I’m sorry—really!—background image not showing…

  • Unknown's avatar
    swriverstone · Member ·

    I’m really sorry because I know this question has been asked a thousand times.

    I’m just trying to get my custom background image to show. That’s it. I’ve tried everything I can think of to no avail. It’s driving me crazy. Please help! (And many thanks in advance.)

    Here’s my blog:
    http://sleepycreek.wordpress.com

    And here’s the background image I’d like to use…
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1198978/Sleepy%20Creek%20Blog%20Images/wood_texture_01.jpg

    I had it working using the “Background” menu item under “Appearance,” and it still shows my background there…but now it’s not appearing in my blog.

    Thanks,
    Scott

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

  • Unknown's avatar
    swriverstone · Member ·

    I’m still trying to figure this out. Still going crazy. :-(

    When I “view page source” for my blog in both Chrome and Firefox, I can see the URL for my custom background image RIGHT THERE! But it’s not showing up.

    Clearly *something* is overriding it…but what??? (I wish I knew more about CSS…the “cascading” part is absolutely disastrous to noobs like me!)

    Thanks for any help,
    Scott

  • Unknown's avatar
    thesacredpath · Member ·

    OK, a couple things. The twenty-ten theme has a custom background feature in appearance > background where you can add a custom background. Secondly, it would be far better if you uploaded the image to wordpress.COM since it would be instantly available and load much faster instead of each visitor’s browser having to fetch it from dropbox. But, before you do that, you really need to optimize that image. It is way too large for a background image (file size) and anyone with a slower internet connection are going to have to wait a long time for it to load at nearly a half megabyte. Open it in an image editing program and save it at a lower quality setting so that it is less than 75k.

    The other way to add a background is through the CSS. You would modify the background definition thus.

    body {
background:url("http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1198978/Sleepy%20Creek%20Blog%20Images/wood_texture_01.jpg") repeat scroll 0 0 #F1F1F1;
}

    The above uses the URL for dropbox. Again, I would suggest you optimize it and then upload it to wordpress. Also, I’ve set it to repeat so that if someone’s browser window is wider, or if your blog gets longer than the image is wide or long, there will not be a big blank white area.

  • Unknown's avatar
    swriverstone · Member ·

    Thanks VERY much thesacredpath for taking the time to respond!

    I was an idiot regarding the file size of that background image (I forgot to check that). I downsized it to 72dpi in Photoshop and saved it out as a low-quality JPEG and now it’s down to about 60K.

    I’m aware of the built-in custom background tool with the Twenty Ten theme…and I’ve been trying to use it, but it’s just flat-out not working. I go to that page, select my background image, upload it to WordPress.com, save the background…preview the site…and it’s not there.

    That’s why I tried to use the background from Dropbox.

    Here’s one possible clue: I purchased the Custom CSS upgrade because I wanted to change a few small things like the header font. I didn’t muck around with *any* other CSS other than replace “Helvetica” with “Georgia.” That was it.

    But the background stopped working after I purchased the Custom CSS upgrade.

    Even stranger…I tried completely reverting to the original Twenty Ten CSS by clicking “view original stylesheet,” copying all of that, deleting whatever was in the editor, choosing “start from scratch and use this,” pasting in the original stylesheet code…saved it…THEN tried using the custom background tool…no good. It still wasn’t showing.

    I then even went so far as to completely change out the theme—I activated a different theme, saved everything…logged out, logged back in…then reactivated Twenty Ten…saved everything…logged out…logged back in…tried the custom background again…STILL no good.

    So as I said, something’s clearly wrong with the custom background. Either there’s a bug in the display engine…or something’s being over-ridden in the CSS.

    Any more ideas are appreciated! :-)

    Thanks very much,
    Scott

  • Unknown's avatar
    swriverstone · Member ·

    Just a quick followup…I just tried a completely different background image (in case the problem was somehow with my original image)…no good. It still doesn’t show.

    So just for kicks, I removed the background image entirely, and just tried changing the background color (to #666666)…and even THAT didn’t show!

    So I’ve done literally everything I can possibly think of…and the background just seems to be completely “disconnected” somehow!

    Scott

  • Unknown's avatar
    swriverstone · Member ·

    One final bit of information:

    I’ve been working on a Windows PC, Windows XP SP3.
    I’ve been trying everything with both Google Chrome v 5.0.375.127, and Mozilla Firefox v3.6.6.

    (Just in case that makes any difference!)

    This is kind of a dumb little issue, and I should just forget about it…but it’s the principle of the thing now! LOL There is absolutely no reason I can see why my custom background shouldn’t be usable…and I’m starting to think more and more that it’s a problem with the Twenty Ten theme…which is surprising, considering it’s the official WordPress 2010 theme.

    Scott

  • Unknown's avatar
    hallluke · Member ·

    When you updated the CSS did you copy the whole stylesheet into the editor with your modifications? If so, this is most likely what is causing problems. It is recommended that you include just the specific CSS declarations that you have modified as the original stylesheet is loaded anyway. If you change this I think you might solve your problem.

  • Unknown's avatar
    swriverstone · Member ·

    I did copy the whole stylesheet into the editor…so that might be the problem…so one question, then—how can I completely undo any and all changes I made and revert back to the original, untouched stylesheet?

    I clicked “view original stylesheet” and copied all of that into the stylesheet editor (after checking “start from scratch and use this)…and that didn’t seem to help anything…

  • Unknown's avatar
    taraglobe · Member ·

    I did upload a background image, but it does not show up on my main page. It only shows up in personal profile. I want it on my wordpress page

  • Unknown's avatar
    hallluke · Member ·

    That won’t help at all due to the image links being relative. What you need to do is “add to existing stylesheet” but only add in the specific lines of code that you have modified or created from scratch. Copying the original stylesheet, with or without changes and whether you are adding it to or replacing the existing stylesheet will cause problems.

  • Unknown's avatar
    thesacredpath · Member ·

    For reference, please read this which reinforces what Luke is saying.

    http://csswiz.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/if-you-have-the-wp-com-css-upgrade/

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