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I wrote in the blog on 19Jun20,
I am impelled to embark on two new learning curves: Wordpress to throw together a site for C&N final assessment and also video for (a) the same reason and (b) I videoed my mother's funeral last week: needed because of Welsh virus restrictions on attendance, and must learn video editing.
I have ordered the latest Andy Williams, WordPress for Beginners 2020 that uses the Astra theme which is, apparently. a good starting point. And the book blurb says it covers the new Gutenberg editor, which is the complaint about most of the other Wordpress books on the market.
I have Adobe Premier included in my bundle, but it is to complicated and slick for my taste. I have upgraded to Premier Elements 2020 which is my kind of cheesy.
I will start new pages on Wordpress and Video.
blog, 19th June
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19th June
I have signed into Wordpress using my OCA email and set up a free account. The site will be baphot.wordpress.com/, although I have not launched it yet.
Subject to further details on what OCA actually want, I'll set up:
- 1. An about page explaining that is is for assessment only and BAPhot.co.uk is the real one.
- 2. A dropdown menu for the five assignments and for each, the submission text, the reworked pieces, tutors comments and my response.
- 3. Bits of the coursework - probably all the exercises.
- 4. Bits of the blog.
- 5. The zine.
23rd June
I'm switching to WP.org because of the limitations on WP.com. I bought baphot-cn.co.uk from LCN for £1 +VAT, used their WP setup, Williams has arrived and i am just starting to try making sense of it. Here's a page from LCN.
It might have been more sensible to just set up a "cn" subdomain to Baphot as they can be used with wordpress standalone. Perhaps next time.

3rd July - WP Progress
After a few false starts some progress has been made. I am using the default WP 2020 theme rather than Astra and have stripped it back to bare minimalism. I would like to set up breadcrumb navigation and for that I have to create a "child theme". I am corresponding with LCN about the FTP details.
4th July Breadcrumbs
If I can get these working, it will improve navigation considerably on smaller screens. I am currently using the default 2020 theme and a search on implementing bcs thereon came up with:
- WP - https://wordpress.org/support/topic/breadcrumb-code-twenty-sixteen-wordpress-theme/
- webtaylor - https://www.thewebtaylor.com/articles/wordpress-creating-breadcrumbs-without-a-plugin
- wpeka - https://www.wpeka.com/wordpress-website-breadcrumbs.html
- webnots - https://www.webnots.com/adding-breadcrumb-in-wordpress-using-yoast-seo-plugin/
If I cannot get them working today, I'll look for an alternative theme that has bcs built-in and go from there.
While I have progressed far enough to understand what child themes are and how to create them, using DW as an editor and file manager, I don't understand how WP knows to load the child theme. In some ways a theme with integral bcs or a plugin that just does bcs would be preferable because it should then be future-proof.
My current implementation is littered with discarded plugins that will need tidying up at some point.

