Back to: Lesson 1 Deep Dive into Divi
2.7_lesson_1 from Andrew Palmer on Vimeo.
A WordPress Course | Starting a New Website
Meet Us
Eileen Lonergan
WordPress Website Designer
Co-Owner of Elegant Marketplace
Founder of the Divi Theme Users Group on FB
Andrew Palmer
WordPress Website Designer
WordPress Child Theme / Plugin Developer
Co-Owner of Elegant Marketplace
Admin of the Divi Users Group on Facebook
What We Will Achieve Lesson 1
Why Divi:
There are many reasons why we choose to work with Divi, here are a few:
It has the most amount of built in features of any other theme we have used.
The drag and drop functionality allows you to easily move content around a page.
The community is amazingly helpful, which is important if you run into questions. We ALL bump into questions!
There are 40 different modules that can be used to customize each page and blog post on your website to create a truly original design. This drastically reduces your need for special code, CSS or plugins.
You can import / export layouts, pages and settings into other themes, thus reducing your design time considerably.
Of course it is responsive.
What’s New:
Upgrades in 2.6:
A new, more impressive ePanel.
More header options.
More button customization options
A more extensive, customizable contact form.
More design control over the settings for desktop, phones and tablets.
Upgrades in 2.7
Divi Leads Split Testing
Portability – you can now import & export every part of Divi, including Theme Customizer Settings,
Theme Options, Divi Roles, Divi Library Items as well as individual Divi Layouts.
Your images will also be imported and the urls updated accordingly.
New Divi Builder Page Settings
Dynamic Help System
Let’s Log In
My First Steps
When Starting Any New Website
Start under Settings -> General
Change the site name
Replace Just Another WordPress Site with your tag line or remove it and leave it blank.
While you are here, change the time zone or language settings if appropriate.
Under Settings -> Reading
If you wish to hide the website from Google and the other search engines while you are building the site, select Discourage search engines from indexing this site next to Search Engine Visibility.
Under Settings -> Permalinks
Select the Post Name Option
Pro Tip: This will change your link structure from YourDomainName.com/?p=123 to YourDomainName.com/About or whatever the page name is for your website.
This is much better for your search engine optimization (we will talk about this more in later classes).
Under Users -> Your Profile
New Password
Change your password and select approve.
Child Themes as of Divi 2.7:
With the release of Divi 2.7 you are able to add CSS into the Divi Builder Settings area. This is particularly helpful if you plan on exporting your layouts to use on other websites.
You can also place your custom CSS the Theme’s Option Panel, which is preserved if you update the core files, so your changes remain intact with updates.
There are many header and footer plugins which allow you to customize your header and footer, thus eliminating the need for a child theme.
You may have already purchased a child theme and hence do not need a child theme.
To Make a Child Theme
You can easily make a Child Theme for free at:
Why You Want a Child Theme:
As we move through building your website we will make customizations to your header and more likely your footer, which will be overwritten when you update the version of the Divi Theme.
Pro Tip: Making a Child Theme is a best practice for any WordPress website, not just Divi.
To learn more read: What Happens If I Don’t Use a Child Theme
Plugins
The Quick Overview:
Plugins are basically Apps which add functionality to your WordPress website. This functionality could include anything from design, to security, to backups, to slides.
Feel free to browse the Plugin Directory
When choosing a plugin there are a few things to be aware of before you add it to your site. Make sure it is compatible with your version of WordPress, that it has a high number of installations and good reviews.
The example on the right is for the All in One SEO plugin and you can see it is well supported and widely used.
Plugins We Will Teach You How to Use:
Eileen
Andrew
We are also frequently found in the Divi Theme Users Group in Facebook.