Best content-sidebar theme for 640px width content space?
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I’m looking for a content-sidebar layout width where the content area either is to start, or can be changed, to 640+ px in width. I need to be able to add a custom header either easily enough through CSS, or by uploading it the normal way if the theme allows that. I would also like to be able to edit the background through CSS or normally if possible. I would also like good functionality. Some themes in their descriptions say ” super functional with great widget support,” and some just say “simple elegant theme,” but when I’ve tried both, I don’t see any difference. The twitter and all the other widgets seem to be there on both. Can someone please explain what the difference is, what functions and widgets I should be looking out for and make sure the theme has it.
Really I’m just looking for something like these links here, so you can see them and have the best idea what I mean.
http://dudesonhockey.com/
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Mike-Augello/THE-HUNT-FOR-A-RED-HOT-OCTOBER/120/37405 (minus the white background)
http://lakingsinsider.com/I haven’t really made note of the skinnier themes for this topic because I assumed they couldn’t be widened. But now I’ve learned some can be widened, so please feel free to suggest some skinnier ones I’m not posting here which actually can be widened.
But here are some of the wider ones I took note of, with reservations for each one. Many of them need to be able to go even wider so it turns out it was probably pointless picking them over the skinnier ones as both have to be widened anyway.
But please take a look at the ones I’m posting here, and taking into account what I want to be able to change about them, please let me know which one would be best given my criteria, which one fits best, which one has all the things easily changeable in it that I say I want to be able to change.
FUSION: Fusion is nearly wide enough at its default content-sidebar setting, which is a plus, but I don’t like that it has no visible dividing line in between the content space and right sidebar. I also dont like the monotonous white background everywhere, the orange squares next to the date (although I suppose I could fit those with my color scheme), and especially the page tabs where it says “home.” Also the width is usable at 630 but I would prefer it be the slightest bit wider. Are these things all changeable?
Redoable lite: I don’t like the dark grey background and the red header background. Also the “leave a comment” and “categories: uncategorized” bars at the bottom of each post look funky, and I would want to change those if possible. At 640px it is wide enough but if it can be changed a little wider at my whim that would be better.
Liquorice: Needs to be 40px wider than its 610px default (always referring to content area here, not full page), but it might work without the “liquorice” background and look. Can I change the look of it enough to make it look like a standard sports blog?
Vigilance: Only 600px so would be better if I could make it wider, also it’s completely white which I dont like, can I change that? No divider line between sidebar and content either.
Zbench 633px, would be better if i could make it a little wider, the whole thing is grey and white which I would want to change. The font and the whole look of it is too graphic like, too computery, can I change these things?
Inove would be good if I could increase the width and add a custom header.
P2: If I can change some of the look of it and add a custom header, and make it 650+px instead of 630, change the background because its too white, and all of that, might be good. Can I change these things?
The Journalist 1.9: Is there a way to move the “leave a comment” button below the post instead of above? Also the arrow next to leave a comment, I generally dont like anything that’s built into the theme that people can see. In other words, this arrow would not be unique to my site, it would look the same on everyone’s site. If possible I dont want a theme where people can recognize the theme. every website that ive ever been to, even ones using wordpress, they all look unique and i cant recognize what theme they’re using. maybe that’s because they use the paid version but still, they dont have a big pen on their site or anything recognizable from the theme they used. Also would need to be able to change the colors and everything on this. Would I be able to?
Twenty Eleven: If I can make it fixed width with a width of 650+ px and have it so there isnt a huge photo at the top like there is in the demo, and not have a plain white background, and be able to change other things I want as it goes along. (By the way what’s the difference between this and twenty ten? A staff member actually recommended twenty ten over twenty eleven for me. Why is the older one better?)
Twenty Ten: same thing.
Mystique: if the content width can be changed from 604px to 640+ in content-sidebar layout and the black-spectrum background can be changed around the text, and the white background behind the text can be changed, and the pink “categories” tab can be changed, along with all the fonts and images around the dates, it could work. Can these things be changed?
