Wordpress help

rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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I had posted this in another thread but that was originally about a different subject so thought it would be better here.

In a matter of about 90 minutes yesterday, I cobbled together this site: www.chelmsfordpubs.com. Some questions:

1. How do I disable the Comments page on some of the pages? For example I don't want it on the Contact us page.

2. How can I do a list section? Basically in the A-Z section, I just want to list all of the pubs with a short description.

3. Where do I actually post messages? I won't be blogging as such but on the main front page, I would like to show a couple of "News" items. Where do I write these?

4. In addition to the above, how can I add a Search box to the header bar? I don't want it to say Search. I just want a box with a magnifying logo in it.

5. Is Wordpress suitable for this type of site? As I said I only want a basic, easy to access website but I thought Wordpress was for Blogging which I won't be doing?

Thanks.
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  • SandgrownunSandgrownun Posts: 5,024
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    rewind wrote: »
    In a matter of about 90 minutes yesterday, I cobbled together this site: www.chelmsfordpubs.com.
    Looks nice!
    rewind wrote: »
    1. How do I disable the Comments page on some of the pages? For example I don't want it on the Contact us page.
    In Dashboard, click on Pages, hover over Contact US and click 'quick edit' and remove the tick from 'allow comments'.
    rewind wrote: »
    2. How can I do a list section? Basically in the A-Z section, I just want to list all of the pubs with a short description..
    I'm not really sure what you mean. Could you not do this as a normal post or a page?
    rewind wrote: »
    Where do I actually post messages? I won't be blogging as such but on the main front page, I would like to show a couple of "News" items. Where do I write these?
    In Dashboard, choose Posts - Add New
    rewind wrote: »
    In addition to the above, how can I add a Search box to the header bar? I don't want it to say Search. I just want a box with a magnifying logo in it.
    You can add the search box to various parts of the page using Widgets (Dashboard - Appearance - Widgets) to drag and drop the search form to the section you want to display it in (this may be theme dependent though). You could also play with the theme's header.php file, just make sure you back it up first. See here - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-put-a-search-box-in-my-header?replies=2
    rewind wrote: »
    Is Wordpress suitable for this type of site? As I said I only want a basic, easy to access website but I thought Wordpress was for Blogging which I won't be doing? .
    Wordress is suitable for most types of website, not just blogs.
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    Looks nice!


    In Dashboard, click on Pages, hover over Contact US and click 'quick edit' and remove the tick from 'allow comments'.


    I'm not really sure what you mean. Could you not do this as a normal post or a page?


    In Dashboard, choose Posts - Add New


    You can add the search box to various parts of the page using Widgets (Dashboard - Appearance - Widgets) to drag and drop the search form to the section you want to display it in (this may be theme dependent though). You could also play with the theme's header.php file, just make sure you back it up first. See here - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-put-a-search-box-in-my-header?replies=2


    Wordress is suitable for most types of website, not just blogs.

    Thanks - managed to remove the Comments page.

    Re: Posts. I have posted a Test post but it hasn't shown up anywhere. When I click on Show Preview, it takes me to this URL: http://chelmsfordpubs.com/?p=82&preview=true&preview_id=82&preview_nonce=9c6c204042.

    I will have a play around with the other points.

    Thanks.
  • chenkschenks Posts: 13,231
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    nice clean theme you are using. what is the wordpress theme?
  • njpnjp Posts: 27,583
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    rewind wrote: »
    Re: Posts. I have posted a Test post but it hasn't shown up anywhere. When I click on Show Preview, it takes me to this URL: http://chelmsfordpubs.com/?p=82&preview=true&preview_id=82&preview_nonce=9c6c204042..
    It's still a draft. You need to publish it.

    You'll also need a place a widget (eg "recent posts") somewhere in your theme (e.g a sidebar) to make the post show up as a clickable link. At the moment, all your content is in the form of pages (as opposed to a blog, which would just display posts on the front page). There are many ways of manipulating posts...
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    chenks wrote: »
    nice clean theme you are using. what is the wordpress theme?

    Thanks!

    The theme is Chunk. Glad you think it is clean and simple. For the type of site I am designing, that is exactly what I was going for!
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    njp wrote: »
    It's still a draft. You need to publish it.

    You'll also need a place a widget (eg "recent posts") somewhere in your theme (e.g a sidebar) to make the post show up as a clickable link. At the moment, all your content is in the form of pages (as opposed to a blog, which would just display posts on the front page). There are many ways of manipulating posts...

    It still does it even when I publish it. How do I get a post to appear on my front page for example, where I have the Welcome text? Just pop a widget in the side bar?

    EDIT - just added a Widget but I only have the option to add them in the Footer. So they are all showing as links at the bottom which looks a bit odd!
  • njpnjp Posts: 27,583
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    rewind wrote: »
    It still does it even when I publish it. How do I get a post to appear on my front page for example, where I have the Welcome text? Just pop a widget in the side bar?

    EDIT - just added a Widget but I only have the option to add them in the Footer. So they are all showing as links at the bottom which looks a bit odd!
    That's because the "Chunk" theme is a single column, so there is no side bar!

    I'm not familiar with that theme, and I don't know what you are trying to achieve, so I can't really say whether or not it will meet your needs.

    One thing you could play with is switching your front page from "static page" to "your latest posts", and then making a post that contains your "welcome" text into a "sticky" post, so that it stays at the top of the page.
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    njp wrote: »
    That's because the "Chunk" theme is a single column, so there is no side bar!

