Rothgarr

Thanks. I was thinking too linearly. I needed a four column grid so I set it up as four columns. I changed it to 16 columns and spanned each block across multiple columns and rows to get consistent rectangle shapes, like this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bGCj2RwLhAPFnmd1lHkKDOJNSW9e48Xn/view?usp=sharing

However, now not all images “fill” the blocks. Each image is at least 3-4 times larger than the blocks (they are different width/height ratio), but only some fill the blocks where others have white space:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dpQXq7kSLC_56TShY9-pmSpB0lErJ02m/view?usp=sharing

Should the images fill the blocks no matter what width/height ratio the images are? Or should I be importing a specific size? They all filled each block just fine when the blocks were all squares. (I’m sure I can fix these all by making the images wider, I just want to learn how it’s supposed to work)

Now if there were some trick the randomize the order of the posts I’d be golden. (not the “shuffle” option — I need the large box to always be top left, I need the order of posts to change.)

Thanks!
Peter

What I wound up doing to fix this was installing a complete clean, fresh new copy of WordPress on my subdomain.

Then I installed “All-in-One WP Migration” plugin in both the old and new installs. I exported from the old, imported into the new, and voila! It worked, no more redirecting.

As an alternative, would it just be easier for me to register another temporary top level domain and clone it to that? (And then copy all all the files back to the main domain when I’m done). Not sure if that would just create another set of headaches with pointing URLs/pages/posts to the right place…

I am totally fine with the propagation time. In my experience it’s never been more than a couple hours and it’s a local business in the US — no biggie if it takes longer halfway across the world.

Are the steps of cloning to a different host different than cloning to the same environment?

Thanks again.

Thanks for the awesome information. I’ll check out the details/links this weekend.

How hard is it to migrate to a different provider? The site is currently hosted at 1 and 1, but I think I’d like to move to either WPengin or SiteGround.

Thanks again!

Interesting. I’ll check those out.

So I guess when you create a widget, there’s no way to just drop it onto a page?