Help with wordpress setup

[kvnwpts]

Hey there!

I'm a HTML & CSS guy and right now I have no interest in learning wordpress. The only thing I need it for is my own portfolio.
So I downloaded a portfolio wordpress theme/template whatever, and I just cant set it up right.

As you can see on http://www.kwpwebdesign.se , I have my logo, and a button under called "Hem". I wanna have a few more buttons under, and under those buttons I wanna have 3 social media icons. I also wanna have another Icon for my site. People shouldnt be able to comment on my page.

Is there anyone out there that has some time over for a complete stranger helping me though hard times..no joke. but that could help me getting my portfolio in shape. I would highly appriciate it!

/ Kevin

[ralph.m]

Hm, I couldn't get the page to load. But why are you using WordPress for this, anyway?

[kohoutek]

If you want to use WordPress, then you have but two options:

1. Learn WordPress properly
2. Hire someone to install, configure WordPress and work the design into a theme

Wanting to use WordPress without wanting to learn it is... well, not a good idea.

[Slackr]

Hi Kevin,

Wordpress is a pretty easy system to get to know. You've obviously got your install done. And you've managed to install a theme and enter some content.

I've been working almost exclusively in Wordpress but have a background of about 10 years in various web design and packages. You'll be pleased to know that for very little investment you can build a very comprehensive set of tools and do some fun things with Wordpress.

I would start by recommending that you choose how to approach your theme. If you don't want to get your hands dirty with messing around with Wordpress then I'd advise that you buy a good and well supported theme. I started with Elegant themes which allows you a great variety in layouts for a very low price. Good forum support and well written themes that are being updated. If you strike problems you can get knowledgeable help pretty quick.

There are others available but I would stick with well supported themes. It is crucial if you want to develop a website without mucking around with Wordpress. If Elegant themes doesn't strike you as appropriate I would try Themeforest. You might pay a little bit for a theme there but some of the themes are again well supported and come with many extra options built into them. Things like sliders, shortcodes (for quick styling), galleries etc. Go to the popular items and view the downloads, stick to the top items, they are the ones that are well supported by the authors and will retain support. I'd recommend U-design as a good flexible theme. Yes you pay for them, but you save yourself a lot of time and stress searching through forums or getting your own hands dirty in Wordpress (although it is almost impossible to avoid if you want to customise).

Function-wise Wordpress has many add ons and plugins. Again you'll find a wealth of free and some premium ones. I use a combination, free where possible, pay a few dollars when I want something to trust or very specific functionality. I use a variety of suppliers for this, but codecanyon.net has some insanely useful bits. I again suggest you rank by popularity and look at how long ago things were written and the comments to gauge how well supported the author is. Do note that some of these sites do not guarantee support but almost all quality authors stand by their products. They're easy to pick.

For disabling comments easily (WP grew out of a blogging background so they're ON by default) check out Disable Comments in the Wordpress vault. Very simple and will disable site-wide in a couple of clicks.

Social media options are plenty, your best bet is likely to use one in a widget area. Depending on what you use many themes will incorporate it as a freebie.

Hope that helps. I searched for a long time to get my tools set up and I regularly use, here are some of them:
Headway themes (more of a visual framework approach than theme).
Backup Buddy (for backup and migrating sites easily)
Styles with Shortcodes (easily worth the investment)

Good luck.

[Mittineague]

I was going through the codex the other day and happened upon mention of the Weaver II theme.

I like it so much I think I'm going to switch to it.

It has mega options (even without going premium) and has an extensive and well written help page. Lots of little question mark icons all over the place point to it.

I think if you worked your way through it's help page you would be golden. IMHO it would be well worth giving it some of your time and effort even if you decide on a different theme later.

[kvnwpts]

Thanks for your long answer, havent seen it since now. And I appriciate it !

Hi Kevin,

Wordpress is a pretty easy system to get to know. You've obviously got your install done. And you've managed to install a theme and enter some content.

I've been working almost exclusively in Wordpress but have a background of about 10 years in various web design and packages. You'll be pleased to know that for very little investment you can build a very comprehensive set of tools and do some fun things with Wordpress.

I would start by recommending that you choose how to approach your theme. If you don't want to get your hands dirty with messing around with Wordpress then I'd advise that you buy a good and well supported theme. I started with Elegant themes which allows you a great variety in layouts for a very low price. Good forum support and well written themes that are being updated. If you strike problems you can get knowledgeable help pretty quick.

There are others available but I would stick with well supported themes. It is crucial if you want to develop a website without mucking around with Wordpress. If Elegant themes doesn't strike you as appropriate I would try Themeforest. You might pay a little bit for a theme there but some of the themes are again well supported and come with many extra options built into them. Things like sliders, shortcodes (for quick styling), galleries etc. Go to the popular items and view the downloads, stick to the top items, they are the ones that are well supported by the authors and will retain support. I'd recommend U-design as a good flexible theme. Yes you pay for them, but you save yourself a lot of time and stress searching through forums or getting your own hands dirty in Wordpress (although it is almost impossible to avoid if you want to customise).

Function-wise Wordpress has many add ons and plugins. Again you'll find a wealth of free and some premium ones. I use a combination, free where possible, pay a few dollars when I want something to trust or very specific functionality. I use a variety of suppliers for this, but codecanyon.net has some insanely useful bits. I again suggest you rank by popularity and look at how long ago things were written and the comments to gauge how well supported the author is. Do note that some of these sites do not guarantee support but almost all quality authors stand by their products. They're easy to pick.

For disabling comments easily (WP grew out of a blogging background so they're ON by default) check out Disable Comments in the Wordpress vault. Very simple and will disable site-wide in a couple of clicks.

Social media options are plenty, your best bet is likely to use one in a widget area. Depending on what you use many themes will incorporate it as a freebie.

Hope that helps. I searched for a long time to get my tools set up and I regularly use, here are some of them:
Headway themes (more of a visual framework approach than theme).
Backup Buddy (for backup and migrating sites easily)
Styles with Shortcodes (easily worth the investment)

Good luck.

Im not sure what you are talking about though. :P

I was going through the codex the other day and happened upon mention of the Weaver II theme.

I like it so much I think I'm going to switch to it.

It has mega options (even without going premium) and has an extensive and well written help page. Lots of little question mark icons all over the place point to it.

I think if you worked your way through it's help page you would be golden. IMHO it would be well worth giving it some of your time and effort even if you decide on a different theme later.

[Mittineague]

.....
Im not sure what you are talking about though. :P

Simply that if you want to learn WordPress, I think that getting hands-on experience with the theme and it's "help" would do the job nicely.

[priyarana5]

If you are new to WordPress, here is a step-by-step plan for getting started- http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_Wo...Where_to_Start