Domain registration
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In my 14 day free trial I have not been offered the opportunity to register a domain name without the “WordPress” in it yet. T new name will NOT be wineblog7732. If I register on the Domains page, will I be charged an $18 fee in addition to the $99 please? How to register for $99 promised total?
But I assume “private” registration will add to the $99 in any case. However, why should I use “private” because I don’t think I gave contact information to WordPress?The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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If I register on the Domains page, will I be charged an $18 fee in addition to the $99 please? How to register for $99 promised total?
If you register on the domains page, you should not be charged $18; the domain should automatically be bundled into your premium plan.
If for some reason you are charged, let me know and I’ll refund the extra payment.
But I assume “private” registration will add to the $99 in any case
Actually, no. If you add private registration to your domain under the premium plan, your total cost is still only $99 per year.
However, why should I use “private” because I don’t think I gave contact information to WordPress?
Part of the process of registering a domain (anywhere, not just with WordPress.com) involves providing contact information. If you choose the private registration option, that info will not be part of the public portion of your domain registration.
Let me know if you have any more questions about any of that :)
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Thanks for your thorough reply!
I am trying to ask a separate question through the normal channels. The mechanism I used for my original question yesterday evening is no longer available for unknown reasons. It was a form with large fill-in boxes. I would like to have it available if possible. What is available is here -https://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/
The query box is long and thin, but has NO WAY I can find to actually launch my question to support. What to do please? I have listed my new questions below. I do not need to bother you with them, if you can help me find a way to launch my question to support please. Beginner, get-started questions. I already have tried Google with ambiguous or complex results.I think that while I am constructing my blog site my partially complete site will not be viewable to my readers? I think there is an offline/online mode (how please)? I don’t know what a plug-in is, are they simple to use? Would I use this coming soon link?
https://wordpress.org/plugins/site-is-offline-plugin/
Once I make a post can I alter it days or months later (when offline of course)? Can I alter the appearance and layout of my blog site anytime, even years down the road, by adding, deleting, or changing the appearance, features, and existing posts? As blog sites are constructed I think this is normal and necessary.
Will the appearance and layout of my blog site and any posts remain the same when I change from wineblog7732.wordpress.com to a new, registered, private domain name like myblog.com, whether in or out of the 14 day free trial?
Regarding digital photos from my camera, and “stock” or public relations photos from other organizations, are the following things simply performed – entry (importing?), placement and sizing of photos on the webpage within or separate from text, adding caption, cropping*, and possibly contrast/brightness adjustment*? I have yet to read the following tutorial. No need to explain if the answer is there.
https://en.support.wordpress.com/images/adding-images-to-posts-or-pages/
*Cropping could be taking a wide but thin-height slice of a rectangular photo, possibly for a page header? I think these latter two manipulations are performed to my file photos before WordPress Premium ever sees them?
I have a large number of paragraphs in Microsoft Word that I want to post, each separately. Each paragraph has a different, past date viewable to my readers in it. It appears to me that WordPress Premium will arrange them, and put a date viewable to my readers on them in the order that I post them, and NOT in the chronological order I now have within them in my computer. I assume the easiest and least costly way to maintain my present order and dating is to enter them one at a time into WordPress Premium (post them) in the order I now have them (real chronological) starting with oldest first, and finishing with the latest?
Can you suggest any WordPress Premium themes suitable for a wine blog? My thoughts are simplicity with these things taking center stage –
Attention getting functionality links
Photos that are either attention getting or add to the narrative
Overall balanced form and aesthetics; pastel warm colors, or mostly black & white
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What is available is here -https://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/ The query box is long and thin, but has NO WAY I can find to actually launch my question to support.
The support page does look a little like a search page, rather than a contact form when you first open it. If you type your question into the box, a more familiar looking page will open (assuming you don’t find your answer in the auto generated support document links first)
I have listed my new questions below. I do not need to bother you with them, if you can help me find a way to launch my question to support please.
I am a member of the support team, so I’m more than happy to answer your questions.
Before we get into specifics, it’s important for you to know there are two kinds of WordPress. Your site is hosted on WordPress.com. There is also a self-hosted version of WordPress, where you can use the WordPress software on a stand alone site you manage yourself. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of WordPress. you can read more about that here:
WordPress.com and WordPress.org
The distinction is important because some of the information you found about WordPress while Googling only applies to self-hosted sites.
