marinaa

For the sf menu, try not displaying it:

.sf-menu {display: none;}

Then adjust the margins for hr.grid_12 to what you want.

There is a 14px space b/w the bottom of the sf menu and top of the first hr.gird-12 that I can’t account for.

I do hope this helps.

The body which is above the header has a top margin of 10px.

Inside the header div, there is another div with the class sf-menu. That has a bottom margin of 1em/11px.

Right after the header div closes, there is an hr with a bottom margin of 20px.

For the vertical padding/margin – can you be more specific. Which areas would you like to modify?

since they are technically still in the same directory right?

They are not in the same directory. That is the reason for creating a subdirectory and placing all the WordPress files in there.

So right now the site is at example.com. But you will be working in example.com/subdirectory, which will still be live for anyone who knows the name of the subdirectory. So no – there will be no conflict. For another example – lets take an “about” page. The path to the current page would be example.com/about and where you will be working, the path will be example.com/subdirectory/about – so both will be live, just the paths will be different.

After installing WordPress in the subdirectory, it may be a good idea to block search engines by going to the admin > settings > privacy > select “I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors”. You can reverse this after the site is complete. As mentioned before, once the site is complete, you would delete all the old files and move index.php and .htaccess from the subdirectory up one level. For directions, follow from step 7 in “Giving WordPress Its Own Directory“.

I think you can also move all the contents of the subdirectory up on level – that way you wouldn’t have to make the change to index.php as described in the above link. I just like keeping all the WordPress files in their own folder.

You’ll need the host, username and password for the FTP. The host is usually domain.com or https://ftp.domain.com.

“Install WordPress” here means to upload the files to the host’s server.

If you should end up using FTP, once you login, the left side of the window will be your computer (local site) and the right side of the window will be the server where the website lives (remote site). Since this is a static site, look for index.html – it may be in a directory called “public_html” or “www”. If you can’t find it, ask your host. Once you do find it, within that same directory, create a new directory and call it whatever you’d like and upload the WordPress files there.

Before uploading the files, don’t forget to configure wp-config.php > this page gives a step-by-step. And before doing that, a database and a user set to that database are needed > this page under step 2 describes the process. You can also ask your host how to do this.

What they told you about the subdirectory is correct.

Usually hosts will have a quick install method for WordPress. Do a search in their docs to get directions – usually it’s staight forward. Follow the steps and put WordPress in a subdirectory and all that means is if the root directory of the domain is https://domain/ then a subdirectory would be https://domain/subdirectory. Once you build your new site, then delete all the files that makeup the old site and follow the directions from step 7 on this page.

If the host doesn’t have a quick install, then use FTP or SFTP to connect to the server and create a directory in the root for the WordPress files. If you’re on Windows, Core FTP LE will work and for SFTP you can use WinSCP.

Thanks to Otto – I found out that “moving” the two files is okay. It’s that WordPress recommends “copying” them so as to prevent loss of files or other problems.

Does anyone else have any input?

Thanks for responding govpatel.

I do understand that I’d have to log in using domainname.com/folder/wp-admin.

Does anyone know why WordPress stresses copying over moving the two files? Is it a security issue with some servers or would it cause problems when upgrading?