Thanks for your time and help. Please let me know out of these themes, or a different one I haven’t mentioned, what you think would work best for me.
Here are the links again to blogs I with the same content-sidebar idea and width that I want. Also they look professional, not like a raw wordpress theme that looks like someone else’s theme. They look like their own unique sites.
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Mike-Augello/THE-HUNT-FOR-A-RED-HOT-OCTOBER/120/37405 (minus the white background)
Thanks for your help
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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If you have not seen it, take a look at this post by Panos on the maximum image widths for the themes here and then you can kind of use that in conjunction with the filters at http://themes.wordpress.com/ to find which themes offer custom backgrounds and headers with the widest content width.
Starting with a fairly simple theme like Journalist, Vigilance, Pilcrow or Coraline, that do not have a lot of image elements in the design will make things easier to customize.
Virtually anything style-wise in the themes here can be changed. Sometimes it is just a matter of changing a color code, but sometimes it requires replacing an image with a new one in the color you want.
Here is a sample of a simple theme that can have the content widened to over 640px with just two entries into the CSS. #wrapper was increased from the standard 920px to 990px (increase of 70px) and #content was widened from 600 to 670.
#wrapper { width: 990px; } #content { width: 670px; }It’s kind of difficult to give you definitive “this is really easy, this one is a little harder, this one takes a lot of work” since there are over 100 themes here and I’ve not even attempted to commit any of that to memory. When someone comes to the CSS forums and says, I want to widen my site, I then go to their site and figure out what it is going to take to widen it.
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One other thing I’ll note is that once you widen a theme, you can no longer use the header uploader at appearance > header as it will always crop the image to the original design width. At that point you have to add and change the header image through the CSS directly.
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Check this too, for content-sidebar themes (under “One sidebar” and “Sidebar(s) plus bottom and/or header”):
http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/02/26/sidebars-and-other-widget-areas/As for widgets, all themes except Monotone support the same widgets – those you can find in Appearance>Widgets (with the also very rare exception of a couple of themes that have one extra widget of their own).
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Thanks a lot thesacredpath for the continued help here. You’ve been so helpful and I appreciate you taking the time and effort to help someone else with their site with nothing else in it for you. Panaghlotisadam thank you as well for helping here, and thanks for the link. It should help me sort the themes better if I ever get the more important lists I need about ones with modifiable width in CSS and stuff like that (I explain later in the post, I’m just circling back here after looking at your link).
If you have not seen it, take a look at this post by Panos on the maximum image widths for the themes here and then you can kind of use that in conjunction with the filters at http://themes.wordpress.com/ to find which themes offer custom backgrounds and headers with the widest content width.
See that’s the thing, I did that very painstakingly, and it limited my options down to a couple themes. This is good in that I was getting somewhere, narrowing things down, but bad that it limited my options to mostly themes I didn’t like. But now designsimply, the staff person who is helping me out, or at least was a day ago, mentioned I could use a theme like journalistic and he or she would help me add a custom header through CSS. So now I can’t narrow anything down at all. I look at every single theme that does not allow you to use custom headers in the non-CSS way, but I can’t rule them out or in because I don’t know which ones allows you to add a header through CSS easily and which ones don’t. That’s why I posted a bunch here so I could get a better idea.
Is there maybe a link, like the one that shows widths of each theme, that tells you which ones you can add a custom header to in CSS? And speaking of that width link, now I feel like I can’t rule out a theme because it’s only 490px wide or something on that list because what if it’s one of the ones where it’s easy to widen in CSS? So maybe it says it’s 490px, and it is to start, but I ruled out an another perfect theme when I shouldn’t have because I didn’t know it was one that could easily be widened, unlike elegant grunge.
That’s why I’m so lost at this moment in finding a theme. I have no idea where to start now. I can’t rule out or rule in any themes based on width because I have no way of knowing if a given theme can be widened easily. I can’t rule out any themes through the search filter for not boasting a “custom header” because it turns out many of the themes that don’t have that listed can still have custom headers added.