I think that while I am constructing my blog site my partially complete site will not be viewable to my readers? I think there is an offline/online mode (how please)? I don’t know what a plug-in is, are they simple to use? Would I use this coming soon link?
This plugin, and the idea of “offline/online” mode is unique to self hosted WordPress sites. If you want to build your site without visitors being able to see it, the best thing to do is set your site to private. Here’s more info on how that works:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/
You didn’t ask this specifically, but since you mentioned plugins, another difference between WordPress.com hosted sites, and self-hosted sites is that all of the plugins that are allowed on WordPress.com are already built into your site. It’s not possible to add any third party plugins. Often, but not always, the functionality of a third party plugin can be achieved on WordPress.com without the plugin, so if there is a certain feature you want to add to your site and can’t figure out how to do it without a plugin, be sure to let us know so we can help you find a work around.
Once I make a post can I alter it days or months later (when offline of course)? Can I alter the appearance and layout of my blog site anytime, even years down the road, by adding, deleting, or changing the appearance, features, and existing posts? As blog sites are constructed I think this is normal and necessary.
You don’t exactly go offline to make changes, but it is always possible to make changes to existing posts and pages.
Will the appearance and layout of my blog site and any posts remain the same when I change from wineblog7732.wordpress.com to a new, registered, private domain name like myblog.com, whether in or out of the 14 day free trial?
Yes. The content of your site is completely separate from your domain name. Also, when you add a custom domain we will map it to your existing domain. That means that your blog will actually be accessible from both domain names.
Regarding digital photos from my camera, and “stock” or public relations photos from other organizations, are the following things simply performed – entry (importing?), placement and sizing of photos on the webpage within or separate from text, adding caption, cropping*, and possibly contrast/brightness adjustment*? I have yet to read the following tutorial. No need to explain if the answer is there.
https://en.support.wordpress.com/images/adding-images-to-posts-or-pages/Most, if not all of your questions are answered in that article. If any piece of the article didn’t make sense, or you have additional questions, please let me know.
I have a large number of paragraphs in Microsoft Word that I want to post, each separately. Each paragraph has a different, past date viewable to my readers in it. It appears to me that WordPress Premium will arrange them, and put a date viewable to my readers on them in the order that I post them, and NOT in the chronological order I now have within them in my computer. I assume the easiest and least costly way to maintain my present order and dating is to enter them one at a time into WordPress Premium (post them) in the order I now have them (real chronological) starting with oldest first, and finishing with the latest?
You will want to post each entry separately, but you can actually set the publish date to whatever you wish for each post, so the order you create the posts doesn’t really matter, you can control the order they show up on your site by updating the date of each post manually. Once you get to that point I can show you how that works.
Can you suggest any WordPress Premium themes suitable for a wine blog? My thoughts are simplicity with these things taking center stage –
That’s a hard question. Choosing a theme is a pretty personal process, so I recommend you browse our theme catalog and see what catches your eye.
Note: You have the WordPress.com Premium plan. That is different than the Premium themes. If you choose a premium theme, there will be an additional cost. There are lots of great free themes, so that shouldn’t get in your way too much. You can filter the themes by “free” so you only see those if you’d like.
I think I covered everything, but there was a lot there, so if I missed anything, or if you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
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Thanks for your reply. I assure you the support form continues to be nonfunctional for the second day. No matter how much I type into the wide, thin box, it never transforms into the large rectangular query box. And there is no way or link to actually launch a question. The first link below goes to the second link which is end -game. https://en.support.wordpress.com/help-support-options/
Maybe a problem with my 14-day free trial, or thinks I am not Premium? I can continue sending questions to you, but eventually a solution would be good.
Thanks again. -
Thanks for your reply. I assure you the support form continues to be nonfunctional for the second day. No matter how much I type into the wide, thin box, it never transforms into the large rectangular query box.
That’s very strange. Could you take a screenshot of what you see so I can investigate further? Here’s how you make a screenshot:
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1) I have not responded about the screenshot because I don’t have Paint. I see there are free downloads and will eventually do a screenshot, but not highest priority now.
2) It appears that Atahualpa may be the theme I want. It is NOT in the free themes on Dashboard. Strange, because it is reputed to be the most widely downloaded WordPress theme. If I use a theme from Dashboard I assume it will automatically work for my wineblog7732, yes?
But since I must separately download Atahualpa, how do I make if function for wineblog7732?
