Widgets, Headers, Backgrounds
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Hi,
I’m new to WordPress and am really struggling with something. I’m using the 2012 theme.
1. I have created a static front page. When I add a widget it appears at the bottom when I want it on the right hand side. I only want it to appear on the one static page but it seems to replicate across the other pages. I have different widgets on those other pages.
2. Are there standard headers and backgrounds I can use to make my page more colourful? I thought they were there before but when I tried to add my own pictures the standard ones disappeared. Have I done something wrong?
3. Is there a help page available for the features of the 2012 theme?
I’m really struggling. Please help.
Sarah
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hey again, Sarah!
Don’t worry – I’m happy to help you figure things out, and get up and running with your WordPress.com site!
Let’s take this in parts:
1. I have created a static front page. When I add a widget it appears at the bottom when I want it on the right hand side. I only want it to appear on the one static page but it seems to replicate across the other pages. I have different widgets on those other pages.
Your front page is currently using the Twenty Twelve’s “Front Page Template”. Pages using this template will be displayed like this, with widgets on the bottom. You can find more details about this template here, under “Front Page Template”:
https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/twentytwelve/To have your front page displaying the sidebar you see in your other pages, you need to change the template being used. You can edit your “Welcome!” page in this link:
https://sarahsgroundedearth.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=57&action=editThere, on the right, you’ll find a module called “Page Attributes”. Under “Page Template”, select “Default Template”.
If you don’t want your sidebar and its widgets to appear in your other pages, you can do basically the same: Edit your pages and, under the “Page Template” option, select “Full-width Page Template, No Sidebar”.
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2. Are there standard headers and backgrounds I can use to make my page more colourful? I thought they were there before but when I tried to add my own pictures the standard ones disappeared. Have I done something wrong?
You can personalize the design of Twenty Twelve with a custom header image, and custom background image or color. You can make customize your header and background in the following pages, respectively:
https://sarahsgroundedearth.wordpress.com/wp-admin/themes.php?page=custom-header
https://sarahsgroundedearth.wordpress.com/wp-admin/themes.php?page=custom-backgroundYou can find both pages under the “Appearance” menu in your dashboard.
Twenty Twelve doesn’t have standard image options for you to, so you have to upload any images you want to use.
3. Is there a help page available for the features of the 2012 theme?
This page provides a summary of the features of the Twenty Twelve theme:
https://theme.wordpress.com/themes/twentytwelve/Let me know if you have any other questions, please.
I’d love to help you make your site look the way you want it!
Cheers!
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Hi Fabian,
Thank you so much for your detailed reply, its very kind of you to help me :-)
With regards to the question one, there are lots of other blog sites using the 2012 theme that have the sidebar on the right, for example: http://aprettypennyblog.com. Before posting my question I tried to change the page template to default template, but this then adds the same widgets from the other pages onto the front page. I am looking to have different things in the side bar on page one, as I do on the other pages.
Lastly I am having trouble working out how to add the pink (facebook/twitter/instagram) icons as shown here: http://aprettypennyblog.com and shown here in grey: http://ohfrantastic.com
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Sarah
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Hey again, Sarah!
Before posting my question I tried to change the page template to default template, but this then adds the same widgets from the other pages onto the front page. I am looking to have different things in the side bar on page one, as I do on the other pages.
There are two options for your front page:
– If you want your front page to show your latest posts, go to Settings > Reading in your dashboard. There, select “Your latest posts” under “Front page displays”. This is the configuration used in the site you linked, A Pretty Penny.
– If you want to show an specific page in your home page, go to Settings > Reading, and select this page as your front page. You can do this under “Front page displays”, after selecting the option “A static page”. This is your current configuration. In this case, if you want the sidebar to appear in your front page, you will have to select “Default Template” under “Page Attributes” when editing your page.
Regardless of the option you choose, your sidebar will be the same across all your posts and pages, since “Default Template” is the only template in Twenty Twelve that has a sidebar.
You will need some CSS to make your sidebar display different widgets depending on the page being viewed. CSS, or Cascading Styles Sheets, is a way to apply style rules to HTML content.
If you want your sidebar to appear differently from page to page, you can do that with the Custom Design upgrade, which allows you to personalize the design of your theme with a CSS editor – and also with intelligent colors tools and custom fonts.
Custom Design is a paid upgrade that costs $30.00 per blog, per year. Here’s some more information about it:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/ -
Lastly I am having trouble working out how to add the pink (facebook/twitter/instagram) icons as shown here: http://aprettypennyblog.com and shown here in grey: http://ohfrantastic.com
You can add social media icons to your sidebar using a Text Widget. Here’s a guide on how to create image links in a Text Widget:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/links/text-widget-links/You will need URLs to the images you want to use. If you have the images in your computer, you can upload them to your Media Library and use the URLs there.
If you don’t have any images to use yet, I’d recommend you to google something like “free licensed social media icons” or “social media icons”, if you’re willing to perhaps pay for them.
I hope this helps! Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you!
Have a great weekend!
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Hi,
Re the front page. I’m afraid what you have said os not correct. If you check my blog page you will see that I have different widgets on the front page to that of the other pages, and I have not added any upgrades or custom design (I wouldn’t know where to start with that). But when I change the page template/style the widgets them get added to all pages. What I want is to add widgets to my front page that are different from the other pages.
Please advise. Many thanks,
Sarah :-)
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Hi,
Re social media widgets, unfortunately this doesn’t answer my question. Please refer to http://aprettypennyblog.com and http://ohfrantastic.com for the types of social media icons I am looking to add.
