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Categories not showing & only seeing half a banner

  1. cherylrhodes
    Member

    The theme I chose I thought had several categories at the top. For example I'd want to categorize my posts under "books", "writing", "other topics" and even though I have the categories set up and when I write a post I choose one of those categories but the category buttons never show up at the top.

    I'm not sure if that has something to do with me trying to figure out widgets a few months ago. There used to be this default thing in the sidebar that said "meta" and some other things and one day it was gone.

    I've also tried to upload photos to my sidebar. It doesn't matter to me if the photo is in the sidebar or if its at the top or the bottom of the blog. Anywhere is fine. The only option I see when I use the widgets is for sidebar. After several attempts to figure out what widget to use, I chose "text" and uploaded my html code for a banner. Only half the banner image shows up.

    There is a widget for image but only if I have a web page URL to link to, so I can't upload a photo or use html code in the image widget.

    I'd like to upload another image from my computer to anywhere on my blog. Does anyone have any suggestions how I can do this?

    I know how to add the image to a post, I just need to figure out how to add it so it will be on the blog at all times either in the sidebar or top or bottom of page.

    I'm finding WordPress very difficult to figure out which is why I rarely post but I'd appreciate if anyone knows how I can add photos to the blog itself, in the sidebar or elsewhere.

    Or should I just go back to Blogger?

    Thank you!

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

  2. timethief
    Member

    The theme I chose I thought had several categories at the top.

    There are many common errors, misunderstandings and misconceptions when creating custom menus and you can read about them here > http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/custom-menus/

    I've also tried to upload photos to my sidebar. ... Only half the banner image shows up.

    That would be because you are attempting to park a Mac Truck and semi-trailer unit sized image in a Vespa sized parking space. ;) The image is wider than the sidebar and that means you have to reduce the image size so the whole of it can be displayed in the widget.
    See here > http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/sidebar-width/

  3. timethief
    Member

    You ought to be able to upload files in two ways: by going to Media → Add New from your dashboard http://en.support.wordpress.com/media/media-add-new/ or by clicking the new Add Media button right above the editing area of a page or a post. http://en.support.wordpress.com/add-media/
    The accpeted file types are: .jpg, .jpeg, .png and .gif

    See also http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/images-the-three-link-options/

    For troubleshooting see http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/troubleshooting-images/

  4. jeanpaul66
    Member

    Great that worked! Thanks a lot!!

  5. timethief
    Member

    You're welcome.

  6. cherylrhodes
    Member

    Thanks I've read the articles and played around with the blog a bit more but still no success. I'll keep trying but there's only so many hours one can put it without making headway before a decision has to be made its not worth spending any more time on it. I'm coming to accept that WordPress is just too difficult for me. I liked your trying to park a mac truck in a vespa parking space with that banner! Unfortunately I don't have any control over the gif. There are no numbers in there that I can fool around with to try to make them smaller. But the banner does show up OK on my blogger page.

    I got the photo uploaded to the media page OK but it wants to be attached somewhere and the only options WordPress gives me are blog posts that I've already written, not just somewhere where it will always show up on the page of the blog.

    I appreciate the help and will give it a few more hours to see if I can figure it out.

  7. justpi
    Member

    a) Very few themes automatically display links to your categories in the top menu. Most themes display links to static pages. So if you want categories instead, you need to create a custom menu and add your categories to it. See the post TT linked to.

    b) To insert an image in the sidebar you can use a Text widget or an Image widget. In both cases you need an URL for the image: you upload the image from your computer to your blog via Media > Add New, and once it is uploaded you click Edit and copy the File URL from the Save module.

    c) When you use a Text widget, you can add code to downsize the image, if it's a png or a jpg. See here:
    http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/codes-useful-for-text-widgets/
    Same thing can be done via the available options in an Image widget, but some bad browser versions don't understand those options and may display the image in its original size or distorted.

    d) But the banner you have inserted is an animated gif. Animated gifs lose the animation when resized, so they must be created in the appropriate pixel dimensions. Did you create that banner yourself?

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