I think I basically need either someone who’s read my topics and knows what I’m looking for, and knows all 100+ themes inside out, to tell me which handful would be best for me, and I pick the one that looks the best, or I need lists of all the 2-column and 3-column themes that can have a custom header added easily, and either start with 640+ px width, or can be widened to 640+ px width in CSS easily without adding new images.
Is there maybe a resident theme expert on these forums who could give me this detailed information if you sacredpath or others in this topic don’t know, and there’s not a link already with this information? Because if I could get a list of themes that meet that criteria, 640+ px wide by default or through CSS, custom header by default or through CSS, (changeable background through CSS or default too would be good), those three criteria basically, that would probably narrow the number of theme choices down to maybe 25 or 30 total for me, and then I could really go through them knowing they are my choices, and pick the one I like the best, and be done with it and never look back. I think that’s the only way I am going to find the best theme for me. The only other way would be to just start out with a wide one that’s okay but not great, like Journalist that my staff person recommended, or if you have one you’d recommend, and just get my blog running asap with that, and then change eventually when I can get the information I need. But that’s just stalling a little while and waiting for the information. It doesn’t change the need for the information on all the themes eventually. And I’d much prefer to get the theme choice over once and for all, because a lot of the CSS code and table settings and font colors and design stuff I do on the first theme won’t look the same in the other theme.
To everyone looking over this topic who didn’t want to bother reading big paragraphs, please at least read this if you have a moment because maybe you can help. I am looking for a complete list that shows which themes can have their content width edited easily through CSS, as well as a complete list of themes that can have a custom header added easily either by default or through CSS. Basically I am looking for a list of themes with the following two criteria: Content-Sidebar layout option, Content-Width of 640+px either by default or that can be made that way through CSS, and the option to add a Custom Header either normally or through CSS. I doubt this would all be on one single list, but if there is one list of the themes with easily modified content width, another list of the themes that can have headers added through CSS, etc, I can cross reference myself. Also I want to be able to edit my background color through CSS, but I understand every theme that can be widened can also have its background color changed, so I dont think that would require a new list.
Thanks everyone! Any help is appreciated so I can get my blog up and running as soon as possible. Special thanks again @thesacredpath. Also @designsimply, my staff helper, you’ve been very helpful as well, but my big roadblock right now is getting the list/s I just mentioned. As a staff helper and wordpress expert you’re probably most qualified to help me in that regard. If you could get me that information it’s much needed and it would be very helpful. I’d bother you much less too afterwards ;-] because once I get that information and pick a theme, all I’ll need help with is potentially doing the easy custom header upload and other easier/smaller CSS stuff to finalize the blog, and then I’ll be done, smooth sailing I hope.
Thank you again everyone. Have a good day.
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Virtually all themes can have a header added to them in CSS one way or another. On some themes it is easier. The problem is the it would take hundreds of hours to scour all of the themes and all the CSS here to get any really clear idea of what can be done on what and how easily, and even after compiling such a list, there would be 25 million wanting you to go back through them and find out about their wants and needs.
The thing is if you end up widening a theme, the custom header uploader can no longer be used since it will always insert the header image at the original size. After widening a theme you have to add the header via the CSS, so this is sort of a moot point really.
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Well thank you again. It doesn’t really matter to me whether the header is uploaded normally or through CSS. I meant a list of themes that can have a header uploaded one way or another, as longs as it’s possible one way or another. The problem with the search filter is it only lists the ones who can do it normally, not the ones that can do it in CSS. But from what you say here and what others have said, it sounds like they all can, at least almost all. If there are a few special cases where you can’t upload one, that would be a shorter list, less work to post, and would be helpful.
Right now I’m just waiting to hear the list of the reportedly few themes that can’t be widened because of fixed background images, so I know which ones to look out for. But I might even just go through them all now without knowing and then if I find ones I like, I’ll ask if they have the fixed background image problem (problem for me I mean, not everyone).
