Really basic Wordpress website help please!

downshifter

Dear all

I have been tasked with setting up a basic, very basic, website for a small voluntary community organisation but am getting stuck before even starting. We want about 5, max 6 pages of basic information, and a few attached documents (trustees meeting minutes etc) and that's all. There are hundreds of themes, and as they all advertise themselves as customisable I'm not sure why there are so many, surely in that case just one will do. The other thing is they all seem to work as scrolling blogs, which we don't want. We just want solid pages that you tab from one to the next - pref no scrolling whatsoever.

I've used google's weebly before and get on fine with it, but need to use WordPress for this one. It's all widgets and god knows what else, and I can't get away from the blog principle - I don't want all these dates etc. Even when I select 'pages' I still seem to end up with the blog part next time I go into it.

All the help sites etc are blinding me with choices, I just want a template I suppose. A bit along the top for the title and pretty picture, a bit down the right for a contents page and a bit in the middle for text. Can anyone advise please? Simple, clear, white space, the end!!

Thanks - DS

AndyPix

Why do you need to use wordpress for this one ?
Wordpress is designed for making blog sites ..

Maybe look here : https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-you-create-a-normal-website-using-wp

S0litaire

The best option is to use one of the default themes to start off with ("twenty Fifteen" or "Twenty Twelve") and forget about how it looks for now.

Once you get the information up the way you like it, changing themes is very easy.

For starters just ignore the "post" bits and just stick to creating "pages" and menus for each page once you get that far everything else you want is cosmetic and can easily be done...

I'm using the "hemingway" theme for my Blog it's clean and simple.

downshifter

Thank you. The reason is that I'm filling in for someone who's long term sick but will be back, and his choice is for Wordpress as he's used it in the past apparently. So he will be maintaining it afterwards.

My understanding is that although originally set up for blogs, WP is now extensively used for standard websites.

Thanks again.

fenlander_uk

There is a lot to get your head round when you start using WP. Just to get you started on the home page issue:
- log into the WP dashboard
- use 'pages-add new' and create and save a front page called anything you like. Let's call it 'home' - just put a lorem ipsum in it for now - you can edit it properly later.
- in the dashboard, go to 'appearance-customise'. On the left of the page a number of customisable options appear, one of which should be 'static front page'. Open this item, check the 'static page' option, then select your home page in the drop down list.
- save the changes
Trouble is, the look of everything you do can vary according to which template you're using, but that's the principle for setting a fixed page as your home page.

BTW: sounds like you need a template that lets you switch off any sidebars, or has none to start with.