As I was working on the manual for the use of that special kind of themes, I suddenly realized that the whole project was not going to work….

You see, if you have a customer that is not so WordPress and Computer savvy as you are, you need to explain how this thing with  "custom fields"works.
And you need to tell them how to upload and choose the right image, copy the right name and paste it in the right format in the right box…
Before that you need to tell you client that he/she needs to create three images in exactly those three formats because they are needed in that post…

So do you think he/she will go through this kind of proces every time he/she wants to write a post?
If the answer is NO (really big change!) than you need to re-think the use of that kind of WP Templates for a CMS based semi static page.

Just use a standard WordPress Blog Template and recode that in a way that your customer will be able to write and manage its website in the easiest way possible.
Only then, and really only then he/she be much more likely to work on their own website and let it grow to its real potential.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Magazine Style CMS Like WordPress themes, but you should not use them for the majority of website owners.

Lets start with some Plugins that can help you to unclutter your sidebar:

WordPress Fold Pages List

This nice little Plugin will give you the ability to have the top pages listed in your sidebar, but once clicked it unfolds the underlaying pages.
You can use all parameters from WordPress wp_list_pages() and some extra’s that are native to this Plugin.
Installation is simple, and get it working is also not that difficult. Just replace wp_list_pages with wswwpx_fold_page_list in the sidebar.php and you are done

One problem…. it is not widgetized (yet) so if you use Widgets to Build your sidebar it will not work.

WordPress My Page Order

In WordPress you can sort your pages by giving them a number that you have to fill in at the bottom of that page.
You can imagine that tis will be a lot of work if you create a new page that has to go between other pages…

The My Page order gives you a nice sorting option where you can just drag and drop your page in the right order.
And yes, this works with sorting sub-pages as well.

You have probably seen at lot of the templates below before, but I hope you will also find some that you didn’t know.

There will be Free CMS Themes and also the so called "Premium Themes", the choice is yours on what to use.
Sometime a free one will do better on your site then a premium one.
And sometimes you really need the extra documentation and support from a Premium theme, but please check always the Designers website to look for support and possibly a new release, as for every update of WordPress there might be a new feature that is build in the theme of your choose.

Tip: Please document the changes you made in your template files, as it might be necessary to do them again if you want to upgrade your theme.

I will be updating this page from time to time, as more and more people are looking at WordPress as a valid choice to use it as a CMS and are building theme’s that will do just that.

1. http://www.jauhari.net/themes/30april

Some of the Theme’s features:

But WordPress does not allow you to assign Pages to Categories, But this might be a great function to reduce the number of Links in your Page Menu.

So currently I am looking at the new Plugins from Andy Staines who creates some great Plugins like the "Page Category Plus"
Once I figured out how to use it, you will find the examples and Configuration and Usage Instructions on the Pages..

The Site will have three Silos to work with:

WordPress Setup:
The Configuration settings to use WordPress as a Content Management System with a static Frontpage

WordPress Plugins:
An overview and Manuals on how to use the Plugins that complete the CMS part of WordPress and makes it easier to work with.
You will also get some tips on Plugins you can use to further Optimize your site for Search Engines.

WordPress Themes:
Some themes just work better for Building a Website with WordPress, you can read about them here with tips and trics how to use and improve them to suite your needs.

Enjoy the ride ride with me and scubscribe to the RSS Feed or the E-mail version.

TechTags Plugin [ WordPress | CMS | Website | Building ]

The Following pages are About the Options to set or changes in the general Configuration of WordPress, so that it is Optimized for Creating a WordPress based Website.

But you want your Website to be as clean as possible without traces of Blogging.
So there are a few files you have to change to improve you site, I will talk you through the changes.

Please don’t make these changes if you want a Blogpage integrated into your WordPress website!!

Some Knowledge of File editing should make this a lot easier, but most of it can be done via the Theme editor within the WordPress Administrator Panel. 

I will also make your live a little easier by pointing out a few allready Search Engine Optimized WordPress Themes.
You will also find some sample page headers to use or modify for your own Website.

So what to look for in you WordPress themes?

- Remove all references to Author, Date and Time of posting and possibility to comment, mostly this will show up with coding like:

 <h5>by <?php the_author(’nickname’); ?> on <?php the_time(’F jS, Y’) ?><!– by <?php the_author() ?> –> &middot; <?php comments_popup_link(’No Comments’, ‘1 Comment’, ‘% Comments’); ?></h5>

You have to hunt done these lines in all your template .php files. start with the index.php, page.php and single.php files.
If you cleaned that files, you will have about 90% of the template done.

What you definitly will be using are the Headspace2 Plugin and also the Google Sitemap Plugins will come in Handy..