Templates good for general websites?

As much as I like WP – it is not really designed for what you are describing. A better solution for you might be searching some of the many CSS oriented sites for a style that meets your needs. Some examples can be found HERE
or HERE as a start. A search for “CSS layouts” would probably result in a few thousand hits.

@talblind: That’s what WordPress Pages are used for – static pages of a website. Basics include – in Admin Dashboard is to go to Write > Page and type in what you want to appear on front page and publish. Then go to (using 2.7) Settings > Readings and set front page to the title of the Page you created earlier. Then continue Write > Pages as needed and use drop-downs to indicate if your new Page is under a “Parent Page” and which one it is.

For more info, check out WordPress Codex re Pages.

Of course you can use WordPress to drive a web site. We have several small business web sites set up using WP. Some premade themes (and a larger number of premium, which means you have to pay for them) are specifically designed for this purpose. I suggest you start here:

https://www.webhelpermagazine.com/2008/04/wordpress-wow-seven-top-sites-using-wordpress-as-a-cms/

https://www.expand2web.com/blog/2008/07/22/why-use-wordpress-to-power-your-small-business-website/

https://michaelmartine.com/2008/02/13/pros-and-cons-of-using-a-wordpress-blog-as-your-entire-business-site/

https://www.expand2web.com/blog/2008/11/23/how-to-make-wordpress-look-like-a-website/

Sure, you CAN – but I still maintain that WP is not designed for that purpose.

WordPress is for whatever you want. Don’t look for ways to restrict use, look for ways to expand usage. Remove dates, author and comments from any theme, set up a static home page, use pages not posts, and you’ve got a static site.

All of which is easier and better done with a basic CSS layout, minus PHP, and adding what you want rather than removing code you may not be familiar with editing.

And then when you’re done, only you can add to or edit the site. But if you use a WP theme, once it’s set up, other people can add to the site or edit it.

@saurus, you aren’t even talking about CMSs in your links, those are layouts and those are accomplished with CSS no matter what CMS you are using.

The big question you have to ask yourself is what you want your site to do. What features do you want now and what features do you contemplate for sometime down the road.

A lot of rather complicated CMSs exist (e.g., Joomla, Drupal, etc.), and quite a number are simply overkill for what most people need (and are willing to pay to have done).

My point above was that a LOT of business sites (or non-blogs if you will) are running WordPress fine and dandy. Some may be more complicated than others, but WordPress has so many plugins and such a large and helpful community/userbase that it’s pretty much the best choice for a small business or a novice web master who wants to be able to maintain the site himself .. or even setup and design the site himself .. without hiring an expensive web designer/web developer.

One of the beautiful things about using wp as a cms is the backend, which makes not only adding content a breeze, but editing current content as well. There are many themes suited to this purpose, so start by browsing the theme section here, and also consider purchasing a premium theme (which are heavily designed with these types of sites in mind.

Hello all,

I am new to WP and things are just so nicely put together and easy to find, that using WP for any website development is very tempting. When you see the elegance of this product and how plugins/addons are managed and things are easy to find, you want to make it work for most anything. There is definitely a higher conscience operating here.

I understand what separates WP (a static CMS) from a CMS that is data base driven (dynamic ). Many times this may not be relevant to the author or reader as there are good and bad about each type.

Having made that statement I would like to get feedback on what separates a blog from a news article plugin or script. Will start a new post for this. The new post title will help answer the question.

Caps