Theme

How hard can it be? It’s just a theme change (said no one ever).

~ Ron Walker ~ 35 Comments

I thought I would change up the appearance of my blog some. I had been using the same theme, since 2011. Components on it were not working as smoothly as they once had. The comment button, extended out side of the comment area as if it were trying to escape, I would tweak it, then it would break again on the next upgrade.

I literally spent hours looking and testing themes. Most had hideous super large pictures on the main page, or tons of the popular sliders. The blog was either too wide, or too narrow. Then most of the time, the text was hard to read due to poorly matched colors. Sadly most of them seemed to be for commercial interests. There were many for blogging, but none of them quite fit what I was looking for. My 2011 theme just seemed to have the right layout and handy items. After testing, and searching, I settled on a theme that sure looks a lot like the one I am replacing.

It was much too narrow, but a bit of adjustment in the css widened it to where I wanted it. I had to opt for a subscribe button in the bottom of the screen, instead of the original email subscribe section I had at the top. The search has ended finally, and the tweaking is pretty much done. This is  “Catch Box” a free theme I found in the theme gallery.

It was just so hard to find the right look for the comments, a comment link at the top and bottom of the post, and more control over text and color when and if wanted. I’m satisfied, and I hope I am with this theme for the next 6 years! Have any of you changed your theme? what items do you look for in one.

Now, if I can just find out why my dang notification icon no longer works, I’ll be happy, as a bug in a rug.

Comments welcome,

We’re back up and Blogging, I learned a lot this day.

~ Ron Walker ~ 2 Comments

I copied the Blog and Database to the new domain ( a couple times!) and learned to explore all the nooks and crannies to ferret out settings so that the copy worked on the new domain. I thought I would never get the redirect to work so that visiting the old url brought you to the new one seamlessly. Finally beat it though. I even fixed up a custom 404 Error page just in case like some of you have. I found the code on a site and used it. Then decided to check out a couple of sites I follow to see if they had any custom 404’s. Too my surprise I had selected one that is like or very much like Views and Mews by Coffee Kat. They say great minds think alike.

I still have not figured out why on WordPress reader it is showing an icon of a wolf’s head for me this morning, but I was working on a lot of things and may have activated that favicon at some point yesterday when I posted from the old URL.

I could have gotten it all done yesterday but there was an error in my providers hosting. Once they fixed it this morning 5 mins after contacting them, it started propagating around the world like it should have and the site finally came up with the test file. That’s the way it goes sometimes. I can’t complain as I have used them for 8 years now and received any and all help I asked for 24/7

I can say it’s a great feeling to be finished and use it now. Looking forward to once again having a good time with all of you. If anyone notices anything out of sorts I’d appreciate a heads up. Try clearing your cache first to see if that fixes it.

Comments always welcome,

Adding Time Stamp to Twenty Eleven Theme (WordPress)

~ Ron Walker ~ 2 Comments

Okay,  I’m no coder but I do like to tinker and dig around if needed. The Twenty Eleven theme for WordPress has only the date on the Index page and on the post page as below. I searched on Google looking for someone who had done this. I absolutely could not find someone. That is why I am posting this so if anyone else with Twenty-Eleven would like to have the time stamp they can follow this.

indexpage

I wanted the Date and Time to show. First I checked around and found out the php syntax for the Time. Using the Editor in the Admin>Appearance section I located teh two areas below. Then I had to search painstakingly for where to place the code. I located these areas in the two sections.

content.php
Search for “posted_on” (without the quotes) and locate this code section. Add the bold code below including the spaces before and after ” at “.

<?php if ( ‘post’ == get_post_type() ) : ?>
<div class=”entry-meta”>
<?php twentyeleven_posted_on(); ?> at
<?php the_time(); ?>

The next area was content-single.php

Again search for “posted_on” (without the quotes) and locate this code section and again add the bold code including the spaces before and after “at”.

<?php if ( ‘post’ == get_post_type() ) : ?>
<div class=”entry-meta”>
<?php twentyeleven_posted_on (); ?> at
<?php the_time(); ?>
You should now have the Date and Time showing on the index, and when viewing individual posts. I hope this helps someone as I know it was a challenge to find out how to do it on my own.posts

Comments welcome,