When creating a new Tip & Technique, you’re always going to have two options: 1) Build from scratch 2) Clone an existing Tip & Technique page.
It comes down merely to a matter of preference. At first, cloning may be simpler (you must change all of the content of course) but as you become familiar with the WordPress interface, you may eventually prefer the freedom of a blank slate.
I will go over both options.
FROM A CLONE:
1) Click on Posts, then “Add New”
2) Click on the button that says “All Categories, and scroll down to select “Tips & Techniques”
3) Click “Filter
This is just an easier way to see all posts under the Tips & Techniques category without scrolling through every post (this would be very time consuming).
4) Hover over the title of the post you want to clone. After you hover, the second line will appear. Choose “Duplicate This.”
5) Now your newly created post will appear at the very top of your page. It is just a draft, not published yet. After you create this clone, the program will kick you back to viewing ALL of the posts, not just the ones in Tips & Techniques category. But if you’d like to only view the Tips & Techniques, you may again click on “All Categories” and then filter it as you did in the steps above.
6) Click on the TITLE of your post draft in order to edit.
On every page and post in wordpress, you have the option to either work on the back end, or the front end. You will figure out your preference. Here is a cheat sheet:
MODULES are actual content pieces (slides, images, text, headlines, buttons, etc.) They are in BLACK.
ROWS are in green. I’ll talk more about this later, but rows come in handy for whether you want one, two, three+ sections. Like this:
(All those greens are possible layouts for Rows. This particular page is a one-row layout, so it is highlighted in blue.)
COLUMNS are in BLUE. Columns are the SECTIONS. You won’t have to deal with them too much. They are for larger stylistic things. You will largely only deal with rows and modules. That said, you’ll always have at least ONE column. Think of it like a container for layout and content. But you won’t have to style it, or do anything to it.
When it comes to cloning a page, you will have to be SURE that you do the following:
7) Change the Title
8) Change the Slug to match the Title
9) Change your content. All content can be changed by clicking on the gear icon, just like you have done for the text boxes.
10) Change your featured image. Your featured image is the thing that will show up in the preview boxes, such as these:
11) Click “Update” (In the screenshot it says “Publish.” It will be the only highlighted blue button.)
I know I said that you can either work on the front end or the back end, but there are some things that you MUST do on the back end, regardless of whether you want to edit the content on the front end. Think of it like: you have to take care of the technical meta on the back end only. It’s up to you whether you also want to work on the content & design on the back end or switch to the front end.
As a recap, the things you MUST do on the back end before you have the choice of switching to the front end design:
1) Change Title
2) Change Slug
3) Change Featured Image
4) Click “Update”
It’s up to you at this point whether you want to change the content (largely text and images) on the backend or front end.
Changing content is going to look the same on the front end or back end. The difference is this: on the back end, it’s easy to see how sections of the post are laid out – what is what, what is where. It is harder to see how it all looks together, in terms of design.
On the front end, it’s much easier to design as you go, but the problem for beginners is that it’s very hard to see what module is nestled in what row.
Either way, once you find the gear icon on a module in either the front end or the back end, THE PROCESS WILL BE THE SAME.
For example, if you click on the gear icon for the gallery, it’s pretty intuitive as to how to delete and add pictures. You can also drag and drop them in the order that you want.
IF CREATING A POST FROM SCRATCH
(Before you get here, you simply need to go to “Posts -> Add New” which will bring you to this screen.)
1) Create Title
2) After the Title is created, the Slug is automatically generated. You usually don’t have to do anythign to the Slug. But, if you have a type-o in your title or you decide to change your title, it will NOT automatically regnenerate, you will have to do it yourself. An example of this would be:
Title: My Awesome Cabbinet.
Slug will automatically generate: https://www.ctwcreations.com/my-awesome-cabbinet
All of a sudden, you realize that you spelled “cabinet” wrong. You go back and change the Title, but the misspelling will still show up in the slug unless you manually change it.
3) Click on “Use the Divi Builder” which will bring this up:
Pick “Build From Scratch”
You will then be taken here:
After you pick “Build From Scratch” You will be presented with this screen.
4) You must pick a layout. (You can do this on back or front end.) The other 2 Tips & Techniques posts have an equal 2 column layout. You can pick any layout you like.
(I’m coming back to #4 next for more details)
5) Unlike the cloned post, you will have to unclick “uncategorized” and instead choose “Tips & Techniques”
6) Click “Hide Featured Image.” This may sound odd, but actually the default wordpress is to include your featured image at the top of every post in a huge, obnoxious way. So we had to install a plugin to hide this.
7) Choose your featured image so it will show up in the preview box.
8) Click “Publish.”
DETAILS FOR #4: ADDING CONTENT:
Once you pick a layout, you’ll have options to fill those rows with modules. Modules is just another word for content (images, pictures, buttons, etc.).
For example, I just clicked on the 2 column layout. The very next thing I see is:
So now I’m prompted to insert a module. You can pick photo galleries, pictures, text, etc.
OF NOTE: When it comes to adding TEXT:
You can either choose the text there, or click on “Add From Library” and then choose “text”. This just means that I have preformatted the text so that it’s the right size, and it’s already mobile optimized.
HOW TO RE-ORDER POSTS:
1) Navigate to Posts -> then filter to your Tips & Techniques Category.
2) Simply drag and drop the posts in the order you like.
