A guide is a task with chapters: a parent task that introduces the subject, and child tasks that each cover one part of it. Use one for anything too long for a single page, such as a policy with several sections or a process with distinct stages. Each chapter is an ordinary task, set up as described in Add or edit a task; the only difference is the Page attributes box.
Create the guide
- Create the parent task first. Give it the title of the whole guide and use its content as the overview or first page. Add the categories, tags and keywords here.
- Create each chapter as a new task. In the Page attributes box on the right, choose the guide under Parent. The list includes draft tasks, so you can build the guide before publishing any of it.
- Set Order on each chapter to sequence them: 10, 20, 30 and so on, leaving gaps so a chapter can be slotted in later without renumbering. Chapters with the same Order are sorted by title.
- Publish the parent and the chapters. A guide only appears as a guide once the parent and at least one chapter are published.
A chapter has one parent. Keep a guide one level deep: WordPress lets you give a chapter children of its own, but the theme then treats that chapter as a separate guide with its own contents list, not as part of the main guide.
What the guide looks like
- Every page of the guide starts with a Contents list: the parent first, then the chapters in order, with the current page shown as plain text. With more than five parts the list runs in two columns.
- On a chapter page the guide’s title is shown in small text above the chapter heading, so people always know which guide they are in.
- At the bottom of each page are Previous and Next links to the neighbouring parts.
- In listings and search results the label reads “Guide” for the parent and “Guide (guide title)” for a chapter, instead of “Task”. Related links to a chapter carry the guide title in brackets.
Only published chapters are listed. A chapter saved as a draft drops out of the Contents list and the Previous and Next links until it is published, so you can take a chapter down for editing without breaking the guide. When an editor previews a draft, unpublished parts are included so the whole structure can be checked.
Add a chapter to an existing guide
Create a task, set its Parent to the guide, give it an Order that places it where you want it, and publish. To move a chapter to another guide, change its Parent. To turn a chapter back into a standalone task, set Parent to “(no parent)”.
Chapters in category pages, search and the A to Z
Category pages list top-level tasks only, so chapters do not clutter the listing; the guide appears once, under the categories set on the parent. The exception is when someone filters a category page by tag, when tagged chapters are shown too. Category pages sort by permalink, so see Change the order that tasks appear in the category page listing if the guide needs to sit in a particular place.
Chapters are indexed for search and can be given A to Z letters like any task. If you would rather people always arrive at the guide’s first page, keep individual chapters out of the search results with the Relevanssi box on each chapter’s edit screen: see Stop something appearing in search results.
Guides on one page: manuals
If the chapters are short, a single page with expandable sections may serve better than a page per chapter. Turn on Manuals under Options, Modules, Tasks. A Manual box then appears on every task edit screen. Switch on Treat as a manual and add chapters, each with a title and its own content. They are shown after the main content as sections that open and close, and the task has no child pages. A manual can also be a chapter of a guide, if you need both.
Projects
Projects work the same way: a project with child projects gets the same Contents list and Previous and Next links.