edit CSS
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I was very disappointed to find out I have to pay to edit CSS code, this is new.. I hadn’t used WP in a while…:(
is $14.97 a one-time charge if not, how exactly does it work??? before I fork out $14.97 I want to know what I’m purchasing and what it does.. is it just for the “privilege” of uploading your own CSS code?? (does the CSS code take up more space in the server if it’s not the “pre-written” CSS code that comes with the template??? :)
thank you..
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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WordPress.com has always charged for editing the CSS at least for the nearly three years I’ve been here. With self-hosted blogs of course, you can edit anything you want. The CSS editing upgrade is for a year. As long as you keep it current, your changes will remain. If you let it lapse, or do not continue it, your blog will revert back to the original CSS.
CSS is theme dependent which means that you have to edit the CSS for the theme you are using. Each theme author decides what they are going to name the sections of the CSS, so you cannot apply the CSS from one theme to another.
If you have CSS editing experience, you can get the paid custom CSS upgrade, which will allow you to stylize the theme, but it does not allow you to change the functionality. Since there is no official support for the CSS upgrade, and few here in the forums with much CSS experience, you should figure that you are on your own. Before buying the upgrade, you can go to appearance > edit CSS and wordpress has provided a preview function where you can try out changes before you buy the upgrade.
http://support.wordpress.com/custom-css/
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I don’t want to apply CSS from one template to another.. I want to write MY OWN; I applied one of those bare-bones “sandbox” templates, so I can start with the CSS from scratch… and yes I have lots of CSS experience..
so your CSS code stays there for a year, if you haven’t changed it in a year it autom. changes back to the orig CSS code?? this is weird.. (do you get an email notification or something?? )
thank you..
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actually, to clarify my question: you cannot CHANGE any CSS code at all if you don’t pay $14.97??? you cannot TOUCH any appearance aspects of the blog at all, then?? so the “sandbox” templates are useless unless you pay? you can only use the “pre-written” CSS code in those other templates and you can never change it?? oh brother..
thanks again..
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That is partly correct.
You can use the free Preview to ensure you can do exactly what you want before you have to pay to apply it, but you cannot edit any CSS at all without the upgrade.
With the upgrade, you can change your CSS as often as you like, whether you’re using Sandbox or whether you’re adapting a different WP.com theme. You cannot change the way the themes FUNCTION, but you can change the look of any theme at all, provided you have the paid upgrade.
Just an FYI: there is no official support for CSS in the forum, and only a handful of volunteers who know what they’re doing with it and have the time to help out, so you’re pretty much on your own with it unless you’ve got something narrowed down and just need some feedback on it.
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And I’ve been here longer than TSP and it’s always been a paid upgrade. If you have a blog hosted independently, using WordPress.org software, you can of course do whatever you like to the theme at no additional cost (provided the designer of the theme has given you that right).
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That is correct. The sandbox themes are included basically for those that want to buy the CSS upgrade and style their own themes. The aren’t really useful otherwise.
If you do not renew your upgrade at the end of the year, your blog will return to the original, no CSS state of the base sandbox theme.
The upgrades help wordpress pay for all the required servers and bandwidth it takes to run the wordpress.com blogging service.
With the paid CSS upgrade, you can write your own CSS for sandbox, or you can use one of the many sandbox “skins” that others have done as a base if you wish.
If you have the paid CSS upgrade, you can modify the CSS of any theme here and apply your modifications to that theme. You cannot apply the CSS designed for one theme to a different theme. They were written by different authors, and the naming conventions are different. Each author decides how they are going to name things.
Why not self-host a blog using the wordpress software and then you can do absolutely anything you want?
Here are some other things that might get in your way also. The “code” that we can use here is very limited due to security concerns. Javascript, flash, iframes and forms are not allowed, and there are even restrictions on what HTML we can use in posts and pages.
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“The ‘code’ that we can use here is very limited due to security concerns. Javascript, flash, iframes and forms are not allowed, and there are even restrictions on what HTML we can use in posts and pages.”
I don’t get this, I thought WP was “open source”; what is open source if there are so many restrictions on the code you can use?
oh well… this is why I’m no lover of blogs, technically; as a developer who has been hand-coding everything for almost 10-years I find it hard sometimes to adjust to blog-editing (I love blogs as a CONCEPT, totally, but editing them, well, that’s ‘nother problem…;)
(no forms? on a blog? so for email you’re forced to use mailto links that will expose yr email address to spammers???) no flash? so how do you put videos on yr blog???? (no JavaScript? YIKES… these are the things I find hard about editing blogs…)what do you mean exactly by “self-host”? put the blog on my own webhosting server? I have a conventional website already, w/my own domain, but for the blog, to use this other domain I have a for the blog, my webhosting would charge additionally for that/mo.. I’m an unemployed web developer, a very experienced front-end developer, actually, a bit desperate for work, and I want to add WP blog-editing to my skills, I know CSS very well, and I have dabbed in WP before, so I don’t think I should have much of a problem.. am just trying to do this as cheaply as I can.. I guess I will have to fork out those $14.97, hopefully it will be worth it…..;)
thank you all for yr responses and have a great weekend…
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The wordpress.ORG software is open source and you can do absolutely anything you want with or to it.
