This is really a series of Help pages for my own clients, people for whom I have set up a Blog or used WordPress as the content management system for their site.

People who have installed WordPress for themselves can probably manage by searching the internet or scouring through the WordPress documentation at http://codex.wordpress.org.

But I want to provide nice, clear help pages for people who will be using WordPress to add and edit blog posts or website content.

The next question is then what function to use to achieve the extracts.  There are basically 3 options within WordPress:-

1. the_content() – Make a practice of starting each post with a snappy introduction, followed by the <!–more–> tag.  Then, on each Group page, use the_content() function when the post content is required.  The page will show just that first section of each post. The whole post only appears on its own page or in loops which are displaying only one post. A handy optional parameter of the_content (the first parameter) is the text which you want to use for the “more” link; if you leave this parameter empty, it will appear as “more…”
2. the_excerpt() – Make a practice of including a snappy summary of each post in the Optional Excerpt section on the Post edit page.  Then, on each Group page, use the_excerpt().  The page will show just that selected Excerpt, or the first 120 words of the post, if you forgot to enter an Optional Excerpt. There are no optional parameters for this function.  Use of the_content() will continue to display the whole post on any page where it is used.
3. the_excerpt_reloaded() – This plugin provides a function similar to the_excerpt() except that it supports some optional parameters, thus giving you more choice of format on pages which include extracts.  Parameters include excerpt length, “more” text and allowed tags (the_excerpt shows only text and does not action any format tags; this parameter allows you to specify any tags which you want to be formatted within the excerpt). 

Ideally, I’d like to display the same page using all 3 different options.  And maybe one day, when I have lots of categories and posts to play with I will do just that.  But I think for now I will just have to make a choice. 

Because I want to have the flexibility to display whole posts when it suits me, I shall choose the_excerpt over the_content for now.  And because of the extra versatility it offers, I think I will have to give the_excerpt_reloaded a try.

To explore this, I have created 2 sets of Group pages:-

1. 1 set shows the entire contents of all the selected posts
2. the second set shows just extracts of the selected posts, with links to the whole post

Now I can compare these 2 sets of pages and decide which I like best.

There is one Blog index page showing whole posts and an alternative one showing excerpts only.

There is 1 selected Category page showing excerpts, while the rest show whole posts.

I think that is enough to allow me to choose a favoured approach.

1. Edited the templates – single, archive, date, category, and post templates, to make the layout more like I want.
2. Made minor changes to the style sheet, will add more as I go along. 
3. Changed the header image. May have fun with header, logo etc as I go along. 
4. Got the home page to operate as I want.  I have set up a static home page, with some extracts from the blog as teasers and have kept a separate blog. 
5. Added a little light-hearted stuff to About, could do with some more.
6. Set up a template specifically for the Growing a Website category, which shows items in date order (oldest first) rather than reverse date order (newest first).
7. Got Search working. The only problem was its use of “old” WordPress code and layout – in fact, removing the “leave this line” at the top of the search template (which must have been historical) got it working.
8. Outstanding: my attempt to create a Page which is actually my blog’s front page (see point 4).  As Pages in WordPress are completely different beasts to post Archives (that is, any page which contains a collection of posts and therefore requires “The Loop”), I have a feeling that what I am after is not worth the effort.  It may remain outstanding for a while….

I’ve done all this using two different themes, so I can learn the workings of two different approaches and change between them when I feel like it.

So, what’s next?

I think the major drive now is to start adding sensible content posts and pages, to build up the content of my website, prior to starting work on some others (based on my recent experience). 

• I’m using WordPress version 2.1
• the Theme which first took my fancy, and which I’ve been learning with, uses the functions available in WordPress 1.2
• most of the documentation applies to version 1.5 and later

That combination has cost me a few hours, to say the least.  I’ve been trying adapt my theme using guidelines described for v1.5 and above and they’ve not worked with my v1.2 theme!

When, in frustration, I changed back to the theme which comes as Default with WordPress 2.1 (also known as the Kubrick theme), I found that my adaptations worked well…. but then I could not change the header! 

Well, the header problem is now resolved and I now understand how to bring my v1.2 theme up to date, so that it then implements my adaptations successfully. 

My next question is which theme to use to move forward

1. with my own site, and
2. as a template I am comfortable with for future development work

A pleasant concern to have