Introduction to the Structure theme

Very useful information thank you for taking the time to explain the features. :)

Posted by T3CK | May 2, 2010, 01:19

Appreciate the write up on this new theme. At the rate WPcom is introducing new themes, you may need to take on an apprentice soon, unless you want to give up your day job. ;-)

Did a brief test yesterday and discovered that no description text is visible on Gallery attachment pages in this theme. Also this theme’s Gallery attachment pages click through to the following attachment page, same as Inuit Types.

Posted by Jennifer | May 2, 2010, 09:22

@J&T: Thanks – might save us some explaining the same things over and over again in the forum…

@J: At the rate I’m publishing new posts, no such danger! And thanks for briefing on those details. (Hate such needless discrepancies – some things should be common to all themes.)

Posted by Panos | May 2, 2010, 11:42

Then you might be interested in reading my lastest post on RA. :)

Posted by Jennifer | May 2, 2010, 12:21

Did, agreed, commented!

Posted by Panos | May 2, 2010, 15:46

hi, great layout and functionality. thanks for explaining this so well. for a newby like me, it stretches my understanding of blog potential. any chance of adding a couple more social media options? i’m using the twitter icon as a link to my flickr site. tnx s.

Posted by stan | May 3, 2010, 19:22

@stan: You’re welcome. If I understand correctly, you’d like to have more ready-made social media buttons up there in the top right corner of the theme. You can suggest that via the Ideas section of the wp.com forum or by contacting staff directly:

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

Posted by Panos | May 3, 2010, 20:10

@Stan
While you are waiting for Staff to reply to your request there are social media buttons we can use immediately on wordpress.com blogs. The getsocialive ones do automatically twitter and Facebook. All the options for social bookmarks that we can use on wordpress.com blogs are found in this post. http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/04/08/social-bookmarks-for-wordpress-com-blogs/

Posted by timethief | May 3, 2010, 21:43

“Important: the images must be 620×380 pixels or they get distorted.”

this is infuriating.

Posted by joe corkscrew | May 6, 2010, 21:13

@jc: Personally I don’t find anything infuriating in the fact that an image for a box in fixed dimensions must be in those fixed dimensions. What else would you expect?

Posted by Panos | May 7, 2010, 10:35

I’m amazed that anyone would be infuriated over this. Obviously every image box has defined size and what we upload into it must be of a size that fits into it. There are many free online image editors and desk top apps we can use to size our images to the correct dimensions prior to uploading them. Hence I cannot see why people do not use them.

Posted by timethief | May 8, 2010, 01:09

I can accept width limitations, but requirements for both width and height are annoying. Some images just don’t work well with the ratio specified.

Posted by udosero | May 11, 2010, 04:47

Thank’s so much for A) your whole blog (some of us are dinosaurs and very very new to this whole concept!) and B) for having a go at decorticating the structure theme.
I hope that you will be able to point me in the right direction as I seem to be missing something entirely!
When the structure theme was introduced/released I decided that for my purposes it would be one of the ones that I tried out.
Using the free template which looks pretty and seemed to show all I needed demo here:

http://structuretheme.com/demo/

However…despite my attempts with the widgets available I have yet to come up with a similar layout, in particular I am missing something with regard to images being displayed on the main page of the blog.
Is it possible to cast your experienced eye over their demo page and offer any advice on what widgets they have used to facilitate it looking like they have done?
Regards Panos!

DG

Posted by BigBusTours | May 11, 2010, 12:10

@udosero: Obviously the designer’s (correct) idea was a rather short “homepage top” area, so that you don’t need much scrolling to get to the rest of the homepage content and so that at least the latest post is visible without scrolling. If the ratio was left free, the top area would change height with each new post, and portrait-shaped images would kick the latest posts out of the browser window. Moreover, images smaller than the default dimensions would either fill the box partially or become pixelated.

@DG: You’re welcome!

Demo page widgets are as follows:
Homepage Top Right: Text, Recent Posts
Left Sidebar: Categories, Text
Right Sidebar: Recent Posts, Ads[*], Text, Tag Cloud
Footer Left: Links [**]
Footer Mid Left: Links [**]
Footer Mid Right: Meta
Footer Right: Text

[*] We don’t have that in wp.com, but the content is just an image, so it could be a Text widget or an Image widget.
[**] You can add more than one Links widget, and make each one display different link categories.

