CSS basic question
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Is it possible to use CSS to change the column width of the main content area without erasing the entire theme and starting from scratch and if so, is that kind of complicated for a total newbie?
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It’s absolutely possible and fairly straight forward. If you let us know what theme you are using and what you want it to look like, we can even provide you with the code you need.
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On WordPress.com, you can not change existing CSS code, but you can easily add</add> code. Hence, you never have to start from scratch.
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Thank you for the quick reply
This may sound crazy but as a total newbie I decided to only create my custom header (which was hard enough) and tutor myself as best as I can on basic CSS and HTML before I begin posting, adding widgets etc.
Therefore I don’t need the help yet; just wanted to know that it was an option. I believe one should have a basic understanding rather than waste time creating a blog that looks ridiculously amateurish that nobody would read it
Thanks !!
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On WordPress.com, you can not change existing CSS code, but you can easily add</add> code. Hence, you never have to start from scratch.
So what is the difference between not changing the theme’s CSS and adding new code to it? Why would one choose the option to erase everything?
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The difference to which sneff refers is that with a self-hosted WordPress site you can dig into the actual code of your theme, including all of the CSS and change what is there to something completely different. That gives you the ability to use a theme as a base and end up with a site that looks nothing like what you started with.
On WordPress.com, the Custom Design upgrade lets you change a lot of things–colors fonts, the width of columns, whether elements show up or not, but the way we are allowed to do CSS upgrades just adds additional code to the end of what is already in place.
This means while a lot of modification is possible, you can’t go as far as you can on a WordPress.org site. It also means that it’s much, much harder to completely destroy your site. Basically impossible actually because no matter how much damage you do with your CSS, all you have to do to fix it is erase your work.
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I haven’t bothered to read about using these forums so excuse me if I do this incorrectly. I have the same question as rodiy2k. I’m using Chateau which I’m happy with except that the content area is too small for my content and I need the left side nav bar as well. I’ve looked at other themes and all the themes waste too much space for the margins around the theme. I’d like to narrow the side bar and spread my content almost to the right edge of the theme margin. You can see what I mean if you look at http://awarenj.wordpress.com/atlantic-county-copy/ . Abt 2 inches of screen are wasted on either side of the entire page. My html is seriously outdated but I have managed to bhild and maintain all these pages. I know CSS not at all. Thank you.
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@awarenj1–so I think this would basically do what you are asking for. I don’t really recommend you go this way as making your content this wide makes it harder to read and basically impossible for people on mobile, but take a look and see what you think.
In order to use the code you’ll need the custom design upgrade, but you can preview it by going to your customizer window and adding this to the CSS box.
#menu, #page-inner,#main-title, #main-image, #main{ width: 1200px !important; margin-left: 50px !important; } -
One more question please ( a few, actually)
If my media settings are, for instance, set for maximum height and width 300 X 300 for medium size images and I upload a picture from my pc or the internet that is larger or smaller but choose to post it in medium size:
Will it only look optimal if I only don’t exceed those px dimensions? What if it’s smaller than those dimensions?
Is it best to edit an image in a picture editor to the recommended size before uploading? What if my image is somewhere in between those dimension sizes?
Finally, if I choose to left align an image, is it practical to use CSS to perhaps make a medium or thumbnail size image to drape the image proportionately so covers more or less than the default for the theme style (in other words, if you want more text wrapped around the image than would normally display)
Thanks again
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Could you post your question about using images to a new thread? It’s a good question, but I’m not really the best person to ask about it. I tend to just upload images at whatever size they happen to be, stick them in the post at a size that looks good in the post, make sure they aren’t pixelated and call it good. There are other volunteers–Timethief and Justjennifer come to mind immediately– who think a lot harder about the optimal way to work with images and they will be able to give you a much better answer.
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Hi
I am using Coraline and would like to have the column widths fpr main content be larger than 540px, perhaps 650? Is it possible to change the header also so the text content still fits underneath it without being larger?If you can show me the CSS code I will be very appreciative. I have no pubished posts yet; I’ve been playing around with drafts first
Thanks
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I think this is the easiest way to get the look you are going for. I increased the size of the whole container, so I’m not sure it’s exactly 650 px for the main content, but you can adjust up or down to find what you like:
#container{ max-width: 920px !important; }Remember you’ll have to have the custom design upgrade for this to work. Let me know if you need more instruction on how to use it.
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