Altering the title, menus and look of individual pages

Hi,
what you want to achieve is not difficult at all, but as WordPress is free software and free is also the help you can get from this forum, people here assume you have some time to try to follow some indications, also step by step sometimes if you’re not able to develop a solution by yourself.

The changes you want to achieve may just need a couple of conditional tags inside your page.php template or even simpler to create a custom page template, and in 15-20 minutes you should be able to have the result you need. If you post some infos about the theme (or child-theme) you’re using we can try to fix this without diving too deep into coding…

If you really have no time or don’t want to get into a little reading, you can always consider hiring someone that can make this for you.

I would choose the first, it’s free and a good way to learn something more about the software you’re using (WordPress… ndr)

Cheers!!

Thank you for your very well directed reply. I realise that my situation is not ideal, I am in the middle of studying for non-related exams and am also self employed, so not a lot of time. I have no doubt that if this was all i had to do i could sort it out myself but life aint always that simple, and I don’t think a lot of people who suggest things on here tolerate beginners very easily. I am sure that if you take a look at my site https://www.pncomms.com you will see i am not a complete idiot. While you are there, it might be worth noting that from the “testing” menu i want a page that is nothing to do with my site in general. No main title (preferably an alternative title) and no menu selections as in “the company” and “mitel 5000” etc. The idea being that people going to “www.pncomms.com/testing” will not be aware of the other content. I am using version 3.8 now after an upgrade, and the theme is tywentyeleven version 1.5. I also think the DIY approach is by far the best! Could I ask, if people refer to individual files could they state where in the structure they are? There seems to be a deal of duplication to me? Thank you!

Could I ask, if people refer to individual files could they state where in the structure they are? There seems to be a deal of duplication to me?

I don’t understand exactly what you mean with “state where in the structure they are”, but making a custom page template will allow you to serve a completely different page, with its menus, sidebar or whatever…if it is just a single page or two.

If what you mean instead is having a completely different environment with content, items, images and the rest UNRELATED to the main site, another option could be to have another WordPress installed in a subdirectory, and having that menu item linking to this other site which caqn have its own theme, pages, posts, header, etc….

and I don’t think a lot of people who suggest things on here tolerate beginners very easily.

About this I can tell you, for my own experience, that a lot of people are here to give back some help as they received a lot (like me, for example…) also indirectly by reading other’s posts.
Sometimes can happen to see some rude conversation but quite often there is a reason for this.

Usually I saw the most experienced developers around here acting like in this post.
Judge by yourself…by the way, let’s try to fix your issue!!!

If you only want to remove stuff then you could use css display: none; so that those elements don’t show up on that page. For example to remove the top menu from the testing page. Get the page id number by hovering your mouse over that page in the backend. If you look at the url it will include something like post=1440 that number is the page id.
Then add this line to your css

.page-id-1440 #access {
display: none;
}

replace 1440 with whatever your page number is. Using Firebug I was able to see that #access is your menu btw.

OK, just to clarify. My existing site is concerned with telecomms. I want one page (and possibly sub-pages linked to it) that will be concerned with my work as an electrician. So, I want to direct people via https://www.pncomms.com/electrician, so they land on the “electrician” page without being aware of the telecomms content. There will also need to be a link from the telecomms main menu. On my electrician page, i do not want the main title or description, or the menu structure pointing to the other pages. I will also probably want different images, but i think i can do this easily? Would it be easier to have another wordpress installation? I am not sure my hosting company would allow this, or could i just install it in another directory and point “www.pncomms.com/electrician” to it, so i can, in effect, just create another site?

could i just install it in another directory and point “www.pncomms.com/electrician” to it, so i can, in effect, just create another site?

Yes for sure you can do this if you have FTP access to your site. This way you will have 2 separate sites linking each other the way you wrote.
The only drawback is you will have two separate admin one for each site, unless you set up a Multisite, but that is not so simple as make another WordPress installation in a subdirectory.

Ah – the more I think about this the more I think a second site might be the answer. I don’t think having 2 separate log-ins is a problem, so I might try this. Does the fact that jweire03 has been able to see that “access is your menu” (whatever that means??) indicates I have some sort of security problem?? What exactly do you mean by hovering over the “backend”?? You see, i wish folks would just use plain english instead of jargon!!! I’m a beginner, and not likely to know what “backend” means.

Sorry man…
…my english is worst than my ability to be clear ??
No, no sort of security issues, do not worry!!! What jwiere03 told you is that there are tools for web developers included or added to browsers like firefox (and that’s firebug which he was talking about)or chrome which has it included, and those tools help you to debug (correct errors in code) and inspect (see the web page in its html structure).

So anybody with a little experience with those can see your page structure and suggest changes that can be made to fix problems.

“Backend” is the equivalent (almost) to WordPress admin, the dashboard, aka the part of the website visible only to logged in users, while frontend on the other way is the site as it’s seen by final users.

Regarding your issue, I also think that with another install in a subdirectory things can be easier for you. You can even use a completely different theme and look without diving into coding at all.

Your english is fine my friend, and you are perfectly clear, thank you! I hope I can implement a second install as it seems the best solution to me! I am not sure exactly how to go about it to be honest. Obviously I need to copy all the wordpress folders and files into the sub-folder on my site, but I am not too sure of how to “install” it. The hosting guys i use had a shortcut to install wordpress via the domain control panel, i didn’t do it from scratch??

Yes, what you need is to copy a fresh version of WordPress to your subfolder, then from there run the installation. To do this there are some ways, and having wordpress installed via a shortcut in the domain control panel is maybe the easiest.

I personally prefer to do those kind of jobs via an FTP client (Filezilla for me works excellent), but if you don’t feel confortable with it, I’m quite sure you can make it via control panel.

I don’t know what your host is nor how the control panel looks like, but usually I expect there to be some buttons to create a subdirectory folder and give it a name.
Then I think you should be able to point the automatic install to this folder, and proceed afterwards directly with login.
So if you normal login is https://www.pncomms.com/wp-admin the login for this other WordPress will be https://www.pncomms.com/subfolder-name/wp-admin where “subfolder-name” will be the name you gave to the subfolder previously created.

I suggest you to keep open the codex page for install instructions as it will help you with this process.

Remember that this name will be visible in the Url so choose a meaning name as you may do with another site is the best option.

If you have problems with this feel free to write, but maybe opening another thread is better so you can get more specific help also from others regarding this.

All the best to you!!

Marcello

OK just to finish this off hopefully! I don’t think my control panel has that function, but I am quite familiar with FTP. I use “coffee cup” at the moment but have used other FTP programs in the past. Is there the equivalent of a “setup.exe” that I can run via FTP? I am ok with all the rest if this, i am just not sure how to “start” the install process.

Ok.
So it’s simple:
– create a folder in your root directory (where the other folders of your installed WordPress are; e.g. wp-admin, wp-content and wp-includes)
– setup a database for WordPress as described here
– edit the file wp-config-sample.php and rename it as explained here
– now run the install script.
You do this by going to https://www.pncomms.com/subfolder-name/wp-admin/install.php and there you will find a small form to enter the site name, user, etc…
– Fill everything and then login to this new site.

Good luck and good job!!

Ah its OK – i have now sorted it. Thanks for your help Marcello!!

It’s a pleasure to know I helped you!!

Have a good life!!! Bye!!