Converting large site to WordPress

[rbailey]

Hello, folks, from an 80-year-old newbie.

I'm considering learning WordPress ( with Genesis) and need to know what is possible.

My existing historical site (not a blog) has hundreds of jpg images; some in galleries, most on pages. Each has been precisely sized to fit the story on its html page, and has been carefully optimized. When I move each image into WordPress, can I use it as it is, or do I have to deal with the "large/medium/small" re-sizing process of WordPress?

(I added all these images over a span of 13 years and could never locate the original photos nor their tif files.)

Take a look and see what I'm up against: http://remembercliffside.com

The layouts are primative, I know. Right out of the '90s, when I taught myself to handcode this stuff, before Dreamweaver and then CSS came along.

Thanks.

Reno Bailey

http://remembercliffside.com

[coralseait]

Howdy,

Yes you can use the images as is - however, you'll want to question if you want to even do that. You're going to gain a lot by moving to Genesis and HTML5 if you do and one of the most important aspects is responsive design. In that regard, you may wish to question if you even want to force old school layout in your new design.

I understand where you're coming from; but, this is a huge opportunity to re-think your approach. Obviously the images will not scale up and using original size as you have them on the site is just fine, but when you move to a widgetized / responsive design you're going to open doors to more options in your design and won't necessarily be forced to do things based on the size of the existing images and/or text and force text size and image to correlate.

You'll have a chance to really do some analysis and design so maybe take this as a challenge and see what you can come up with.

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Coral Sea IT

[Christoph]

Hi Reno,

that´s quite the project you are planning. 🙂

WordPress will automatically create several sizes for each image that you upload.
You can always use the "original" size of the picture or choose one of the sizes created by WordPress.

I'm guessing that you are also planning to give the website a new design/layout.
Like Coral Sea IT said, that will open a lot of possibilities.

This would more than likely affect the way the story is presented on the page and in turn would require a different size for the pictures to fit again.
But, like I said, I´m just guessing.

And regarding the design, it served its purpose for a very long time and that is an accomplishment in and of itself. Design tastes change over time and they will continue to change and hopefully evolve.

Out of curiosity, are you planning on making the website accessible (http://a11yproject.com/)?

I like your cause. I believe it is important to preserve history and make it available for the future.

If you hit a roadblock or have any question, please don't hesitate to ask.

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https://www.christophherr.com | Genesis Customizations | Buy me a coffee

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