Alternating comments do not work

In your comments.php file there should be code that looks like this.

/* This variable is for alternating comment background */

		$oddcomment = 'alt';

?>

<!-- You can start editing here. -->

<?php if ($comments) : ?>

	<h3 id="comments"><?php comments_number('No comments filed', 'One comment', '% comments' );?> to “<?php the_title(); ?>”</h3> 

	<ol class="commentlist">

	<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>

		<li class="<?php echo $oddcomment; ?>" id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">

			Comment by <em><?php comment_author_link() ?></em>:

			<?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>

			<em>Your comment is awaiting moderation.</em>

			<?php endif; ?>

			<br />

			<small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>" title=""><?php comment_date('l, F jS Y') ?> at <?php comment_time() ?></a> <?php edit_comment_link('Edit','',''); ?></small>

			<?php comment_text() ?>

		</li>

	<?php /* Changes every other comment to a different class */	

		if ('alt' == $oddcomment) $oddcomment = '';

		else $oddcomment = 'alt';

	?>

In your css make sure that the class for the alternating comments is named alt.

Thanks, Jeremy, the code looks exactly as you wrote it, line for line (except the ends of your lines.). Still not alternating. Is there a place to put the colors of the alternating backgrounds that I should check on?
Since I haven’t started this yet, all the comments are me. But I don’t think that should make a difference.

Then look in your stylesheet for a class called alt it would look like this.

.alt{
...
}

Just apply a different background to that class. I also use a bottom border on it to separate the comments a little more.

Jeremy, excellent, thanks!

I see now that your last sentence after the php code mentioned the alt class, but I didn’t understand what that meant. In fact, I didn’t know that the paragraphs in css are called classes, until you just said it now. All it took was one sentence in css, for other people:
.alt {background-color: #e6e3d7}

Thanks!

PS, I wanted to add that there was NO alt class until I added in that one sentence.

#something = this is an ID
.anothersomething = this a class
(in the stylesheet)

In your HTML markup they will look like:

<div id="something">... </div>
<div class="anothersomething"> ... </div>

An “id” can occur only once per page, while classes can be used repeatedly.

Very helpful, Moshu, thanks. I’ve copied it down to add to my “Important CSS” file!

I would just observe that learning CSS in total might take more than 2 weeks. Don’t be hard on yourself, for many of us it’s been a lifelong challenge. And then some. ??

Ah, Root, thanks so much! I haven’t really “learned” it, I guess. I just kind of push and pull it, and try things out. And I’ve been very hard on myself, and impatient, and all sorts of bad things.
I appreciate your kind comment.