Designing a cool home page
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Hi all!
New to WordPress here and I’m LOVING it so far. However, I’ve run into a bit of a problem. I sort of asked this already but didn’t really get the answers I was seeking. Partially my fault cause I didn’t explain it well enough.
I love my theme and set up so far but what I’d like is a more dynamic home page. My blog is going to have many different categories and I’d like my home page to reflect recent blog posts but more of a grid format.
A lot of people have told me that I’ll probably have to use more CSS and HTML customizing but I don’t even know where to start with that or how to do it. I’m currently on the free platform and really am not ready to start paying for my site to use plugins. Is there a way I can add something dynamic and cool like this without having to pay?
For example one I really like is this blog: https://blog.mallofamerica.com/category/all/
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Every theme has a detailed theme description page. See https://wordpress.com/theme/twentysixteen and the live demo site link is found.
All support docs are at https://en.support.wordpress.com/ where we have a search box as the most prominent feature on the page.
You can use the Customizer to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings, from your Custom Header Image to widgets and more. https://en.support.wordpress.com/customizer/
Learn how to setup a static front page (and move your posts to another page) https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/
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There is only one page in any site for posts, regardless of theme. That said, I believe what I post below may address your issue.
This is a one or the other situation.
(1) All posts on the front page which is also called the home page and is the URL of the site by default.
(2) Or a static front page http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/ and all posts on a different page. In that case you can create a Page for the Home page https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/#create-a-new-page first, then create one for your Posts/Blog. Lastly, you designate a static front page.
Optional – Create a blog page https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/#optional-create-a-blog-page
Dynamic category pages will automatically display all published posts that you have assigned to that specific category.
By default the front page of a blog displays all published posts in reverse chronological order with the most recently published post on top. When we publish a post on WordPress software the software automatically creates the same entry in the Archives, and on the dynamic (automatically updating) Categories and Tags pages in accord with the Categories and Tags we assign to that post.
Organizing posts
Dynamic category pages https://en.support.wordpress.com/category-pages/ created by the software when we assign categories to posts are also not the same as static pages https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/ we create.You can create a custom menu and include multiple dynamic category pages that automatically display the published posts assigned to the the specific categories in reverse chronological order.
Assign categories to posts.
Create a custom menu.
Add the dynamic category pages to into the custom menu.You begin by assigning categories https://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories/ to your posts.
So when we create custom menu and add the dynamic (automatically updating) category pages to that custom menu we create the appearance (not the reality) of posting to more than one page.
You need to be aware that:
1. There are differences between posts and pages described here
https://en.support.wordpress.com/post-vs-page/2. There are differences between static pages we bloggers create https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/ that will not automatically update, and dynamic category pages created by the software when you publish a post which will automatically update https://en.support.wordpress.com/category-pages/.
3. We organize posts by category assignment prior to publication. http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories/ and when we publish posts the dynamic category pages they automatically display on are determined by the categories we assign to them.
So the process you need to use is:
a. Assign Categories to your Posts. https://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories
b. Create a custom menu https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/#1-create-a-custom-menu
c. Add only the dynamic category page links into the custom menu that you want to appear in that menu https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-category-pages and arrange them as you wish them to appear https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#changing-the-order-creating-sub-menus
d. Create pages and sub-pages for static content, not for posts https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/
e. Add any custom links and other items like static pages and sub-pages into your custom menu
https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-custom-links https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-pages
and arrange them as you wish them to appear https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#changing-the-order-creating-sub-menusPlease see https://en.support.wordpress.com/customizer/
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Hello again, you also received replies to your earlier forum post at https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/designing-home-page-1?replies=5#post-3071556
You can find your earlier forum posts by clicking on your username at the top right of any forum page where it says “Welcome, yourusername.” That will take you to your forum profile page at https://en.forums.wordpress.com/profile/brettdburger
Let us know if you have any other questions.
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Thanks for being gracious.
P.S. Truth be told I’m going crazy with hives and have no idea what caused them. The doctor won’t be available until tomorrow. :(
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