I had a question from someone setting up her own wordpress site today:
I am attempting, somewhat in vain, to build a website/blog using WordPress. I am struggling with the formats/names on the pages. I’d like to have a Home page, that doesn’t invite comments but is simply a cover page for the site. Then an “About” page with the same sort of format as the home page – no comments. A News or Updates page that would be a simple blog-type page. Then a ‘Dogs” tab with a drop down menu and separate pages for each dog. So far, I’m not finding WordPress to be very intuitive! Would you be willing to lend a hand and explain to me how to make these things happen?
I can help!
First,let’s make a home page.
Click on pages to show the links for “All Pages” or “Add New”. If you’ve already started a page, you can edit it otherwise click on Add New in one of the several places it appears.
You are going to want to click on “Screen Options” so that you can check some boxes. You will especially need to have the “Discussion” box checked as it is the one that will let you turn comments on and off. These settings will be saved until you change them again.
For your home page, I recommend not using a title (it will automatically be called “Home” on the menu in most themes). It will have no parent and will have the order “0”. Parent pages will show across the menu bar in the order you assign, and their “children” will show in the drop-down menus as you hover over them.
The “Allow Comments” box starts out checked. Click on it to un-check the box and there will be no comments.
When you’re done, click on “Publish”. Though you can also “Preview” before you publish.
Continue writing your other pages, and remember that you can go back and edit and change the order at any time.
Make a blank page for your blog posts. Or you can have text in the page that will appear at the top of your posts.
Now, go to the “Reading” tab under “Settings”.
Change “Front page displays” from “Your latest posts” to “a static page”.
Pull down you home page (it will be the blank at the top of the list) for the “Front Page” and the page you chose for your News or Blog for the “Posts page”.
Then write a test post (rather than page) and you will see how it all comes together.