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After 15 years blogging, keeping an index of my recipes is becoming quite convoluted. I have a single page with all my recipes, divides in categories, but I enter each new one manually and I find that scrolling down to see the index is probably not something readers enjoy. I would love suggestions on how to make this feature more user-friendly, but there is no way I will be able to build it from the beginning, unless there is some automated feature I am not aware of. You can see my index going on the front page.
Thank you
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hello-
I’d be glad to help you with some ideas for organizing the recipes differently. Is there an example of a site that you’d like to emulate? That will help me better understand the end goals for this change.
Cheers!
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Maybe something along these lines?
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Thank you! That is very helpful. It looks like you want to display categories of recipes in a grid style. Can you estimate how many categories there will be?
A category block can be inserted into columns, grids, or the query loop block.
https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/query-loop-block/What I would do is create another free site address on your account. Use this as a testing space. You’ll want to use the same theme on this testing site so the environment mimics the live version.
Go to https://wordpress.com/start/domains and type in a URL like
testingbewitchingkitchen.wordpress.comand register that to your account. Then, you can work on this without making an impact on the live site. You’ll be able to copy the page from the existing site where your posts are displayed and paste it on the test project.
You can make a copy of a post or page that includes the same title, contents, and settings. This guide explains options for duplicating a page or post on your site. Requirements To use the features described in this guide, you will need one of the following: A website hosted on WordPress.com. A self-hosted WordPress site with the free Jetpack plugin activated. Duplicate a Page -
Thank you so much! I am leaving for a short trip and will have limited net availability for a few days – will work on it when I get back , keep you posted!
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Interestingly, I am not getting notified of new replies by email, not sure why, that option is on…. but it is not working
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Can you follow these steps to see if your email notifications are configured as intended? I understand that you’re referring to the forum notifications, but can you confirm if you receiving any other notifications from WordPress.com
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Yes, I receive all sorts of emails and notifications EXCEPT forum contributions or replies
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Well, I looked into the blocks, it all seems very complicated and I feel I don’t have the energy for it – it seems to me that I would have to add posts manually, there is no way to have an automated index generated for me, correct? I also checked and apparently my theme does not allow for editing in the way that would allow me to have The All Archives template. I went into “Appearance” on my dashboard, and there is no EDITOR option….. Please let me know if I am missing something, ok?
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Hi Sally, nice to see another “old-timer”. :)
Every WordPress.com site has Archives pages built into it. Everything you publish on your site is entered into a database and special archive pages on your site (which are automatically generated by the software) can be added to navigation or linked to on your site. You probably recognize them as Category and Tag pages. https://wordpress.com/support/posts/categories/ and https://wordpress.com/support/posts/tags/
Let me take a closer look at your Index page and see if I can make any suggestions. I’m away from the keyboard until tomorrow, but hope to get back to you then.
@w32kazedetodo there have been several site owners over the last month mentioning that they are not receiving notifications of replies to their posts.
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Hi there, Jennifer! yes, I am getting so old that my blog will soon be considered vintage… hummmmm, I think I am truly dense in current wordpress – so if you can enlighten me, please do so.. Take your time, I think if I realize that I ve been making my index manually for almost 15 years when I did not need to, I might need to go visit a shrink to deal with the trauma ;-)
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That depends. :) Because your theme, Adelle, is long-retired, there might be some limitations on what you can do with it. Adelle should have a “Full-Width Page Template” but it won’t be as wide as the site you linked to. It will be like your current pages, but without the sidebar.
Thinking ahead, what do you want to happen when a visitor clicks on the Category link in the grid? Right now, clicking on Category links takes you to all the posts published under that Category. Did you want the self-updating list of recipes in that Category on that next page instead? (Keep in mind that would mean an additional click for users.)
Also, are you publishing using only the Classic Editor or also the Block Editor?
Let us know and we’ll go from there.
