I’m attempting to convert an existing site to WordPress, mainly for the following reasons: a) I want to add new News & Blog pages and b) so other people can make occasional simple changes to the static (or almost static!) pages.
I’m confused as to the best way to add the static pages to the site, should I be using custom templates, or just WordPress Edit & html or something better? Broadly speaking, for most of the pages, I want the text on the left with pictures, maps etc on the right. Should I use sidebars or html floats?
Also, I’m used to using Visual Studio for editing html, in comparison the Worpress editor seems pretty rudimentary + I have already lost some code switching between Visual & html. But obviously I want the pages saved on the database and I also want to insert plugin calls, etc
I’d be grateful if anyone could give me some guidance on adding static pages. Thanks
The WordPress Dashboard comes with separate sections for Edit Posts (your new News & Blog pages) and Edit Pages. The latter is for your current static content.
Styling of the frontend (what the visitor sees) can be done in the stylesheet file.
You would only need custom Page templates if you want the Pages to function completely different than they currently do. This all depends on the theme you choose/have chosen.
You could make an empty template like this:
and simply paste your existing html-code into the html editor and use the shown template. This will avoid calling wp headers and display your content exactly like you have seen it until switching to wp.
I think this can be broken up into two topics…
1.) The first thing would be how to use and create content in WordPress.
2.) The other is theme customization or development.
I think WP101.com is a great and cheap way to understand the differences and similarities between pages and posts by simply watching the well edited videos. It will also let you understand the concepts of a blog, static home page, page templates, and how to use sidebars.
You may also want to look into GUI based WordPress theme builders like Pagelines Platform Pro ( a lite version with limited features is free at WordPress.org), Headway, and iThemes Builder. These let you create and modify the layout of WordPress sites with visual controls.
I think you shouldn’t have to use Visual Studio to build your content pages because then you’re almost negating the advantages of using something like WordPress.
You might be able to use Visual Studio to build WordPress themes later though.