Please advise. Many thanks,
Sarah :-)
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Hey Sarah,
Thanks for getting back to me!
If you check my blog page you will see that I have different widgets on the front page to that of the other pages, and I have not added any upgrades or custom design (I wouldn’t know where to start with that).
I’m sorry I was not clear, Sarah. What I mean is that 1) “Default Template” is the only template in the Twenty Twelve theme that has a sidebar, and 2) all pages using “Default Template” will have the same sidebar (with the same widgets).
Your front page is not using “Default Template”, but “Front Page Template” – that’s why it can display different widgets.
With “Front Page Template”, the widgets are displayed below the content, not to its side.
If you don’t mind that, you can add widgets to your front page in the Appearance > Widgets page. On the right, you’ll see two boxes: “First Front Page Widget Area” and “Second Front Page Widget Area”. Click on the boxes to expand, and drag the widgets you want to you.
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Please refer to http://aprettypennyblog.com and http://ohfrantastic.com for the types of social media icons I am looking to add.
The social media icons in both sites were added with a Text Widget, as I mentioned previously.
If you need help with the code for the Text widget, just reply back here with the URLs for icons and social media profiles you want to link to. I’d be happy to create the code for you!
Please let me know if something is not clear!
Cheers!
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Arh I see. So its not possible to have the welcome page widgets at the side then, they can only go underneath :-(
I think the confusion may have happened because I don’t understand the difference between the three templates and can’t find any explanation or tutorials online for them. Are you able to advise:
– Front page template
– Default template
– Full-width template, no sidebarHuge thanks :-)
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Re text widgets: oh wow! I’ve no idea how to create icons like those. Being a complete newbie to WordPress I’m lost here.
I understand now how to upload them. Would you have any idea how I could crate those widget for upload? And this is before I even dip my toe in the “code” water. I’ve got my work cut out for me!
I’m so sorry for the questions. You must pull your hair out with beginners!
Again huge thanks for your help.
Sarah :-)
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Hey hey Sarah!
I think the confusion may have happened because I don’t understand the difference between the three templates and can’t find any explanation or tutorials online for them.
Each of these 3 templates has a different layout for your pages:
“Front Page Template” looks like this. You can see it has two widget areas, right below the content.
“Default template” looks like this. It has your content on the main area, and a sidebar to the right.
Finally, “Full-width Template, No Sidebar” looks like this. Your content takes all the width of your site, and there’s no sidebar.
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Re text widgets: oh wow! I’ve no idea how to create icons like those. Being a complete newbie to WordPress I’m lost here.
There are two options here, Sarah:
1) To create the icons yourself. For that, you’d need to use some sort of graphics editor tool, such as GIMP or Photoshop. That’s kind of the hard way.
2) To search for a set of icons you like. You can find lots of icon sets by looking for “free social media icons” on Google! There is a bunch of great-looking sets out there :)
I’m so sorry for the questions. You must pull your hair out with beginners!
Nah :) I’m really happy to help you get started with WordPress.com! Just let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you!
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Hello!
Happy Tuesday :-)
So I found some really great widgets online as you suggested and I downloaded them onto my computer. Then I read through all the information that you sent me on creating HTML. Unfortunately I still can’t seem to work it our myself, this is probably because I haven’t a clue when it comes to HTML coding.
The icons I found are here, aren’t they pretty!
http://pancake-ninja.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/pastel-social-media-icons.htmlNow…I know you’ve already been incredibly helpful, but do you think you’d be able to assist here too?
The good news is that I’m learning all the time that I’m using WordPress! :-)
Warm regards,
Sarah
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Hey Sarah!
The icons I found are here, aren’t they pretty!
Oh! Those are lovely icons! Nice choice.
Unfortunately I still can’t seem to work it our myself, this is probably because I haven’t a clue when it comes to HTML coding.
First, you’ll need to upload your icons to your Media Library with these steps:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/media/media-add-new/After that, under Media > Library, you’ll be able to get URLs for your icons. For each icon, select ‘Edit’ and copy the address at ‘File URL. Check this example: http://pbrd.co/17opZ7H
The code in your Text Widget will then be more or less like this:
<a href="URL_TO_YOUR_PAGE" title="Twitter"><img src="URL_FOR_YOUR_ICON"></a> <a href="URL_TO_YOUR_PAGE" title="Facebook"><img src="URL_FOR_YOUR_ICON"></a> <a href="URL_TO_YOUR_PAGE" title="Email"><img src="URL_FOR_YOUR_ICON"></a>You’ll just need to replace the text in caps for your URLs!
The good news is that I’m learning all the time that I’m using WordPress! :-)
That’s truly awesome to hear, Sarah! If you have any other questions, you know were to find me :)
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Hello there!
So I’ve managed to add an email text widget to my site, but when I click on it up pops a page that says “this is embarrassing, page not found”.
Do you know where I went wrong?
Sarah
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Ahhh also, when I add more than one icon it puts each one a looong way below the other with a big gap. How do I get them in a horizontal line right next to each other as http://aprettypennyblog.com and http://ohfrantastic.com both have on the 2012 theme?
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Update: I fixed the “page not found” for all but the email. I’m not sure which link I need to add for that one….
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Ok…….so I managed to fix everything myself (I tried to delete the messages above but can’t see where to).
I just need to work out the URL to use for the email text widget. I don’t want to use my personal email address. I purchased the blog URL though wordpress, do you know if an email address comes with this? If not what would be the best way to manage this?
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