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Hello @sallybr
After 15 years blogging, keeping an index of my recipes is becoming quite convoluted. I have a single page with all my recipes, divides in categories, but I enter each new one manually and I find that scrolling down to see the index is probably not something readers enjoy. I would love suggestions on how to make this feature more user-friendly, but there is no way I will be able to build it from the beginning, unless there is some automated feature I am not aware of. You can see my index going on the front page.
I’d like to add to what my colleagues and @justjennifer suggested. I see that you have assigned your posts to specific categories, which is very helpful. I recommend considering the following approach on your “Index of Recipes” page that should save you time, and offer a more accessible page to your visitors.
- To begin with, I recommend creating category pages for each of your main recipe categories, such as “Air-Frying”, “Appetizers” and more. These could be regular pages that you’d add either the Query Loop Block or Blog Posts Block to. Once you have added one of these blocks to each category page, you can use their built-in filtering options to only display posts from a specific category on the page (youo can find the options for each block here and here). When you type in the relevant category for that page (for example, “Air-Frying” for the “Air-Frying” page), the block should only display posts with that category.
- You can customize how the recipes are displayed through the block you choose, using the block’s options in the sidebar on the right;
- Next, I recommend that you can add either a Query Loop Block or Blog Posts Block to the “Index of Recipes” page.
- You can configure either block to display pages so you can then configure the block to display your recipe category pages that you created, and display them as a grid or list of pages. If you add featured images to each category page that represent those categories, you can create a visually compelling grid on the “Index of Recipes” page that will enable your visitors to easily select which category they want to view.
- You may also want to add a Search Block above the grid or list of category pages to help visitors who may be looking for a specific type of recipe, and can then search by keyword.
The benefit of this approach is that once you have created your individual category pages with either the Query Loop Block or Blog Posts Block that is configured to display posts with a specific category, these category pages will update automatically with each new post you publish and that is assigned to one of your categories.
This means that once these pages are setup, you can focus on publishing your recipes with the confidence that all the updates will happen behind the scenes.
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I am using the BLOCK editor – do you recommend that I get another theme instead of Adelle???? I guess I could do that if it would make things easier?
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Thank you Paul… I am getting really discouraged, I have absolutely NO idea how to do anything, even after watching a video on WordPress about it. I think I will have to set up a private, practice site like Jennifer suggested, so I don’t mess up everything. And then try to work some type of magic. I used the classic editor for a very long time, then switched to the block because I heard that at some point the classic would be gone – but I got used to doing just the basics – writing the post and that’s it – and never explored the possibilities further. I tried editing the Index Page but all I got was grievance and intense desire to sit and cry….. ;-) (I am a bit of a Drama Queen, but don’t tell my husband I said so)
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Good Morning –
I wanted to share some of our resources to help learn the new editor. You mentioned watching a video in an earlier reply, but I’m unsure if that was this or something else.
– https://wordpress.com/learn/courses/getting-started/site-editor/Let us know if you have trouble setting up a practice site. This will help you determine if switching to Adelle is something you should do now or wait on. The benefit of doing it now is that this change is in your control. Eventually, browsers will update beyond what that old theme can support, and elements of your theme will stop working. We don’t know when that will happen since we don’t control the browsers or their scheduled updates.
What is your favorite thing about Adelle? I’d be happy to provide a few newer alternatives to help you get that search started.
Cheers! -
thanks so much, Zinnia! I am starting to see the problem. Indeed, my theme does NOT support the block editing. So I need to activate a new theme. My question would be, is there a block-theme that is as close to Adelle as possible so that my life won’t be absolutely miserable for a while?
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You can look at your list of Recommended themes by going to Appearance > Themes when you’re signed in. I do see a theme called Nook that you can look into that could work!
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Hi, Jaelaen!
I do like Nook a lot, I am just a little puzzled – can I add like the same widgets I have on my site now – the posts by month/year, blog favorites etc?
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Yes, I am having quite a bit of trouble – if I try to work with Nook, I don’t see any of the pages from my site – About, Index, etc – so I am not quite sure how to add them. They are listed on the header but nothing happens if I click on them. I am going to watch the video that is available when trying to choose a new theme and see if that helps me .
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