Not formatting correctly

Hey, did you try to deactivate plugins and switch to theme twentysixteen? See if you see the same problem when you do

Hi Ben,
Thanks for your quick response. If I switch to twentysixteen my site will look completely different. Right now the issue is only on a section of the page, so completely changing my site seems a bit extreme. Is there a way to look at the issue without completely changing everything else that is otherwise working perfectly?

Maybe use the Theme per user plugin? Never used it personally but would seem to let you test out another theme while leaving the rest of the site as is.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/theme-per-user/

Another idea is to setup another server like a local environment that you can test while leaving the production site unaffected. Alternatively there are some plugins that attempt to do this right within the WordPress install. I’ve used this one in the past and hasn’t given me any issues except extra load on my server to run two instances. https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-staging/

Philip, Just wondering about your experience with changing themes. I taken many sites and loaded a different theme to see how it looks and I can then switch back to the original theme and nothing has changed. Obviously if you make changes on the new theme that will affect the look when you go back. Have you had issues switching back?

I always create a full backup just to be safe. Also remember there is a preview option even though it doesn’t always render as when it is actually the active theme because it very much depends on what that theme does. It still can’t hurt to try it out and navigate around your pages to see what will need to be addressed.

If I recall correctly, WordPress keeps track of widgets and menus assigned to sidebar and menu areas by theme slug in the wp_options table so that’s why you can often switch back and have these settings retained. Otherwise expect to re-assign your menu(s) to the new theme’s menu locations as well any inactive widgets.

Here’s a decent guide I found – https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-happens-when-you-switch-your-wordpress-theme/