WordPress isn’t difficult to use but it can be a bit overwhelming when you aren’t used to it. It doesn’t take long to become familiar with the basics, but to start with you may find yourself wondering what the difference is between a post and a page, and what on earth a widget is for.
A Simple Page Layout with the WordPress Block Editor
Around 18 months ago, I wrote a blog post, Alternatives to WordPress Page Builders, to see how easy it was to build a page with a specific layout.
A Look at Some WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins
For this article, I experimented with a few different gallery and slideshow plugins:
- FooGallery
- GT3 Photo Gallery
- Smart Slider 3
- The Advanced Gallery block from the Kadence Blocks plugin.
- Meow Gallery
Adding a Row of Image Links with the WordPress Block Editor
Some time ago, I wrote a blog post giving instructions for adding a row of image links to a WordPress website. The methods I described should still work, but now that the new WordPress block editor (a.k.a. “Gutenberg”) has been released, I would expect it to be easier to carry out this task without using the plugins I had looked at before.
Creating a Mood Board with Milanote
Recently, I came across milanote.com which seemed to be a good tool for creating a mood board or style guide.
Flexible, Customisable WordPress Themes
NOTE: This article was originally written in May 2018. Since then, all the themes I looked at have continued to develop, and the new WordPress block editor has been introduced. I’ve added updates throughout the article when I’m aware of them, but these tend to relate to the GeneratePress theme as it’s the one I use myself. That makes this discussion quite biased towards GeneratePress.
I continued to update this article until the end of 2020 but now I have a newer article about building a website with GeneratePress and I would suggest you refer to that instead: ‘Building My “Standard” Demo Site’.
For a more recent overview of some of the themes discussed in this article see the WP Tuts YouTube video “Discover the BEST Free WordPress Themes in 2023!“
Self-hosted WordPress Versus WordPress.com
One of my favourite ways to think about the difference between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress is to compare building a website to building with lego bricks.
WordPress Website Checklist
This article lists the steps I take when setting up a WordPress website. I’ve included links to some of the plugins I use, and to helpful articles with more comprehensive instructions.
Instructions for Adding a Row of Image Links
UPDATE – Please note that this article was written before the release of the new WordPress block editor (a.k.a. “Gutenberg”). For a more up-to-date approach, see my article: Adding a Row of Image Links with the WordPress Block Editor.
