Random effects of "Edit" actions?
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Wanting to change the format of a post title in order to make it larger, I go to Dashboard/Posts/All posts, select the post I want modify and click on edit. I select the title, which is highlighted, then I go to the dropdown menu and select “Heading 3”, which looks about right. I click on it.
What happens is that the title becomes vastly bigger, corresponding to “Heading 1”, while the first paragraph of the text also triples in size – though not the rest of the text. On the edit page, the first paragraph of the text also appears to have changed typeface and gone to bold.
I highlight the text in the edit window and select “Paragraph” from the menu. This restores the text size, but the title remains ultra-large, while in Preview most of my widgets have disappeared. Rinse and repeat, with varying results.
To cut a long story short, the results of my actions in “Edit” appear to have largely random effects. Is this normal?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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I believe you are talking about the headings not titles, just to clarify the terminology.
The headings range from h1 to h6 and are styled based upon the WordPress Theme designer’s decisions. They are “supposed” to go from large to small but not always. And sometimes the post content area starts with h2 or h3 depending upon the Theme.
To test all the styles possible on the Theme you have chosen, or while experimenting with WordPress Themes, I recommend you use the sandbox post file per the instructions in that article. Paste the contents of the downloaded text file in a post through the TEXT editor on your site. Save it and preview it to see how all the styles look.
Back to your specific issue, consider switching to the Text Editor to check the HTML code. If the heading tag is not closed by the time you start writing the paragraph, there maybe some sizing issues, especially if you start forcing fonts. It isn’t heard to learn the 5 HTML tags used in basic web writing, and you can quickly identify what is a heading (h2, h3, etc.) and there are no paragraphs but double spaces between paragraphs in the Text Editor. When an HTML tag is opened, it must be closed such as:
<h2>This is a Heading</h2>WordPress automatically adds them when the post is generated.
I teach and provide training and I highly recommend that people do not overwrite the styles of a WordPress Theme when it comes to the content. The designer often has greater experience with the font decisions and choices. Add headings, bold, italic, but avoid messing around with the fonts.
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Sorry. Hit submit too soon.
WordPress automatically adds the PARAGRAPH HTML tags when the post is generated.
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Lorelle, thank you. I was not aware of the difference between headings and titles. I have played around with the Text Editor, and am still unfortunately coming up with problems.
1. I have used HTML tags within the body of a post to test out the various Headings sizes, as follows:
<h1>HEADING 1</h1>
<h2>HEADING 2</h2>
<h3>HEADING 3</h3>
<h4>HEADING 4</h4>
Unfortunately, with Preview all four come out exactly the same, as though the tags are being ignored.2. I was much more concerned with increasing the size of Post Titles, which for standard Academica are ridiculously small – I would judge about 9-10pt. Using the <h1> tag on the Post Title shoots it up to something like 42pt, but – and here’s the rub – tags <h2> to <h6> have no effect, and leave it at maximum size. So the only options seem to be tiny or huge… why on earth?
I am more and more getting a sense of WordPress as something only half-baked, or left incomplete, which is a pity.
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WordPress.COM is a turnkey blogging solution for those who wish to focus on content rather than customization. WordPress.ORG is where you can tinker freely with design and customization.
Do you have the Custom Design upgrade? You can make the changes you want with that at WordPress.com.
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raincoaster, I have subscribed to Custom Design, but there is very little new that it allows me to do beyond changing colours. It also apparently allows the use of something called Cascading Style Sheets, but I wouldn’t know how to even start using those.
Also, while I appreciate that it is utterly pointless to complain about things as they are, I can’t help wondering why WordPress bothers offering facilities which turn out not to be functional, such as non-working HTML tags…
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CSS does work. Cascading Style Sheets allow you to set up how your site looks without having to specify styles (fonts, indents, colors, formatting of all sorts…) on each and every page.
It takes some time to learn about, but it’s not impossible:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/css-basics/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/css-basics/#get-goingIf you have the CSS upgrade and have spent a little time trying to figure out how it works, but you have trouble getting the exact effect you want, then you can post a specific question in the CSS forum here.
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WordPress.com is a turnkey blogging solution. That’s really all there is to say about it. If it’s not what you want, then WordPress.org is ubiquitous and easily installed.
If you don’t want to edit CSS yourself (and I do not either), you can post requests in the CSS forum and wait for staff or a volunteer to give you the code to do things. It can take a day or three. If you don’t want to wait, and you don’t want to learn CSS, then get your money back for the upgrade.
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If you want to change font size and color post by post, rather than via CSS, then you’ll find this article helpful:
https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/formatting-text-pt-5/Please note that headings are not meant to be used to change font sizes! Headings are read by search engines as the organization of your posts. They are sort of like outline elements showing which section is most important, which sections are less important or are subsets of the main topic.
Headings Are Important
Use HTML headings for headings only. Don’t use headings to make text BIG or bold.
Search engines use your headings to index the structure and content of your web pages.
Since users may skim your pages by its headings, it is important to use headings to show the document structure.
H1 headings should be used as main headings, followed by H2 headings, then the less important H3 headings, and so on.
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