• https://learn.www.ads-software.com/tutorial/getting-to-know-the-wordpress-dashboard/
• https://learn.www.ads-software.com/tutorial/how-to-create-a-post-or-page-with-the-wordpress-block-editor/
• https://learn.www.ads-software.com/tutorial/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor/

Oh! I found some more documentation that is being very helpful. Please don’t waste any time on this request. I’ll keep trying a few more days. Thanks.

Oh, Thanks, M. Huff, I didn’t see your reply until just now. The First Steps is the document I found.

So, I followed the step-by-step, and got to where I categorized the test posts, and go to the site to see the sidebar with the post categories. There is no sidebar. Then I added more posts in the categories, and put each post in a single category, so there are three categories with two posts each.. Still no sidebar on the site view. This is in the theme called Twenty-Twenty-Two, as in the article. How do I make that sidebar appear?

I recommend asking at https://www.ads-software.com/support/theme/twentytwentytwo/ so the theme’s designers and support community can help you with this.

Or, use a theme that offers sidebar templates, like https://www.ads-software.com/themes/twentytwentyfour/

Here’s a more in-depth look at that theme: https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/twenty-twenty-four/

Thank you again, M. Huff. I have read the twentytwentyfour theme documentation. But why would the step-by-step instruct people to use a theme without sidebars, to demonstrate sidebars? I don’t want to get sidetracked on the theme sidebar thing right now. Even using the same theme the step-by-step said, the sidebar it said should appear, didn’t. It doesn’t appear if I apply the twentytwentyfour theme, either, or any of the three or four other themes I applied. This tells me something more global is going on.

Plus, when I follow the tutorial for adding a site logo, my WordPress editor, again, does not behave like the tutorial describes: When I select the site logo block, no toolbar appears. Nothing. If I add in a new site logo block, no placeholder icon appears. Nothing. Selecting the site logo block, either by highlighting it in the list view or clicking on it directly, just acts like a null button. This also happens no matter what the theme.

So I’m getting more and more convinced that there is some setting(s) off, or something went haywire in my WordPress installation. Is there any way to follow up those theories?

Twenty Twenty-Four has sidebars. When building the site, select the “Page with Sidebar” template: https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/twenty-twenty-four/#one-theme-many-variations

The theme is packed with templates that should fit any scenario, but if your goal is to strictly have a blog and sidebar with nothing more, https://www.ads-software.com/themes/bjork/ may be more like what you’re looking for.

For the Site Logo block, make sure you’re following these steps: https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/site-logo-block/

Thank you again. Our conversation has taken a turn awry, I never said I want a sidebar. What happened was, as I was following the step-by-step tutorial “First Steps with WordPress Block Editor” after where I put some test posts in categories, the tutorial said to view the site and asked, “Do you see the categories listed in the sidebar now? Great. If you are missing a category, that usually means that there are no posts in it.” (I tried to insert a quote block in here, but, I still don’t get it.) but my site did not have the sidebar. So the question was not about how to make a sidebar. It was about why, even when I follow the tutorial step-by-step, why does the sidebar not show up? I wonder what other things aren’t working right.

So I tried other themes, none had sidebar. I got several block themes to try, and none of them behaved as in the tutorial. Even though I have several posts in three different categories, none of the themes activated the sidebar feature.

I had read that logo block article before, and couldn’t work it, but I stumbled upon the Upload button today. It was off-screen, near the footer, whereas the article shows it right next to the Logo Block. But I am still unable to move it where I want it to go.

I have just discovered how to look at the templates, but do not yet know how to apply them, nor how to tell which template is active, nor how to resize the images. However I see the Page with Sidebar template, so the Mystery of the Invisible Sidebar is solved.

I will read up on templates and images. What confuses me so is, I added an image to a new page and could resize it by the side and bottom handles. But moving it around, no. Then later, when I uploaded my site logo. the image I had already on the page grew so big it went off-screen, and the resize handles were no longer available. All I could do was delete it.