As for the images on the main column, that’s explained in my post (all posts have “featured images”). The number of posts to display is set in Settings > Reading > “Blog pages show at most [ ] posts”.

Posted by Panos | May 11, 2010, 13:12

@Panos

Thank’s for getting back to me and so far what you have explained is clear and concise and fully understood…except!!!….’featured images’…just don’t get it.
I see a widget for adding an image to a sidebar…no problem…experimented with that ..tried it…no problem.
However…I have created two test posts, each with an image, these images are displayed properly on the post page itself, but I would like to be able to have them displayed as they are in the demo as mentioned in my previous post.
There, there is a large image which seems to belong to the featured latest post…and then under that the previous posts have images above them that look as though they belong to the post!
That is what I cannot re create or get my head around.
It may be something simple…and perhaps if I stopped for a day or so and come back to it my dumb ass head would be a little less befuddled!
I cannot make it happen…no matter what I try!

DG

Posted by BigBusTours | May 11, 2010, 14:02

@Panos!

Ignore my last post….except the good bits, which are genuine…you have been a great help to me!
I went away..had a bucket of coffee….banged myself on the head a few times and eventually went back and put my methodical head on and sussed out what I needed to know…….in a couple of weeks I will look back at this with some level of incredulity that I was so stupid and could not see it…despite it staring me in the face….the words wood can’t the trees and the spring instantly to mind!

You have me as an irritation now and I will be checking back in as and when I need more guidance from your excellent scribblings….many regards and wherever you are on the planet…have a great day!

DG

Posted by BigBusTours | May 11, 2010, 14:49

Hey Panos

Thank you for the nice description! However, I have one question left:

Is there a possibility to cut away the upper section by changing the CSS? My Blog is about politics. And although I love the theme, I won’t be able to add a lot of pictures to posts. For my needs it would be just perfect to have the lower three column section.

I have the CSS upgrade, but I’m new in the business and wasn’t able to figure out exactly what to do.

Maybe it’s not possible at all…? Anyhow I would be very thankful to get a tip

cheers!

Posted by thinklanz | May 11, 2010, 20:35

@DG: I think it’s more than obvious that this blog is exclusively about tips, advice and help. So you are by no means an irritation.

@thinklanz: To cut away the upper section, you just need to add this to your CSS:

#homepagetop {
display: none;
}

(But that upper section is the only feature that distinguishes this theme from all others. If you have no use for it, why not select another theme?)

Posted by Panos | May 11, 2010, 21:56

Hi Guys,
I’m trying to get rid of the area where it says
“This is the home page widget area. You can use this space to add an introductory message to your blog with a Text Widget or add any other widget here”.
I’ve added widgets, and images…nothing to do..the space doesn’t go away….
Anyone able to assist a non-tech savy chick?
Thanks in advance,
M x

Posted by MKB | May 11, 2010, 22:50

@MKB: Hi (this is my blog – only one guy here)!
You can’t get rid of that area without the paid CSS upgrade. But if you don’t want that area, you don’t need this theme.

Posted by Panos | May 11, 2010, 23:48

in the showcased post shoul the latest posts change? cause in my blog they don’t change, just appear the latest one fixed, it should keep changing, right? like the demo preview. Anyone know what to do?

Posted by Patricia Duran | May 13, 2010, 23:53

for who doesn’t know what i mean here’s the demo preview from the original designer.

http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure/#blank

look the showcase top images change! i want to know how to activate this. thank you.

Posted by Patricia Duran | May 13, 2010, 23:57

@Patricia: That’s the version for self-hosted blogs. The wp.com version doesn’t work that way.

Posted by Panos | May 14, 2010, 00:59

oh thanks… i noticed that after seeing your comment above!
thank you Panos!

Posted by Patricia Duran | May 14, 2010, 01:12

Hi,

Great resource you have here, thanks.

Im wondering if i can have an exerpt from my featured article displaying in the ‘Homepage Top Right’ widget section? Or if I can easily remove that particular widget bit so that the image ends up being centred.

Also can I make the ‘featured’ story, show the latest one all the time? or will i have to make a category that they all are a member of, and have that as the featured category.

