How to Create a Blank Splash Page in WordPress
The home page of most WordPress blogs is the standard index page -- a list of the most recent posts, either shown in full or as excerpts with "Read more" links at the end of them. To set your blog apart, you can create a splash page for your blog, which can contain links to the various sections of your site and more information about it. This is done by first using a page template to create a blank splash page, and then filling it with the detail you want.
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Instructions
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1
Open up a blank text file using Notepad or any other text editor. Type the following at the top of the file, and when you're done, save the file as "splash.php":
<?php
/*
Template Name: splash
*/
?>
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2
Log into your WordPress account, and click the "Appearance" link on the left menu bar. Click "Editor," and look for "header.php" on the list on the right side of the screen. When you find it, click it to bring it into the center editor.
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3
Scroll through the file until you find the <BODY> tag, then copy everything above it to the clipboard, including the tag itself. Copy the text into your "splash.php" file, leaving a one-line gap between it and the code you wrote previously.
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4
Leave a few lines below the code you just pasted, then type </BODY> and </HTML> on separate lines. You have now created a blank splash page, which will have the same background color as specified for the rest of the site, though background images will not be displayed. You can now edit this file to display whatever information you want on your splash page.
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5
Save the file. You must now upload it to your WordPress theme directory. Log into your FTP account for your WordPress site, and upload "splash.php" to /wp-content/themes/yourtheme/.
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Return to your WordPress admin area. Go to "Pages," then "Add New." Create a new page called "Splash," and from the drop-down menu on the right side of the page, select "Splash" as the page template. Publish the page.
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Create another page, this time entitled "Index." Do not change the page template this time; just publish the blank page.
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8
Go to the "Settings" menu on the left menu bar, then click "Reading." Next to "Front page displays," click "A static page," then choose "Splash" from the "Front page:" menu. Select "Index" from the "Posts page:" menu, then click "Save Changes." Your splash page will now be displayed whenever someone visits your blog home page.
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References
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