Make sidebar wider

Hi catquecaos,
Could you please post a link to your site?

Cheers!

It has a temporary address while the host is being switched, which is why I haven’t been including it. For now, you can find my site at

https://infinitiveweb.com/ck/index.php

Thanks. I can’t see the sidebar, but only a full width page. Am I missing something?

I accessed the about page and saw a sidebar. If you want that sidebar wider, just add this code to a custom CSS editor or style.css of your child theme:

#primary {
    width: 84%;
}

#secondary, #tertiary {
    width: 30%;
}

If your theme doesn’t have a custom CSS editor and you don’t want to use a child theme, please install a plugin like this one where to put your edits: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/simple-custom-css/

This is important if you don’t want to lose your customizations on theme update.

I hope this helps ??
-Maria Antonietta

I think I do have custom CSS (I have access to the Stylesheet (style.css) and have made a bunch of changes already.

What is a child theme? I have ADAMOS (free version).

What do you mean by losing my customizations on theme update? If the theme gets updated, my changes will be lost?

Thanks!

What is a child theme?

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Child_Themes

What do you mean by losing my customizations on theme update? If the theme gets updated, my changes will be lost?

Any WordPress theme gets overwritten each time it is updated so any changes you make to the original theme will be lost when updated.

A child theme inherits the functions and the styles of its parent (Adamos in your case) and it can be used to override these functions/styles. So when the original theme is updated the changes persist.

I think I do have custom CSS (I have access to the Stylesheet (style.css) and have made a bunch of changes already.

The changes you’ve made are highlighted in green on the right side of this page – https://www.diffchecker.com/5v51ktde

Move those changes to either the plugin mentioned by Maria or to the child theme (after creating one).

Hi,

I installed the plugin Maria mentioned and copied and pasted the stuff in green into there, and also added the code she gave me for making the sidebar wider, which worked.

There was a big chunk of CSS I deleted to make something from my theme disappear. How do I keep track of that in Custom CSS, since there’s nothing to paste?

Thanks

Hey catquecaos,

I’m not sure what happened in your CSS: rather than deleting chunks of CSS it could have been better to change those values in your custom CSS editor (now you have the plugin installed). From where I stand, keep making your CSS changes in the plugin’s CSS editor and when a new version of your theme comes out and you update it check if anything is out of place. If it is, make your mods in the plugin’s editor. Any problems with this process, post on the forum.

There was a big chunk of CSS I deleted to make something from my theme disappear. How do I keep track of that in Custom CSS, since there’s nothing to paste?

In this case the same block has to be overridden in the Custom CSS section using default values. If you can post the chunk that you removed I can provide specific code.

These are the instructions I followed to get rid of the Recent Posts from my custom homepage.

edit the custom_home.php file, removing the div with class section_thumbnails. There is about 25 lines worth (in v2.1 of the Adamos theme anyway) starting at line 38.

I’m sorry I don’t have the actual code; normally I save the whole original file in word before messing around with it, but I looked and don’t seem to have saved the customhome.php file.

Hi Catquecaos,
It seems you didn’t make CSS changes, but deleted code from the template files (custom_home.php is a template file, like index.php, etc.). This means that the custom CSS plugin that you installed before won’t protect your customizations from theme’s updates, because those customizations are not made on the CSS document alone. This is a typical case where a child theme is essential. You should create a child theme, copy the original custom_home.php file from the parent to the child theme, and then customize the file from inside the child theme.

If you don’t know how to create a child theme, there are many tuts online, just google the word. Also there’s an easy-to-use plugin that creates it for you:
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/orbisius-child-theme-creator/

Thanks Maria for recommending the plugin ??

Thanks to you both. I went with the Custom CSS plugin because I watched the tutorials on child themes and it looked impossibly complicated. I installed the Orbisius plugin which was easy as pie and am making my changes.

One question: If I want to make changes to style.css, should I copy paste the entire file from Adamos to my child theme or just the bit of code I want to modify?

Thanks.

Oh, and I see now that all my customizations on the homepage, the main menu, some formatting on other pages, etc. is all messed up or has disappeared. What’s the easiest way to carry all those things over to the child theme?

I see now that all my customizations on the homepage, the main menu, some formatting on other pages, etc. is all messed up or has disappeared.

The parent theme’s style.css is missing a closing } at the very end since you modified this file. I’m not sure if this is cause. Moreover the site URL has been set to electroflux.com/ck/

If I want to make changes to style.css, should I copy paste the entire file from Adamos to my child theme or just the bit of code I want to modify?

Just the bit of code to modify.

What’s the easiest way to carry all those things over to the child theme?

Use a website like quickdiff.com to compare the original theme files with your current theme to find out which files you’ve modified.

Follow these guides:
https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/wordpress-child-themes-dev/
https://thethemefoundry.com/blog/wordpress-child-theme/