Ready to create or upgrade your business website? Wordpress themes are free, and they're also plug-n-play, so you can install the template and hit the ground running with a new site before a web designer even gets started writing code. The only drawback? The default setup for most themes is a blog-style layout, with a front page that shows a running list of latest posts. If you want a more professional-looking site, that displays posts on different pages, sorted by category, check out this list of page-of-posts plugins available for download.
What is a Plugin?
Plugins are additional bits of code that can be extremely useful if you don't want to build a special function from scratch, or don't have any experience coding. To use a plugin, just download it through the Wordpress site, and click to activate it. Some plugins require additional configuration, and have a special setup process, but most are straightforward, and much easier than trying to figure out how to do it by hand. Always check to make sure that you have the latest version of a plugin, and that the latest version is compatible with your version of Wordpress. Also, read the ratings from other users, if you want to avoid installing a plugin that has a tendency to crash a site or generally cause problems with other functions.
Page of Posts
If you want your content to display on different pages, according to category, you can create a page template called Page of Posts, and use it to customize your site. Learn more about the process of creating a page template and coding to pull in the specific posts from the Wordpress Codex. Alternatively, you can skip the code and just install a plugin that does all the hard work for you. These plugins all give you the ability to display certain types of posts on different pages.
- Pages Posts: The pages posts plugin, by Rich Gubby, lets you configure each page to display all posts of a specified category or tag. Configure this plugin under the "Settings" tab in your Wordpress Administrator window.
- List Category Posts: The list category posts plugin, by Fernando Briano, allows you to customize pages to include a list of posts in a particular category. This plugin includes a related widget, which displays posts by category as well.
If you're trying to upgrade or install a new website, and you've decided on customizing a Wordpress template, you'll find that it's an easy process to convert even the bloggiest theme to a professional business site. Just spend some time checking out the plugins that are compatible with your theme, and your site will go from bloggy to businesslike in no time flat.
Victoria Nicks - Victoria Nicks has a Master's Degree in IT, and extensive hands-on experience with various types of hardware and software.
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