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barbimckaysmith
407 PointsWordPress Slider problems
I have been trying to develop my first Word Press site for HOURS now. All I want is a simple slideshow of about 30 photos against a solid black background.
I have installed numerous themes, but can't seem to get any of them to work. I'm very discouraged.
The only thing that is showing on the site is the demo. http://667.a95.myftpupload.com/
barbimckaysmith
407 Points@karennh ,
I hope you see this (the reply link in the email kept giving me an error)...Thank you for your response - it was my very first reply on Treehouse! You "hit the nail on the head" by suggesting looking for documentation by the theme's author on his web site. That is the very key to my breakthrough!
It seems so obvious now, but since I am just starting out, I didn't realize that you could find instructions there. I thought the instructions on the WordPress (Codex) site were "global" (applicable to every theme). Therefore, I was getting extremely frustrated since what WordPress was showing in their instructions weren't at all what I was seeing on my screen.
Thankfully, after I posted my question (and before you posted your answer), the thought finally occurred to me to look on the theme author's site to see if perhaps I could find any instructions - and there they were! What a relief!!! I had watched multiple tutorials on Word Press for beginners, but I don't remember any telling me to check the theme developer's site for step-by-step instructions.
Thanks again for your help! Perhaps this will help another rookie like me. :-)
4 Answers
karennh
4,925 PointsGlad to hear you are now getting somewhere! Using Google is really helpful because sometimes the author's site doesn't have what you need but someone else has written about what you are looking for.
I agree with Philip that a basic theme would be an easier place to start. I suggest you try https://wordpress.org/themes/twentythirteen because there are a gazillion articles written about customizing it.
barbimckaysmith
407 PointsI have that theme installed, and I made it active, however, I still don't see the elements the WordPress codex tells me to click on. For example, on this page: http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/media-settings/ , it tells me there is supposed to be settings for "Image Gallery Carousel", but the only section I have below "Image Sizes" is "Uploading Files".
Then, on http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/#adding-a-gallery-or-slideshow it says "To switch to tiled layouts from the default, head over to Settings → Media in your blog’s dashboard, scroll down to “Image Gallery Carousel,” and select the box next to “Display all your gallery pictures in a cool mosaic.”
Since I never got the chance to select "Image Gallery Carousel", I don't have these options either...I don't know why I can't see the same things on my screen that the instructions talk about. Is there any way I can send a screen shot to show you what I'm referring to?
karennh
4,925 PointsUh oh, you are looking at documentation for wordpress.com and that is not the same as the codex for wordpress.org. See the differences here [http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/]
A slideshow doesn't come standard for wordpress.org sites, but you can select a theme that uses one, add a plugin that does it or write your own.
I have used the Meta Slider plugin and it works well. You upload slides and then use a shortcode to put the slideshow on a page.
PS There is a course here on Treehouse with info on Wordpress.com [http://teamtreehouse.com/library/great-wordpresscom-websites] so now I am confused on which one you are using.
barbimckaysmith
407 PointsPlease forgive my delay in responding...Your comment was INCREDIBLY helpful!!! No wonder nothing had been making sense! I was reading instructions from the wrong site! I had no idea there were TWO WordPress sites! I am hosting my site on another company's servers, so I should be using WordPress.org. Now I believe I will stop running into brick walls! Thank you SO much for your invaluable help Karen!
karennh
4,925 PointsNo problem. Glad I could help! Good luck avoiding those brick walls ;)
Phil Purves
9,827 PointsYeah it all seems tricky at first. Learning this stuff from scratch takes many hours
Looks like you'd need to create some Pages first (on that example theme) - then try adding a feature image to each ... done via an options box on the admin area for each page (bottom right). These should then appear on your home page, perhaps in that slider too, although I don't know that theme.
I had a peek at some of the code on your site (using Firefox dev tools) - some suggestions: Approach 1: ... you'll need to play around with adjusting photos the optimum shape and sizes (those are far too big) to fit the slider. Then, if necessary, with styling ensure they don't shoot off the top of the slider windows e.g. one pic has the code... Production-Crew.jpg" style="top: -610.5px;"> it's a huge image (2100x2100). The -610.5px bit means it overshoots at the top by more than 600pixels - probably due to the upload system trying to centralize an image that's way too big for the slider window. Approach 2: ... forget about clever themes with sliders for now and use a vanilla wordpress theme to get started. Try getting a standard media gallery up and running with smaller images (about a quarter of those current sizes to begin with). That way the images retain their formats and you could use a lightbox plugin to get a nicer look. Get the look, sizes and shapes you want before getting back to sliders.
Simple steps needed to begin with - It'll all make sense in the end. How about going systematically through more of the tutes until you get an 'aha' moment (when the logic starts to kick in).
Good luck!
barbimckaysmith
407 PointsPhillip,
Thank you for taking so much time to help me - I really appreciate it. I can definitely see that the images are way too big (I was exhausted so had to leave it like that until I could get back to it.). Since the slider is set to 500 px high, I knew I needed to re-size the images to that height. However, my concern was what happens to the visual impact when I am dealing with vertical photos which are not the full-width of the slider? I think I read that this theme adjusts the width of the slider to fit different sizes of screens (even cell phones), so I wasn't sure that I should try to "fill in" the width to fit a wider space.
I think your idea about starting with a "vanilla" WordPress theme is wonderful, but I'm not sure where to find that. Can you point me in the right direction? It was actually my hope to find something more simple. All I knew to do was to use the search box to look for slideshows or sliders, and I kept trying different themes until I found one that actually moved (this was harder than I imagined). I would be very interested in finding a more simple slideshow theme that I can use these instructions with: http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/#adding-a-gallery-or-slideshow
A theme always has to be chosen, correct? If so, how do I found out which theme the WordPress instructions are referring to in the linked instructions above? I didn't see those fields in any of the themes I tried.
Again, thanks for your help.
Phil Purves
9,827 PointsYou're welcome... Correct - Themes are fundamental, you'll see nothing without them. Look under Appearance>Themes in your WP dashboard to change them. Wordpress comes with some simple ones built in but their styles aren't great to my eye. You could try andersnoren.se -he's a Swedish designer with some beautiful, simple starter themes that are cleanly coded and free.
barbimckaysmith
407 PointsPhilip, I checked out his site, but I didn't see any with slideshows. My customer wants his images to move across the screen. Am I missing something obvious?
Phil Purves
9,827 PointsWordpress.com hosted sites rely a lot on a plugin called jetpack. I suspect that's what your carousel query above refers to... make sure it's activated (see under plugins) or add it if it's not there - jetpack carousel at least. And check out: http://jetpack.me/support/carousel/
The Rams theme in the link I suggested contains a slider (it uses jetpack)
barbimckaysmith
407 PointsPlease forgive the delay in my response. I really appreciate your help. I had seen lots of references to Jetpack, but every time I tried to download it, I would be asked for my UN & P, and I could never login successfully. Now I know that I was on the wrong site (WordPress.com vs WordPress.org). Since I have a self-hosted site, I should have been on WordPress.org. Once I went there, I was able to download it with no problem. I should be able to move forward now (fingers crossed!). Thanks again for your help.
karennh
4,925 Pointskarennh
4,925 PointsI'm not familiar with that theme, but have you checked out the documentation here about the slider? http://themesandco.com/creating-a-slider-with-the-customizr-wordpress-theme/
Especially #7 - Did you select your slider instead of the demo slider?
Hope that helps. Wordpress can be very tricky and then all the theme options are endless. Keep at it!
Karen