I really look forward to learning how to do all this even though I get lost so easily in the tutorials, and really appreciate your help in direction. All I really need is a simple blog site with a different page to display each category, for now. Can you suggest a free block theme that’s good?

But one thing that’s got me completely and totally mixed up is, when I view my site (theme twentytwenty4our), there’s a picture of some building, and resources and testimonials and posts, all kinds of stuff. But when I go to my Pages list, there’s only Privacy Policy that came with it, and the two pages I created, which never show up in the site preview. It’s like I’m looking at two different things and can’t do anything in either one. Can you enlighten me?

Oh, sorry, the editor’s sidebar, got it.

You can reveal that with the button just to the right of the blue Publish/Update button: https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/page-post-settings-sidebar/

To move blocks around, like the Site Icon block, follow these steps: https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/moving-blocks/

As for starting weith a free Block Theme, I do recommend https://www.ads-software.com/themes/twentytwentyfour/ as there are so many templates built-in to get you started.

Here’s a brief tutorial about working with it: https://learn.www.ads-software.com/tutorial/introducing-the-twenty-twenty-four-theme/

The building you’re seeing are part of the theme, but can be removed or replaced in the Site Editor: https://www.ads-software.com/documentation/article/site-editor/

Let’s forget the sidebar thing; I am obviously not communicating well. I am getting closer to understanding. The list view in WordPress is similar to the one in 3-D modeling, so I finally get the concept, it’s just a matter of finding out the details. There is apparently no provision for having an image behave like wallpaper, and just sit behind the content text. But I can forget the frills for now and focus on functionality.

I could not find any way to copy a template. I tried creating a new blank template, then Copy All Blocks from an existing template, but could not find the way to paste them into the new template. I can put a block on a new blank template now, but still can’t fathom why my site preview shows all those things like the building images, and blog posts and testimonials and all that. When I go my listing of pages, there are only three pages: (no title), New Title, and Privacy Policy (a draft.) There is no home page listed, and none of the listed pages use the “Page with Wide Image” template. You say the stuff on my screen is part of the theme, but if that template is not applied to any pages, how does it show up on page preview?

And, why does my new template not show up in the dropdown when I want to change templates on a page? And, why does my New Page look nothing like my New Page Template?

And, if I have a paragraph block in the template, why can’t I type content into it on the page? And, do I add blocks to the page or the template? I guess I’m still more lost than I thought. I don’t even know why this post decided to break the words instead of placing the line feeds at spaces like all the other ones. All I did was start typing normally, click over to another tab to check which template was on a page, and click back here to finish the post.

I did not find that video tutorial very helpful. It said a lot of things I could do, but not actually how to do them, and none of them seemed relevant to things I really do want to learn how to do. However, I value your experience and expertise and am grateful for your time and kind attention. Thank you for your help and insight.

Wow, I just discovered there are TWO pages listings, one in the Admin Panel, and one in the Site Editor. The listing in the site editor contains the missing homepage BlogHome, so that mystery is solved. Also the list views are different depending which way I open the page. If I click Edit under the page name in the Admin Panel, list view does not contain any Featured Image or Content Block, nor does the canvas include blank blocks like Featured Image and others. But if I select the same page name from the Pages listing under Appearance> Site Editor, the list view contains the Featured Image and Content Block, and they do appear on the canvas.

All the practice blocks, one Image and three blank Paragraphs, that I stuck on the page are shown either way I open the page for editing, but when I open it from the Admin Panel they are just right beneath the Header, and are not nested in List View, but when I open the page from within the Site Editor they are nested within the content block.

Who knew? I will poke around with this tomorrow and see what I can do. It would be really helpful to know how to copy a template. I’m a little averse to editing originals. Thanks again.

If I start a new page, and then click Swap Templates, it only gives me a couple of template options to swap to. The new templates I have created are not included. How do I apply a new template to an existing page?

Hmmm, I’m not sure on that.

I recommend asking at https://www.ads-software.com/support/theme/twentytwentyfour/ so the theme’s designers and support community can help you with this.