Do I have to Upgrade WordPress to "pro" if I want to edit the CSS? - wordpress

I started using WordPress just a few hours ago because I need to develop a couple of blogs to a client. I understand that WordPress is the best solution if you want something fast but flexible. But, the first thing that I wanted to do was just change the font of the post and I didn't find how to do it (for all the posts, because I changed it on this one using the HTML editor). I've read something about editing the CSS, but it turns that I need to buy the Pro upgrade to be able to use the custom design.
Is this the same if I use WordPress in my server?
I need someone to guide me on this one. I need WordPress as customizable as it can be. But, I prefer not to pay! :) Unless that's the only way to do it.

If you use WordPress on your own server, you can do anything you like to it - it's open source. The "Pro" upgrade is just for WordPress blogs hosted on the commercial WordPress.com platform.
Do note that running your own installation means you're responsible for adding plugins, themes, keeping the code up-to-date, etc. That has a cost too, even if it's not money directly out of your pocket.

If you are using wordpress on your own server - you are free to do anything with it. The best way to customize your site then is using a child theme. It will contain your customization, overriding styles from previously loaded parent theme (and/or adding some scripts). You will be able to upgrade parent theme then without loosing your customization (until parent theme owners deprecate something you use, but it must not happen often). There are some plugins for simplifying working with it as well. There are also some easier customization ways, if you want just minor changes - such as Custom CSS in Jetpack plugin, which works in similar way, as far as I know.
If you're using a wordpress.com account, you have less freedom in modifying things, consider using paid custom CSS plugin maybe. Or maybe mentioned above jetpack will do.
Also, as mentioned in other answers - there are wordpress codex, wordpress.org forums, and wordpress stackexchange, they seem to be better place for such questions.

In your wordpress admin section of your site (usually www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin) on the left hand side nav bar, you will find a section called "appearance", if you expand this and click "editor" you can edit all of the files that your current theme uses. A quick warning, if you are doing this on a live server, the changes you make are live as soon as you save them!!
Hope this helps

I'm pretty sure you do not have to pay to customize CSS. Check your server installation... particularly in the folder $wordpress_install_home/wp-content/themes/default.
You should have access to all the CSS files in there.

Related

Is it possible to use a regular wordpress theme without wordpress functionality

First of all i don't have any experience on wordpress.. So please forgive my ignorance.. I've found a theme on themeforest. Unfortunately it's a wordpress theme. I want to develop my own admin panel. I don't want to use wordress. Is it possible?
Anything is possible, however this is a gum in hair scenario. Ask the theme author if there is an HTML version which is common on ThemeForest. If you do try to "extract" the layout:
Begin with the stylesheet and match up the styles with each page template's markup.
Also, why not use WordPress? The Redux theme options framework is very easy to use.
Since a wordpress theme is just a bunch of html/css/js/php files, yes, it is possible. Depending on what language/framework will used backend side, the easiest way would be to extract the html/css/js parts of the theme and than add your own "content-placeholders" which will be used by your own backend.
But: Think twice about doing this. First, there could be a conflict with the license of the theme (depending on what type of license is used by the author of the theme). And more important, second, you should think twice about building your own backend.
For the case this isn't an experiment and you're building a productive website, building you're own backend is a lot of work. Unless you need some special functionalities (or you would like to keep it very slim and basic), I would suggest using a ready made CMS for this - like wordpress.
My opinion: 95% of self-made backends for basic cms features I've seen (and was forced to work with) are very messy and far beyond available open source cms. It seems like many people don't balance the pros and cons of building an own CMS-backend and undervalue the effort to build a state-of-the-art CMS.

Using an admin theme with an already installed theme in Wordpress

All,
I recently bought the following admin theme:
http://themeforest.net/item/white-label-a-full-featured-admin-skin/270758
I also already have the following theme installed and am using it on my website:
http://themeforest.net/item/alyeska-responsive-wordpress-theme/164366
I want to use some features of the first admin theme but not have any issues with the already existing themes that I have installed in Wordpress.
Does anyone know how to use an Admin theme and the features in it without affecting the current shortcodes, css, etc that I'm already using on my own site?
Thanks for any help in advance!
I'm sorry to tell you, but that admin theme you bought is not for WordPress. It's meant to be an HTML start to a backend of a web application.
UPDATE
Alternatively, I'm not sure if you're meaning to take some things from the admin theme and using them in your WordPress theme. If so, please be sure to be more clear in your question as to what you want to do.
No, there are no real WordPress admin themes. The dev cycle changes the admin styles and functions very regularly, with major changes every 3 months or so. This would break any admin themes and makes it a nightmare to maintain, thus no ones does it.
ps. You can change some basic styles like colors/logo and if you know what you doing a bit more. But the link you showed, there is no way, unless you plan on never updated your install , ever.

Adding a CMS (wordpress) to a website?