3) The following may not be your area of responsibility, but if you know the answer it would greatly help the cause. I want a 3-column theme format, the outer columns being thinner for Tag Cloud, Categories, and bits and pieces. I have seen Atahualpa employed that way. But was Atahualpa customized for 3 columns? Does 2013 offer 3 columns? To test several themes may require much time, unless design & implementation is easier than I think.
Finally I want one or two rows of “buttons” near top page, some with drop down selection boxes, all of which are subject links. Does Atahualpa or 2013 offer this, or is customization simple?
Conversely, what other theme fits my requirements please? I need little if any color or icons. I am finding theme selection to be difficult.
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2) It appears that Atahualpa may be the theme I want. It is NOT in the free themes on Dashboard. Strange, because it is reputed to be the most widely downloaded WordPress theme. If I use a theme from Dashboard I assume it will automatically work for my wineblog7732, yes?
Actually, no.
The only themes available on WordPress.com blogs are the ones you can activate from here.
Atahualpa is not one of the themes we support, so in order to use it, you’d need to move to a self hosted WordPress site.
I want a 3-column theme format, the outer columns being thinner for Tag Cloud, Categories, and bits and pieces. I
You might like Oxygen or Coraline:
https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/oxygen/
https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/coraline/You can browse all of our three column themes here:
https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/features/three-columns/Finally I want one or two rows of “buttons” near top page, some with drop down selection boxes, all of which are subject links.
If I’m understanding what you want correctly, you can do this with any theme that supports custom menus. Here’s how that works:
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Thanks for your support and suggestions about Oxygen and Coraline. I activated Oxygen from https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/oxygen/ and NOT from Dashboard-Manage Themes, because Oxygen wasn't there. My plan was to first implement and prove 3 columns, then the custom menu “buttons” we spoke about above. But things went astray. I found no directions on these subjects (maybe I missed something) so I tried making my first post without previewing (accidentally). I tried to look at the post at https://www.wineblog7732.com and at https://www. wineblog7732.wordpress.com
but it was not there. I had noticed the second URL in WordPress somewhere, maybe Dashboard, and wondered why WordPress was in my Premium URL.
Can you get me on track please? If you can suggest any other instructions, tutorial, information, or method to help me implement and design in Oxygen in the order of implementation laid out below would be grateful –
3 columns, middle widest
custom menu buttons
categories
header main photo
search box
about
social media icon/links
important – placement and sizing of all the above
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tried making my first post without previewing (accidentally). I tried to look at the post at https://www.wineblog7732.com and at https://www. wineblog7732.wordpress.com
but it was not there.I see your new post on your site here:
https://wineblog7732.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/simply-italian-2012/
Note: you don’t need the www.
If you want more info on setting up your theme, this is a good place to start:
https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/oxygen/As for the custom menu “buttons” the instructions for those are here:
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Thanks for the information sources. I have diligently studied those including the videos more than once. However,
1) The screens depicted in the support information do not match mine in Dashboard → Appearance → Menus.
Support https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/
Mine https://wineblog7732.wordpress.com/wp-admin/nav-menus.php
My Pages box only shows About, which I was able to add to my Menu Structure box on the right. But Support’s Page box shows About us, Contact us, Home, and Services.
Why does Support’s screen differ from mine, and how can I add the missing items to my Menu Structure box?
More importantly, how can I add other items I create (following) to my Menu Structure box? Examples –
Wine Reviews → drop-down → Red, White, Sweet (each of these filters to my posts about that subject)
Events → drop-down → wine-public, wine-trade, wine & food public
Wine regions → a message telling the reader to look in the Categories area
And many more…
2) The blog website design is proving more challenging than I thought. I am thinking I can do development on the free WordPress, and when complete purchase WordPress Premium. Are there any downsides or issues with this plan, like the free included domain registration offer going away? I don’t think the minor functional differences would affect me or my blog site? The main thing is I think I would loose email direct support (yes?), and that might be insurmountable. I have not found any answers on the forums, although maybe I have not looked extensively?
3) My Menus page says “Your credit card needs updating to renew WordPress.com Premium.” My card is good and functional. Where can I find out what that means please?
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My Pages box only shows About, which I was able to add to my Menu Structure box on the right. But Support’s Page box shows About us, Contact us, Home, and Services.
You have to create a page before you can add it to your menu. Once you add the pages to your site, you will be able to add them to your menu.