header.php
[@9:53] Early progress using the Flexy Breadcrumb plugin. inserting the code directly into the parent 2020 header.php and not bothering about a child theme works (but don't forget Ryan Daniels and his 2020 mods).
I now need to attend to the structure of the pages so that I get a hierarchy reflected in the breadcrumbs - this is why I have only done a few pages yet - I had hoped it might magically pick up a structure from the main menu but, realistically, I didn't expect it to.
Page structure - That's pretty easy - pages, quick edit, set the parent. More control over the text displayed in the bcs would be good - everything is prefixed Asg.1 at the moment. WARNING don't change the slug - that beaks it. The answer is, just change the title.
[13:01] All good, now to remove the underlines on links, from WP added to the Additional CSS box
/* Place this in your template CSS file or Theme CSS Editor */
a { text-decoration: none!important; }
6th July - Reset
I set up subdomains cn.baphot.co.uk and ip.baphot.co.uk yesterday and made a complete dog's breakfast of trying to move from baphot-cn to cn.baphot.
I will start again from scratch with what I have learned so far and keep better notes this time.
[Later] after a lot of fiddling with the help of LCN, I gave up and took the nuclear options, deleted baphot-cn and the subdomain cn.baphot and will start afresh.
Theme - Plugins - admin password - child theme
Theme -
twentytwenty
only pages, no posts - appearance > customise > homepage settings
background colour - appearance > customise > colours
font size of headings - from Ryan Daniels - there's a lot more good stuff there too
additional CSS
/* Smaller Heading Font please */
@media (min-width: 700px) {
h1, .heading-size-1 { font-size: 3.2rem; }
h2, .heading-size-2 { font-size: 2.2rem; }
h3, .heading-size-3 { font-size: 1.9rem; }
h4, .heading-size-4 { font-size: 1.6rem; }
}
Plugins -
- Flexy Breadcrumb
- Akismet antivirus
- CF Page or Post Duplicator
Andy Williams recommends these:
- Updraft Plus - backups ✓
- Akismet antivirus - default and already in use ✓
- Contact Form 7 - dialogues, not needed 〤
- WP-Insert - legal pages - don't bother, see Admin section 〤
- Yoast SEO - search engine optimization - don't care 〤
- I'm looing for a decent PDF viewer for the zine
Admin password
It can be reset by using these instructions:
Filezilla
Hack
Child theme
[7Jul20]I think I understand that you need to put the mods in a child theme to avoid them being overwritten by theme updates. And how to create one through Filezilla. What I do not yet get is how to tell the site to look at the child theme definitions in addition to the originals. That will come in time: start with Ryan Daniels. Meantime, keep notes on what is changing in the main theme - so far it's just trying to get breadcrumbs working.
7th July
Order is restored and I just have to build it all again - not too tall a task, knowing what I now do.
I plan to build the whole structure and then clone it to the IP subdomain, to an EyV subdomain, just in case I ever document that retrospectively and to a next. in anticipation. Plugin CF Page or Post Duplicator is proving helpful and here's a piece on site duplication - How to Clone a WordPress Site in 7 Easy Steps.
I'll reorder this page and put the latest at the bottom.
[10:22pm] All the C&N pages have been created, headed, structured and the menu created. next add all the necessary plugins and it is ready for cloning to I&P, EyV and Spare.
Then populate the pages with material from this original BAPhot and we're done (but for Asg.5 rework).

