Special “latest post” styling

Normally your entries are individually wrapped in their own div tags. Most likely the class will be “post” (code located in your main template):

<div class="post">

Add a little php code:

<div class="post<?php if(!is_single() && $post==$posts[0]) echo '-firstpost';?>">

This code checks two things. 1) The current page must be a listing of entries, not a single entry’s permalink page, and 2) it singles out the first post in the loop array, $posts[0].

If both conditions are met, “-firstpost” is appended. So your first post’s div will be of the class “post-firstpost” and all other entries simply “post”.

From here on out, just edit your stylesheet.Create a new entry called “.post-firstpost” and add your style elements to customize.

Even easier:
Edit stylesheet. Duplicate the class “.post”, rename the copy to “.post-firstpost”. Now both are identical, a better starting point. Make changes as necessary.

Hope this helps you out! Make sure to search the forums before asking questions, as this may have been addressed before.

Thanks Mindless. I did do a search before asking, and couldn’t find anything.

Let us know if this works. If it does I’d love to use it, if it doesn’t there are some other scripts I can steer you toward, but they’re a fair bit more complicated than this.

This is like a sticky post. And it’s exactly what I’m looking for too. Any ideas about styling, dante or kickass? I don’t want something too garish. Perhaps a light dotted line around the post or a very very light opaque color? I’m off to play with the code.

You can style it any way you want. Depends upon your style of theme. I recommend that it 1) matches, 2) blends to a point, and 3) is distinctive yet easy to read. This usually equates to italics, background color, or a border of some kind.

The best looks I’ve seen using this actually separated the most recent post from the rest of the list with space and a design or border between or highlighted the most recent post in a “box” (like dark background with white/light text (reverse of the site’s look) or just a nice contrasted background with a border.).