Sonic.net

My website is currently done in manually coded HTML. (Don't laugh!) (Hey, I asked you not to laugh!) I'd like to redo the home page and one or two other parts of it with WordPress, but I don't want to spend the time redoing the entire site. Is it possible to have links on the WordPress pages that point to old-style pages, and vice versa? I think so, but I want to make sure before I ask Sonic to install WordPress and it takes over my entire website.

Hi Patty,

You can mix regular HTML files for your site with a WordPress site. The WordPress menu editor will let you add custom links to your HTML files. The only trouble you might run into is if you want to use the same WordPress layout (header, content, footer) for the HTML pages. In that case, if you change the menu or WordPress appearance, you'll have to hand edit the HTML files.

Depending on how many pages you have, it might be easier/better in the long run to re-create your old HTML pages in WordPress and redirect each .html file to their new WordPress page (so old search engine links and SEO rankings will carry over to the new pages).

But in any case, it's perfectly okay to have .html files mixed in with your WP install.

Another option is to install WordPress to a subdirectory (e.g. /cms) so that WP is on it's own and not mixed up with lots of files in your root directory, but this is strictly for better organization and assuming you don't mind installing WP to a subdirectory.

Hope that helps!

Thanks, Drew. I intend to make the new Wordpress pages look as close as possible to my existing pages, so that shouldn't be an issue.

If I were to have you install Wordpress at the root level of wintertime.com, would it just sit there until I develop the new pages and then somehow activate it? I don't want it taking over my home page until I'm ready, which is why I'm testing things on that other domain you helped me with first. I've seen some Wordpress info on the Sonic Wiki, but where do I find out how to switch home pages when I'm ready?

Thanks,
Patty

If you installed WordPress to the root of your site, the HTML index file will take precedence so WordPress won't take over.

To control what you see, you can modify the .htaccess file in the root to have either "DirectoryIndex index.html" to make the HTML page default, or "DirectoryIndex index.php" to make WordPress default. If you created a WordPress page at domain.com/example-page then navigating there would trigger WordPress to run so you should be able to work on it without affecting your site.

When you're ready to switch, you can either delete/rename the index.html file, or set the DirectoryIndex to index.php to make WordPress default.

Drew, thanks for the instructions on switching.

However, I just tried (twice) to install WordPress on wintertime.com (root directory) and got the following error message:

Wordpress could not be set up at the URL and directory you selected.

You can try again in a different directory.

I don't want it in a different directory; any idea why it isn't working at root?

Anyone got any ideas why WordPress wouldn't install on my site? Is it because it sees that I already have an index.html page in that directory and it won't install if the directory is already occupied?

I see a lot of horror stories on the WordPress support forums about problems that people encounter after installing WP in a subdirectory, so installing at root seems like the best idea--if I can get it to work.

patty1 wrote:Anyone got any ideas why WordPress wouldn't install on my site? Is it because it sees that I already have an index.html page in that directory and it won't install if the directory is already occupied?

I see a lot of horror stories on the WordPress support forums about problems that people encounter after installing WP in a subdirectory, so installing at root seems like the best idea--if I can get it to work.

It is most likely because it is seeing other content in your root directory. In general, there's no problem install WordPress to a subdirectory but sometimes people struggle with .htaccess rewrite rules or try to install it in a subdirectory and serve it from their site root which adds more complexity.

I've addressed your question about the installer in your newer post so we can feel free to continue the conversation there