ftp
8th July - Plugins and themes
Now to load the plugins (list here), take a backup and try to set up a child theme - advice here, progress logged here.
Well, I have looked at that, pointed Dreamweaver at LCN and copied over styles.css from the twentytwenty theme to a -child directory, but persuading the system to pick up the -child, if not actually beyond me, would take longer to understand and implement than I have right now.
I'm going to update the 2020 theme to the new version, try to reinstate the mod and then clone the site so that I can get on with loading content.
[later]
backup taken but struggling to copy it to ip. - I get stuck when telling it what database to use. Return to this later.
[22:53] After all that, you can just export and import pages, leaving the menu to set up and the other bits and pieces documented above. I think the pages are 70-80% of the work, so that's done for all three extra sites, IP, EyV and next. Latest version saved in baphot_stuff/WP ans PAGES_eyv...
9th July - Checklist
Having set up the three companion sites, ip. eyv. and next. with all the template pages from cn. I will compile a list of the necessary steps to create the functioning site:
- 1. activate theme twentytwenty
- 2. settings / general - set title, tagline, language and timezone
- 3. set static site - setting / reading - static site, set home page
- 4. appearance / customise / colours - set background colour to white; primary colour / custom - make it redder
- 5. appearance / customise / additional CSS - change header font size
- /* Smaller Heading Font please */
@media (min-width: 700px) {
h1, .heading-size-1 { font-size: 3.2rem; }
h2, .heading-size-2 { font-size: 2.2rem; }
h3, .heading-size-3 { font-size: 1.9rem; }
h4, .heading-size-4 { font-size: 1.6rem; }
} - 5a. and remove underlines from links -
- /* Place this in your template CSS file or Theme CSS Editor */
a { text-decoration: none!important; } - fix to centre the image caption text link gives additional CSS below
figcaption { text-align: center; } - 5b. [28Jul] reduce the headline space and many other goodies from Om Prakash Chowdhury
.singular .entry-header {
padding-top: 2rem !important;
padding-bottom: 4rem !important;
}
- /* Smaller Heading Font please */
- 6. appearance / widgets - remove the lot
- 7. appearances - create the main (and only) menu
- 8. delete any posts
- 9. add and activate plugins -
- Flexy Breadcrumb
- Akismet antivirus
- Updraft Plus
- CF Page or Post Duplicator
- Modula Gallery (or try another, it's nothing special)
- WPFront Scroll Top
- and modify header.php for breadcrumbs ( see images below)
- <?php echo do_shortcode( '[flexy_breadcrumb]' ); ?>
- Favicon by RealFaviconGenerator
- Twentig for customising?
- I'm looking for a decent PDF viewer for the zine [4Aug] DFlip Lite is excellent and free, see here.
- Category Tag Pages, see 12 below, and maybe Cool Tag Cloud
- 10. one teeny additional problem has been noticed. The menu navigates correctly but the page navigation, e.g. the list of assignments switches to their original C&N source. That was a bit of a pain but only took an hour so.
- 10a. and the priorities should be set on the assignment pages so that they are ordered correctly on the menu - this should be on the save version - consider saving EyV before populating. Done 15Jul20.
- 11. and modify the priorities (quick edit) on the main pages to control their sequence in the header menu
- 12. [19Aug] I have been trying to organise a Tag Cloud. Tags are normally reserved for posts rather than pages, but the plugin Category Tag Pages allows page tags. There is a simple WP widget that makes a plain tag cloud, implemented on this page, but I'd like soemthing prettier and tried Cool Tag Cloud. I am trying to insert this on a page rather in a footer, where widgets seem to want to go.
The whole reconfiguration task takes only a few hours. I will attend to the others in due course - EyV (if I have time) can be created along the lines of C&N but I haven't started the I&P course yet, so the WP site structure and contents might change for I&P itself and for subsequent courses, so it's not worth spending too much time on the next. template.
Anchor links - I'm not sure why this is not built in more easily - a custom html block and <a id="lab"></a>
Modula
Random=0; captions x 2 off; insert as "wide width".


15th September

WP screen
LCN, my service providers, have upgraded everything, resulting in much faster uploads but the one click Worpress install has gone. The service desk has made two installs for me, but it took a long time to organise. I have two new subdomains, LPE, in anticipation of me doing Landscape, Place and Environment after I&P and Essays, where I am hoping to develop a quasi database for academic essays to make my search for relevant quotes easier. The subdomains now exist but I haven't managed to update them yet - I'm stock on this screen (see right).
14th December - BAPhotRef
A new experimental site to ease referencing the books I keep buying. As setting up WP as a subdomain to a non-WP site is such a pain (i,e, LCN have stopped doing it for me) I am trying a new top-level WP site as a starting point. It should, if it works, take over from Sources.
First, I'm running through the 9th July checklist.
- Theme 2020 and delete the others ✓
- Settings / General ✓
- Settings / Reading - set static site ✓
- appearance / customise / colours - white and redder ✓
- appearance / customise / additional CSS - change header font size + the other bits ✓
- appearance / widgets - remove ✓
- appearance / menus start with the edfault aleady set up ✓
- delete any posts ✓
- Plugins:
- Flexy breadcrumb, leave that for now
- Akismet antivirus - make sure you get the free, non-commercial one ✓
- Updraft Plus✓
- Page and Post Clone (Carlos Fazenda) ✓
- Modula Gallery (or try another, it's nothing special), leave for now
- WPFront Scroll Top ✓
- Favicon by RealFaviconGenerator ✓
- Twentig for customising ✓
appearance / widgets - remove
[20Dec] Tag cloud - add plugin Category Tag Pages
Advanced Editor Tools plugin added to enable easy highlighting of text.
Building LPE.
[24Sep21] lpe. was in place but empty. To fill it up,
- in next.
- Load and activate the Duplicator plugin from the dashboard
- follow How to Clone a WordPress Site in 7 Easy Steps
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