If WordPress installed in subdirectory, is a second .htaccess file created?

WP needs its own .htaccess file in its own dorectory (in your case: “blog”) – but only if you want to use nice permalinks.

Thank you very much for your answer. I appreciate it.

1. I need to be able to see my own htaccess file; I will want to modify it manually and upload a new one many times in the coming years. I can’t believe GoDaddy hides it. For me this is a deal breaker. Their “easy” installer should come with a warning label (or perhaps WordPress should try to warn people). I do want to use permalinks; I’m thinking “%postname%.html”. Are there known issues with GoDaddy and mod_rewrite (perhaps if combined with forwarding “domain.com” to “www.domain.com”)?

2. I’m thinking I might prefer to install WordPress in my root directory. Some people claim this is better for SEO.

3. I want to upgrade to 2.6 (from 2.51).

4. I’ve decided not to modify Kubrick. I thought doing so would be easy and I could get some help if I got stuck, but I couldn’t get my question about it answered after two attempts, so I’ll find a theme that’s closer to the look I want and modify that one.

For these reasons, and because I haven’t done anything other than a test post (which I don’t mind losing), I’m planning to reinstall WordPress. Here’s my main question right now: Do I have to do anything to the data base (if so, how?) or can I just install as I would if I were starting from scratch?

1. You don’t really have to see it “many times” – that doesn’t make sense. And if you want to see it, learn how to do it – it is neither godaddy’s, nor WP’s fault:
Changing_File_Permissions#Unhide_the_hidden_files

2. You have a website in your root. You can NOT install WP over it.

3. Go ahead: Upgrading_WordPress_Extended

4. Don’t touch K. if you want to keep your sanity.

Drop the tables from your existing DB if you want to start with a clean install.

I really appreciate your help with this.

1. I see now that it is visible in Fetch (my Mac ftp program), my mistake. I read somewhere on www.ads-software.com that GoDaddy doesn’t let you see it – perhaps a forum comment by someone who had the wrong impression.

2. I only have 3 pages on my web site. It is basically going to be a blog. I can remove those pages (and associated files), and after installing WordPress: [1] just put back the two pages (which are in other directories) via ftp, and integrate the main page content into the new WordPress main page, or [2] integrate all 3 pages into WordPress. Are both alternatives workable? If alternative 2 is better, can I use alternative 1 for now (until I figure out how pages work in WordPress)?

4. I’m really in the dark about the best way to create a theme. Ideal would probably be a theme that keeps the basic WordPress functionality (I’m not even fully aware of what this is) but is really simple – just a skeleton – and really easy to modify, but that validates and has been tested and works well/reliably, and would cause me the least trouble down the road (like trying to modify Kubrick). I think this would be a lot easier for me (with my current knowledge) than trying to create my own theme from scratch. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks again.

1. Good. At least that one is solved.

2. Both scenarios are doable – I’d go with [2] because it means you would manage everything from the WP admin panel.
WordPress can careate posts, which are chronological entries and Pages, quasi-static entries that are not part of the chornological stream.

4. You shouldn’t attempt at this stage to create your own theme from scratch. Look around and try to find something that is the closest to what you want and, eventually, start modifying that theme. If you are not fluent in (X)HTML and CSS, maybe hire somebody.
Most publicly released (free) themes validate, they use all the relevant functions of WP. But not all are easy to modify.
https://themes.wordpress.net
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/themes/ (these are all tested)

[As a side note, and no offense intended: although I have a “live-in shrink” in the house – my wife – and I know more about psychiatry than 95% of the population, I leave the treatment for her, and she doesn’t try to make WP themes… although she knows more about them than all the rest of the shrinks together ??
Sapienti sat…]

4. I found a page (thought it was on www.ads-software.com) that allowed searching for themes by at least a half-dozen parameters at once: fixed-width, 2-column, no graphics/images, right sidebar, blue. I used it to find a good theme. Thought I bookmarked the page. Now I can’t find it even after searching for a long time! Any idea where I saw this or any similar web site (with tested themes)? Is there an easy way to find a theme with all these parameters on www.ads-software.com?

On your thoughts about modifying themes, well, “research psychologist” doesn’t quite pin me down. I have some experience with programming, having written the world’s first standard-keyboard Korean word processing system for the Mac. And I’ve been coding heavily (thousands of pages) in html (in a text editor) for 13 years, and I’d say I’m fluent. In css, I’d characterize it as “conversational,” but certainly enough to modify a wordpress theme I think.