Title: Archive.php …please explain
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Archive.php …please explain

 *  [nevermore](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nevermore/)
 * (@nevermore)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/archivephp-please-explain/)
 * Hi, I have an archive php link in the theme i used. before I exchange it with
   some html link, I would like to know if it is useful. How to I use it as a page?
   if I click on it it takes me to an invalid page..

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/)
 * (@andrea_r)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/archivephp-please-explain/#post-342562)
 * (Hi from NB, first of all. 😉 )
 * In relation to how you have your site set up specifically, that archives template
   is for the archives of the blog itself, if you wanted an archived listing of 
   posts to show up on their own seperate Page, within WP.
 * It’s more to be used [like this](http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_an_Archive_Index).
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/archivephp-please-explain/#post-342563)
 * `archive.php` is a template file. A decent theme designer (who knows how WP works)
   would never link directly to a template file!
 *  Thread Starter [nevermore](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nevermore/)
 * (@nevermore)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/archivephp-please-explain/#post-342568)
 * Andrea thanks, i read that info and it helps. It seems that most of that stuff
   ie:archives..is in the sidebar already.
    Moshu thanks for that also..I think 
   I will just change it to an html page…I wonder if I can change it to a page in
   WP so that I can still use the theme design on that page..hhmm More i dig the
   deeper I get..
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/archivephp-please-explain/#post-342571)
 * If there is an `archive.php` file in the theme then WP “knows” about it and will
   use it to display the monthly archives view or the category archives view. You
   don’t have to do anything with that file and you don’t have to link to it – the
   links to monthly archives and category listings are created also by WP.
 * Useful reading; [Template_Hierarchy](http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy)
 *  [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/)
 * (@andrea_r)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/archivephp-please-explain/#post-342696)
 * moshu – that’s what I was explaining to her in terms she could understand – because
   on her site there’s a page called “archives” and I think what she was asking 
   was how or if she could take the old page and stuff it in WP.
 * nevermore, just take the content of your old archives (they are links to and 
   of images), not any of the page formatting, and create a new Page in WP, calling
   it whatever you want. (as a page title, not a filename) It will automagically
   use the same theme as the blog.
 * Like for example, go to Write…Page… and in the title field put “landscapes”. 
   In the body, put the image links to the landscapes you did. Click “create new
   page”.
 * Presto! You don’t have to mess with the files at all, WP does the work.
 * In the sidebar of the blog, it will list Pages, so you do should not have to 
   create or add the links yourself.
 * Does that help?
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/archivephp-please-explain/#post-342704)
 * andrea_r,
    you are talking about the aechive**s**.php Page template (notice the
   plural -s at the end!)… while I was talking about the archive.php template. Those
   are two different things! Please, don’t mix them 😉

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Archive.php …please explain’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [archives](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/archives/)
 * [php](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 6 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * Last activity: [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/archivephp-please-explain/#post-342704)
 * Status: not resolved

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