Dear Christina,

Is there a way to connect a WordPress blog to a WordPress website? I’d like to create a blog tab on the website which when clicked on will open up a WP blog which has a separate domain.

Thank you.

Janine -Your Virtual Wizard

Dear Janine,

There are actually two ways to add external links to your WordPress sites navigation.

The easy way is to install the plugin PageLinksTo. I have not personally used this plugin but I have seen good reviews on it.

Please use with caution and backup everything first.

My preferred way is manually. It involves jumping into the code of your theme but it’s painless, I promise.

First you’ll need to go into Appearance->Editor and then click on header.php (this is the usual place for the code but you may have a separate file named nav.php, in that case you’ll be opening it instead)

You are looking for something like this: <?php wp_list_pages( ); ?>

Let me point out that some themes choose to list categories in the navigation instead of pages- if that is what your theme does you’ll be looking for <?php wp_list_categories( ); ?>

Now to add your external link you’ll add the following directly under that code:

<li><a href=”http://yourdomain.com“>External link name</a></li>

If you have more than one external link to add you’d just add another line like the one above. remember, the links you add will show at the end of your navigation bar.

So your final code will look like:

<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=’); ?> (or <?php wp_list_categories( ); ?>)

<li><a href=”http://yourdomain.com“>External link name 1</a></li>

<li><a href=”http://yourdomain.com“>External link name 2</a></li>

Be sure to save all changes and refresh your WordPress site to see your handiwork.

~Christina

Dear Christina,

I’ve c hange my blog to a website with help from your instructions in one of your previous posts. I’ve disabled RSS but would like to remove the RSS icon in the address bar. How can I do this?

Kirsty

Dear Kirsty,

I’m so glad my instructions were helpful in turning your Worpress blog into a website.

Removing the RSS icon from the address bar is quite simple, really.
You’ll need to go into your header.php file and remove all of the following (you may not have all listed):

<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”RSS 2.0″ href=”<?php bloginfo(‘rss2_url’); ?>”/>
<link rel=”alternate” type=”text/xml” title=”RSS .92″ href=”<?php bloginfo(‘rss_url’); ?>”/>
<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/atom+xml” title=”Atom 0.3″ href=”<?php bloginfo(‘atom_url’); ?>”/>

Be sure to “save changes” and that’s it. RSS icon is gone!

~Christina

Dear Christina,
I have a wordpress theme that is normally used for a blog but I am changing it to become a website.

Do you have any resources you can suggest which will help me to make as many changes so that the theme looks more like a website and less like a blog. I don’t write CSS.

Do you know what changes I should make in my WP dashboard which will aid in creating a website rather than a blog?

Thank you for your help!

Janine -Your Virtual Wizard

****This is only a general outline of my personal experience with the themes I am familiar with. Read your theme documentation or hire a professional, if none of the following applies to your theme or if you do not understand code.

Dear Janine,

I’m so glad you asked.  I run into people all the time who don’t understand how a “blog” can look less like a blog and more like a professional website. My daily job is explaining it to them and showing examples.

This site, Dear Christina, is a blog. It’s a blog template, it has all the features of a blog and it allows commenting.

My company site is a Professional website. It’s a blog template with all of the “bloggy” things removed &  no comments allowed.

To change a blog template into a more professional looking Business site you need to start with your Dashboard.

-You won’t be using “posts”, only “pages” (be sure to add a new page before you continue)

Change the following under “Settings”:

1. under “reading” click dot next to “static page” and choose what page you want as your home page. Save blog setting for when you are ready to incorporate a blog.
2. Under “permalinks” click “custom” and enter “/%pagename%/” in the box (this shows your URL as www.yourdomain.com/contact instead of www.yourdomain.com/pg=4)

- Install the following plug-ins to make it easier to maintain your site (links are to explanations, grab plugin by searching in “add new plugins”):

1. All in One SEO Pack
2. Contact Form 7
3. WP Google Analytics
4. Google XML Sitemaps

I also like to have these:

1. Exclude Pages from Navigation
2. pageMash
3. WP Post Columns

Now, once those are all installed, it’s time to dive into your code files.

Don’t be scared, repeat after me:

“We always take precautions before touching code!”

and again

“WE ALWAYS TAKE PRECAUTIONS BEFORE TOUCHING CODE!”

Thank you, now save your original template/theme files somewhere on your computer so you have them to refer back to, or if there is need to reinstall clean.

First, we want to remove the meta data on each page/post. That’s the little area where author, date, comments, etc is shown under heading or at the bottom of the content. Only blogs need that info.

Each theme is different as to where you will find the exact code but check each php file to find all instances of these:

Once you find them you can (if you are brave) delete them.

I recommend the other method of “commenting out” the offending code.

To do that, you would add an asterisk (*) and backslash (/) at the beginning and end of the piece of code like this:

*/ <?php the_category() ?> */

simple.

