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ThemeShaper Forums » Thematic

1. 

   rickdej
   Member

   Hello, folks. I've waded far and wide into this forum pool and I am lost. I really want just to do two things: 1. create menus like those shown on http://themeshaper.com/thematic/guide/ (I can't even figure out how to do this!), and 2. I'd like the pages the menus link to use SEO-friendly URLs, not page-IDs. It's easy if you know it - but I don't.

   Context: I am not a dev. I know HTML, I can read and understand XML logic, and I wrote batch files long ago in the days of DOS. But I am not a dev -- I am a writer. I've never set up a blog nor worked with WordPress until now. I am struggling with basic nomenclature (superfish?), which source files contain the functions to modify, where to put the modified functions in the child theme (yes, I have that done!), and what parameters are supported in a given function. I do not know PHP (is that a deal breaker?). I need API docs for Thematic!

   I do get the concepts, but I just can't find the explicit information I need to make the mods I want. Is the Thematic Guide site code available (at least for the menu section)? That might be all I need to see. Thanks for any assistance you can offer.

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   helgatheviking
   Moderator

   The thematic guide is a little (a lot) out of date. there's a wiki brewing (we hope) but there's been a hold up w/ domain transfers and real life.

   not to put you off but Thematic has a rather large learning curve. once you get some of the basics (like how to add and action and how to filter an action) well most of the changes you'll ever want to make are variations on the same theme.

   always put all your modifications in your child's functions.php. you can find out what parameters are supported in a given function by going to look at the function in the thematic/library/extensions folder. that is sort of the guts of thematic right there and i'm always in there seeing what does what.

   for menus it doesn't get any more explicit than my instructions here:
   http://themeshaper.com/forums/topic/thematic-menus-demystified-1

   but it sounds like you want to change your permalinks. in the dashboard, go to Settings>permalinks.

   select Custom and paste this in:

   /%postname%/

   then hit save

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   zorro
   Member

   The menu that you referred to in the thematic guide is simply the pages in that particular word press implementation.

   Try this:

   Create a page entitled "My continent"

   On the front end, you will then see "my continent" feature on a menu similar to the one you are referring to.
   You can create as many pages as you like in this fashion.

   Now, create a new page entitled "my country:" When creating it, you will see, on the right, that you can select a "parent" for your page. In this case, select, "my continent."

   When you go back to the front end, you will see that "my country" is a sub menu item under "my continent."

   Hope that sets you off in the right direction.

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   rickdej
   Member

   HtV, I read your definitive post several times before I wrote last night. I'm sorry, I'm sure it is the definitive post, but it was written with assumptions of reader knowledge that just I don't have. It's simply not a newbie post. I have no doubt of your technical prowess, Helga, but I just couldn't extract from it what I wanted to know. That was the primary source of my frustration last night (that and the lack of an organized documentation set)

   Zorro, I think you misunderstood what I wanted.

   Thank you both very much for the fast and well-intended replies. But I do have good news! I kept persisting at the effort and I finally made it work! (I really needed a basic primer on how to use the WP Admin dashboard tools). I added new pages, and that allowed me to add what I was calling menus (I guess they are actually pages in a menu).

   My new (and extremely basic) WP blog site is now up and running. It's still a work in progress, but I can now focus on writing new content and occasionally poke around the site config to add new features as I dream them up (assuming I can figure out how to implement them!).

   Thank you both for being such helpful members of this community. Helga, you are right -- Thematic is quite hard to get into (especially for a non-dev). But it is exactly the theme I wanted today (and I suspect, it will be tomorrow as well). Thanks again to you both very much!

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   helgatheviking
   Moderator

   Ok well it sounds like you need/needed a primer on how to use WordPress, which isn't what my thread was about- and isn't really available here. We can barely keep up w/ thematic documentation as is and WP for beginners stuff is all over the web.

   but congrats on figuring it out. you've proven that with patience and persistence you can solve any problem.... which is my exact method too. :) cheers.

   Posted 2 years ago #

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