Hope Im making sense :)

Cheers
Sam

Posted by Sam O'Leary | May 18, 2010, 07:22

@Sam:
• Yes, to showcase the latest post all the time, you need an all-posts category.
• To remove the homepage top widgets and center the featured post image, you need the paid CSS upgrade.
• You can use the Recent Posts widget in that area, but it will display titles, not excerpts. If you want post excerpts, you might be interested in this:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/featured-postsimages-in-bueno/

Posted by Panos | May 18, 2010, 10:32

Do you think that posting the link for the “gray box” workaround is a good idea?

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/my-solution-for-a-fixed-image-in-structure-theme-homepage?replies=10#post-459589

Posted by timethief | May 22, 2010, 01:20

Posting it where? If you mean my post, no. Besides being obvious, to me it’s an abuse of the theme: a) the featured post is the single distinguishing feature of this theme, b) if you want a fixed image, you can insert one in the header, c) a fixed image shouldn’t cover the entire browser window.

Posted by Panos | May 22, 2010, 04:18

Thanks for the reply.

Posted by timethief | May 22, 2010, 21:11

Thanks for the great post! Is there an easy way to make the fonts larger for this theme? It seems like the standard font is a little small for older people to read.

Posted by aragorn121 | June 1, 2010, 12:12

@aragorn121: You’re welcome!

• There’s no objective “small” or “large”, because what one sees depends on one’s screen resolution (and may even differ from browser to browser).

• All browsers have a zoom in or out function: command + or – in Macs, control + or – in PCs.

• If you mean the text in the posts, you can change it on a post-by-post basis using code in the html editor (likewise for text widgets) – see here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/formatting-text-pt-5/

To change it once for all, or to change the size of titles, tabs etc., you need the paid CSS upgrade (and experience in CSS editing).

Posted by Panos | June 1, 2010, 17:09

@Panos: I know about the zoom in and out functions but unfortunately not everyone does. The font on the Structure theme appears a little small with default settings on Chrome and Safari (at least on my machine), but the post you referred me to explains how to make my fonts bigger within the individual posts, which is as good as it gets without CSS I guess. Thanks again for your help!

Posted by aragorn121 | June 1, 2010, 23:05

Hi there, for some reason my twitter and facebook links (from the icons in the upper right black search bar) seem to have my blog address in front of them i.e. http://x.wordpress.com/www.twitter.com/x Does anyone know how to fix this/what I’m doing wrong? Thank you!

Posted by Michelle | June 2, 2010, 20:25

Your links don’t work because you have omitted the “http” part of the addresses. In the two URL boxes you need to paste the exact complete URLs as copied from the address bar of your browser, i.e. these:

http://twitter.com/silvinedesigns

http://www.facebook.com/silvinedesigns

PS This is my personal blog: there are no other “anyones” here!

Posted by Panos | June 2, 2010, 22:08

Thank you, Panos. Much appreciated and sorry about the “anyones”. :)

Posted by Michelle | June 2, 2010, 22:31

@Michelle: You’re welcome!

Posted by Panos | June 3, 2010, 01:53

Thanks for all the helpful info re: Structure! I love the theme, but don’t want the featured post to repeat in the listing below it (looks repetitive), and unfortunately, we don’t have many posts yet. We have paid for the ability to save changes to the CSS, but I’m lost beyond that… Can you let me know if this is a possible fix and/or point me to a good resource to make that change? Many thanks again!

Posted by citygrowers | June 10, 2010, 14:43

@citygrowers: You’re welcome.

Using CSS you can modify the appearance of any element (including hiding it), but you cannot change the core functions of the blog. The featured post is just the latest post from a given category: as far as I can tell you cannot isolate that post in particular and hide it. I checked the CSS of the theme to see if you can hide all the posts on your front page only, but I think it can’t be done: they’ll vanish from the other pages too. I’m not good at CSS editing, though, so maybe there are tricks I’m not aware of. We have an expert in the forum whom I can ask personally; I’ll let you know when he tells me.

What you can definitely do is visually limit the redundancy by hiding the featured images from the posts. Just add this to your CSS:

.homepagethumb { display:none; }

~~Or, without CSS at all, use the Excerpt box of the post editor: the posts on the front page will display whatever you put there instead of the featured image and the beginning of the content.~~ [Wrong!]