Here’s how to create new pages:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/The blog website design is proving more challenging than I thought. I am thinking I can do development on the free WordPress, and when complete purchase WordPress Premium. Are there any downsides or issues with this plan, like the free included domain registration offer going away? I don’t think the minor functional differences would affect me or my blog site? The main thing is I think I would loose email direct support (yes?), and that might be insurmountable. I have not found any answers on the forums, although maybe I have not looked extensively?
If you decided to skip WordPress.com Premium for the moment you could purchase your domain name as a stand alone upgrade for $26. You would still have access to direct support. It you just cancel your premium upgrade you would lose the custom domain name which might be hard to get back.
If you want to switch to a domain only plan let me know and I’ll help you get set up.
3) My Menus page says “Your credit card needs updating to renew WordPress.com Premium.” My card is good and functional. Where can I find out what that means please?
Could you send me a link to the page where you see that message?
Thanks!
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Thanks for the “create new page” information.
If you decided to skip WordPress.com Premium for the moment you could purchase your domain name as a stand alone upgrade for $26. You would still have access to direct support. It you just cancel your premium upgrade you would lose the custom domain name which might be hard to get back.
If you want to switch to a domain only plan let me know and I'll help you get set up.
I think I did not communicate something well. Can you please rephrase your thoughts on this?
Here is the sequence of what I am pondering –
● NOT register a custom domain name at this time.
● Cancel WordPress Premium before 14 day free trial expires to save $ during development.
Please confirm that I will find development and the tools no different between the WordPress free plan and WordPress Premium, with no conversions, surprises, or negatives going from free to Premium?
● Complete development under WordPress free plan with NO registered custom domain, over a few weeks or months.
With the free plan and NO registered custom domain, will I have direct email support from you or your colleagues? I think NOT?
● When development completes, buy WordPress Premium AND register a custom domain name (with private status); will NOT be wineblog7732. (Please confirm the custom domain name with private status would be included at no-charge with a WordPress Premium future purchase.)
● Launch blog site online.
You have to create a page before you can add it to your menu. Once you add the pages to your site, you will be able to add them to your menu.
Here's how to create new pages: https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/
I looked at the link but I do not think it explains how to make one of my custom menu buttons do this –
Wine regions button → gives a message telling the reader to click on a topic in the Categories area of my left or right column
Could you send me a link to the page where you see that message?
https://wineblog7732.wordpress.com/wp-admin/nav-menus.php
See top of page for credit card message.
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Most, if not all of your questions are answered in that article. If any piece of the article didn't make sense, or you have additional questions, please let me know.
https://en.support.wordpress.com/images/adding-images-to-posts-or-pages/
The link says to “Drag your image from your computer to the editor” but I can not find the editor after much searching. Can you help me locate it please? I have also Googled and looked here –
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Regarding the custom menu buttons. I can see some of these may require creating a page, like an “about” page for the “about” button. But most of my buttons will filter posts. How can I create the following buttons?
Wine → drop-down → Red This filters and presents only my posts about red wine
Events → drop-down → Food & Wine This filters and presents only my posts about food & wine events
I could not find answers here
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But most of my buttons will filter posts. How can I create the following buttons?
Those types of pages are called category pages. You can read more about how those work here:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/category-pages/
The link says to “Drag your image from your computer to the editor” but I can not find the editor after much searching
“Editor” is the official name for the area you use to update your site. Any time you add words to your website you do so through the editor.
● NOT register a custom domain name at this time.
● Cancel WordPress Premium before 14 day free trial expires to save $ during development.
Please confirm that I will find development and the tools no different between the WordPress free plan and WordPress Premium, with no conversions, surprises, or negatives going from free to Premium?My mistake. I thought you already had a custom domain, but you don’t, so completely canceling won’t be a problem from that perspective. As for the other tools, I don’t believe you will notice a difference. The Premium Plan does give you some advanced design tools but it doesn’t look like you’ve started using them so I don’t think you will miss them.
With the free plan and NO registered custom domain, will I have direct email support from you or your colleagues? I think NOT?
New accounts have access to staff support for 30 days, so that won’t be a problem to start. I also believe you will still be able to ask questions on open support requests once the 30 days are done.
(Please confirm the custom domain name with private status would be included at no-charge with a WordPress Premium future purchase.)
Confirmed!
Could you send me a link to the page where you see that message?
https://wineblog7732.wordpress.com/wp-admin/nav-menus.php
See top of page for credit card message.I see the message, but I don’t see any evidence of a problem with your card, so I think we can safely ignore this, especially if decide to cancel the Premium upgrade for the moment.
