I think i'm barking up the wrong tree

  • dave71

    (@dave71)


    11 years, 3 months ago

    Hello
    Firstly i know very little about anything relating to web design other than a bit of basic html and css. I did manage to build a site, be it very basic and poor.

    Everybody has suggested i use a cms and wordpress was mentioned the most. Ive been reading various odd and ends, watched numerous youtube videos but am getting nowhere.

    Ive looked at loads of themes and found them to be too complicated or just plain ugly. I loaded up responsive and tried to edit the css to add a bit of colour if nothing else but when i looked the code was pages and pages and pages long full of all sorts.

    Its obvious i’m out of my depth and i’m wondering if i should just go back to basic coding and forget about cms. I would however like to use something where i don’t have to spend hours just to add a page. php is certainly out of my league and being able to build a decent contact form using one of the plugins is very appealing.

    so before i give up are there any words of encouragement and advice you can give somebody like myself. Is wordpress even for me, i’m not a blogger and just want a simple elegant looking website with several pages a contact form.

    I had a few concepts but as i’m not artistic they were a bit rubbish. The responsive and BlogoLife theme were similar to what i was after

    cheers

    Dave

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • WPyogi

    (@wpyogi)

    11 years, 3 months ago

    WordPress can certainly do what you want — lots of people use it for sites like that. You don’t need to have any blog pages if you don’t want them. There is a learning curve, but if you take it slow and use the many resources available (here, many tutorials on the web, including YouTube videos, lots of decent books, etc.) you can learn what you need to know to set up and maintain your site. It’s surely a plus that you’ve done some coding — and are thus familiar with the basics of how websites work, even if not specific to WP and/or php based sites.

    Responsive is a really great theme — and it has amazing support from the developer and his team — so you might want to check out his site here:

    http://themeid.com/responsive-theme/

    The “Codex” is also full of useful WP info – this is a good starting point:

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress

    And if you run into questions or problems, just ask :)!

    Gabe Young

    (@gabeyoung)

    11 years, 3 months ago

    I believe WP is for you. The investment you put up front by learning how to use this CMS will be a huge time savings in the long run. Of all the self-hosted CMS options out there, WP also happens to be the most user-friendly IMO.

    Take your time and look through the Getting Started page that WPyogi provided. Definitely do not go back to “basic coding” before giving this a fair shake.

    Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    11 years, 3 months ago

    You might just be better-off creating static HTML sites, as you haven’t stated you need a CMS. You can always convert your static website into WordPress later on.

    Thread Starter dave71

    (@dave71)

    11 years, 3 months ago

    Thanks for the input. Im not ditching it just yet, i just cant get my head around the terminology used at the moment.

    I have been through my dashboard learning what some things do and i could build a basic site utilising a theme. My problem is that none of the themes seem to suit me, it may just be down to basic colour schemes/fonts but looking at some of the code, id really struggle to amend things to my liking.

    From what i have read, if i want to change the colour of the menu bar i’d need to create a child theme etc.

    I’ve activated responsive on my sever for evaluation purposes and have just looked at the source code, the html doesn’t seem too bad but the css is approx 3000 lines. Theres obviously lots of things going on that i don’t know about and I’m reluctant o use such a theme due to its size and complexity.

    I will keep reading and i’m a long way off starting to do anything.

    this is the kind of thing i would want, with a bit of modification of course.

    http://www.david-dale.co.uk/demo

    WPyogi

    (@wpyogi)

    11 years, 3 months ago

    Don’t get scared off by lots of CSS code! The best way to work with CSS is by using a browser tool such as Firebug – it has lots of great information on the site and it’s easy to use.

    https://getfirebug.com/

    Chrome developer tools are another similar tool.

    Using it will show you the CSS which is styling a specific element on the page — and then you copy that CSS to your child theme and make the desired changes there. Emil (developer of Responsive) has a free child theme you can install easily…and his forums can help you get started on making changes you want.

    From your demo site, it looks like Responsive would be a good fit. And actually, it’s a very cleanly coded and easy to use theme (compared to many others)!

    So I’d agree with Gabe — give it a good try! With a little patience you’ll likely end up adjusting pretty easily.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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