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Can't edit home page

  1. johndilligent
    Member

    Please help me! I have the weirdest problem I simply cannot resolve and I've been at it for hours and
    am tearing my hair out.

    It's my first day on my first blog, and somehow I managed to join my first blog post with my home page
    so that I cannot edit my home page separately. I can only edit the first blog post page. There ARE two
    different webpages with two different URLs:

    Home page: http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/

    First blog post page: http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/war-of-the-words/

    Whenever I try to edit the homepage at: ( http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/ ), the dashboard editing
    app always throws me over to: ( http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/war-of-the-words/ ) as
    though it cannot distinguish them separately. But the URL in IE browser bar remains: ( http://thedirtylow-
    down.wordpress.com/ ). Also, whenever I try to view the home page from the dashboard editing app, it al-
    so throws me to the first blog page.

    For reference, here is how I wanted my home page to look when I first started out from square one:

    http://rafaelalburquerque.com/ (Featured in the WordPress Grezeyed Theme Demo).

    So I was trying to build everything right there on the home page in the "Hello World" area provided. The
    first blog post page is actually how I wanted my home page to look, more or less. Although now that I see
    how everything works I'm thinking of going to a more archived approach. However, I still can't edit my home
    page so I'm all messed up.

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

  2. thesacredpath
    Member

    The main page of the blog, home page or front page doesn't actually exist as a "page." It is designed to display the posts you make in reverse chronological order (newest at top). The home page is dynamically created by the wordpress software.

    Are you wanting some sort of "static" home page rather than one that shows your posts?

    I'll offer these for you to take a look at since you are new. I think they will help clear things up.

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/post-vs-page/
    http://support.wordpress.com/getting-started/
    http://learn.wordpress.com/

  3. johndilligent
    Member

    Hey Sacred Path,

    Yes, that first post came out looking so choppy and stretched-out I tried to clean it up some, hoping you might could just make that first one "go away" on your end. I apologize for the duplication as I know that's bad form.

    SP, thank you for this instruction and the links to the reading materials. As a result of your help I now feel like I have moved forward from "totally lost" about halfway to "having a clue".

    I hear what you're saying, and on it's face I don't think I would have a problem with that system, BUT: why do I land HERE: ( http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/ ) at the homepage you say doesn't actually exist as a page, no matter what route I take to my "blogsite", then have to click on the hyperlink embedded in the article title to
    get HERE: ( http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/war-of-the-words/ ) which should be my homepage but apparently isn't? I don't see what's going on with my blog as working like you seem to be saying here. If I'm understanding you properly then when visitors enter: http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/ into a search bar and hit "enter", they should be automatically landing on a page that includes all of the content now located at: http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/- 2011/01/11/war-of-the-words/ .

    But that isn't what's happening here. Whether I'm logged in or out, when I navigate to my "homepage", I access a page which does not include all of the homepage content and which I cannot seem to edit directly. Then in order to get to what should be the actual home page, I'm having to click on the article title to navigate to another page where all the homepage content is actually residing.

    If visitors clicked on this: http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/ and got that: http://-
    thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/war-of-the-words/ instead, automatically, or even if I could just edit this: http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/ so that it just displayed more of an archival type of format, with article titles, excerpts, and pics, I would be happy.

    But I don't see any of this happening. Am I just missing something here?

    Thanks...

  4. johndilligent
    Member

    SP,

    I'm not sure we're on the same page as far as what my problem is, or at least what I'm perceiving it to be. Did you actually click on those links and take a look at what's going on with me? I'm not necessarily wanting or needing a "static" homepage. but I can't handle an unintuitive two-step process to get to homepage content either, and without any direct editing capability built into the primary page.

    I'm getting very discouraged with this...

    JD

  5. thesacredpath
    Member

    Did you actually create a page that you wanted as your "home" page? If so, what is the title of that page? Did you publish that page or is it still a draft?

  6. johndilligent
    Member

    Hey SP,

    Yes.

    The Dirty Lowdown.

    I don't use drafts. I "publish on the fly".

    I have three published pages, with attendant URLs, all 3 are currently under construction: Home, About, & War of the Words.

    The crux of my dilemma is that there should be only 2: Home, & About.

    War of the Words should be residing on my home page.

    Instead it went rogue, adopted its own URL, then hijacked my dashboard editing app, which now disavows the existence of the homepage.

  7. panaghiotisadam
    Member

    Publish another post first, and then things will probably become clearer to you.

  8. johndilligent
    Member

    I've actually been 'round the mountain in hundreds of individual steps with this over the last 24 hours nearly around the clock, so it's hard to tell just where things went awry.

