Sidebar Editing – Bizarre Theme Issue!!!

  • Hello, my site HideoutHostel.com is run on the Gridline Lite theme, which has a bizarre problem with me editing the sidebar.

    The developer has hard-coded an ugly grey box, as well as “contributors”, “popular” and “blogroll” widgets into the right hand sidebar (visible on the home page) and this is very disruptive for anyone with an imagination. when I remove the coding from Index.php this causes the sites layout to go wild – the footer merges with the header! It would be very helpful to know why.

    My instincts are now telling me to change the CSS to hide these items, but I need your advice on doing this well.

    Important Questions:

    1. Should I hide these bits using CSS, or is it best to delete the php code (see below) and fix the CSS to stop the footer going wild? How can this be done?

    2. Will hiding the site’s description be more Google-friendly than deleting it?
    3. Should I put back (and hide) the site’s title (currently removed/replaced with Jpg logo) for Google?
    4. If widgets can be hard-coded into specific places, can I do this with the GTranslate widget too, and get it under my search bar? That would be ideal!

    WordPress comrades, I am at your mercy. Your advice would be a huge help!… And if you ever need a cheap place to stay in Morocco, you know who to contact! ??

    Code from index.php

    [Code moderated as per the Forum Rules. Please use the pastebin]

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • How about removing the sidebar, and putting clear:both; in the css for the footer?

    Google sometimes will penalize you for hiding content, so I don’t think it will help to hide it.

    Thread Starter douglasbell01

    (@douglasbell01)

    I’m not sure what you mean with the above advice… I will experiment with clear:both; on the CSS for the footer, but should I remove the hash instruction on the index.php or edit the sidebar.php (removing the current instructions), or delete the sidebar.php file?

    My concern is that I won’t be able to make good use of the sidebar space if I delete the php file, and that perhaps content from the main section will spread in to fill a void.

    CSS code:

    https://pastebin.com/jJ5TraS5

    Index.PHP

    https://pastebin.com/XxyceHrz

    Thread Starter douglasbell01

    (@douglasbell01)

    Success!

    There is an important grid.css file with the Gridline Lite theme (not accessible through the WordPress theme editor), where the ugly grey news box is styled. This file has lots of useful editing hints/suggestions, and is well worth exploring. Google searching led me to read about the “Blueprint CSS framework” which was used in the design of this theme. Understanding that has led to a big step forwards in my knowledge.

    From Grid.css

    /* Use a .box to create a padded box inside a column. */
    .box {
    padding: 1.5em;
    margin-bottom: 1.5em;
    background: #eee;
    }

    The index.php instructs the site’s grid system, and it is pre-programmed with the grey box, the sidebar column’s width (below the box), a “contributors” list (now removed) and a “popular” list. See below for how I have made changes (deleting some bits from index.php, but not the divs!), and instructing the sidebar to span 8 columns instead of 4):

    <!– ABOUT BOX –>

    <div class=”column span-8 first”>
    <?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/sidebar_single.php’); ?>
    </div>
    <div class=”column span-8 last”>

    <img alt=”About Hideout” src=”<?php bloginfo(‘stylesheet_directory’); ?>/images/webbannerA.jpg” border=”0″/>

    <!– CONTRIBUTORS (now removed!)–>
    <div class=”bottombar”>

    <!– POPULAR –>
    <h2 class=”widgettitle”>Popular Articles</h2>

      For extra assurance on the footer not moving anywhere north, I inserted the suggested code “clear:both;” into the CSS…

      I have also coded in an image promoting my site’s “about” page. This image appears in the sidebar on the theme’s homepage, but not on other pages (perhaps it is too wide?).

      More php/css studying to do…

    Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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