Edit post problem in Firefox – IE works

I really need help with this.

I had thought this was a problem only with the Admin Panel – Manage>Posts>Edit preview in Firefox, but it turns out to be much more than that.

Using Firefox, follow the link below and click on the “Education” category and then on “Read the rest of this entry” to see the problem.

https://willtaft.com/wordpress/blog/

Can anyone please help me figure out what it is that is breaking in Firefox but working in IE?

Thanks.

https://willtaft.com/wordpress/education/homeschooling-and-socialization/
unclosed tags
https://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwilltaft.com%2Fwordpress%2Feducation%2Fhomeschooling-and-socialization%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&ss=1

Thanks samboll. I looked at that validator page and I don’t think those are anything I changed. Maybe part of the original theme? I am new at this, but actually tracked the problem down to the following code that I added to my style.css file. If I remove this, the page looks ok, just not what I want. Do you see what my problem is with the following?

.singlecontent {
padding: 20px 0 0 15px;
float: left;
width: 764px;
margin-right: 17px;
}

You should really fix those two missing closing div tags before messing around with the stylesheet.

Thanks for hopping in here to help, rudolph!

I THINK those two missing div tags you refer to are in the original theme code. I don’t think I did that, but maybe I did. In any case, I can’t figure out where to go to find the code that needs to be fixed. Might not be able to figure out how to fix it if I could find it! Oh boy, I feel like a hopeless case. This is really all I need to get fixed to start using my site. Frustrating!!

Whew! I think I got lucky in fixing those two missing div tags!

https://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwilltaft.com%2Fwordpress%2Feducation%2Fhomeschooling-and-socialization%2F

Now, I guess I can go back to my original question – What should I do to fix the way the page is displaying in Firefox?

I need to call it a night now, but I’ll be back in the morning. Thanks for your help.

I have an idea what the problem could be: you removed the sidebar but in many themes certain divs are closed in another file… so maybe that’s why you ended up with plus or minus div tags.

However, before attempting further modifications – you should read the licence of the theme you are using, which says attribution, no derivate works!
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/deed.en
In plain English, you cannot modify it.

Yes, I guess removing the sidebar does constitute modification. I had previously been in contact with them about using the theme, but I will email again asking specific permission to remove the sidebar from that page. For now I guess I will live with the sidebar. If they respond with permission to do that modification, I’ll get back to this thread to try and fix the issue. Thanks.

Rudolph – Thanks for pointing out that the license was of that type. I did get a message back from the creator with permission to modify the theme. Very quick and pleasant response. I have also since found out that the theme is the 25th most downloaded WordPress theme. It has been modified on some sites as to be unrecognizable. Strange that if a person liked the theme they would change it that much.

Anyway, back to the display problem I am having. If you have any suggestions, now that I managed to close those two open tags, I’d really appreciate it!

I am not that familiar with the theme and seemingly you switched to another one.
What I was thinking as the possible source of the errors is this: in many themes the main container div starts in the header.php file and the closing </div> is in the footer.php file. In between usually there are a lot of divs opening and closing, but not all of them start and end on the same file.
So, removing a file (sidebar.php) from the overall structure might leave in some places extra closing divs or, in other places, causing missing divs. Unless the whole theme is commented for every opening and closing tag… it is very difficult to follow what is what. But I guess that would be your only chance.
Sorry, I couldn’t be more helpful.

Boy you are fast! Yes I was browsing other themes and switched it back right after my last post, but after you got there.

I am not sure I understand the explanation? Are you saying that even though I closed those two missing closing divs, I might have done it in an incorrect place so even though they are closed, they are still incorrect?

Also why would taking out the sidebar on the single post page cause the display problem in Firefox, but still display correctly in IE?

I notice this same display problem occurring on another site using this theme. In that case, it only stayed that way for a moment until the page finished loading. There seemed to be a momentary glitch each time the page would load, but once it got past the stall and loaded it displayed OK. This made me think maybe the page I am having trouble with is not finishing loading? Make any sense at all?

Well Rudolph, this is sort of crazy, and maybe I should be careful to not jinx things, but either I did understand your explanation more than I thought or I just got lucky. What I did was go back to the single.php file where I had added: <div class=”singlecontent”> and closely examined it. It did seem like I may have had an extra div starting tag or was missing an ending one. I tried taking out one <div class=”…”> that looked like it was no longer needed and now all is fine! This stuff can drive you to the bottle!

I would still appreciate your take on why this would cause a problem for Firefox and not IE?

Also, is there a web site, (could not find one), where I can validate the contents of a php file in the same way that you can do a web page?

FF shows what your code is.
IE shows what billgates thinks you wanted to show in your code; i.e. not standard compliant.

I don’t think you can validate a piece of code (what basically a template file is) – unless it is part of a full html page/site.

Too bad about the validating of php code snippets. Something that did that would sure help us beginners find and correct our mistakes.

Thanks again for your patience and help!