initial modifications to blog

Here’s some Codex articles for you to contemplate:
Stepping into Templates
Template Hierarchy
Pages
Category:WordPress_Lessons
Category:Design_and_Layout

Thanks for those links, Michael. Maybe I can ask a very specific question, not so much so I can get it answered, but so you (or someone) can tell me where such a question is covered in the docs.

My web site is called scopedin.com/index.php. (You need the “index.php” to get to the real thing because I have an “under construction stub” in an index.html file. You can see that the theme I chose has both a sidebar as well as tabs across the top. My question is, why don’t I find the text of the sidebar or tabs in any of the files such as sidebar.php, header.php or whatever? Where should I be looking to make changes to those?

Thanks again…

What text?
WP displays the content from the database using the different Template_Tags.
Like the one below to display Pages:
<?php wp_list_pages(); ?>
Any Page you make – will be displayed in the top-menu.

Look for this portion in your header.php:
<ul id="mainlevel-nav">

Well, in my page, across the top of the main part of the page, it says Home, About ScopedIn, Articles. In the sidebar, it says Categories, Archives. I want to change the sidebar to something like Articles, Reviews, Tests, Pictures. Each of those would be a page with more links it underneath.

Also, as long as I’m asking questions, is there a way to get the forums to email me when there’s been a reply to one of my posts?

Thanks for the help.

mz

1. On top: those are Page titles that you created.
(Just for the record: I am anal about reading the resources I link to before replying back!!!)

2. Edit your sidebar.
2a. Each of those would be a page… –
You may want to rethink that, or at least learn the Pages are something different in WP lingo. So, don’t use it unless you are talking about the entries created in admin > Write > Write Page.

3. There are RSS feeds.

1. noted. And that’s fine that you’re anal about that; the only way I’m going to learn this stuff is with precision in terminology.

2. this is the sidebar page within my themes directory structure, right? I don’t see the existing terms in there.

2a. well, most of what I plan on doing here is going to be static content, so from what I read of the description of Pages, I thought that’s what I wanted.

3. Cool…something else for me to know nothing about.

2. Yes, the sidebar.php file ?? (one of the template files of your theme; for the sake of terminology…)
Now, whatever you don’t see but you want to display – take a look at the Template_Tags. Those are the little snippets that do the work for you.

2a. If static content, then it’s OK. Most novice users want to display posts on Pages – which is a nonsense :); that’s why I was alarmed, sorry.

You might be interested to learn how to create a 2 level (top and sidebar) menu for Pages and subpages, see the tutorial, eventually, combined with categories.

Post back if you need more help.

OK…so I think I know a little more about the sidebar now. I think I want to experiment with some dummy Pages to see if I’ve got it more or less correct.

4. Since I don’t plan on offering archives at this time, I can just delete that section from the sidebar.php file, right?

5. I seem to remember from my reading that Categories are only used with posts, not pages. Is this correct?

6. Since I want my sidebar to point to Pages, and I want these Pages to be organized by category (not Category), which is the recommended Template_Tag for this? Or is there another construct that should be used?

I think I’m getting somewhere…at least my questions are making me sound less like I’m terminally clueless…

Thanks.

Mike

4. yes

5. yes

6. Well, there is no category and Category. Pages can only be in hierarchical (parent/child) relation with each other; e.g. your Articles Page can have a lot of sub-Pages. The 2 level menu I linked to is built exactly based on that idea… From what I saw on your site you’d need something like that: Have the Articles Page in your top menu and when clicking on it to have all its children Pages appear in your sidebar, for example. It can be automated, so all the sub-Pages of Article will be listed in the sidebar ONLY when you are on that Page (and, eventually, its children).
Is that something that could work for you?

Yes, I think I can make that work. Before I get too far along here, I’d like to ask a question about convention: is there some expectation about what kind of pages would be listed at the top vs. what kind of pages would be listed in a sidebar? Or should I have everything accessible from the top?

Oh: will this example allow me to go three-deep in page heirarchy? I’d like to have something like reviews->equipment->equipmentA and so on.

Thanks…

1. There is no convention. Common sense helps… ??
It depends on the structure of your content – and outlining it on a paper it should be the very first thing, before doing anything online. I mean for me it always worked the best if I make a kind of chart of the future website’s structure. (I also “force” my clients to do the same instead of telling me long stories… it helps them to get a clearer picture about their own ideas ??

2. Never tried making it deeper – I guess it’s time for some experimenting!

Common sense, huh? I’ve long felt that was a bit of an oxymoron.

What I was originally thinking (before I discovered WP) was that across the top would be links to single pages: Home, About, Contact and Links. Down the side would be parent pages that would lead to lists of sub-pages: Articles, Reviews, Tests, Photos. Can you see any flaw in this approach?

I implemented the page-fold stuff in your tutorial, and it’s “sort-of” working (how’s that for precise terminology?) The names of the individual review pages appear above the heading, and the first review page doesn’t display.

Also: I seem to have a rather persistent welcome page hogging the middle of the display…can you tell me how to get rid of it?

Thanks, Moshu.

Re: common sense – a professor of mine used to say ‘the common sense is the least common’ ??

I can’t see anything (flaw-wise) since I am not a mind reader… I don’t know what your website will be about.

For the rest: I am afraid I’ll have to download that theme and take a closer look at it.
(are you sure you have that review1 as a child of Reviews?)

review1 was in draft mode…therefore (I assume) not visible. It displays now, though the other issues are still there.

When I asked about where I planned to put pages (top or side) I was really just wondering whether I was doing anything patently wrong…sounds like not. If I can just figure out these last couple of bugs, I think I’m ready to start populating this site!

So…after reviewing this a little more, it would seem that I might be better off flip-flopping my layout, so that the Pages that are going to be nested will run along the top, and the links to single Pages will be in the sidebar.

7. I seem to be bucking the system somehow with my home Page. I now have two of them listed in the header, one that I made and one that seems to be supplied for me. I can’t find the location of the latter, though. Any ideas?

8. If I am going to flip-flop my design, are these constructs (the page-fold and the sidebar) still appropriate?