There is a “complete sample author.php file” here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Author_Templates
To make that file you will need a plain-text editor that will not add any formatting, and I like NotePad++:
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
To have a place to put that file, you will first need a Child Theme, if you do not already have one:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes
To upload your Child Theme and/or the author.php file, a file manager such as FileZilla Client (and an SFTP connection at your server) will be necessary:
https://filezilla-project.org/
Many thanks to both of you for responding. This appears to be precisely the information a newby like me needs to keep my project moving. I will review the steps provided and follow-up within a couple days if I have any questions.
Regards,
Steve
Okay… I finally got back to working on this project. I understand the basic structure of what I need to do, but I’m still getting stuck on a couple issues.
First, I installed Notepad++, copied the sample author.php script, and I am assuming that I needed to save it as a .php file.. Please correct me if this was wrong. I also don’t understand if I need to customize this file and, if so, how on earth to do it.
For the Child Theme. Again, I understand the basics – but I have NO CLUE how to access the Themes Directory. I’ve been all over my dashboard, control panel and such, but don’t know what I’m looking for so its a bit of a challenge.
Once I get there, I am reasonably confident I can figure this out. I truly appreciate the help. I find the forum VERY overwhelming and cannot begin to follow, or sort out, the steps I need to take to make this happen.
I have NO CLUE how to access the Themes Directory.
You need to use FTP or Cpanel to access your site files on the server – where is your site hosted? They should have some info/tutorials as to how to set that up. See this too:
http://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients
Okay… I was able to access my themes folder via the file manager in the control panel of my webhost, create a child folder of my theme and create a style.css file therein. Once created, I clicked edit and pasted in the information found here… http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes, changed the necessary information to reflect the theme I am using, saved and closed it. When I clicked on edit, I was presented with a gazillion different language options. I left it at the default, which as I recall was utf-8. This doesn’t mean a thing to me, so if I should have used something else I would appreciate the clarification.
So now becomes WHERE do I add the author.php file I created earlier? Does it go in that same child folder? Do I copy and paste it into the style.css file?
Thanks again for the continued help. It’s finally starting to make sense.
Yes, the author.php file goes in the child theme folder too. Did you activate the child theme via the Dashboard?
Yep… It seems to have worked. Thank you.
All this, only to discover that the Member List plugin apparently will not meet my needs. I need to be able to add a list of names to a specific page within my website that all visitors can at least view, and preferably sort or download. Member List apparently requires they be registered on my website, so that won’t work. I’m now searching plugins, once again, for a basic editable table or spreadsheet.
TablePress plugin might do that.
TablePress is going to work BEAUTIFULLY!!! Thank you. One last question (I hope), and then I’ll try to leave you in peace. I created my first list and TablePress gave me a short code to copy. Where/how do I paste the short code in order for it to populate on the page?
Never mind… I finally figured it out. I cannot thank you enough for your assistance. I will, no doubt, be back here in the next few days when it is time to add the e-commerce section.
You’re welcome :). BTW, TablePress has super support from the developer in case you need any additional help with it, just post on the forum here:
http://wordpress.org/support/plugin/tablepress
Can you recommend a good plug-in to create, in essence, a job application that visitors can complete and submit online? I’ve looked at several tonight, but haven’t yet found one that quite clicks with me. The form I want to use already exists in a PDF static, and PDF forms version and it would be uber cool if I could simply upload one of them and customize from there. Finally, it would be very helpful if the submission could go to multiple email accounts.
Hmm, I think your options are to either create a form using a plugin (Contact Form 7 is used by LOTS of people and has good documentation/support) or to embed the PDF (there are plugins that let you do that). The PDF thing is somewhat complicated by the nature of PDF’s (editable, etc.) and how various browsers display them – so you’d have to look into that side of it.
Search for “Embed PDF” plugins and you’ll find quite a few possibilities – though I’d stick with ones that are pretty current with decent support/reviews.
I’m already using Contact Form 7 for the “contacts” portion of our site. I did not pick up on the notion that it could be used to generate a form. I will play around with that and see what happens.