So that’s what I’m going to try next, going through every single 2-column and 3-column theme looking for ones I could envision working well for me if they can be made wide enough.
Thanks again for your help. I’ll update after going through all the themes to boast about how much fun I’m having and make everyone jealous.
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ANY theme can have an image put into the header area. The only thing that varies is what CSS selectors are available to use, but as long as there is an element of some sort at the top of the page, I can put a header on any theme. If there isn’t an element that can easily be used, I’ll put the image into a text widget and then reposition that text widget up and into the header area. There are literally dozens of ways to get an image up into the header area.
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Good to know. Very good to know. This is the kind of info I need. So is the same true for changing background color and everything else? I mean is the only thing I need to look out for the whole elegant grunge width thing where it’s hard to change because it has custom set background images? Is it a case where everything besides that is easy to change in CSS for all the other themes? Or are there other “anomalies” or whatever you want to call them that i need to look out for? Like, if there are 10 themes where you can’t edit the width easily out of 100, is it also the case where there’s 10 others you can’t edit the background or change the font, sort of a group of them for each thing where they have limitations, or is that just with width?
And an unrelated question, do all themes allow you to upload photo galleries and video and stuff in your post like I could do with elegant grunge I believe it was, is that a unanimous wordpress feature, or is it only built-in to some themes?
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Sacredpath,
I went through all the themes, previewed each one, again.
Here is the problem I am having. First it was the width thing, but because I’ve been told the vast majority of the themes can have their widths changed, I am just operating under the assumption that every theme I look at can be widened, and then if one of the five or ten I pick that I like can’t be widened, someone will tell me and I’ll pick another one. So the width is less of an issue now. Same concept with background color and all the other stuff. I’m just assuming it can all be changed for 99% of the themes.
The problem now is functionality. Slideshows, post function, being able to add an image at the top of each post, stuff like that. Only 20 or so themes list that they have “featured image” function or post format or sticky post, but at least with slideshows, a lot more than that can do it. So I’m back to the problem with the filter of it being inaccurate. And then there’s the whole issue of can’t headers for each post be embeded? So once again I can’t rule any theme out or in because I don’t know what it can actually do. These crucial features aren’t listed for a lot of these themes. I like some things about the P2 theme, but my slideshow didn’t work for it (no explanation of course), and I don’t know if, because it’s a special theme with real time comments and stuff like that, that means it’s programmed different, that it can’t do slideshows at all even if I change the CSS, and whatever else. Or maybe there is a code to make the sldieshow work. I have no way of knowing because it’s not listed. And even if there is a definitive listing, this one comes with a slideshow, or sticky post, this one doesn’t, I have no idea if that even means anything, because what if for the one that doesn’t, I could just write one in using CSS? That would mean it technically does, it just isn’t listed. So all the listings are misleading. I can post here about a theme every day and get an answer per day on these questions, and then 100 days from now maybe I’ll have enough information to know what theme does what and then pick. It’s impossible. Any suggestions? This is like deciding on one car out of 100 that are being shown to you, except the auto dealer doesn’t tell you how many seats half of them have, and whether half of them have airbags or not, and then half the ones you have been told don’t have airbags can actually have them installed for 30 dollars a year, but you don’t know which ones specifically can have them installed. It’s very disappointing this is made so difficult. Any suggestions? When I look at a given theme, to make a decision, I basically need to know the following information for each theme:
Whether it can do a slideshow normally or through CSS, whether sticky posts can be added normally or through CSS, whether featured images, like custom headers for each post, can be added normally or through CSS, whether comments can be updated in real time without reloading the page, either normally or through CSS, whether there can be comment threads normally or through CSS.
Width and all that would fall in there too except that’s mostly been settled, like I said I’m just assuming all that can be changed. So that just leaves the paragraph above. These are important features and I don’t know how anyone can decide on a theme without knowing all the features. There has to be some place where this stuff is listed, or some way of knowing. I’m hoping you can help thesacredpath. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLx0BCjtxx8
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