Profiles

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I’d been creating Web sites since early 2000, first learning to code HTML, then gradually working with desktop software. I used CoffeeCup HTML editor, FrontPage Express, and Namo Web Editor, to name a few. Eventually, I worked with FrontPage and NetObjects Fusion. Ultimately, I wanted to allow non-techie team members and clients to update site content themselves. I played around with PHP and MySQL to that end, but I knew that I really needed a properly-coded content-management system.

Joomla was enthusiastically recommended, so I tried that. I found it way too clumsy, and knew that my clients and colleagues would find it even more so. WordPress had been on my radar, but as most of us did, I thought it was really for blogs. I was pleasantly surprised by how nicely it worked as a content-management system, though in the beginning, I was using it all wrong – hacking up theme files and scratching my head trying to figure out how sidebars and templates worked.

The main hurdle was designing with it. I found that very challenging, but soon discovered Artisteer, a desktop app for creating WordPress themes. I later discovered a theme called Twenty Ten Weaver, which provided numerous customization options to the then new Twenty Ten theme. But the big moment for me was when I learned how to create child themes.

It was still challenging coding custom page layouts. It took me a long time to warm up to page builders. The first one I ever saw was WP Bakery’s Visual Composer, which I did not like. A client wanted me to teach it to him, and was angry with me because I didn’t know how to use it. I had never even heard of it.

Eventually, I discovered Page Builder by Site Origin, along with Divi and Elementor, and now I appreciate how easy it is to design in WordPress. It’s so much quicker than it was back when I started with the platform in 2009. And now that the Gutenberg editor has arrived, I can go back to the simplicity of core WordPress for site and page creation.