Newbie to WordPress

  • Hi. I am an old fashion PC guy here that is used to using locally installed PC wysiwyg programs to create website sites. All the software I have used for years is discontinued and out of date and I am needing to find something new to work with. I have heard about wordpress for some time and thought that I would give it a try, but after three days, I cannot even create a home page. I have come here out of complete and utter frustration with wordpress. I just need to ask some questions about it to see if it is going to be something I even want to learn to work with. I appreciate your patients with me.

    Here are some questions I have.

    1. Can it create a WEBSITE? I know that sounds dumb, but so far all I have seen that was created by wordpress are BLOGS style site. In fact the program seems heavily weighted towards creating blog style sites. Let me make it clear. I HATE blogs! I don’t want one or a website that includes one. I have zero interest in Social interaction with those who visit my site. What I want is a individual page driven storyboard style Web Presence website with Hierarchical structure for navigation, where I post my content like photos and videos for visitors to see. Can I do this with wordpress?

    2. My host is 1and1.com. I am currently trying to work with a browser driven version of wordpress that is installed on my 1and1 Linux package. I cannot figure it out to save my life. Not only is it counter intuitive, it is a nickle and dime machine. About everything I try to do requires a “Paid Upgrade”. I don’t play that game. I don’t mind paying for a program if I like it, but once I do, it has to be mine to use to the FULLEST of it’s potential. Is there a standalone PC version of wordpress I can use that functions more like a wysiwyg editor that is not going to dangle a carrot in front of me?

    • This topic was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by victorb70.
    • This topic was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by victorb70.
    • This topic was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by victorb70.
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  • This is an excellent resource to start with: https://www.wpbeginner.com/
    I create websites in WordPress very often – probably about 30 to date. There are many, many free options, but if you start reading the site above, it will give you a good beginning. Good luck!

    Thread Starter victorb70

    (@victorb70)

    I appreciate the suggestion, but literally the second word at the top of the page is: BLOG. Right under that in header title is; “Start your WordPress BLOG in minutes.” Pretty much everything else on that page you linked to is related to creating a BLOG. I do not want to create a BLOG. I will try watch some of the videos to see if they might talk about something else besides a blog.

    Just tell me if I am spinning my wheels here. Is WordPress primarily a blog creation tool that has the capacity to create a website? Or is it primarily a Website creation tool that has the capacity to create a blog?

    I haven’t used WordPress for blogging in a long time. Don’t get hung up on the word “blog” – WordPress is a very flexible “Content Management System”, which uses PHP and MySQL to dynamically generate pages – very different from plain old HTML, and much more effective. To turn off blogging, just go to Settings > Reading, and set it to a Static Page instead of a post list. Voila! You have a static page website. Add other pages to it using the Pages menu (enter whatever content you want), add those pages under “Appearance > Menus”, and you will have a regular plain old looking website. Under Appearance > Widgets, click on the right hand side sidebars area, delete any widgets you don’t want, and boom! Sidebar empties out. WordPress is much, much more than a blogging platform, it’s just the way it started. There are.. what.. 78 million websites using it. That’s not bad ?? Take time to read through the WP Beginner stuff – search for ways to create nice pages. It’s very user friendly, you just have to get out of the HTML only mindset.

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