WordPress.com Forums » Tag: newbie - Recent Posts

bruceejones on "Help A Newbie Get Started"

bruceejones — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:10:07 +0000

Thanks, you learn something new every day.

danielisreading on "Help A Newbie Get Started"

danielisreading — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:33:46 +0000

All your posts in the forum can be found here: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/profile/bruceejones which you can get to by clicking on your username at the top of the forum page, next to welcome and log

Also, you can follow blogs (if that's what you were referring to, with follow) by going to the blog and clicking follow in the top admin bar (provided it is a WordPress.com blog), if you want email notifications you have to go to http://wordpress.com/#!/read/following/ and edit your settings for each blog.

bretcop on "HELP"

bretcop — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:50:30 +0000

Thank you very much Raincoaster. I viewed all of the links you gave me especially gave time to the one concerning post-vs-page. I still can't move any posts I have or add to the category I want them. For ex. I have one that is a legal disclaimer that I want to put under that category I put in my menu. It's not there and can't seem to figure out how to move it. Like having the "About" page with my personal info intro having that information in that category.
Should I just start over with the menu? Still not sure I can create the menu getting the info under the correct categories. I seem to just have the categorical hierarchy and I know this sounds really stupid [which is how I am feeling], sort the 'posts'/info randomly. Since upgrading to Pro and having my new name of t-rants.org primary instead of bretcop.wordpress.com, I have had nothing but one headache after another. I am still hosted by WordPress, right? I must be because I am not paying another host site and my bretcop still shows up in the site name, at least I think that is where it is, somewhere on my settings page in either case.
I thought when you had wordpress.com that 'they' helped you set up your theme. I want to buy one of the Premium themes but don't dare do anything until I can figure this out. Currently I am using Twenty Twelve, and I thought you couldn't download a theme if on wordpress.com?
Am I confused? Yuppers, I would say so. Good think I am a better physician than computer geek [no offense intended to anyone].

bruceejones on "Help A Newbie Get Started"

bruceejones — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:46:05 +0000

I am getting a bit off the original topic. However, after a few days I came back to the forum to see if I had any responses. I put in some search criteria but could not find my thread. Luckily i saved the email that I got from danialisreading's reply and was able to find my thread from the email. I'm not sure how I would have found the thread if I had deleted that email.

raincoaster on "Help A Newbie Get Started"

raincoaster — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:54:54 +0000

What "stuff" are you having difficulty with?

gojanelle1318 on "Help A Newbie Get Started"

gojanelle1318 — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:14:13 +0000

Same here . and yet i still don't know how to follow or stuff??

bruceejones on "Help A Newbie Get Started"

bruceejones — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:12:04 +0000

Thanks for your reply. I've read the links that you suggested and they have helped.

raincoaster on "HELP"

raincoaster — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:58:21 +0000

Why don't we take this one step at a time.

http://learn.wordpress.com is where you start.

For Twitter, just use the prefab Twitter widget. The code you get from Twitter doesn't work here.

Some of the widgets have Visibility options, and you have to set them to be visible on all pages if that's what you want. Check each widget.

Review the difference between Posts and Pages http://en.support.wordpress.com/post-vs-page/

Here's how to create category page links in your header http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/posts-on-pages/

Here is how to set up your custom email. http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/add-email/add-email-through-zoho-mail/ note that in computers spelling counts for everything, and this is ZOHO mail, not SOHO mail.

bretcop on "HELP"

bretcop — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:50:20 +0000

I've had my blog for about years or so but never really used it much. I have just updated it to the Pro version and trying to set it up to actually use it. I have spent two weeks already trying to figure out how to configure everything. I have set up soho.com email account for use although now I can't even find out where it was suggest I set up that email and I can't figure out how to put the pages I want on my home page and/or to add some of the pages already present on particular pages.
The home page has a "view my tweets" button, but it doesn't seem to work [I did create the widget and paste in the code], and the other widgets I added to main page which I thought is/was the home page aren't on that page but are on another page. So I m obviously at a loss to do that even. I am presently using the twenty-twelve theme but maybe it's just too much for me.
If someone could please give me a bit of help like step one-? I would be so appreciative. Or somewhere I can get it configured for less than five hundred dollars..
I REALLY need to get this set up. Any and all suggestions would be helpful.
My url is http;//t-rants.org FYI

Thanking you in advance,
Tony
[email redacted]

danielisreading on "Help A Newbie Get Started"

danielisreading — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:18:45 +0000

You need to be careful when looking around for information on WordPress, since there is plenty out there, but lots of it is to do with the self hosted WordPress.ORG software, where you can add themes and widgets and use plugins and customise everything and use all the code you want.

Your best be at learning about the WordPress.COM stuff is to go through http://learn.wordpress.com/ and the support documents http://en.support.wordpress.com/ .And make sure what you are reading or watching is about WordPress.com. The forums contain a wealth of knowledge so make sure you search them since they contain a lot of answers. If you have more questions feel free to ask!

