How to write working HTML code into my posts?

  • Resolved oman2

    (@oman2)


    8 years, 8 months ago

    I’ll be upfront and honest: I have next to no idea what I’m doing and I’m not the master user of the website I’m currently writing for, but I am writing the bulk of the content and helping set up this website.

    I’ve never used WordPress before, but I’m loving the concept – the problem is that I can’t access the HTML code behind the pages to write some basic code.

    What I want to do is write in anchors for a simple contents page on the free version of the Just Write theme to simplify the bulky background information I’m writing for other users. I know the concept (or can google it) – but I cannot for the life of me figure out where WordPress stores the actual content of the pages I’m writing, nor can I figure our how to activate (?) the HTML script I’ve written in the text of the page.

    What am I doing wrong? Do I need to be using a plugin to do this type of scripting?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • What you are looking to change is likely in one of two places:
    1) The database
    2) The theme files

    If it’s in the database then you can make whatever changes you want by simply editing the posts/pages in the backend of WordPress.

    If it’s in the theme files then you need to access the server through FTP and go to “wp-content/themes/[your-theme]/”. That folder will have all of the theme files which creates the basic structure of pages the content is output into.

    If it’s the theme files you need to edit then I would recommend creating a child theme and editing the necessary files there. You can read more about how to do this and why here.

    Thread Starter oman2

    (@oman2)

    Thanks for the response jtleathers, I’ve looked through the server files but cannot find any specific files that house the content of the pages I write. It was suggested by my co-authors that because WordPress assembles the page from elements written within the theme that they do not actually exist, and I’m yet to find any other suggestions otherwise.

    I’m not confident in my ability to create a proper child theme, and I don’t think I actually need to in order to create anchors to simply jump down the page. I have very little experience in coding HTML, my past experience is in Adobe’s Dreamweaver which has an HTML editor in parallel to a graphic interface similar to MS Word that can generate tables, write text, import pictures etc.

    Is my original post too vague?

    When you say “the content of the pages I write” I assume you are referring to anything you’re adding to the WYSIWYG editor for a page/post. In which case, that is all content stored in the database.

    If that’s the case and all you want to do is add HTML to the content, you can do this from the WYSIWYG editor. In the top right corner there are two tabs: Visual and Text. Click on Text and it will show you the HTML of the content (for the most part, it doesn’t include all of the markup). For the Text view you can write HTML of your own.

    Thread Starter oman2

    (@oman2)

    Yes, I was speaking of the page editor – glad that came out right.

    I had glanced at this tab before after looking at another tutorial for a similar program, but I didn’t actually try clicking on it (silly me). Thankyou very much for clarify exactly how to edit the HTML code from the WordPress editor – most tutorials were either about how to write HTML, or how to edit the files.

    It does indeed work, I will just need to clean it up a bit to get the destination of the anchor working properly.

    Thanks again for the help!

    My pleasure. Glad you got it working!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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