Finding / adjusting the right themes
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Howdy, since there are many themes gone I am trying to get used to some of the newer supported ones. I think there’s no way to set up the old ones again, is it ? What I last used was the “CHRONICLE” theme, but since my premium plane went off it totally disappeared from my selection.
What I found out is that the theme “TEXTBOOK” features most of my needs. However, I think that the main menu bar is looking totally BAD. Sorry to whoever put this up but that’s no option… look for yourself :-(
So my question is how to change that with custom css when my plan is back on. Actually, I would love to look it exactly the way it looks within the “PLANE” theme.
This or something almost like it would be nice. And since we’re on it, is the option for “full width pages” gone, too ? I have some pages with massive content in width, so it would be cool to make the widget-area disappear on certain sites.
Thanks a lot !
Oliver
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi Oliver,
What I last used was the “CHRONICLE” theme, but since my premium plane went off it totally disappeared from my selection.
Chronicle is a premium theme, and you only had access to it as part of your Premium Plan, yes, so now that you no longer have a plan you’ll no longer be able to use that theme.
Chronicle has also since been retired, so it’s no longer available for activation or purchase, regardless of what plan you’re on.
What I found out is that the theme “TEXTBOOK” features most of my needs. However, I think that the main menu bar is looking totally BAD.
Actually, I would love to look it exactly the way it looks within the “PLANE” theme.
What about the menu on the plan theme would you like to bring over to Textbook? Or rather, what is it about the Textbook menu that you don’t like? Changing something from one theme completely to make it look like another theme isn’t necessarily possible using CSS only, so it’s better to focus on the specifics you’d like to change.
Also keep in mind that if you plan to upgrade again, you can get help with this in real time via live chat once you have a plan again.
is the option for “full width pages” gone, too ? I have some pages with massive content in width, so it would be cool to make the widget-area disappear on certain sites.
Textbook doesn’t have a full-width page template, it just has styling for a full-width display if there’s no widgets.
The Full Width page you see on the demo site at https://textbookdemo.wordpress.com/full-width-page-no-sidebar/ was created by adding a visibility setting to every sidebar widget to hide the widget on that specific page, so you create a full-width page by managing your widgets, rather than from inside the editor.
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Thanks for the reply.
What about the menu on the plan theme would you like to bring over to Textbook? Or rather, what is it about the Textbook menu that you don’t like?
Well, almost everything. That’s why I posted the two images. Of course I’ll try to contact live support, however I thought maybe there is something that I can try in advance. But seems you’re right, it would be a lot… basically, I would need to do the following things with the Textbook theme so that it looks somewhat like Plane:
1. Move the MENU AREA to the VERY TOP of the page (above site title et cetera)
2. Align the menu area to FULL WIDTH
3. Make the “border” thing around it DISAPPEAR
4. Change the background colour to black, change the font colour to white
5. Change the circled “+” to “arrow down”
6. Make the header image non-transparent
7. Make the site title and subtitle bigger and centered
8. Make the site logo appear over the site title (centered)I don’t really expect that someone can give me code for all this, however, it would be nice^^
Thanks for the hint with the widgets, I’ll try that.
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These are the sorts of changes that would either require a child theme (you’d need a developer to make those changes, as well as a plan that supports child themes), or you would need to build out your theme in the Full Site Editor.
Or, can you let us know what you like about Textbook and what features you need? Maybe there’s another option.
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I upgraded just now, thought the premium themes could be better, but no use… so I am kind of starting to freak out lol.
I don’t know why, but there isn’t a single theme in the library that I like. The now-retired CHRONICLE was so nice because it has all I wanted… a nice magazine-like theme with lots of options, a good feel and a good look… and now ? Most of the themes are way too minimalistic, all white with no borders or different areas that are somewhat distinguishable… no header image, no sidebar widget area, no nothing. And the worst: the page with the posts just loads every single posts completely, instead of presenting something like a little image and a headline.