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1) Please see the buttons at top of my blog
https://wineblog7732.wordpress.com
about / wine regions
How can I make them appear in either of two ways (please explain both)?
A row of bordered boxes?
A row of white text on a medium color (not on black) background?
2) Please see the buttons at top of my blog
about / wine regions
Wine Regions button goes to a Page containing the message. “Find the wine region you are looking for in Categories”. I don’t want this.
How can I make the Wine Regions button drop down to display the message “See Categories” within the drop down box?
3) Categories
I have seen elsewhere Categories drop down. I don’t want this because my Categories list will be so long it will go off page. Usually I have seen Categories elsewhere in the left or right column.
How can I make Oxygen depict Categories in the left or right column?
4) Sadly I had to cancel renewal of WordPress Premium. The reason is that the development may take a long time using $ unnecessarily. It might help if you and any support personnel have time in your responses to add a little explanation as opposed to just referencing an online instructions link. I understand well that you must receive questions from the multitudes worldwide. You may not have time to do more than reference. You may also be mandated by corporate to only reference online instructions. That is why I said if you have time. Please let me know what to expect, and here is why. I have found WordPress online instructions to be very plentiful, and the cross reference structure to be well thought out and robust. HOWEVER, for some reason my impression is that whatever I look for and whatever is critical to me IS NOT APPARENT online without extensive efforts. If wine blog formats are not suited to WordPress free themes I would like to know that and like to know where to find such themes on who’s platforms. Most wine blogs, mine included, follow a certain format, generally speaking. I am not getting there with online instructions. My budget does not permit to hire a designer or consultant. Worse, I only have a limited time mornings and evenings to design. Many times I have had to go back and forth several times to your references to online instructions; not your fault as I hope I have portrayed. But if you can add a bit of explanation to your link references, it just might make all the deference in the back & forth.
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1) Please see the buttons at top of my blog
https://wineblog7732.wordpress.com
about / wine regions
How can I make them appear in either of two ways (please explain both)?
A row of bordered boxes?
A row of white text on a medium color (not on black) background?It is possible to make your menu look more like buttons or to change the background color for your navigation, but those changes require the CSS portion of the Premium plan. Let’s set this piece aside until you are ready to repurchase the upgrade.
Wine Regions button goes to a Page containing the message. “Find the wine region you are looking for in Categories”. I don’t want this.
How can I make the Wine Regions button drop down to display the message “See Categories” within the drop down box?Do you just want that message in the menu, or do you want the categories to be in the menu as well? We can add an unclickable message to your menu if that’s what you want but it’s not the way websites usually work. We would do that using the custom menu function. If you confirm that’s what you want, I can give you specific instructions.
I have seen elsewhere Categories drop down. I don’t want this because my Categories list will be so long it will go off page. Usually I have seen Categories elsewhere in the left or right column.
We can add a list of categories to either sidebar using the category widget. There are several steps to making this work. The first is to add all the categories you want to have to your site. Here’s a direct link to the page you do that on.
https://wineblog7732.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-tags.php?taxonomy=category
Note: There is another step required to get the categories to show up on your site, but to avoid confusion, please do this step first.
It might help if you and any support personnel have time in your responses to add a little explanation as opposed to just referencing an online instructions link
Generally speaking, the support document provides a much deeper answer than I am able to because it includes screenshots and background information that helps explain how everything fits together. If you aren’t finding them useful, I can answer your questions one at a time. I expect that will slow us down, but I’m up for trying that if its your preference.
I have found WordPress online instructions to be very plentiful, and the cross reference structure to be well thought out and robust. HOWEVER, for some reason my impression is that whatever I look for and whatever is critical to me IS NOT APPARENT online without extensive efforts
The problem here is the WordPress instructions you find through an internet search are usually for self hosted WordPress sites. Since self hosted sites work a little differently, those instructions will cause, rather than cure confusion.
Any information you find by searching the WordPress.com support documents, will be more in line with your needs:
https://en.support.wordpress.com/I’m also happy to point you directly to the docs you need so you don’t have to search.
If wine blog formats are not suited to WordPress free themes I would like to know that and like to know where to find such themes on who’s platforms. Most wine blogs, mine included, follow a certain format, generally speaking. I am not getting there with online instructions
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If you send me links to some sample wine blogs that will help me answer this question better. You can absolutely create a website about wine on WordPress.com, but it it absolutely needs to look a specific way, I want to make sure their are no deal breakers know.
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