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After some solid advice from people on here about using WordPress for a small (six page) website, I wanted to broach another question regarding using WordPress for a non-blogging site. Yet, I know my client would like to update various, but small portions of their site from time-to-time.

I won't be installing WP in the root, but a sub-directory and have all my core site files sitting in the root.

Here are my questions:

Can I include content from Pages in WordPress and output that content on any page outside of the WP install directory? Is there something specific I would need to include?

Do I have to use a Theme or can I still use my already built CSS?

I'd like to be able to use my own CSS for the site and not have it be tied to a Theme - is that possible? Meaning I use www.example.com/css/styles.css vs www.example.com/wp-content/themes/styles.css.

I also have a slider comprised of three DIVs for each panel, can I pull in that specific Page with that markup for the slider?

Can I also make my own queries for data as well?

Is there anything that I won't be able to accomplish or advise against doing?

I'm mostly concerned about having to use a Theme, mostly because I don't know if I'll need to use it or not.

Thanks for any help.

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Can I include content from Pages in WordPress and output that content on any page outside of the WP install directory? Is there something specific I would need to include?

You can load WP engine in any PHP file, see integrating WP with your website in Codex.

Do I have to use a Theme or can I still use my already built CSS?

You can skip theme functionality completely, partially or you can create custom theme with your own CSS and code.

I'd like to be able to use my own CSS for the site and not have it be tied to a Theme - is that possible? Meaning I use www.example.com/css/styles.css vs www.example.com/wp-content/themes/styles.css.

Yes. Nothing prevents your from outputting arbitrary CSS in template over theme's.

I also have a slider comprised of three DIVs for each panel, can I pull in that specific Page with that markup for the slider?

If you have sufficient understanding of PHP and learn some basic WP concepts - easily.

Can I also make my own queries for data as well?

Somewhat vague question. If you load WP engine you can use its API for database access. You can also query database directly but that would be much less secure and foolproof (especially if writing to it).

Is there anything that I won't be able to accomplish or advise against doing?

Nothing you described so far seems extremely complex or impossible.

Overall, since from description the site is small and doesn't have any special functionality, I'd consider just migrating it to WordPress completely.

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  • Hi Rarst, thanks for the feedback and taking time to answer my questions. I thought about making it into a complete WP site, but wouldn't I need to have a Theme for it? I'm not sure I want to take it that far right now as this will be my first project with it.
    – user4118
    Mar 22, 2011 at 1:45
  • @hybrid9 I feel that you think theme is something more complex that it really is. Theme is just collection of templates and styling. CSS you already have. Integrating WP into external pages would be not much easier than making templates out of those.
    – Rarst
    Mar 22, 2011 at 8:41
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If you are a PHP developer you can include the wp-load.php in any PHP file to load the wordpress environment. From there you can access anything in WordPress such as the database connection or WP functions.

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  • Does that include Pages? Can I still use my own CSS without needing a Theme? I guess I'm under the impression that in order to use WP I need a theme.
    – user4118
    Mar 22, 2011 at 1:46
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Easiest way to slowly change to wordpress:
Note: This really is a stupid way to use wordpress but it will work in 90% of all cases.

Step 1
install wp

Step 2
Setup up wp pages and name them like the ones you already got (so your nav-links should point at your new wp-pages - see the slug below the title at page edit screen).

Step 3
Open up one page after the other and paste your existing static html page code in the html-editor (don't forget to press "update").

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  • Can I call individual pages into my existing layout? Meaning taking the content in the HTML editor in WP admin and inserting it into my already existing php file? My site is essentially and single page design.
    – user4118
    Mar 22, 2011 at 1:52
  • In this case just move your single php page code into the index.php file of some blank theme.
    – kaiser
    Mar 22, 2011 at 3:36

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