Custom Design not working? Dashboard stuck at 1 column.

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  ericsmith14 · Member · Nov 7, 2011 at 5:51 pm

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  Unable to access style sheet via Appearance-edit. No templates on dashboard for alternative access.
  Used Custom Design page CSS to edit but that doesn’t appear to do what I want. Does not connect with the theme page.
  I have read widely on-line advice and text books without any success with custom design. I appreciate textbooks can be a little misleading because they tend to cover areas beyond wordpress com. The approach referred to in the opening line of this message (access to style sheets and dashboard templates) comes from “WordPress for dummies” which I realise covers the more comprehensive “WordPres.org” . but I would expect the procedure described, to be in the “com” version.
  It could be that I have become ridiculously dim in my old-age. But! I had 6 internet pages via Dreamweaver some 20 years ago. Still have a working knowledge of html. Style sheets were relatively new in those days.
  Maybe the intervening 20 years have taken their toll? Nevertheless, taking the optirmistic approach: If you confirm custom design is working correctly and that I am expecting facilities outside “WordPress.com” could you please hold my hand and lead me step-by-step through the available procedures. Incidentally, the stuck column problem arose just an hour or so ago whilst the custom design problem has been with me right from the start. They are not related I shouldn’t think.

  Regards,

  Eric Smith

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  thesacredpath · Member · Nov 7, 2011 at 6:22 pm

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  Can we get a link to the site you are talking about?

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  ericsmith14 · Member · Nov 7, 2011 at 7:46 pm

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  Yes – miscellanea1 wordpress.com.

  Eric

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  timethief · Member · Nov 7, 2011 at 7:58 pm

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  This is an active link http://miscellanea1.wordpress.com

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  thesacredpath · Member · Nov 7, 2011 at 8:27 pm

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  This is what I see in your custom CSS.

  CSS Example p {
  color: red;
  }
  a {
  color: blue;
  }

  This, “CSS Example p” is NOT a CSS selector and will never work.

  CSS is theme specific. Each theme’s CSS will be different. Sometimes those differences may be minor if they are written by the same author, but they can be drastically different, which is more often the case.

  You have to first understand the relationship between the markup (XHTML) and the CSS. You always start with the markup. It shows which CSS selectors apply to which elements in the page. You can then make changes to the selectors to style the elements on your site.

  Also since you are just getting started, never copy/paste the entire stylesheet into the CSS edit window as it will typically cause all sorts of issues for you. Put into the CSS edit window only the specific selectors, and only the specific declarations that you are adding or changing.

  If you are wanting to edit the underlying theme files, we cannot edit the underlying theme files here at wordpress.COM. This is a multi-user platform which means we all share the same underlying theme and wordpress files. Any change by one person would change it for everyone using that theme.

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  ericsmith14 · Member · Nov 7, 2011 at 10:59 pm

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  Thanks for your reply. The css you see on my site is debris I was playing around with, none complete. Should have removed to avoid misunderstanding.
  From your general comments regarding themes, I take it the WordPress for dummies”
  example is not available in the wordpress.com environment.
  Your comments suggests to me an incorrect concept on my part could be my problem. I imagined standard heading and file location was my responsibility. Now I am thinking that the css edit page looks after that kind of thing. It certainly would explain to me why pressing the save button excludeds me from any other involvement such as naming a file..

  So now a simple question (I suppose I should have asked in the first place) – simply entering the correct css code in custom design css edit page and press the save button is all that is required?

  If your answer is in the affirmative which is most likely, then I apologise most profusely for troubling you unecessarily. My first attempt was with custom design edit page. The failure of my effort must have been an error in my coding. Clearly I was so taken by my wider concept I didn’t apply “best practice” to the possibility of program error. I look forward to your reply but in the meantime will assume an affirmative answer and proceed as implied above.

  I understand the general limitations ot theme editing; text editing is the reason for purchasing custom design facility.

  Again thank you for your time and patience.

  Regards,

  Eric Smith.