Editing Category Format

Well, you don’t need to have it as an unordered list for starters. Here is the line of code from my index.php file with my layout. Dissect and insert your own stuff as required.
<div class="meta">
<?php the_category(" .:. ") ?>
::
<?php post_word_count() ?>
words ::
<?php the_author() ?>
::
<?php edit_post_link("€"); ?>
</div>


This produces output that looks like this:
top ten :: 136 words :: Craig :: a??

If I had multiple categories chosen for that post, it would look like this:
wordpress .:. top ten :: 136 words :: Craig :: a??

Thats what i cant figure out. my index.php file does not have it as an unordered list. here is my code:

<div class=”meta”><?php _e(“Filed under:”); ?><?php the_category() ?>— Posted by:
<?php the_author() ?>
@
<?php the_time() ?>
<?php edit_post_link(); ?>

weird, IMO.

Is that the code from your local copy of index.php or the one from your server?

When I look at your live site code, I see this:
<div class="meta">Filed under:
<ul class="post-categories">
<li><a href="https://www.hometownquotes.com/blog/index.php?cat=1" title="View all posts in General"> General</a></li>
</ul>
a€?? Posted by: site admin @ 10:37 pm </div>

Makes me wonder if the file on your server is not what you have locally.

It should be from the server as I uploaded it from my local copy. I also tried editing in the “Templates” tab in wordpress. Same thing. I was wondering if there is another file that controls the category appearnace?

WOOHOO! I figured it out. It was in the template-functions-category.php in the wp-includes folder. Dont know why but I decided to look there and see what I could find. I have fixed the problem. Hope this helps someone else.
YAY! I figured something out myself!