Posted by Panos | June 10, 2010, 19:14

Thanks again for your helpful info! I couldn’t figure out how the Excerpt works, though… We may end up biting the bullet and buying the upgrade just because we suspect this stuff will be easy to modify with it. (We’d be more likely to hide all the images below the featured if we had the slider option.)

Posted by citygrowers | June 11, 2010, 02:05

You’re welcome again! But now you’ve got me confused: do you or don’t you have the CSS upgrade? And what is the “slider option”?

The Excerpt is used for creating a teaser. You can write a summary of the post, or you can copy the actual beginning (perhaps ending with a note in the vein of click title for full post); or you can display titles only, by writing just a space in the Excerpt box. The box is an html editor, so you can also format the text or display an image or links or whatever; if you don’t know html, you can temporarily work the content in the visual post editor, then switch to html, cut the result from there and paste it into the Excerpt box. (Note: if you don’t see the module while on the post editor screen, you click Screen Options to enable it.)

Posted by Panos | June 11, 2010, 05:07

Wow this was incredibly helpful. I’ve been trying to add the featured post image but it just isn’t working! I’ve done as you’ve said and it doesn’t appear on the featured area (the big square) or in the post below! If you could help me figure out what’s going on I’d be forever grateful :))

Posted by Luana | June 16, 2010, 04:10

@Luana: If you didn’t manage to do it, then my post wasn’t incredibly helpful! The procedure involves several steps, and I cannot possibly know where things may have gone wrong, so please tell me one by one the exact steps you followed.

Posted by Panos | June 16, 2010, 06:36

That was quick! Okay here’s what I did:
– I made sure I posted in the featured category to test it out
– In the post, I clicked on “Set featured image” and added my image. I made sure one of them was the exact measurements in case the size had something to do with it.

And that’s it! Hopefully I missed a step!

Posted by Luana | June 16, 2010, 13:31

OKAY it works now! I’m not sure what I did but it works now :P Thanks!

Posted by Luana | June 16, 2010, 13:35

You’re welcome, but I don’t deserve the thanks (it’s the first time I’ve helped without helping at all)!

Posted by Panos | June 16, 2010, 16:13

Ok…can you get it so that the feature photo in the header doesn’t show up on the main page in the area of the text. Now I have the photo showing twice.

Also..do I HAVE to have the newest article showing in the top??

Posted by dragonflydm | June 18, 2010, 03:05

@dragonflydm:

Q1 answered above – see June 10 comments.

Re Q2, no you don’t: you have to have one article, but not necessarily the newest. Featured post = newest from featured category. You can even have the same post displaying all the time, by filing it under a category unique to that post.

Posted by Panos | June 18, 2010, 04:50

Hi, I have a problem using this theme, not sure if it’s a bug or what.On the upper part the image and the post title woudn’t show. It just remains empty white ( no grey space ). Thanks for a help!

http://iiartadvisory.wordpress.com/

Posted by II Art Advisory | June 25, 2010, 04:07

Hi. The whole featured post thing relies on categories, and there’s something wrong with your categories (selecting News from your Homepage Top widget gives http://iiartadvisory.wordpress.com/?cat=103 instead of http://iiartadvisory.wordpress.com/category/news ). My guess is you edited the category and changed its name after having selected it as your featured category. Go to Appearance > Theme Options, select News from the Featured Category dropdown, click Save Options.

If that doesn’t solve the problem, go to Posts > Categories, delete that category; then edit the post and add the category anew; then go to Appearance > Theme Options, select it from the Featured Category dropdown, click Save Options.

PS The Categories widget in your left sidebar doesn’t work, and it’s redundant anyway.

Posted by Panos | June 25, 2010, 04:59

Thank you for the help on the homepage image!

As for categories, I’m not sure why they don’t reveal sub-categories, but just show a bunch of categories w/o hierarchy. Same results as a list and drop-down menu.

Any suggestions on this?

Thank you kindly.

Posted by Jessie Upp, M.S. | June 28, 2010, 00:29

You’re welcome!

You mean subcategories in the Categories widget. It’s just an oversight – they should be indented. But only the list is wrong. The dropdown is ok. Make sure you click “Show hierarchy” then click Save.

