I'm really struggling with putting a single "featured post" on my home page. I've tried making a specific category for the post and tried modifying index.php to use query_posts with a category parameter but for some reason Atahualpa doesn't seem to finish the page when I do that.

I saw in another post a recommendation to use cat2page but that plugin is very out of date and doesn't seem to provide the effect that I need.

Is there a reason why we can't use query_posts with Atahualpa? What other option is suggested for this functionality?

Right now I have the look and feel I want because wordpress is set to only show 1 post - the problem with that is the archive pages only show 1 post as well so this isn't the solution.

Please help!

coloradoanimalwelfare.org

You could try Sticky Front Page Categories and Tags

There is a post in the gold forums about ' How to: Create a announcement box at the top of the center column of the landing page' which works by defining a category that will go there and just adding a post to that category and then it is displayed.

I guess I'm out of luck. Sticky Front Page seems to remove almost everything else from my front page and I'm $15 short of getting into the gold forum. I volunteer my time to update this particular website for a dog rescue that is just starting up. Frustrating that query_posts just won't work on this theme.

Thanks for the suggestions.
Beth

Actually, I think I have it figured out. Thanks again everyone for your help!

Are you looking to only have one article/post on the front page or if a featured post plus others under it is OK you could just use the sticky post function. Do you have an example of what you are trying to accomplish?

They were asking for a single story on the home page. I did figure it out though. Thank you!!!

Would you mind sharing your "fix"?

I found this code in an old forum post:

<?php if ( is_front_page() ) { ?>
<div class="ec3ctr">
<div class="announce">
<?php $my_query = new WP_Query('category_name=announcements&showposts=1' );
while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
<div <?php post_class(); ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<?php bfa_post_headline('<div class="post-headline">','</div>'); ?>
<?php bfa_post_byline('<div class="post-byline">','</div>'); ?>
<?php bfa_post_bodycopy('<div class="post-bodycopy clearfix">','</div>'); ?>
</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
</div>
</div>
<?php } ?>

I put it in the Content ABOVE the LOOP and added an announcements category. It seemed to do what I wanted it to do.

I know you got it figured out but here is a plugin I had forgotten about. Opt-In Front Page. I lets you choose which category of posts will show on the front page and if there are no posts the front page resorts to regular blog function.