That way if you ever want any of it to show, you can just remove the */ and the code is active again.

If you don’t want the page name to show above your content (as it does with blog posts) you’ll be removing this code from your php files as well: */   <?php the_title(); ?> */

If you are uncomfortable messing with your code please ask someone who knows what they are doing to help you. Without looking at each individual theme and it’s coding it’s hard to say 100% that all of my suggestions will work.

~Christina

I received a question recently and felt it was better to reply in two parts.

You can read the question and Part 1 here.

To work on a new theme, while keeping your current site active, you can install WordPress locally, which means you install it on your computer to work on. The downside is, you can’t share it with others except as a screenshot.

First step in installing WP locally is to download the Wamp Server app which does most of the work for you.

Once downloaded you want to install it, preferably into a second hard drive, external hard drive or on a drive with lots of room. **Do not install into your Programs folder**

Leave all default settings during the installation process.

Once installed you will see something that looks like a speedometer in your lower-right taskbar. Should be red & white.

Click once on it (left-click) and choose “start all services”.

Next you’ll need to download WordPress and manually install into the “www” folder of your wamp installation.

Just follow WP’s thorough instructions and you’ll be fine.

Now go find some themes you want to try out and upload them to your wp-content/themes folder.

Easy as that!

More questions? Submit yours to be answered in a new post ——->>>>>

~Christina

Dear Christina,

I would like to create a new site using a new theme, however I don’t want to take my current site down.

How can I work on my new site, while the old one is still active?
Is there a way that I can let others look at my new site to offer their opinion, again while the old site is still active?

Heather

Dear Heather,

There are a few ways to test out & customize a new template without taking your current site down.

I have two preferences:

1- Install WordPress locally, which means you install it on your computer to work on. The downside is, you can’t share it with others except as a screenshot.

2- Add a second installation of WordPress to your current site. For example: your site is yourdomain.com so you’d add a new directory in your root directory (either public_html or www or root) labeled “test”. This would be accessible online as yourdomain.com/test.

I’ll address option 2 in this post because you mentioned you want to be able to show others. I’ll be doing a follow-up post in the next couple days to explain option 1.

So go add the new directory to your root folder and name it “test” or whatever you prefer. Something obscure is better so it won’t “accidentally” be found.

Next you need to install WordPress into that directory, same way you installed it the first time. Be sure you check/uncheck the option during installation that asks if you want this blog to be found by search engines. You DO NOT want it to be indexed. This will keep it private.

Now you’ll need to upload any templates you want to play around with by FTP into the themes folder on that installation.

Ta-Da!

You can switch themes, change colors/images, etc. and no one will see anything until you provide the URL. Visitors you allow access to can click & navigate to test all areas of the site.

When you are happy with your new theme, download the folder for that theme to your computer by FTP (save a copy on your computer for backup) and then upload into your themes folder on the root directory.

Your new site is now live and updated. Congratulations!

Keep checking back for Option 1 instructions.

~Christina

Dear Christina,

Where do you find all the themes you use?

Signed,

“Ted”

Dear “Ted”,

WordPress themes are everywhere, all you have to do is Google “wordpress themes” and you’ll see what I mean.

There are an abundance of free and paid themes for you to use if you want to try your hand at picking, installing & customizing one but, always be sure the theme you choose is W3C compliant. That means it has passed testing by the Worldwide Web Consortium and has clean code.

Free themes can be found:

Wicked WordPress Themes

WordPress Theme Designer

WordPress’ own Theme List

Smashing Magazine

Design Disease

Paid themes can be found:

SiteMile

ThemeForest – they have a “free file of the month” which may or may not be a theme

WooThemes

SoloStream

Good Luck finding the theme that “speaks” to you.

If you’d rather have someone else do the customizing, I’m always ready to help. Contact me

~Christina

HELPFUL HINT!! -When getting a new a template/theme through WordPress, try to remember to download the actual files to your computer as well as using the auto install on WP. Saves headaches in the long run.

If you’d like to change the header image in a template you’ll need to first go into the template files (on your computer) and find the “images” folder. Usually the header is labeled “header” but don’t rely on that fact.

Find the image that looks the same as the header and open in Photoshop, or whatever image program you may have. (see below)

This is your template- always a good idea to save the original, just in case. I prefer adding “-orig” to the original file name.

Now grab a picture you’d like to use and size it to fit into the current header image, or pick and choose whatever color you’d like. Add text, fancy stamps, random shapes, whatever you want.

When you’re happy with it, you’ll need to use Filezilla or another FTP program to upload back into your wp files online.

~Christina

Photoshop alternatives:

Gimp- a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

Gimp Shop- If you hate the interface of GIMP, you might want to try GIMPshop

Krita- graphics application for everyone who wants to get creative with images.

Paint.net - free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows