Nichlas Brandon

Glad to be of assistance. 🙂

I think you have two options.

The not-so ideal but still viable option is that only one of you works on the site at a time, then uploads the changes, with no optimal way to share code and text changes with each other. You won’t be able to easily keep track of the changes the other person has made and vice versa.

So basically you’re just taking turns downloading the live site and uploading your local site when finished tweaking.

For this option, you just stick with the tools I’ve suggested.

The ideal option, however, is that you learn Git version control and then use whichever private git repository you prefer (BitBucket, GitHub, GitLab, etc.). I started with GitHub (most online tutorials seem to exist for this one as well) and later moved to GitLab.

It will probably be a lot easier if you learn this visually as opposed to just reading.

For this, when you have time to spare, I can suggest you activate a 1-week trial account with Team Treehouse and then take these two courses:

1.) Console Foundations (only if you’re new to using and navigating the command line interface)

2.) Git Basics

While I have taken Console Foundations, I have not taken the Git Basics course (yet). I started using Git through Carrie Dils and Mika Epstein’s great WordPress Development Workflow webinar course, supplemented with some reading and then took off from there. Their course also briefly covers DesktopServer and talks a little bit about Duplicator and WP Migrate DB Pro as well as other helpful tools.

If you’re going to use Git and you’re on a Windows operating system, you may consider installing Git for Windows so you can use the Git Bash command prompt. But do this after (unless instructed otherwise) the Treehouse Git course.

* Download Git for Windows
* Install Git for Windows using this guide (just the “How to install GIT on Windows” section)

Once installed, look for the “Git Bash” executable and use this.

Test this one:

/* Adjust Page Content Width */
.grid_16 {
    width: 960px !important;
}

Repeat this as well each time you make a change:

Clean/purge any caching that may be installed on your site, and refresh the browser to check if the CSS change has been applied.

If the one above doesn’t work, try this one:

/* Adjust Page Content Width */
.container_24 .grid_16 {
    width: 960px !important;
}

If none of the above work, there may be an issue with your child theme or something else entirely.

To see if that is the case, you can install the Simple Custom CSS plugin and see if the changes work when using that. (Once plugin is installed, go to Appearance > Custom CSS and add the code.)

Tools like that come in different flavors, certainly!

For your requirement specifications, using git with a repository like Bitbucket could be slightly overkill, unless there was someone besides yourself doing development work on the site also.

What I can recommend for you, is a combination of two or three WordPress-specific tools:

1.) DesktopServer by ServerPress (free version should suffice for your needs)
2.) Duplicator (free version should suffice for your needs)

DesktopServer allows you to spin up fresh installations of WordPress on your local computer in seconds, using Blueprints (and you can create your own pre-configured blueprints). You can then carry out local testing and development work.

If you choose to use DesktopServer, I highly recommend you take the following Udemy course for a structured way of quickly getting comfortable using it in different ways: https://www.udemy.com/desktopserver

The Duplicator plugin allows you to create complete packages of a website, which you can use in two ways:

1.) You can create a package of your local development site, which you can upload to a website’s root content folder on a server, and then follow the necessary steps to install the site. (NOTE: the paid version of DesktopServer will allow you to deploy your local website directly up to a live website, essentially replacing the live website with your local website).

2.) Create a package of the live website, which you can then download to your local computer and import into DesktopServer.

The third tool I can recommend, if you think you’ll need it, is WP Migrate DB Pro.

This plugin essentially allows you to easily synchronize databases between sites. While Duplicator and DesktopServer are very efficient for replacing the entire site each time, WP Migrate DB Pro allows fine-grain control over which database tables—if not the entire database—that you want to quickly sync to and from a website. They also have an add-on that allows you to sync media library files as well.

This third option is helpful if you’re just making small tweaks that you want to quickly sync up to a live website.

There is a free version available called WP Migrate DB, but I’ve only used the pro version, so I can’t comment on how useful/limited it is in comparison.

Hope that helps.

Check if this produces the result you’re looking for:

/* Remove Homepage Page Title */
.home h1 {
    display: none;
}

Add the above to your custom CSS, then clear/purge any caching on your site and refresh your browser to check if the CSS code worked.

If it does work, you may consider looking for a more optimal solution from the theme developer, or you can just leave it like that.

The following assumes you have (s)ftp and cPanel access to your live website’s directory. Don’t be afraid to get professional assistance if you feel hesitant with this method.

Before you get started, make a backup (and download it for safekeeping) of both websites. Then, on both of the sites, install the free Duplicator plugin.

Use this video as a guide to help you along using Duplicator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwId2F8LWEY

The main parts you want to pay attention to is when he creates the package, uploads the two files using (s)ftp to the live website’s root folder, and opens the Duplicator Installer page (www.example.com/installer.php) and applies changes.

Here are the steps that should take place starting on your NEW</strong site:

1.) VIDEO: follow along from 0:30 to 1:20

2.) In the root or public_html directory of your OLD site, locate the wp-config.php file. Inside this file, look for these three constants:

/** MySQL database name */
define('DB_NAME', 'RhiannenewlahndDatabase');

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'RhiannenewlahndUser');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'HereIsThePassword');

Copy just the database name, database username, and database password.

3.) Don’t skip the “Installer” tab like he suggests in the video. Open that tab and fill it out like this, using the details you got from the wp-config.php file.

4.) VIDEO: follow along from 1:25 to 4:30

5.) As an intermediary and isolated step, create a package of your OLD site, which you can use as a backup or to move it wherever you wish, using the same process you’re learning now.

5.) Follow along from 7:39 to 8:20

6.) In the video, you see “Create New Database” selected. Instead, choose “Connect and Remove All Data.”

7.) VIDEO: follow along from 8:21 to the end

You should now have rhiannenewlahnd.com/new moved to rhiannenewlahnd.com, while you have a Duplicator package of rhiannenewlahnd.com/ that you can move wherever you wish.

All right.

I always forget to mention that you should purge/clear any caching system you may be using, and refresh your browser on the device you’re viewing the page from and then check again. That often does the trick.

If that still doesn’t change things, let me know if this works:

/* Change Page h1 Titles */
@media (max-width: 400px) {
	h1.page-title {
		font-size: 16px !important;
	}
}

After trying this one (and anytime you make CSS changes), also purge/clear caches and refresh browser.

Hello!

Your CSS selector seems to be targeting h2 header tags, while the page titles are h1 tags. So try this instead:

/* Change Page h1 Titles */
@media (max-width:400px) {
h1.page-title {
    font-size: 16px;
    }
}

Depending on which server stack and other software is running on the virtual machine (VM) itself, a chronic 3 GB memory utilization does seem a bit high to me considering just 6 WP installs with under 1000 total daily hits.

I think optimizing the WP sites and VM resource you already have is preferable to upgrading your plan, but without knowing more about your sites and server setup, it’s difficult to pinpoint where the problem, if any, might exist.