    But my gut instinct says where I went wrong was bypassing the "New Post" widget on the dashboard to start that first post and instead just tried to throw everything up into the "Hello World" editable area provided on the default homepage. Then later on down the line I tried to edit the URL, and that's when things took a fast turn south.

    Somehow I split what was supposed to be one page into two, or at least managed to skew their relationship to each other.

  9. thesacredpath
    Member

    We need to get a clear idea of exactly what you want here. War of Words is not a page, you did that as a "post." That is why it shows on the main page (where posts automatically display).

    Do you want War of Words to be your home page? That is not what is happening on http://rafaelalburquerque.com/ . The home page on that site is displaying their posts.

  10. panaghiotisadam
    Member

    @johndiligent: Nothing has gone awry, askew, south, north or anywhere. As thesacredpath explained, the home page automatically displays the most recent postS. Your confusion is due to the fact that you only have one published post at the moment. Publish another one and you'll see.

  11. johndilligent
    Member

    P, thanks for your imput.

    Okay, it is finally sinking in.

    I have just spent some more time on http://rafaelalburquerque.com/ and I see now that it is in fact working just like my own blogsite.

    Then only difference I can see it that he has somehow been able to display all his sharing buttons below each post, and mine only display if you click on the comment baloon or the title. They do not display by default. I would like to make my set-up like his.

    My original plan around 24 hours ago was to use R.A.'s site as my direct model. Since then I have been gravitating in my thinking toward something more parent and
    child-like, static-y, archival in nature, whatever. It actually would be somewhere in the middle of what we've discussed -- more like a Twenty Ten archive page is set up. You'd have the standard header, footer and sidebars and all they contain, like a static home page, but in the middle -- or prime content area -- instead of static content or dynamic posts, you'd have a few article titles, blurbs (or excerpts) and little pics with or without captions and when the visitors peruse them and see one they like they can just click on the title or pic and link over to the corresponding page. These featured article previews, trailers, whatever they may be called, would be changed-out regularly. I see a whole lot of websites set up like this. Check out: http://thehill.com/
    for an idea of what I'm talking about, more or less.

    Thinking about it though, I guess the Greyzed theme really isn't very conducive to that kind of action, so I'll just roll with the R.A. model, at least until I get some more experience under my belt and considering none of this is cast in stone anyway. I do
    wish you'd tell me how he puts the sharing buttons under each post on the main page. And with that I'll leave you alone and start hitting some of this reading material you sent over. I'm actually feeling pretty dumb right now. But I have felt much dumber,
    so there is that...

    Thanks!

  12. johndilligent
    Member

    @ panaghiotisadam,

    Hey, I got it, the light turned on, finally.

    Thank you!

  13. panaghiotisadam
    Member

    You're welcome.

    To have your front page display the beginnings of posts only, you can use the more tag:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/
    Some themes do it by default; I'd suggest you try Inuit Types.

    To display your sharing buttons on the front page as well as when viewing each single complete post, go to Settings > Sharing, select the first option from the "Show sharing buttons on" dropdown, click Save Changes.

  14. panaghiotisadam
    Member

    Re Inuit Types, live example here:
    http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/

  15. johndilligent
    Member

    P, thank you so much for this useful information and all your wonderful help!

    JD

  16. agrondahl
    Member

    Hello? Hello? Can I tack a question on here too? I'm not new to WordPress but I am new to "Greyzed", and while it's great so far, I'm having trouble with the HOME PAGE -- or, rather, having trouble understanding it.

    I want a HOME PAGE (or Welcome Page, like I do with my other blog - http://www.intrepidpens.org) that people LAND ON first -- and I want to display an IMAGE and some TEXT on said HOME PAGE.

    But with Greyzed, it just seems to be there. I can't DO anything with it. Can you help? I'd be very grateful!

  17. thesacredpath
    Member

    You have to create and publish the welcome page and then set that as your "static front page" at settings > reading.

    If you want a blog page showing posts as well, you also have to create a blog page and publish it, and then set it as the "posts" page at settings > reading.

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/

  18. agrondahl
    Member

    Thanks so much! One thing, though -- I really would like "Welcome" to be called "Home", but then I'll have two "Home Pages". How can I made the original "Home" go away? (Note: I understand about static pages, I've done it on my other site. But I don't want a "Home" and a "Welcome" in the header, or worse, two "Homes".)

    THANKS AGAIN!

  19. timethief
    Member

    @agrondahl
    Some themes have a Home page coded into the template. You can create a custom menu and include only the pages you want in that menu. http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/

    Staff have provided this support documentation entry for those who want to structure their blog like a website. > http://en.support.wordpress.com/using-wordpress-to-create-a-website/

    Read also > http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/posts-on-pages/

  20. agrondahl
    Member

    Awesome! Done! Thank you both so much!

  21. timethief
    Member

    You're welcome and blog on! :)

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