Category Archives: WordPress

Just notes about WordPress as I come across different features/issues.

Assigning WordPress Posts to static page

Ok, this is an easy one, but I forget it every time!

With WordPress, you can create posts and by default, they show under the menu option “Blog”. But you may not have an actual page called Blog. And you may not want “blog postings” to be the first thing you see when someone visits you WP site. You may want your postings to appear on a page called Timbuckto, not Blog. But how?

Turns out it is easy!

In a nutshell:

create your ‘main’ or ‘home’ page. I named mine “Why”.
create your page you want your blog postings to appear on. The page can be named anything you like, I went with, you guessed it, “Nutshells”.
go to Settings, Reading and you can assign your ‘main’ page as your front page and your ‘blog’ page to display your postings.

In the example below you will see that I setup Nutshell as my ‘main’ or front page and Blog as the page to display my postings.

WordPress – muliple sites on one host.

Going to dig a little deeper under the hood with WordPress. I picked up a nifty book called ‘Professional WordPress, Design and Development‘. I think it is geared more toward someone that knows what they are doing, haha! Oh well, I’m fearless!

Task number one: setting up multiple wp sites on one host. I have decided to install to my localhost, keeping my mess-ups to myself I am running an Apache server, installed using XAMPP on a Windows 8 laptop.

I have already, previously installed a WP site on my local,so my first task was to setup a new database, so the two WP sites wouldn’t intertwine. Then I had to setup a user with permissions for that new database. So far, so good.

I downloaded the WP install zip and extracted the files to a subfolder of my site. Then I edited the wp-config.php to tell it the database name, as well as the user and password. I wuz cooking with oil!

Or … so I thought. Remembe Ally McBeal (tv show from a few years back)? She’d be in a happy daydream, when suddenly, you’d hear the sound of a needle scratching a record (loudly) and reality would wake her up! I felt the same way, when I realized I wasn’t quite sure what to do next!

I had done WP installations before, a couple of times with the one click method on host servers and once before, manually, here on my local. But, I had been following a tutorial and had step by step instructions! Hmmmm…..

I had it in my mind that I needed to open the wp-admin file, but instead of bringing me to a login screen, it was just opening the file in edit mode in my browser. Dang! After staring at it, cross eyed, for about ten minutes I finally seen in the address bar that it was trying to go to a subfolder. Kinda hokey looking, but I could get enough out of it to see what it was trying to do. So I retyped the address and viola! WP login screen. ex: mysite.com/wordpress/wpadmin/install.php

Very cool. I logged in and ran the install, which in turn created the tables in my new WP database. I checked my previous WP installation. All was good, they were coexisting quite nicely. I might call it a day!

So, in a nutshell:

* Create your WordPress database in mySQL. Give it a name that makes sense
* Add a mySQL user with full permissions to the new WP database
* Download and extract the WP installation zip. Be very conscientious of what folder you unzip to.
* Run the install.php found in the wpadmin folder

WordPress com vs org

1 Reply

This was interesting to me: there are two WordPress sites! WordPress.com allows you to set up a free blog, which they host. WordPress.org lets you install a WordPress site (blog or content management) right on your own webhost. Fortunately, they offer a wonderful explanation of the differences.

~Sunny

Never too old, never too late!

This WordPress site will be used for multiple purposes: 1.) to show that you are never too old to learn something new. 2.) so this gal can see what WP is all about. 3.) to offer solutions, tips and reviews for different software and products in easy to understand language! When we learn something, we will pass it on to you! Or at least our “two cents” about it! We will also share stories of encouragement!

This site leans toward showing you that you are never too old to learn, but the younger crowd may find some useful tips, also! Now, of course, you can always just go to You Tube and let a 15 year old teach you! I have searched for many tutorials and often learn that way! I have already learned something new: WordPress has a .com and a .org. WordPress.com is a free blog, which the WordPress gang hosts and WordPress.org is what you see here. A site that you install on your own host. See, never too old to learn something new!

I have coerced two other “younguns” into helping me with this project. I, also, hope to have that has some wonderful, encouraging stories about facing the challenges of a career change and having to switch gears and learn something new!

All tips, stories, questions and reviews are welcome. Enjoy!!

~Sunny