Custom Blog Template instead of index.php WordPress

WP Answers comments:

Thank you for your response.

When I change the read settings, the blog page uses the correct template, but it does not display any of the posts.

Nathan Parikh comments:

Thanks for the update.
If it's still not displaying the posts, then you need to include the WordPress loop in the page template.

WP Answers comments:

Hi,

I've pasted the loop I'm using below. I know it works, because when I turn my "index.php" page into a replica of my custom page template, it displays fine. (only thing that doesn't display is the custom info at the top of the page that gets pulled in via a custom write panel).

Any ideas?

<?php if(have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div class="post_wrap">
<div class="post_top">
<div class="post_date_wrap">
<p class="post_date"><?php the_time('j'); ?></p>
<p class="post_month"><?php echo strtoupper(get_the_time('M')); ?></p>
</div><!-- end post_date_wrap -->
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<p><strong>Posted by:</strong> <?php the_author_posts_link(); ?> / <strong>Tags:</strong> <?php the_tags('', ', '); ?> / <?php comments_number('0', '1', '%'); ?></p>
</div><!-- end post_top -->

<div class="post_content">
<div class="post_image_wrap">
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?></a>
</div><!-- end post_image_wrap -->
<?php the_content("Read More &rarr;"); ?>
</div><!-- end post_content -->
</div><!-- end post_wrap -->
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

Nathan Parikh comments:

For the loop to work in your page template, here's what you have to do:

Replace:
<?php if(have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

with:
<?php
$temp = $wp_query;
$wp_query= null;
$wp_query = new WP_Query();
$wp_query->query('showposts=5'.'&paged='.$paged);
while ($wp_query->have_posts()) : $wp_query->the_post();
?>

Change:
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

to:
<?php endwhile;?>
<?php $wp_query = null; $wp_query = $temp;?>

That should display the posts properly.

WP Answers comments:

Hi Nathan,

This is working fine, but for some reason the "more" break isn't working. When I put the more break in the post, it just displays the whole post rather than breaking it with a read more link. Any ideas why this is so? Thanks for your help.