Note that much of the website was created before the Block Editor existed or matured. The left sidebar may seem limiting because it uses the more limited editing of the classic mode, but it also saves from having to create a three-column layout on every page and add more styling. We might consider this someday. I love the three column layout on wide desktop monitors, but it is a bit more crowded on medium-sized devices and moot on phone.
Here are the help pages I referenced:
https://www.madriverweb.com/client-pages/wordpress-basic-documentation/
https://www.madriverweb.com/client-pages/wordpress-basic-documentation-blocks/
Images can be uploaded directly to Media gallery (preferred), or uploaded while inserting in a page or post. The system will save multiple sizes and allow some simple manipulations such as rotation and cropping. Some of the existing images are also linked directly without necessarily being in the Media gallery (carried over this way from previous site). Once inserted into a page or post, consider floating the “medium”-sized image to the right.
Posts and Pages – the lists show whether created in Classic or Block. Classic can be converted to Block in the right sidebar with few surprises, or just continue editing in Classic. I will be converting any that I work on because we want to end up with all in Block editor someday in case Classic may finally be phased out.
Posts includes articles and is your new blogging platform. I set up the temporary post for you to practice. Remember to “save draft” rather than publish. If you publish by accident, go back to the Post list, click on Quick Edit under the title, and change Published back to Draft.
Pages (special type of post), contains all the pages. Each has a sidebar selection at right which you won’t want to change; it points to the appropriate sidebar in the Widgets, explained below. I have converted all pages with two body columns to Block editor—more sensible for editing.
In addition to the “temp” Post I made for you to practice with, there is a “Sample” page you can practice with, too.
Testimonials and Quotes
Do not use the Testimonials functionality in the admin left-hand navigation or the Testimonials widget in a sidebar for now.
Body Column Testimonials and Quotes
If you put testimonials within the body column(s):
For the testimonial paragraph, click into the paragraph block (within the text), highlight the quote and make it italics, and add the word “quote” in the Additional CSS within the Advanced panel at right (expand it to see). (Ignore the picture in the example below.)
For the attribution, click into the paragraph block (within the text), highlight the attribution, and add the word “attribution” in the Additional CSS within the Advanced panel at right.
Sidebar Testimonials and Quotes (Advanced, you may not use this yet)
Left Sidebars, found in Appearance > Widgets are more limited in styling with a limited icon bar. Not all standard sidebars are used, only the primary. Custom sidebars are created under Genesis Simple Sidebars, then populated under Appearance Widgets, then selected on each page; you won’t need to do this unless you/we create a new page. These are essentially a way to create a side column on a page and populate it with some shared (as on Shiome sub-pages) or individual material. Expand each “sidebar” on the right and you will see the widgets that populate it, chosen from the widgets on the left, mostly all Text.
I struggled with the best way of coaching you to update sidebars, especially testimonials. For now, I’ve summarized a way to add a bit of styling not available in the icon bar by clicking into the Text tab and adding HTML tags, see screenshot. Click into the Text tab of any sidebar and you will see somthing like in the screenshot. A quote should have paragraph tags around it (opening and closing) with the quote class as shown. The quote attribution should have <h6> tags around it. (The closing tags have a slash.) The other thing I circled, , is a “non-breaking space,” a way to create a hard space or an extra blank line.
Videos and Podcasts (Audios)
To add a YouTube video, copy the URL from the YouTube page. Go back to your website, click the “+” at the desired location within the page, start typing “you” in the block choice panel and the YouTube block will appear in the choices, click it. Paste the URL in the field and click Embed. Add caption as desired.
To add an audio or podcast, generally do this as an iframe. On the website you are obtaining it from, click the share button and copy the iframe embed code. Go back to your website, click the “+” at the desired location within the page, start typing “html” in the search field of the Block choice panel and click the Custom HTML block. Paste the iframe code into the block. If a caption is desired, type it into a new paragraph below the HTML block and type the word “caption” in the Additional CSS within the Advanced panel at right.
Reusable Blocks
I created one “reusable” block named “Highlight,” which is handy for something used in multiple places. The gold-bordered highlight box I mentioned, that has “For caring, confidential traumatic grief …” as on your home page, is now a reusable block. So if you want to put this anywhere else, it can be selected by clicking the plus-sign “+” and searching for “Highlight.” Let me know if there are any other things we want in multiple places. (Unfortunately these cannot be used in the sidebar widgets.)
