How to create simple front page?

[sethbahookey]

I need to create a front page that simply has two buttons on it. Basically when you land on the site there will be a background picture asking if you are a patient or therapist. Then you would click the appropriate button to send you to the correct part of the site.

How would I do this? Would I simply edit my front-page.php and just use some basic html? All the guides on front-page.php are to make your posts appear differently on the site, but this is not a blog.

Thanks!

[marybaum]

That would work, but it puts content in a template file.

And that's kinda one of my pet peeves.

Here's why: Imagine that someone besides you needs to make a change down the road - maybe the pic needs updating, maybe the terminology changes because of a change in the industry. Meanwhile, you're on the vacation of a lifetime with the love of your life.

You really don't want somebody who doesn't know your code well to get all up in your files. And if they don't know html or php well, their simple change could bring down a white screen of death. Wanna guess who's gonna take the fall for that?

Also, there's no need to put text in a picture if it's just for typography. There's probably a web font available for your typeface - or a close version - and it's been five years since we had to stick to web-safe type.

So what I'd rather see you do is set up a category called something like 'front-posts' and set up two posts - maybe one with a big beauty photo as your background, and then each with your button and a little descriptive copy.

Then you'd edit your front-page.php (aka the home-page template file) to make two widgets - one to hold the photo and one button and the other to hold the other button.

Now, when someone wants to make a change, and you're on vacation, they edit the posts instead of the files. No broken site - and everyone's happy.

It's more work upfront, but imho it's totally worth it.

M

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[sethbahookey]

That is a very insightful post, thank you so much for taking the time to write that out! I will definitely try and figure out how to make what you said work.

I think this is my disconnect with WP in general. I'm lost when it comes to making custom pages that can be edited via the WP admin. I'm still in the mindset of making static pages for this and that.

So anytime I want to do something custom, I should try and turn it into a post?

[sethbahookey]

Hmm marybaum, now that I have tried to accomplish this goal you had me set out to do... I've come to realize I have no idea what I'm doing at all haha.

How would I go about creating a category and all these posts? Rather, would these be custom page templates that you are having me create, or simply going into WP backend and creating a category then making two posts and associating them with that category?

Thanks

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