Spectral Web Services
A Ghost FAQ // What my clients keep asking for...
A collection of questions and answers from my newer Ghost-using clients. Maybe you don't need my services! :)
I work with a lot of Ghost newbies. Here are some of the common questions I get asked.
Tip: Anywhere I refer to the settings menu, that's the gear menu that you access from https://yoursite/ghost :
Can we remove the button in the bottom right corner?
Yes! Settings > Membership > Customize Portal > Look and feel > Show portal button
Can I totally turn off membership?
Yes! Settings > Membership, then change "Subscription access" to "nobody". (That also removes the "portal button".)
How can I change the navigation menus?
Settings > Navigation. The top group of boxes controls the top navigation box. Some themes also use secondary navigation for more navigation links at the bottom of the page. (Some don't.)
How can I get a page showing just some of my posts?
1) Put tags on your posts (it's in the right pull-out menu in the post editor). For example, you could create a tag called "swimming pools" to collect all your posts about swimming pools.
2) Link to that page (perhaps on your navigation menu) as https://yoursite/tag/swimming-pools . (Note that the 'slug' will be lower case and hyphenated.)
How do I send a newsletter?
How can I customize my newsletter?
Settings > Email newsletter and then use the "Customize newsletter" button.
The newsletter customization I wanted isn't there. Please customize it.
Newsletters aren't customizable beyond what's available on that screen. I can change how your webpage looks, but I can't change how your newsletter looks unless it's available in the "Customize newsletter" menu.
How can I do bulk actions on posts, or copy a post?
Ghost doesn't have this built in, but Phantom Admin does. (Plug: I wrote it.)
How do I pick a theme? Where do I look?
I collected some places to look and some thoughts on Ghost themes on this post. Ghost Pro users with a 'Starter' plan should know that they're limited to some official themes.
What kinds of things can I customize in a Ghost theme?
Generally all sorts of layout and appearance for your website (not newsletter). Want a whole post on the front page, or just a list of titles, or posts sorted by tag, or...? Yes. That can all be done.
What can't be customized?
Ghost doesn't have custom fields. Sometimes we can get clever and work around that. Sometimes we can't. If you're not looking for something with a database that looks blog- or newsletter-like, Ghost might be the wrong choice.
Can I have a landing page?
Totally. You can build pages as pages (not posts) in the Ghost editor. Note that Ghost doesn't have a fancy drag-and-drop editor, but nothing prevents you from building a page in HTML with any tools you like and then getting it into Ghost as a theme file (requires ability to edit the theme) or as a page (available for anyone).
To serve a landing page as the homepage, you'll need to adjust your routes.yaml file. (This can be done in even the Starter plan.)
I bought a theme and installed it, but it doesn't look like the demo?
Themes often come with documentation. Some need a custom routes.yaml or some custom pages created with Ghost before they're going to look right. Others have lots of adjustment options, under Settings > Design (and then look in the dropdowns on the left side). Read your documentation or check out your options!
You certainly can pay me to install a theme for you if you get stuck/frustrated, but many users do fine just following along with the provided documentation. So maybe start there. :)
I bought a theme but it won't install!
Many themes come as a zip file that contains the theme's actual .zip file AND some documentation. Try taking a look inside the .zip file you received. If there's another .zip in there, try unzipping the outermost Zip file and uploading the inner one.
I want to change the colors on my theme!
Most of this can be accomplished with code injection, which means it's possible to do even on the Starter plan and without editing the theme files. Here's a code injection tutorial and here's a walk-through of finding the right selectors for code injection in Ghost.
Everyone keeps talking about cards. Where are those?
Click the + button that shows up next to your work while you're in the Ghost editor. There are lots of awesome options.
Hey, before you go... If your finances allow you to keep this tea-drinking ghost and the freelancer behind her supplied with our hot beverage of choice, we'd both appreciate it!