Here's the differences between .org and .com http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

bruceejones on "Help A Newbie Get Started"

bruceejones — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:04:21 +0000

Hello, my name is Bruce Jones and I live in Asheville NC. I established an account (if that is the right word) on WordPress.com a few weeks ago and sat down and started to learn WordPress about 3 days ago.

I watched a few YouTube videos such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIHHb9TRP68 that helped quite a bit. However, I still have many unanswered questions and I'm looking for some help.

In several of the videos they search for and add new themes. Can I do this or are the themes that show up in my list the only ones that I have available?

Likewise, they search for and add widgets. Can I do this or am I limited to the widgets that are shown on the widgets page?

Here is a page that has a general structure that I would like to emulate http://www.ddavisstoryteller.com. If anyone knows of a theme that will get me close to this I would love to know about it.

I'm sure that I will have a seemingly endless set of questions following these.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer.

Thanks in advance

timethief on "Is it a widget I'm looking for? A sidebar? I feel so newb?"

timethief — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:19:05 +0000

duplicate see http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/is-it-a-widget-im-looking-for-a-sidebar-i-feel-so-newb?replies=3#post-1193267

deadrabbit608 on "Is it a widget I'm looking for? A sidebar? I feel so newb?"

deadrabbit608 — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:17:29 +0000

This is probably a adolescent question, but I have to ask either way in hope for assistance as I'll continue to try and read up on it myself. Plain as possible: my website has a Menu Section Craft Beers. Under said Craft Beers Section, I only have an image/letter currently. I would like to add a (sidebar? widget? something?) that would allow me to show a list of the Craft Beers I currently have on tap, with ABV and link to the Brewers site and/or tasting notes. My problem, is, I don't know how to put a sidebar in a widget or a widget in a sidebar, or if I should even be having a widget/sidebar conversation....

I've got this: http://pepperwoodgrille.net/craft-beers/ and I've got a little window that say's What's on tap: But nothing underneath that

kardotim on "plugins? I am a newbie..."

kardotim — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:10:13 +0000

We don't allow plugins on WordPress.com for security reasons. Plugins are a feature only available for self-hosted blogs provided through WordPress.org.

However, we do have some really cool widgets. Perhaps one of those might meet your needs?

mrgmd on "plugins? I am a newbie..."

mrgmd — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:54:18 +0000

I know this question has been asked many times, but how do I get plugins on my dashboard..

do I need to buy a domain??????

prudentia1 on "I am newbie with WP ,need help in seting blog"

prudentia1 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:16:39 +0000

THANKS

raincoaster on "I am newbie with WP ,need help in seting blog"

raincoaster — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:05:44 +0000

1) yes you do, once you make a post the permalink is automatically generated.
2) there is only ever one version of WordPress.com at a time, therefore if you are hosted at WordPress.com, you are using the latest version of that software.
3) http://learn.wordpress.com

prudentia1 on "I am newbie with WP ,need help in seting blog"

prudentia1 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:00:12 +0000

1.I do not have permalink
2.How do I find that I do have the latest version of WP?
3.As newbie where do I get instructions on how to make blog with WP
THANKS
[email redacted]

designsimply on "Total newbie confusion"

designsimply — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 03:54:19 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com!

Is there a better way to identify which elements of the CSS file apply to the different elements of the page?

Using the web inspector by right-clicking and selecting "Inspect Element" is the best thing in my opinion. It will highlight the HTML you clicked on and also show all of the CSS rules that apply to that thing. If you keep clicking on different elements in the panel on the left, the CSS will keep updating on the right. When you're starting out, it's useful to adjust the CSS right inside the panel and then just copy out the updated CSS and paste it into your Appearance → Custom Design → CSS editor.

Here is a more in depth tutorial about the web inspector from the Chrome developers. Check out the CSS Styles section:
https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/docs/elements

The CSS file for Twenty Ten seems massive with some things being defined in several ways. Is this typical of themes? Or are there some themes that are much simpler?

Twenty Ten was designed with best practices in mind. It may seem like a lot because it's taking every possible scenario of the content into account. That's why using the web inspector to just look at CSS for one area at a time makes it a little easer to start figuring out what's happening with all of it. I think the Twenty Ten CSS is pretty typical. Of course, it varies. Here is the CSS for two different themes so you can compare:

This is Twenty Ten's stylesheet:
https://s1.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/sandbox-162/style.css?m=1323834012g&minify=false

This is the stylesheet for the Sandbox theme:
https://s1.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/sandbox-162/style.css?m=1323834012g&minify=false

It's simpler, but it's designed as a blank slate for someone to customize themselves so it doesn't have rules for a lot of stuff and the starting point of the theme looks pretty plain: http://sandbox162demo.wordpress.com/

For some people, it's easier to start with a stylesheet like Twenty Ten because you can see how something was styled, take that, and adjust it. With the Sandbox theme, you have to come up with the CSS to style everything on your own. It's up to you to decide which approach works best for you.

flywithowen on "Total newbie confusion"

flywithowen — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:33:33 +0000

Hello

I'm new to CSS customisation of my site. I've read the guides on this site and linked from WordPress, done a couple of tutorials and feel I understand the principles of making changes. But what the guides seem to miss out is working out which bits of the CSS file apply to the thing I'm trying to change. I've been using the "inspect element" option in Google Chrome, but it doesn't always seem straight forward. So my questions are:

Is there a better way to identify which elements of the CSS file apply to the different elements of the page?
The CSS file for Twenty Ten seems massive with some things being defined in several ways. Is this typical of themes? Or are there some themes that are much simpler?

