How do I edit the code of a WordPress site?

Question

I am helping out a family member with their WordPress blog and he/she wanted to have the comments show on the main front page. This way, users don't have to click through the title to add a comment. If that is impossible, he/she wanted to have instructions like "click here to add a comment" near the title.

I know how to write html/css etc., so I would just go in and type in some code but I don't have an FTP account. Is there a way to edit the html of a WordPress site through the WordPress Dashboard menu thing? I would ask for a FTP account, but I doubt he/she knows how to create one. Also, would doing this really screw things up for WordPress? Any and all help is appreciated. If needed I can give the URL, but I would rather not have people trying to post comments and mess around with the site. Thanks!

Answer 1

The easiest way is indeed to have an FTP access and edit the blog's theme directly (in /wp-content/themes/nameofyourtheme. Otherwise, you can also do it from the Admin panel. Go to Appearance, then click on "Editor". You'll then be able to edit all the theme's files.

Edit:

If you want to change the layout of the posts, the file you'll want to edit is single.php.