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WordPress

Posted by Scooter D
Scooter D
9,611 Points

Working on a Wordpress site, I want to "Test" Changes

Hey all,

I've been gradually learning small amounts of HTML and CSS and constructed a website (from a wordpress theme) for my small business.

I really want to take what I'm learning from TeamTreeHouse Lessons and apply them to my site...but im nervous using the editor in wordpress.

I did the lesson on "how to make a basic website" and liked how I can put my document in my browser and test it, without making "live" changes.

Did I miss a step or two on how to do this easily? Is there a way I can just dload everything on my wordpress site and be able to work offline without making live changes?

Thanks!

Here's my site if you need to look into this: www.howdy-tech.com

4 Answers

David Schiffner
David Schiffner
8,090 Points
David Schiffner
David Schiffner
8,090 Points

There's no real easy way to do that with a live wordpress site on a server unfortunately.

One thing you could do is create an offline version of your site on your pc/mac using Xampp or MAMP.

mac: http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress_Locally_on_Your_Mac_With_MAMP

pc: http://wpmu.org/install-wordpress-locally-on-windows-with-xampp/

Kris Jolls
Kris Jolls
5,157 Points
Kris Jolls
Kris Jolls
5,157 Points

I have been using this. http://serverpress.com/ It's a virtual server for WP.

jeff creamer
jeff creamer
23,733 Points
jeff creamer
jeff creamer
23,733 Points

You could visit your site in Chrome browser and use Dev Tools/Inspect Element and make non-commital changes to stuff to see what it looks like right there. Once you hit 'refresh page', your temporary 'changes' disappear.

David's and Kris' suggestion of using virtual and local servers might be right up your alley.

Another option: make your site/pages 'private' or password-protected for a few days while you work on it more. I haven't used the WP Responsive theme yet, so I'm not sure if that one lets you do that, but it should.

If you're going to do a child theme of the Responsive theme, just copy your child theme's css/etc files to a folder on your desktop first. Then your default site settings are safe and you can experiment.

Good luck!!

Scooter D
Scooter D
9,611 Points
Scooter D
Scooter D
9,611 Points

Thanks for the input! This is really helpful, can't wait to start getting at this. Thanks!