WordPress.COM is a free hosting service using a modified version of the wordpress multi-user software. Since this is a multi-user platform, we all share the same underlying files which means that any change to the underlying theme or wordpress files would change things for everyone using that theme. The upgrades here help pay for all the costs associated with
Because this is a multi-user platform, any bad script or code inserted into a blog by a user could compromise many bloggers or even bring down the entire system. There are a lot of services out there like facebook, blogger, etc., that constantly have to deal with bad code and bad code has brought them down on more than one occasion. WordPress is very security conscious and that is why there are code limitations at the free hosting service.
If you want full control, self-host a blog on a third-party web host (like your current web host) with the wordpress.ORG software and hack to your heart’s content.
As far as videos and such, there are many shortcodes wordpress has provided to allow videos to be added to blogs: http://support.wordpress.com/?s=video . For videos that do not have shortcodes, the wordpress button for vodpod allows you to display videos from virtually any source on the web as long as the video has embedding enabled.
As far as wanting to add wordpress to your resume, working on wordpress.COM will give you no real useful knowledge due to the restrictions here. You need to work with the standalone wordpress.ORG software.
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If all you are looking for is to become familiar with wordpress for development reasons, why not install wordpress on your computer (local install). If you are on Windoze, do a search on the internet for “WAMP” which is a program that allows you to locally install wordpress and then you can work with it right on your computer.
If you are on Mac, there is MAMP. Again, search for that on the internet. I downloaded it and installed it on my Mac, and within 10 minutes after installing MAMP, I had wordpress up and running on my local computer and I use it all the time for development purposes. No need for a web host or the associated costs.
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once again, thank you all for your responses.. I do want to play around w/a ‘real’ blog (have space issues on my very old machine, etc.. so for the time being WP servers will be fine..:)
so far have two posts in my little blog, http://mayablogger.wordpress.com/ does it look ok?
as far as
If you want full control, self-host a blog on a third-party web host (like your current web host) with the wordpress.ORG software and hack to your heart’s content.
a few years ago when dabbed in WP I did do self-host.. but, one thing I remember: I tried putting my own email form with my own PHP code to send email (I found WP’s PHP code unnecessarily complicated for just sending one simple email.. it sent stuff to db, which I didn’t want.. PLUS: it wouldn’t let me choose a diff email address from the one I had put in my profile.. all in very restrictive.. ) and I never could get it to work.. so still don’t get what “open source” here means exactly..
again thank you to all for your help.. I do appreciate you taking the time to write substantial posts to explain this stuff to me…. will definitely keep this thread bookmarked…
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There are literally thousands of plugins that have been developed over the years, and quite a number on email stuff, so you might want to do some searching in wordpress.ORG/extend/plugins/ .
A note to .COM bloggers who might come to this thread: Plugins are not allowed here at wordpress.COM, the above was only offered to mayablogger regarding extending the functionality of self-hosted wordpress installs and does not apply here.
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Open source means simply that the code is available to anyone to tweak and change. It doesn’t mean that it’s completely open to using any kind of add-on code. If you find a bug, you’re encouraged to take a stab at changing the code so that it’s fixed.
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“the code is available to anyone to tweak and change…”
“It doesn’t mean that it’s completely open to using any kind of add-on code”
I think these two statements are a bit contradictory.. either you can tweak the code to your heart’s content or you can’t… ;) (of course any time you’re changing any code you’re “adding” your own code too, no???…;)
when I started out w/WP a few years ago, and I was self-hosting, I was very pleased back-end was PHP, because I know PHP, but I was never allowed to put my own PHP code anywhere.. I couldn’t even post a PHP question in PHP forum, because for some odd reason the PHP forum was restricted, I didn’t have access (don’t know what the criterion was for granting users access to PHP forum, don’t know if this is still the case today..)
again, thank you all and have a great weekend…
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The wordpress.ORG forum is open to anyone. All you have to do is sign up and get a username and password there.
And check into WAMP and doing a local install. I don’t think it takes much disk space at all. The download is only 16MB or so.
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