Building a Static Page with Hybrid News Theme in Wordpress

The Hybrid Theme, developed originally by Justin Tadlock, opens doors to a variety of possible layouts - all easy to change and to adapt through child themes. In this article, Linda shows how to create a site with a static page and more with the Hybrid News Theme.

Hybrid News Tweaks

The page you'll see when you click on the Hybrid News link in Appearances looks like this:

Note that under the drop-down menu for "Excerpts Category" you can see "News." You may see "Uncategorized" if you did not change that post category to another name. You'll also notice that all the spaces are blank...if you already have content in your site, these options will not be blank, and you can pick and choose various options to show on your Hybrid News Theme front page. Here is a Hybrid News Theme front page that shows how those options work:

I chose the site above, Appomattox Area History, because I have yet to make severe design changes to this site. Therefore, you can see how the Hybrid News Theme looks without major style changes. Note that I have a space for a banner ad, and that there are rotating feature articles at the top of the page. I also have room for widgets on the side, such as a calendar.

PS – note the "Subscribe" button at the top right of the Appomattox History Page – this is where readers can subscribe to your site, no matter if it is through a previous feed or through a feed generated by this theme.

The choices I made for that static front page included the following (shown in the image after the list:

• The Feature Category chosen was "Feature," as that is where I put all major news stories and press releases - these article should have images to make that feature pop on the front page.

• I currently want four of those features to rotate in that top box.

• For the excerpts category, which show under the feature rotation, I chose the "Events"category, and I currently want ten of those events to show on that static front page.

• The headline categories are chosen from among all current post categories. To choose these categories, simply hold down the "control" button on your keyboard to pick and choose. While I have five categories currently showing, it's best to pick an even number, as that way you'll have an equal number of categories showing in two columns. I chose to show five recent posts from each category.

If you go to Appomattox Area History, you can see how the layout works as a whole.