WordPress.org

Installing the Plugin

Note: More detailed instructions are available on the Page Blocks Plugin Website website.

1. Download the Page Blocks plugin to your machine and extract the files.

2. Create a directory called page-blocks in your WordPress plugins directory (by default this will be /wp-content/plugins).

3. Upload the files to the page-blocks directory.

4. Ensure that the page-blocks directory is readable and writeable by your webserver.

5. Activate the plugin through the WordPress Plugins admin page.

6. Once the WordPress Plugins admin page refreshes various messages will be displayed above the list of available plugins. You should see that the plugin has been activated successfully.

If you see any messages with a red cross icon next to it then the activation has failed. Visit the Page Blocks Plugin Website for further help.

Using the Plugin

Note: More detailed instructions are available on the Page Blocks Plugin Website website.

Update: The plugin now has its own page under Settings, and hence these instructions have changed for v1.1.0.

1. Create your WordPress pages as usual.

2. Go to the Page Blocks page under Settings where you will find all WordPress pages listed along with their corresponding page blocks configurations. Simply check the appropriate checkboxes for each page to show those blocks, and add any required CSS styling rules in the corresponding textboxes.

   Note: If you want only one of either the Top or Bottom blocks, add the following CSS styling rule in the corresponding block's style textbox:

   width: 100%;
   

   This will ensure that the block occupies the full width of the page (dependent on how your theme is set up). This can also be combined with other CSS styling rules e.g.

   width: 100%; background-color: red;
   

   to give the block a red background as well.

3. Save your page configurations.

   Note: Just saving your changes at this point is not enough to make the page blocks visible. In order to make them appear it is necessary to add at least one widget to each block.

4. Select each page in turn for which you configured page blocks in step 2 using the Page Blocks Widgets dropdown at the bottom of the WordPress Widgets admin page, select the Page Block you wish to edit, and add / configure widgets.

5. Users of WordPress versions prior to v2.8 will need to modify their theme's page template file (usually 'page.php') if the theme uses multiple WordPress loops. Just add a call to the page_blocks_loop() template tag function immediately before the main WordPress loop and all other loops will be ignored by the plugin. Here is an example:

   <?php
   page_blocks_loop();  // <--- Place it here
   if (have_posts())
   {
       while (have_posts())
       {
           ...
       }
   }
   ?>
   

6. You are now done. Simply view each of your pages to make sure everything appears as expected.