    I'm not familiar with that theme, and I don't know what you are trying to achieve, so I can't really say whether or not it will meet your needs.

    One thing you could play with is switching your front page from "static page" to "your latest posts", and then making a post that contains your "welcome" text into a "sticky" post, so that it stays at the top of the page.

    Thanks! :D That'll do what I need!

    Now I need to work out how to replace the word "Search" in the menu bar with an actual search box instead (I will have a look at your instructions later) and I think I am done!
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    Sorry another question.

    On this page: http://chelmsfordpubs.com/?page_id=53 - I want to have each pub in its own section (a bit like the sticky post on the main page) but when I make a posting it only appears on the main home page and not here.

    Additionally, is there a way of making the pub information appear when clicked? For example initially it would say:

    The Two Brewers <more>

    When you click on <more> it would animate down and reveal the three or four lines of text about the pub. Is that possible?
  • !!11oneone!!11oneone Posts: 4,098
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    I think the simplest way would be to create a page for each pub (edit - not a post).

    Then on the page you've linked, there are plugins which will produce an automatic list of pages.


    There are plugins to hide pages from menus etc so they dont clutter up your site, but I don't think that'll be an issue with the theme you've got.
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    !!11oneone wrote: »
    I think the simplest way would be to create a page for each pub (edit - not a post).

    Then on the page you've linked, there are plugins which will produce an automatic list of pages.


    There are plugins to hide pages from menus etc so they dont clutter up your site, but I don't think that'll be an issue with the theme you've got.

    Thank you, I will do that.

    Whilst I have got you :), you don't off the top of your head know any page styles I could use for each pub do you? All I would want is pub name, address, picture and brief description. It would be brilliant if I could have some little icons to denote facilities (food, live music, jukebox etc.) but I have zero design skills so that might be a step too far!

    Are there any templates that would offer the above?
  • !!11oneone!!11oneone Posts: 4,098
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    Not that I know of, sorry.

    It would be relatively easy to download little icons from somewhere and include them in the page text, though. Something like:

    PUB NAME
    <row of icons showing facilities>
    PHOTO
    ADDRESS
    DESCRIPTION



    If you also allow comments on each page, you can then have each one as a little repository of people's reviews too.
  • fenlanderfenlander Posts: 2,197
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    You might look at a plugin called Collapse-O-Matic (here). I use it to produce a collapsible list of local services - very similar to what you're trying to achieve (here).
  • MaxatoriaMaxatoria Posts: 17,980
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    I think the most important thing here is to spend some time with a pencil and some paper and work out what you want to see and what does what as otherwise you'll be forever adjusting this spending hours trying to get one thing working only to break 2 others
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    fenlander wrote: »
    You might look at a plugin called Collapse-O-Matic (here). I use it to produce a collapsible list of local services - very similar to what you're trying to achieve (here).

    Thanks - that's what I wanted. I have installed it here: http://chelmsfordpubs.com/?page_id=53. It works but how do I put the pubs back onto separate lines? EDIT - I added <div> and </div> to each pub and that has sorted it. Is that okay?

    Also, icons aside for the time being, this will be the rough template for each pub: http://chelmsfordpubs.com/?page_id=120. How do I make it so the Google Map appears next to the pub image and not underneath it please?
  • fenlanderfenlander Posts: 2,197
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    Looks good. Quick work, too.
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    fenlander wrote: »
    Looks good. Quick work, too.

    Thanks (slow day at work!).

    Re: my image question, should I do this via Tables?
  • chenkschenks Posts: 13,231
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    rewind wrote: »
    Thanks (slow day at work!).

    Re: my image question, should I do this via Tables?

    tables??? good god no!!
  • fenlanderfenlander Posts: 2,197
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    How are you inserting your google maps? With a plugin?
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    fenlander wrote: »
    How are you inserting your google maps? With a plugin?

    No - just by using the Google embed code.
  • fenlanderfenlander Posts: 2,197
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    I think you need to get both the image and the map aligned left. Mind you, I quite like the vertical presentation. Even if you do get the 2 items side by side, they're not going to look right unless they're exactly the same height.
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    I'll leave it as it is for now.

    This is all quite funny. I was a bit bored on Sunday afternoon and thought I would knock this site together! From registering the domain name to getting something live (no matter how basic it is!), hasn't taken that long!

    I doubt anyone will visit the site but at least the subject matter means it won't date that quickly!
  • mred2000mred2000 Posts: 10,050
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    rewind wrote: »
    I'll leave it as it is for now.

    This is all quite funny. I was a bit bored on Sunday afternoon and thought I would knock this site together! From registering the domain name to getting something live (no matter how basic it is!), hasn't taken that long!

    I doubt anyone will visit the site but at least the subject matter means it won't date that quickly!

    Contact whoever is the local interest reporter on the local rag and they might mention it in the paper. That would drum up some interest. Get some affiliate links or ads on there and it could start paying for itself, at least... You never know...
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    mred2000 wrote: »
    Contact whoever is the local interest reporter on the local rag and they might mention it in the paper. That would drum up some interest. Get some affiliate links or ads on there and it could start paying for itself, at least... You never know...

    Yep, contacted the two local papers! I might try BBC Essex as well!
  • rewindrewind Posts: 2,636
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    Just noticed an issue with listing all the pubs on the A-Z page. When you search for anything, it will bring back that WHOLE page as a result because the keyword is featured. Any way of stopping this?

    Thanks.
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