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Why Does Wordpress Have To Be So Difficult To Learn?

by RedShifted
20 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
This is getting absurd. ALL I WANT TO DO is make SMALL SIMPLE CHANGES to my wordpress theme, and EVERY SINGLE TASK takes hours and hours of researching, just so I can be left w/out an answer.

Then even worse I come to these forums and people ignore my threads. I understand noone wants to give help like this for free, and would rather get paid, but PLEASE PLEASE HELP. I have no other choice. Its almost like I'm doomed to fail at this point because I can't pay to have this done, and would prefer to do it myself - but whoever invented wordpress seems to have put so many stupid defaults in their themes, that take up valuable real estate on the website.

If you go here: http://www.allcountywaterproofing.ou...com/wordpress/

Please go to my homepage. Where it says "home" over the graphic, with that stupid swirly image, I want BOTH of them GONE. The test ad was just for sizing, and it needs to come UP HIGHER right up against the menu bar.

SECOND thing I can NOT fix, is above the form. The huge space where it says "categories" "no categories" "rss" HOW can I get rid of this stuff? I'm trying to use this theme to market my site, but all these dumb default images wordpress uses takes up valuable real estate for my site.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME! Pretty pretty please. I'm begging thats how desperate I am.

-Red

ps. I will thank every single person who makes even the slighest attempt to help, thank you.
#difficult #learn #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author rhinocl
    You need a really customizable theme to help you. Install Atahualpa and activate it. Now go to theme options. Read each section four times and follow the directions. Change that section. Scroll to bottom and save. View. Rinse and repeat.

    Make sure you turn off caching plugins while you are making changes. Hit ctrl F5 each time you save a change in order to see it. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author failideas
    hi

    don't blame wordpress, as its not its fault, if we can say its someones fault.
    the theme you have choosed came with those features you don't want/like

    to get rid of the swirl you must edit the style.css
    around line 303 you have to remove the red code
    #main {
    background-image: url("images/main_bg.jpg");
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    float: left;
    margin: 0 5px;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 13px 15px 15px;
    width: 600px;


    }

    to get rid of the home text, you probably have to edit the index.php file look for something like <div class="posttitle"><h2>

    to remove "categories" "no categories" "rss"
    edit the sidebar.php and remove <div class="sidebar-box"> and all the code inside the first 2 <div class="sidebar-box">
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    • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
      Originally Posted by failideas View Post

      hi

      don't blame wordpress, as its not its fault, if we can say its someones fault.
      the theme you have choosed came with those features you don't want/like

      to get rid of the swirl you must edit the style.css
      around line 303 you have to remove the red code
      #main {
      background-image: url("http://www.warriorforum.com/images/main_bg.jpg");
      background-repeat: no-repeat;
      float: left;
      margin: 0 5px;
      overflow: hidden;
      padding: 13px 15px 15px;
      width: 600px;


      }

      to get rid of the home text, you probably have to edit the index.php file look for something like <div class="posttitle"><h2>

      to remove "categories" "no categories" "rss"
      edit the sidebar.php and remove <div class="sidebar-box"> and all the code inside the first 2 <div class="sidebar-box">
      You have NO IDEA how HAPPY I just got when I read this. I honestly smiled so wide I feel like I just hit the lotto.

      I KNEW there had to be a way to do this! So many hours wasted reading wordpress's I really can't thank you enough! Now let me go play around and sorry I won't talk bad about wordpress anymore. =]
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  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    (@ rhino) Thanks that theme looks a lot more customizable, but I'm looking for a theme that I can make really "tight". As in no white space above the top image. That white space up top I could be using for some call to action or an offer, so I wound up installing my previous theme back. In either theme I'm losing valuable space, so I'd rather stick with the theme that at least looks better.

    Is there anywhere in the code, maybe an image or something I can take out to remove the area above the form? I'll keep the home text in there with that swirly image if I can at least get the space above the form removed.

