How to do this in WordPress?

  • I have built and for the last couple of years have been maintaining a web site for my best friends’ business. The site is built in RapidWeaver. It does not have a blog, but we’re about to add one.

    There are a few reasons why I’m now exploring re-creating the site in WP.

    The first is the need for CMS availability. I can get some CMS capability in RapidWeaver, but it’s a bit kludgy and I can’t provide it for the online store in the site. WP by it’s nature is a CMS system.

    The second reason is that there’s a possibility that in the not too distant future we’re going to need someone to take over the site, and although there are loads of RapidWeaver developers, the number pales compared to people competent in WP.

    So I’ve been playing around with WP off and on for a while now, and, ironically, the problem I’m having is understanding how to have lots of, I guess you’d call them static pages without all sorts of other stuff on them, and on which I can place material pretty much where I want it.

    If you could take a look at a couple of pages, say, the home page and a couple of other random pages like this one and this other one you’ll get a good idea of what kind of pages I need to construct. Of course please feel free to look at anything on the site.

    The store pages won’t be a layout problem because I’ll be using a plugin like WooCommerce or something similar, and obviously the Contact Us page won’t be a problem, not to mention the blog we’re going to add.

    So I’m just wondering why I’m having so much trouble, other than the fact that I’m really new at this, constructing a page like the home page where I don’t want these things to be posts with time stamps and author, and reply areas. Or for that matter the other pages I’ve indicated.

    If anyone could give me any tips about this and perhaps some theme recommendations for my purposes, I’d really appreciate it.

    Thanks,
    Martin

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  • I’m not quite sure what “all sorts of other stuff on them” is, but a couple of things come to mind:

    First, how a page looks depends on the theme that you use. Different themes support different features (I couldn’t live without custom menus, for example.), so try a number of different themes before committing to one. Then, create a child theme to make changes easily without disturbing your theme’s core files.

    Second, you mention

    I don’t want these things to be posts with time stamps and author, and reply areas.

    Those are things that are typically associated with posts, rather than pages. I’ve a write-up about the difference between posts and pages here:

    https://blog.kjodle.net/2011/08/27/pages-or-posts/

    Of course, a lot of stuff can easily be hidden via a child theme as well.

    As far as theme recommendations, I would recommend starting out with the default theme. Figure out what it does, and then try a couple of others. I use Graphene myself on six different blog, plus a multisite blog.

    Let us know if you have other questions, or if this doesn’t clarify things for you.

    Thread Starter martinrice

    (@martinrice)

    kjodle,

    Thanks for the response. And extra thanks for the link to your article. Not only was it informative, but the links at the bottom to other WP articles on the site are really valuable. I’ve bookmarked it and expect to consult it a lot.

    I guess what I meant by “all sorts of stuff on them” referred to things I see when I open a theme and see a home page and a sample page with things like sidebars, widgets, footers, etc. Sorry I wan’t more specific. I should have been.

    I had no clue about child themes and your explanation in the article was an eye-opener. Also, I like your idea about starting out with the default theme. It’s certainly better than buying a lot of different themes before I know what I really need.

    I’m sure I’ll be back with other questions.

    Thanks again for the help.
    Martin

    Yeah, definitely do NOT buy themes or plugins, especially in the beginning. They are not supported here in these forums, and the support their vendors offer is often less than what is offered by the developers of free themes and plugins.

    Sidebars, footers, widgets, etc. can all be controlled more or less easily depending on the theme.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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