This post is a guide for admin users of this WordPress template – and for the extra specially curious! :o)

As Chair of the Reading Climate Change Partnership, one of my key aims was to make sure we had strong website (see https://ReadingCAN.org.uk). As a mini project, it was something I put a lot of my own time into; having developed some wide-ranging programming skills over the years, and keen interest in communicating information. WordPress caught my eye, and I have been really impressed by its flexibility and powerful features…and it’s also open source, which appeals to me.

My vision for the website is that: it should be easy to update and maintain (something that WordPress will handle easily); it should be nicely integrated with the themes of the Reading Climate Change Strategy, allowing the developing Climate Action Network to post updates, and show progress against the various Action Plans. This is where I needed something to develop something a bit special: something that would make it function a little more as a database of information, whilst still being a natural, free-flowing website. It also of course, needed to be well presented on either web browser, tablet or phone. My solution was to develop the twentySeventeen-chrisRCAN204 child theme template, which incorporates the bootstrap design of my personal website. Key as well was to be able to link WordPress Categories with fixed Pages, creating mini-domains within the site: for example if you go to the Water Category you can follow any the recent posts, whilst always coming back to the strategy page. It should be seamless to explore, without needing to give visitors directions…which are not likely to be read anyway.

• The display of Category and Tag labels – and the way posts are listed with thumbnail images, and the first few sentences of the article – will all feel very familiar.
• The left-hand side menu is automatically created so as the website evolves, there is no overhead in managing the menu: for example if there is a need to move a page to a different parent group, or to add or delete pages.
• Many visitors will arrive on the site by following a link to a post from social media, they may never see the home page or follow the menu. They can happily navigate by following categories and tags, and other links. They can also take advantage of a useful Search pages, always available from one of the buttons on the top banner. Again, all very familiar.

If you want to know any more about using this template please contact me (see details below).