You can report the lack of indenting to staff; they might care to correct it.

http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

In the meantime, if you prefer displaying them as a list, you can edit the subcategories and paste this before the actual name (html for spaces):
     

Posted by Panos | June 28, 2010, 06:58

Hello, I’m wondering if someone can help me. I’m currently using the structure theme and can’t figure out a way to change the page description that shows up for my page in google. Right now the page description keeps changing and showing up as the first line or two of my most recent posts. Is there anywhere within the structure theme to put a general description about the page that google will pick up.

Posted by Noise Inc | June 29, 2010, 20:21

Sorry, I don’t have the answer to your question. Try the wp.com forum:

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/

Posted by Panos | June 29, 2010, 21:41

Hey all,

I’ve set an excerpt on my featured image post, but the featured image is still showing up “on top of” the post in the bottom center section.

Any ideas?

Posted by counterpointe | July 1, 2010, 21:54

@counterpointe: Yes, you’re right, my mistake – the FI is independent of the Excerpt. Reverting to the original version of my post: no way to hide the FI without the paid CSS upgrade.

Posted by Panos | July 1, 2010, 22:46

Hi, I’m looking at using another host for my blog. Among the available blogging software is wordpress and I’d like to use the struture theme, but I can’t find it on wordpress.org for downloading. Is the structure them available for those who wish to use the wordpress platform with another host?

Posted by Greg L | July 5, 2010, 19:22

Correct, Structure for self-hosted blogs isn’t available via WordPress. You can download it from the designers’ site:

http://www.organicthemes.com/themes/structure-theme/

Posted by Panos | July 5, 2010, 19:34

How do I make the featured image a slideshow, like in the example here (http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure/), do I need to purchase the premium theme? Would it be easier to create and upload a gif?

Posted by openportfolionewyork | July 7, 2010, 22:47

or…… how come in the demo (http://structuretheme.com/demo/) the featured image on the right hand side of the text widget on the home page doesn’t match the post below when it says above that the the featured images will also show up at the beginning of the featured-category posts on the homepage – you can’t eliminate that either (unless you have the paid CSS upgrade) is the demo of premium version, or am I missing something?

Posted by openportfolionewyork | July 7, 2010, 22:57

Q1 partly answered in my May 14 reply above: that’s the version for self-hosted blogs, not the wp.com version. In wp.com you can’t use themes you purchase, you can only select one of the (currently 100) themes available in Appearance > Themes. Gif is a good idea, but I haven’t tried it so I don’t know if it would work; one thing is for sure: it has to be in the appropriate dimensions, as resized gifs lose the animation.

Re Q2, there’s no “image on the right hand side of the text widget on the home page”: you mean the blue image in the “Homepage Top” area. As my post says, the Homepage Top area showcases the latest post filed under the category you’ve set as your featured category. Below it are your most recent posts (regardless of category): they may have been filed under other categories, in which case showcased post won’t be one of them.

Posted by Panos | July 8, 2010, 01:42

Panos, thank you very much for your prompt and thorough responses, you have been very helpful, I appreciate it. I will try to upload a gif to see if that will work (fingers crossed), and I will change my featured category, so the blog looks the way I want it to.

Just to be clear, in order to get a slideshow as seen in the demo (http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure/) we have to host our blog our self – not that big of a deal – AND purchase the premium version, correct?

Posted by openportfolionewyork | July 8, 2010, 17:27

You’re welcome. Yes, that slideshow means self hosting plus purchasing the theme. In my opinion, not worth it just for the slideshow.

In the meantime I tried an animated gif: doesn’t work. But note that you can use an animated gif as a header image.

Posted by Panos | July 8, 2010, 18:27

We run a blog for our museum ( http://blog.theautry.org ) and are having the following problem:

We added a new post (placing it in the featured category and associating a featured image) but it is not appearing in the headline and the featured image is not appearing as the featured image of the blog. If you look at the blog you’ll see that the “We didn’t get trigger” story should be the featured story (because it is most recent and is in the “Featured” category). I don’t know of any other way to push this story to be featured. We’ve tried deleting, re-adding, making dummy stories but no new ones are getting featured. Any guidance would help.

Thanks,

Gary

Posted by Gary Cannone | July 15, 2010, 19:17

I fixed the issue. Somehow some of the options were changed (including the category that determines the ‘featured’ category).

Thanks,

Gary

Posted by Gary Cannone | July 16, 2010, 03:03

@Gary: You’re welcome but I don’t deserve the thanks… Sorry I couldn’t help – I was unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances.

