east_sider

Resolved by moi.

I found a way that works well and hope others find this useful. First make a copy of category.php and put it in your child theme folder. Name it “category-xxx.php” – where xxx is the slug name of the category (or number). Then, replace this part of the code:

<?php /* Start the Loop */ ?>
				<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

					<?php
						/* Include the Post-Format-specific template for the content.
						 * If you want to overload this in a child theme then include a file
						 * called content-___.php (where ___ is the Post Format name) and that will be used instead.
						 */
						get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() );
					?>

				<?php endwhile; ?>

				<?php twentyeleven_content_nav( 'nav-below' ); ?>

			<?php else : ?>

				<article id="post-0" class="post no-results not-found">
					<header class="entry-header">
						<h1 class="entry-title"><?php _e( 'Nothing Found', 'twentyeleven' ); ?></h1>
					</header><!-- .entry-header -->

					<div class="entry-content">
						<p><?php _e( 'Apologies, but no results were found for the requested archive. Perhaps searching will help find a related post.', 'twentyeleven' ); ?></p>
						<?php get_search_form(); ?>
					</div><!-- .entry-content -->
				</article><!-- #post-0 -->

			<?php endif; ?>

with this:

<?php /* Start the Loop */ ?>
				<ul class="category">

	<?php $archive_query = new WP_Query('cat=25&showposts=1000');
	while ($archive_query->have_posts()) : $archive_query->the_post(); ?>
	<li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>

	<?php endwhile; ?>

And set ‘cat=25’ to the id number of your category. You will end up with a bulleted list of only the titles on your category or subcategory page.

Thanks esmi. I saw that but I’m still unclear if all the functionality I need is possible. This just shows code for a couple very basic displays.

Within my site’s HTML/PHP pages (that is, not using WP templates):

Can I allow the user to search and have results displayed where and how I wish?
Can I run an eCommerce plugin within a designated area on a designated page? With a ‘Your Cart’ link in the header?
Can I have two different ‘category’ menus that show only certain ‘labels’?
Can I have category results display where and how I wish?
Is there a mechanism to make sure post titles are part of the URL and HTML title?
Will plugins still work on these types of pages (like a star rating system, etc.)?

Basically, I need most of the functions of WP and WP plugins, but I want each page on the site to look exactly how I want – which means each page is a bit different except for the header. And I don’t want all the extraneous code that sometimes gets loaded and then hidden with CSS.

But, if my idea won’t work, then I guess I’ll have to learn all that goes with customizing templates. Not looking forward to that!