All I really need to be able to do is change the font size and the colours - the page background, links, menu bar background, titles and text. I'm considering finding a simpler theme I can do that with, but think I'll be wasting my time if they're all developed in the same way.

Many thanks for your help! If I'm on the right lines, I'm happy to knuckle down and work it all out bit by bit :-)

Cheers

Jenni

PS - the URL is http://airadventuretandems.co.uk

sosweetcollective on "Excessive Bandwidth/Data Usage when updating blog NEWB"

sosweetcollective — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 02:55:09 +0000

Thanks for your response, greatly appreciate it. Will delve a little further!

1tess on "Newbie Blogger - Subscriber options other than email?"

1tess — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:58:05 +0000

I forgot this:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/sharing/

At the bottom of each post and page you can now include sharing buttons for your readers to share your content across a range of social networks/services.

1tess on "Newbie Blogger - Subscriber options other than email?"

1tess — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:55:44 +0000

Other advice about how to increase traffic / get more views:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-more-views-and-traffic/

The tags on the right side of the forum will bring up other threads on the topic:
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/tags/increase-traffic/
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/tags/get-more-readers/
and so on (you get the idea of how to put in your own search terms)

1tess on "Newbie Blogger - Subscriber options other than email?"

1tess — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:49:18 +0000

http://en.support.wordpress.com/publicize/

Publicize makes it easy to share your WordPress.com posts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Linkedin, and Yahoo!.

As for google+
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/google-in-publicize?replies=14#post-1078786

gavmaria on "Newbie Blogger - Subscriber options other than email?"

gavmaria — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:45:46 +0000

I believe there is:

If you go to your dashboard you will see an Appearance Tab
Under that tab you will click Widgets
There is a Widget called "Facebook Like Box"
it says, "Display a Facebook Like Box to connect visitors to your Facebook Page"
Click it and drag it to your sidebar
Save or update your changes
It should post on your blog

Hope that's right! Good Luck!

1tess on "Newbie Blogger - Subscriber options other than email?"

1tess — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:42:38 +0000

Use this in your sidebar for email subscriptions:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/follow-blog-widget/

cmmks067 on "Newbie Blogger - Subscriber options other than email?"

cmmks067 — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:36:27 +0000

I'm new too, and would love some help directing friends and others to my new blog. I was wondering about connecting it to Facebook when I publish. Do you know if this is even an option?

gavmaria on "Newbie Blogger - Subscriber options other than email?"

gavmaria — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:00:08 +0000

As a newbie blogger, I am a bit confused about offering subscriber options to my blog. please excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject. I have LOTS to learn. Hopefully, I didn't publish my blog too early.

Today, I received an e-mail from someone who said she's like to sign up to follow my blog but can only do so via e-mail.

I have added a widget to subscribe to my posts via email. Although not ready, I plan on adding subscribing links to twitter and Pinterest.

While reading other blogs, I have seen where there is a Widget? on many of them that say something like:

Blog Followers
or
My Blog Subscribers etc.
In this area, I can see people who have subscribed to the blog

Is there a special Blogger Subscribe widget so my blog can be added to someone's reading list?

That's not Blog Roll Right?

Is there another widget or link that I can post on a sidebar and allow bloggers to sign up ? Google Circles?

Sorry about all the questions. I just find this part confusing.

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it!
Maria

http://littlebitsandpiecesoflife.wordpress.com/

raincoaster on "Excessive Bandwidth/Data Usage when updating blog NEWB"

raincoaster — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:32:21 +0000

I really can't say about your bandwidth issues with your ISP. Bandwidth allowance at WordPress.com is infinite. There is nothing unusually bandwidth-hogging on your blog that I can see.

If you are downloading videos or something, that's not a WP.com issue, but would account for the problem.

sosweetcollective on "Excessive Bandwidth/Data Usage when updating blog NEWB"

sosweetcollective — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 03:17:42 +0000

Hi everyone,

I am a novice with this so please keep this in mind and my apologies if I'm not too familiar with the lingo! I'm hoping my question has a simple answer...

I am wondering if it is normal to use so much of my ISP data when updating my blog? I can easily use 4GB per day. I first started and used about 6GB per day at work (we quickly ran over our limit, oops!).

- I've had my blog about a week and have next to nobody reading it
- I've searched google and the forums for days and have come up with a bunch of possibile options (most quite techy for me!) and they usually refer to excessive bandwidth from too many visitors
- I am happy to move to self hosting if that helps, not too keen on the tech side whilst I'm learning tho but will give it a go.
- I do have a few widgets installed
- I have several images, all but one were uploaded after I noticed the excess usage

Anything I've managed to find that slightly relates to this doesn't seem to fit my newbie circumstances. Hope someone can help! Thanking you in advance.

Lauren