• I was hired to update a website that was done by the original designer in WordPress. I have never used WordPress before so I have quite a few questions.

    First of all this is a website not a blog. The website seems to be a custom theme made and then uploaded. How do I access this file? I can not find the library and it is not located on the ftp for the site so it has to be accessed in the WordPress Editor somewhere but I am not sure how to access it.

    I need to do things like remove pages and links, update photos and in a flash movie but am completely lost on how this is all accomplished. Can anybody point me to good tutorials for this kind of stuff?

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • First of all, you can find quite a few tutorials on WordPress.tv.

    Themes are located in the wp-content/themes directory, so you might start there. If you want to edit theme files via the Dashboard, you’ll want to navigate to Appearance > Editor. Any and all editing will require at least an elementary knowledge of PHP, HTML and CSS. I suggest you familiarize yourself with Template Tags before diving into template code too.

    Hope that helps.

    Thread Starter iangdesign

    (@iangdesign)

    Thanks Drew,

    Actually I am well versed in CSS and HTML and some basic understanding of PHP. The thing I am having trouble with is where the themes are located, I am logged into the dashboard but can’t seem to navigate to the the background appearances or anything along those lines.

    Does WordPress have different admin setting levels maybe the original webmaster could have setup?

    I successfully dropped two pages from the website!

    Thread Starter iangdesign

    (@iangdesign)

    If it helps when I go to the Appearance editor this is the code sitting in the editor:

    Questions I have are bolded and in caps.

    /*
    Theme Name: Custom Anchorpress Theme
    Theme URI: http://anchorwave.com
    Description: A custom WordPress theme created for you by Anchorwave Internet Solutions
    Version: 1.0
    Author: Mark Garity, Anchorwave.com
    Author URI: http://www.anchorwave.com
    Tags: Anchorwave, Internet, Solutions

    Actual CSS located in lib/css/ <—-HOW DO I ACCESS THESE FILES?
    Place styles in here to be included in MCE advanced.

    */

    Admin levels: It’s possible the previous webmaster monkeyed with the capabilities. Do you have a capability management plugin installed (Role Manager or Capability Manager)? If so, you’ll be able to scope out which roles have which capabilities.

    CSS: It looks like the theme author stashed the CSS away in a folder inaccessible to the theme editor. The theme files will be located in wp-content/themes/yourtheme, and it looks like the css files will be located in wp-content/themes/yourtheme/lib/css

    Does that answer your question?

    Thread Starter iangdesign

    (@iangdesign)

    Admin levels: It’s possible the previous webmaster monkeyed with the capabilities. Do you have a capability management plugin installed (Role Manager or Capability Manager)? If so, you’ll be able to scope out which roles have which capabilities. I will look for this plug-in, in the photo gallery editor there seems to be varying levels of access so this could be the case.

    CSS: It looks like the theme author stashed the CSS away in a folder inaccessible to the theme editor. The theme files will be located in wp-content/themes/yourtheme <—- How do I physically access this location?

    and it looks like the css files will be located in wp-content/themes/yourtheme/lib/css <—- How do I physically access this location?

    Does that answer your question?

    Use FTP or any directory browser your web host might provide to access the actual files of your site.

    Edit:
    Also, this might help:

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress

    If for some reason you can’t get FTP access to your site, you might be able to cheat with MyFTP. It’s saved me on more than one client site that had faulty FTP credentials.

    Thread Starter iangdesign

    (@iangdesign)

    There may be varying levels of access with this site, I tried to install the MyFTP plugin and it would not allow me too.

    Big Bagel, aren’t all images and info hosted via WordPress? It seems this way to me…

    Or if I am trying to access an FTP I should use the WordPress username and password?

    If I am working on my own website I connect via Dreamweaver to my site host and edit html files that way.

    Can you explain how WordPress differs. I have two separate logins. One for the FTP of the site and a WordPress login.

    The images down seem to be hosted on the FTP server, but can be accessed through the WordPress admin login.

    iangdesign,

    I think you take Drew’s advice, and look into the tutorials. Pretty much all the information you’re asking for will be found there. They are very straighforward, and will help to explain how WordPress is setup. We will not be able to quickly impart the knowledge you seek faster than the tutorials, without leaving huge gaps and raising more questions.

    Good luck,
    Harry

    You use whatever FTP account/credentials you have setup for your hosting account. Images uploaded through WordPress are usually stored in the wp-content/uploads directory or a directory therein.

    http://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients

    Yup, the tutorials at WordPress.tv and the Getting Started with WordPress codex page are where to start if you need to learn about WordPress. I would recommend reading the First Steps With WordPress page before anything.

    Thread Starter iangdesign

    (@iangdesign)

    Thanks for all the info guys! I will look over those tomorrow. I feel like I have learned quite a bit just exploring the editor a bit and asking some questions here. I’m gonna keep the thread active though in case I need anymore info. I hate starting new threads and you all are really knowledgeable! Thanks once again!

    Good luck with your project.

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
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