    The thing that drives me crazy is I can't even tell you how much time I wasted just to decide on a theme, now that I have a theme, it looks like I'll be back looking for something that uses space in an efficient manner. Problem is it seems no WP themes do this. Like even the one you gave me, do people really want a big white area of space as one of the first things a person sees when they click to your site?

    You would think wordpress would allow customization of that area of the site. But for some reason all these themes seem to have problems like this not using space efficiently.

    -Red
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    • Profile picture of the author rhinocl
      Yes you can get rid of all the white space. Just experiment with each element and start changing the margins and/or padding to 0
      Do this all using theme options. If you need to reverse something the defaults are listed just manually write the default for that item back in. Try hard not to edit anything directly with the theme editor!
      I'm guessing where you need to do this will be in the first or 2nd option but you may have to play with the header options too.
      Originally Posted by RedShifted View Post

      (@ rhino) Thanks that theme looks a lot more customizable, but I'm looking for a theme that I can make really "tight". As in no white space above the top image. That white space up top I could be using for some call to action or an offer, so I wound up installing my previous theme back. In either theme I'm losing valuable space, so I'd rather stick with the theme that at least looks better.

      Is there anywhere in the code, maybe an image or something I can take out to remove the area above the form? I'll keep the home text in there with that swirly image if I can at least get the space above the form removed.

      The thing that drives me crazy is I can't even tell you how much time I wasted just to decide on a theme, now that I have a theme, it looks like I'll be back looking for something that uses space in an efficient manner. Problem is it seems no WP themes do this. Like even the one you gave me, do people really want a big white area of space as one of the first things a person sees when they click to your site?

      You would think wordpress would allow customization of that area of the site. But for some reason all these themes seem to have problems like this not using space efficiently.

      -Red
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  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    I couldn't find line 303 so I copied the code over into dreamweaver and was able to find what you were talking about. I removed the code and no more swirly!!!!

    This is AMAZING I did not realize you could directly edit the css to customize the site like this. I guess I just need to learn all the terms to find where everything is in the css (for when new problems like this arise).

    Anyway I just want to say thanks one more time I haven't figured out the home text or form yet but this is definitely the solution I needed. You guys are the BEST!! Wasted 4 days over this watching youtube videos, visiting wordpress blogs, I am so relieved to find out I don't have to get a new theme now!

    THANK YOU! - Red
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    It is NOT about WordPress - so don't blame it (or its developers)!

    No matter what you use to build your site(s): a CMS like WP, hand-coded HTML or whatever... if you need to make changes to the LOOK (aka display, design) you MUST know HTML/CSS. Period.

    Using WordPress (for publishing content) and designing a WordPress theme - are not the same. Using it - it's easy. Learning CSS... not so easy.
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  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    Ok so having a bit of a problem with the home text. I found <div class="posttitle"> in the index.php and took it out, but that didn't work. Do I need to remove more code somewhere in the file?

    @ Istvan, I'm not sure why I never realized that about wordpress but I suppose thats exactly what the problem is. Its becoming obvious that I should have started by learning about CSS than rather than wordpress itself, that would probably get me a lot farther because all the issues I have seem to be css related.

    I just wish I knew how you guys learn this stuff so well. Must take years and years like learning a language.

    But if anyone knows what other code I need to remove to get rid of the "home" text, I'd really appreciate it.

    edit: Just got the categories gone!!!!!! Can not thank you guys enough. I'm sure I'll figure this home text out one way or another I backed up the css file and I'm just going to randomly delete sections till it dissappears!
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  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

    Finally fixed it! Turns out it was the page.php file I had to delete the h2 from. I am so happy now so once again, thank you folks!

    This is my first wordpress website and I was begining to think that I was just hopeless. But FINALLY I get to start working on my content now.