I have made a site using html, css and javascript and is only on my local machine and have not put it onto a server yet, but i was wondering if i could use a cms on this site like wordpress? The site is only 5 pages but i have done all the styling myself.
Would i just have to install wordpress to the server and add the files there maybe? Or is there a lot of changes needed to make this work?
I have very little knowledge of PHP but i am a quick learner if that counts for anything.
Thanks for help.
Simple answer: yes
More complicated answer: why?
If your site is only 5 pages, and you've custom designed and built your layout, then I'm not sure what WordPress will add for you.
That said, if you want to add a blog or the like, WP would certainly be nice to have.
If you want to go that route, you have a few options:
use WordPress for everything, using the 5 pages you made as 'pages' inside of WordPress. You'll have to modify what you built for that to some extent.
leave the 5 pages as-is but add WordPress 'next to it' and run the blog/cms content from there. It can look the same, or maybe you want it to look a bit different.
leave your 5-page site as-is, and use WordPress or another CMS product on a separate server. You can set it up as a subdomain and then either install your own, or leverage something like Posterous or Wordpress.com
The short answer to your question is:
it will take some effort, you won't be able to just drop the files and install wordpress and have everything work immediately. With some work, though, it is definitely possible.
If you've done the styling and you want to incorporate that into wordpress you'll have to go through the process of creating your own theme. http://themeshaper.com/2009/06/22/wordpress-themes-templates-tutorial/ Try this site to see what that requires. Alternatively, google "creating your own wordpress theme" or something similar.
It will require some extensive PHP work, but a lot of these tutorials have already done that heavy lifting for you. In any case, it will be worth it for your to pick up some PHP skills, enough to follow along the tutorials.
I had to do this myself and what you can do is integrate your design into an existing design. You could just create your own theme, which takes some time but it is the correct way to do it.
http://yoast.com/wordpress-theme-anatomy/
I knew 0 php and I was able to create my own theme in a few hours. Best of luck.
I'm not sure what you mean "add the files there", I assume you means that use a WordPress-based website to display your site, then you can simple create a page by WordPress and then link this page to your site.
But if you means to create a wordpress theme which based on your existing site, then you can search a tutorial and follow it to create a wordpress theme by yourself. Making a wordpress theme will needs some PHP work, but not complicate, wordpress has very detailed documations and API.
I would suggest using the Umbraco CMS for it. The advantage is that you start with an empty site, add your css, js, and create your own content types, paste in your HTML for the templates, and you're ready to go. It is a perfect CMS for few page sites to larger sites and also has a great community around it, including lots of documentation and screencasts. Templating is done with the Razor syntax, very easy to learn and lots of documentation. You'll need to have a Microsoft-based server to host it and this may be a barrier depending on your hosting scenario.

Using wordpress as an article directory - what plugins/themes to use?

Anybody using wordpress as an article directory? I don't have time to customize it, so if anybody has done it or using any plugin/theme could you point me to it?
Also, is there any alternative script for article directories?
You can use article directory plugin + theme (optional, you can always build your own theme)
Plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/article-directory/
Theme: http://articlesss.com/article-directory-wordpress-theme/
WordPress does this right out of the box. Article Directory... Blog... it's all the same. Figure out your topics/categories and file your posts/articles accordingly. Happy content publishing.
I spent some time looking for a decent directory script for WP myself and never really found anything that was better than merely average.
Your question finally got me motivated enough to make a big list of them, so I made a big post on my blog today with a heap of link index / article site scripts.
Surprisingly I found a pretty decent article/directory solution for wordpress when I was nearly finished. That being said, after looking at dozens and dozens of link/article scripts today, I think there's betters solutions than WP if you're serious about that sort of site.
WSN links, and the article script that same company makes would be my personal choice. The problem with those sorts of sites (compared to a personal blog) is that you're suddenly dealing with lots of other webmasters changing things around on you, so you've really got to have decent tools to check links and make sure it's all OK and what you linked to originally, otherwise you're going to lose surfers.
Hope that helps :)
If you wanna get Teasers or Excerpts on into any sidebars you can use the Category Posts Widget
The link building / article-directory site like adset.org
use the Userpro from codecanyon.net to handle all there member Signups/Login.
Then you can let people write posts direct in wordpress backend, and approve them or you can use a plugin like "Frontend Publishing Pro" also from codecanyon.net, and let users post from front end.

Assume that WordPress is an almost-there CMS. What Plugins would you add to the 'core' to make it equal to "Real" CMSes?

It's obviously a matter of some controversy as to whether WordPress is a CMS, but like it or not, it's an extremely popular platform.
Assume for a moment that it's an almost-there CMS.
What plugins would you add to the package to bring it over the threshold? ie, if you were designing a "WordPress CMS core", what plugins would you add?
Check out http://www.noupe.com/wordpress/powerful-cms-using-wordpress.html. It has a lot of great tips and resources for makeing WordPress a CMS.
FYI WordPress 3.0 is coming out very soon, (it's in beta) and it adds a lot of API for adding custom post types (akin to Drupal nodes). You can actually do it already in WP 2.9, but 3.0 makes it easier to do.
Beyond that, what do you need to make it a CMS? Pages are quite flexible if you use templates. The answer to your question depends a lot on what you want to do in particular.
I recently did a Page-only site (no "posts" section) using just the PageMash plugin. PageMash lets you organize your pages easily (put them in order), and it lets you hide certain pages. So I set the "posts" page to a particular page and then hid that page via PageMash. Create all the pages you like and organize them at will. Works nicely.
Actually you don't need any plugins to use Wordpress as CMS. But I used the following plugins when I built CMS, they were specific for my site:
qtranslate, cforms and exclude pages.
Since you probably use a lot of regular pages on "CMS" web sites I always install
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cms-tree-page-view/
I am the one who created it, but it's true that I always install it and often I feel that I could not manage a site without it.

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