Posted by Panos | July 16, 2010, 13:20

Thank you for the instructions. Although i still have a couple of questions.

1) Am I right in saying that the “featured image” has to be uploaded every single time I write a new “featured category” blog post? (It seems once I insert a new “featured category” post the “featured image” disappears)

2) And more importantly, how can I have the “featured image” be different from the newest post image? (i.e. not also “inserted” into the newest post.)

Appreciate the help
Thanks!

Posted by rockstar186m | July 21, 2010, 02:42

1) Yes: the Homepage Top area displays the FI from the latest post filed under the featured category, so all these posts must have their own FI.

2) I understand you mean on the front page, not when you’re viewing a single complete post, and also when the newest post belongs to the featured category. You can only hide the FI from the post if you have the paid CSS upgrade.

Both replies refer to the way the theme is meant to be used, i.e. with a changing FI in the Homepage Top area. Maybe you’re interested in having a fixed image instead?

Posted by Panos | July 21, 2010, 06:01

Hi Panos.

Thanks for the reply. I guess paying for the upgrade is the only alternative.

What do you mean by a “fixed Image?”

Posted by rockstar186m | July 21, 2010, 12:40

You’re welcome.

Paying for the upgrade is the only way to hide the images, but I don’t think it’s worth buying it just for that.

The idea of the theme is to highlight the latest post by displaying its FI in the Homepage Top area. I wasn’t sure if this is clear to you: in your first question you said “featured image” (singular), so I thought maybe you want to have the same image displayed all the time.

Posted by Panos | July 21, 2010, 16:20

Hello Panos, thanks for your amazing article. I bought the upgrade version, but I have a problem. There is no “older/previous entries” button on this theme, how come? How can I add them?

Posted by Kay Rhythm | July 21, 2010, 22:48

Thanks! You’ve explained things very clearly. Very helpful.

Posted by danimak | July 22, 2010, 00:41

@danimak: You’re welcome and thanks!

@KR: What do you mean by “upgrade version”? If you mean the version for self-hosted blogs, then I can’t help: different software! If you mean you bought the CSS upgrade, then a) using CSS editing you can modify the appearance, but you cannot add extra functions, b) Structure does have older/newer nav tabs. Link to your blog please!

Posted by Panos | July 22, 2010, 05:40

Panos, sorry to bother you, I was wondering if you could have a look at this thread for me. I have left a message there where I am puzzled by someone’s blog using Structure, and I was thinking you might know what I mean? You can anser there or here, I’ll follow you wherever.
Here’s the link : http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/trouble-with-featured-post-on-structure-theme?replies=4#post-488096

Many thanks in advance :)

Posted by Sunnite | July 23, 2010, 00:22

You’re welcome! Answered there.

Posted by Panos | July 23, 2010, 01:25

Hi Panos. It is actually the version for self-hosted blog. I’ve looke everywhere, nothing seems to work. I managed to add those “older/newer” buttons, but they won’t work. It always send me back to the home page. Here’s my site http://kayrhythm.com/

Posted by kayrhythm | July 23, 2010, 12:18

Hi again, but as I said I can’t help in that case. You’ll have to try your luck at the wp.org forum:

http://wordpress.org/support/

Posted by Panos | July 23, 2010, 18:09

Hi Panos,

Can you help please? Here’s my blog – http://gpix.wordpress.com

I’d like to do something a little different on the combination “search/RSS” bar at the top. Is it possible to eliminate it completely? I already have a search field in my right sidebar. If not completely, are there any modification options? The reason I ask is that I don’t like the way it looks when I insert a particular header image.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by gpix | July 28, 2010, 16:51

I don’t like the way it looks either; unfortunately you can’t modify or remove it without the paid CSS upgrade.

Posted by Panos | July 28, 2010, 22:15

So it is editable with the CSS upgrade? Good. How difficult a job is it?

Also, this has probably been answered elsewhere, but I couldn’t find anything — Is there a comprehensive list of what IS and what ISN’T editable with the CSS upgrade?

Posted by gpix | July 29, 2010, 14:10

Removing the whole black thing is very easy – you just add this to your CSS:
.headerright {display:none;}
Modifying it is more complicated; depends on what you want to change.