Since you asked what I like about the textbook theme, apart from the ugly (sorry) top area:
1. The main-content area is rather wide and niceley separated from the background, with a tiny border. Furthermore, the lines within a chart alternate between white and grey Textbook 1
2. The post site has a nice featured area Textbook 2
3. The post site offers just the perfect post-previews Textbook 3So there is a lot of good stuff within this theme… but the header and menu area, oh my. Maybe you can just give me some code to mess around ? Something like a blueprint of the original code, so that I can try and modify it a bit with css ?
The only thing that I’d still be missing (apart from the header area) would be a customizable background image for this theme – like putting my own image “behind” the content area (which now is shown in a boring grey). Maybe there is code for that ?
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I think I will stick to the Plane theme for now… the whole menu thing with Textbook should be a bit complicated. I would now need only 3 things:
1. I need an option to change the overall site widths. For example, I want all sites to have a border to the left and right of the main content area. This new area should then be filled with a custom image of mine (that would then appear “behind” the main content area).
2. I want single sites to be more wide than others (for example, if there is a large table). So it should be like the code for option 1, but with the difference of changing the specifics on ONE certain page.
3. And last but not least: it would be cool to somehow change the look of the “POSTS” area. Right now there is every single post shown in full text = a big page with endless scrolling. I’d prefer an excerpt here, at best with a featured image. Or something similar.Greetings & regards
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Hi @oliverdsw,
I need an option to change the overall site widths.
To extend the width of the page in general, you can use custom CSS such as:
@media only screen and (min-width: 1024px) { .content-wrapper, .site-branding, .site-content { max-width: 1200px; } }I want single sites to be more wide than others (for example, if there is a large table).
You can add specificity to additional CSS, using the ID to change width on a specific page/post. For example:
@media only screen and (min-width: 1024px) { .postid-51496 .content-wrapper, .postid-51496 .site-branding, .postid-51496 .site-content { max-width: 1400px; } }And last but not least: it would be cool to somehow change the look of the “POSTS” area.
What you might want to consider here is setting this as a static page, and then using the blog posts block to style your posts layout. Here’s how: https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/blog-posts-block/
Hope that helps!
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Thanks ! I will try that.
Still, it did not solve the thing as a whole, is there any way to set up a border and a custom background image like in my linked image ? Greetings
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That’s not possible using CSS only, no.
A background image can only be added to an existing HTML element, so you’d need to add in a HTML element, like a
divthere first so you can add the background to that (though if you do that you might as well insert animgelement instead, if you want an image).Adding new HTML elements to the theme requires modifications to the theme’s PHP files themselves, and that would need to be done via a child theme.
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Thanks, I am somehow getting used to it anyway.
Now only three more things would be cool, that should be rather easy in comparizon:1. I want to make the font in my main menu bar (only there !) BOLD any maybe change the colour.
2. I want to change the colour of my overall blog headline (“Oliverdsw Presents”)
3. I want the titles of the pages to be aligned in center, not left like it is now.As always, an image with the things I mean click
Thanks in advance,
Oliver
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Sure, we can use some custom CSS for that too:
I want to make the font in my main menu bar (only there !) BOLD any maybe change the colour.
Give this a try:
:is(.main-navigation .menu-item) :is(a, a:link) { font-weight: bold; color: #ADFF2F; } :is(.main-navigation .menu-item) :is(a:hover, a:visited, a:active,a:focus) { color: #7FFF00; } @media only screen and (min-width: 768px) { .nav-menu ul ul, .nav-menu ul ul li, .nav-menu ul ul li a:hover { background-color: #000000; } }You can replace the color codes with ones of your choosing from here: https://htmlcolorcodes.com/color-names/
I want to change the colour of my overall blog headline (“Oliverdsw Presents”)
This should do the trick:
.site-title a { color: #ADFF2F; }I want the titles of the pages to be aligned in center, not left like it is now.
Here you go:
.entry-header { text-align: center; }Just a quick note — we can provide minor support for our themes, as outlined here: https://wordpress.com/support/css-support/
If you’re looking for further customizations, I suggest hiring a developer from Codeable: https://codeable.io/partners/wordpresscom/?ref=2ycmr
Hope that helps!
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