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Advice for final touches to new site/blog

  1. siderealxxx
    Member

    Hi there, I've just built my new site/blog with WordPress and I'm very pleased with the results and enjoyed the process. That said, there's a few technical problems I can't overcome as I'm relatively new to this so I'd be grateful for any support. You can view the site so far at http://www.ryanteague.wordpress.com Here are the issues:

    1/ The menu 'Music' should only reveal the 2 sub-menus, but at present it is clickable in itself and reveals nothing. How do I change this to a dead link? I've read the article on Custom Menus (http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/) but I can't get it to work and don't exactly understand what it's saying (maybe I've set the pages up incorrectly?). Can anyone clarify the process to achieve this?

    2/ Can I embed clickable vimeo/soundcloud etc icons into the sidebar where I currently have the blogroll displaying my links? Is there an article on achieving this?

    3/ Lastly, what is the impact of having my site hosted on WordPress like this instead of my current HTML site? Google-ability is a high priority with this site and my current site always comes up first (any tips on the transition?). That said, my other blog 'Notes from the Jasmine Isle' for example comes up with a whole list of blog posts etc when you Google it and this isn't desirable either... for example at present if people Google my name, I need them to see 3rd party sites such as reviews, places to buy, videos etc. not just a list of my blog posts!

    I hope all that makes sense and I'm really grateful for any help/support. Please bear with me on getting back quickly as I'm currently living in Indonesia and the internet here is challenging to say the least! I will certainly be checking in and look forward to any responses.

    Thank You

    The blog I need help with is ryanteague.wordpress.com.

  2. imallbooked
    Member

    I'm pretty new on WP also, but I had a similar problem when setting up my menu tabs, so let's see if I can help with that part. First you want your "Music" tab to be set up as a custom link; in the URL space type in "http://#" Next, add the pages that you want to appear as sub-menus under the Music tab, but make sure they are indented underneath. Lastly, don't forget to select "Save Menu" ! I hope that helps.

  3. siderealxxx
    Member

    Hi - thanks for your post. For the menu customisation I followed this and numerous variations of it and I'm not getting this to work right. I don't find the article I linked to at all clear so I know it's something I'm doing wrong. Id' be REALLY grateful if someone can help out with this... everything else is fine but I don't find this menu customisation intuitive at all. Also my internet is so limited here so I can't do as much as I'd like... any help MASSIVELY appreciated!

  4. 1tess
    Moderator

    This is an informative article about custom menus. The technique you are asking about is near the end:
    http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/custom-menus/

    ❇ Submenu with non-linking top level tab
    A tab that’s just a heading for a submenu, not a link, is created in the Custom Links module: type anything after “http://”, type the name in the Label field, click Add to Menu; once it’s added to the menu, click the arrow to open it, delete everything in the URL field, click Save Menu.
    Note: In some theme this produces a differently looking tab; in that case replace the content of the URL field with a # instead of deleting everything.

  5. 1tess
    Moderator

    Here is the wordpress support document about creating a static tab:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/#adding-static-top-level-tabs
    Here is a picture of adding the # to the url.

  6. 1tess
    Moderator

    2/ Can I embed clickable vimeo/soundcloud etc icons into the sidebar where I currently have the blogroll displaying my links? Is there an article on achieving this?

    Yes, see here:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/blogroll/add-a-blogroll-link/#advanced-module

  7. 1tess
    Moderator

    3/ Lastly, what is the impact of having my site hosted on WordPress like this instead of my current HTML site? Google-ability is a high priority with this site and my current site always comes up first (any tips on the transition?).

    <opinion>Does it have to be either or? Seems to me you can have both. If you are planning to post about where to find your reviews and buy your music and videos, it's just one more way to get your name out. Or even include your blog in ryanteague.com.</opinion>

  8. siderealxxx
    Member

    Thank you for your response... it was very helpful and I've made some progress at last! I managed to create a custom menu and the 'music' tab is now working as a static menu item.

    The only problem I'm now having is that the default 'Home' menu item which featured my blog posts has now gone. The blog posts are still showing on the front page but there is no menu item for it anymore... so if you navigate to another page for example, you can't get back to it without typing the main URL again (or clicking the banner).

    Not sure why this happened as a by-product of this process, or more specifically how to get it back again... thank you for any help.

  9. imallbooked
    Member

    I had the exact same problem and I finally learned how to resolve it, so let me see if this helps. In the Menus admin area, if you look at the left side under Pages it probably is showing "Most Recent" but if you select View All you may see that you have two Homes. So now you need to delete the extra Home tab so that your new custom Home is the default one. I hope that makes sense and I'd like to hear if it worked. I am just a little ahead of you in figuring all this out and I am glad if I am able to help another "newbie!"

  10. 1tess
    Moderator

    @siderealxxx
    In most (maybe all??) themes, a reader can click on the header image to return to the "home" blogging/dynamic page.

    As for adding a clickable home tab on a custom menu:

    To make your "Home" tab appear you will have to put your blog URL into the custom link module and label it as "Home." Then add to menu.

    more detail here:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/#adding-custom-links

  11. 1tess
    Moderator

    Not sure why this happened</blockquote…>

    Remember that unless you specify the link-tabs you want you won't see them. The custom menu over-rides what your theme normally displays.

  12. siderealxxx
    Member

    Hi - thanks again, I'm always grateful for responses :-)

    Actually Imallbooked, your post did help me... I looked under 'view all' and although there weren't 2 Home tabs, it did diosplay a Home tab which wasn't under most recent and I was simply able to add this as a menu item and now it works...

    Thank you one and all...! Really like WordPress and it seems there's a good community :-)

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