    -Red
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  • Profile picture of the author dinnap
    If you think wordpress is difficult, try Joomla
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  • Profile picture of the author WebsiteBegin
    As has been said earlier, Wordpress is not difficult and can not be blamed for difficulty. If you are using it to publish content and overall manage your website, it's blatantly easy. If you want to custom code things, that's where the difficulty [for some] comes in, but it's like that anywhere. Unless you use a WYSIWYG editor (which isn't recommended), then it will always be a bit more difficult.

    You best learn HTML, CSS, and PHP from a respected source. Try to avoid W3Schools. Best of luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author nstephan
    you have to know and understand css, wordpress has been pretty optimized for user friendly plugins and menus, but when ever you get into a cms, wethier drupal, joomla, wordpress, or other, you NEED TO KNOW CSS, and have tools to cross check and test. Word press is a great cms, and has tons of great plugins, and themes many for free or little to no cost... Check into css forums, and start small...
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  • Profile picture of the author xtrapunch
    You can't blame the tool if you don't know how to use it. Just because you do not want to hire an expert (for whatsoever reason), you do not have the right to curse Wordpress. I have learnt WordPress on my own. I never had any issues. You have to spend some time familiarising yourself with the concepts of web design, WordPress and SEO. Seems like you have managed to fix some issues, but a lot more needs to be done.
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  • Profile picture of the author carrot
    Tip:
    Use google chrome, them view whatever part of your site you want to change, hover over it, right click and select 'inspect element'.

    The left hand pane shows the source code (so you have a rough idea where to look for it, eg it says class=widget title, you know its a widget) the right pane shows what css rules are being applied to it, what css file they are in, and what line number - so you can easily find the exact part to edit.

    If you want to remove something and cant find it in the php file, you can add a display:none in the css and hide it - not the best way, but i have a feeling php files frustrate you!
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  • Profile picture of the author andersvinther
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  • Profile picture of the author JesseN
    Looks like you have your problems solved but in case you decide to look for a new theme you should seriously consider Suffusion. It may not look like much based on the preview but I can tell you that the number of options you have available for customization is a lot and really easy to use once you get the hang of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnben1444
    If you think wordpress is hard to operate then try creating a static site from the scratch. One major problem i find with people this days is lack of basic information. I am currently typing from my iPhone otherwise i would have love to add you links and videos to your problem. Anyway, I will still do my best along with other information users have gathered here.

    1. Learn to make use of the search engine, it's your number one source for accessing tons of information for free. Just try to be broad in your search and you will get what you are looking for.
    2. YouTube is a place to find tons of videos about virtually anything you are looking for. Don't forget to be broad in your search too.
    3. Forums like WF and the likes can not be overlook too, you can make a new post about your problems and also use the forum search area, there is a likelihood that sombody have asked or answered your type of question already.

    All this method do not cost a dime and you can virtually anything done this way for free and pretty quick too.
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  • Profile picture of the author new2d
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by new2d View Post

      god i hate forum bots
      It is even more stupid thing to comment on spam comments (made by "forum bots") - they will get deleted sooner or later and you will remain here with a useless post and, what's even worse, with a quote of the spam in it :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author Juraviel
    For what i know wordpress is already semplified almost as much as possible.. and yes i have had similiar experience, it's when you try to mess with CSS, or generally add new stuff to your blog when things get complicated. I know i once spent one day trying to add a little 'floating box', because i didn't have (nor wanted to) sidebars. Unfortunately that's something you have to go through i think if you don't want to pay someone to do it for you..
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  • Profile picture of the author Lori Kelly
    So glad you got your site fixed. I know how frustrating it can be. People here are incredibly nice and ready to help.

    Your next site will be easier.
    Then the next site will be even easier . . .
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  • Profile picture of the author alexmcginness
    Wordpress is impossible to learn for me. Ive been trying to get it to put a site on line since June of 2012. Im still at the point 5 years later that everytime I punch up instant WP and get going on yet another set of tutorials, I have to hide the sharp objects because I KNOW Im gonna get to the point where I want to cut myself. There has to be an easier way to make a website than WP. I keep trying though. Every one says its easy. LMAO. Yeah right....
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