Comprehensive list? I don’t know. In general, CSS allows you to modify the appearance of any element: change colors, dimensions, fonts, margins, positioning… Modifying includes adding style attributes (e.g. borders) or removing elements. You can’t modify or add functions: for example, if the theme doesn’t have previous/next navigation links, you can’t add them via CSS.

Posted by Panos | July 29, 2010, 16:22

Hi Panos!

I’m totally new to wordpress and blogging in general. I’ve chosen the Structure Theme, which I loved right from the start. So far, I’ve found it fairly easy to set everything up, although some subjects obviously did require some prior reading. Thanks so much for all the useful information you’re giving!

I do have several questions though, and I hope you can help me!

Question 1:
I was wondering how to insert or create one of these “Contact Me” boxes as seen here:

http://gpix.wordpress.com/

I can’t seem to identify one in the widgets section, but would love to include one of these boxes as a right-sidebar widget.

Question 2:
In the Structure Theme, the top section has the 2-column format, and the bottom section the 3-column format. Is it possible to align the “homepage top right” with the (bottom) “right sidebar” so that the displayed featured image has the same width as the (bottom) “left sidebar” plus the posts, and the width of the “homepage top right” equals the width of the (bottom) “right sidebar”? Or would I need a CSS upgrade for that?

Question 3:
I have another question regarding the Structure Theme. I was wondering why the featured “image” (620 x 380) shows up in its full size in the top homepage area, whereas when displayed as “featured image” at the top of the actual post (in the 3-column format), it appears slightly cropped (not distorted, just slightly cropped). What can I do to make the featured image be displayed without the crop at the top of my post?

Question 4:
I loved the feature of the Structure Theme that has some sort of a slideshow in the “featured image” area in the top section. It’s only available in the upgraded version though, right?

Question 5:
Also in the Structure Theme, regarding the “pages” section, where it says “home”, whenever I add new pages they automatically shop up in alphabetical order. How can I arrange them to my liking?

Question 6:
When I put the “Personalized Menu” widget in the left sidebar, and choose for it to show the categories and sub-categories, they’re displayed without hierarchy. Can I fix that? Or do I have to use the “Categories” widget (displaying the hierarchy) instead?

Question 7:
Although I’ve created several categories and tags, they don’t show up in the widgets displayed on the homepage. Do they only start being displayed once I’ve actually archived or tagged the posts accordingly to those categories and tags?

Many thanks in advance!

Elisa

Posted by Elisa Machens | August 7, 2010, 23:32

Hi,

1. http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact-form/

2. You can’t change the layout without the paid CSS upgrade and experience in CSS editing.

3. Because either the designer or WP haven’t done a perfect job: the Homepage Top featured image is 620×380, but the one at the beginning of the posts is 440×240, which isn’t the same ratio (should be 440×270). Again you can’t do anything without the CSS upgrade etc.

4. That’s only available in the version for self-hosted blogs.

5. http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/page-attributes/#order

6. You mean the “Custom Menu” widget? You need to go to Appearance > Menus and drag items vertically and horizontally – see here:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/#mixing-it-all-together

But the only merit of a Custom Menu is mixing links to pages, categories and/or other webpages. If you only want categories, better use the Categories widget instead: it updates automatically while a custom menu must be updated manually each time you create a new category.

7. Yes, a post tag or category won’t show up in its respective widget unless it’s assigned to at least one published post.

Posted by Panos | August 8, 2010, 12:40

Thank you so much for you help, Panos!!!

Posted by Elisa Machens | August 9, 2010, 01:56

@Elisa: You’re welcome!

Posted by Panos | August 9, 2010, 02:43

Hi, I was wondering if there was any way to decrease the number of recent posts (10?) that are automatically shown on the home page.

Posted by The Stranger | August 9, 2010, 10:01

Settings > Reading > “Blog pages show at most [n] posts”: change n, scroll down and click Save Changes.

Posted by Panos | August 9, 2010, 12:36

Wow, thank you so much!

Posted by The Stranger | August 9, 2010, 19:44

@The Stranger: you’re welcome!

Posted by Panos | August 9, 2010, 22:25

Is there a way to change the font of the title and the font of the posts? I don’t know CSS and from what I understand, one can’t change anything within the CSS of the theme – is that right?

Posted by joanneoskelly | August 10, 2010, 04:54

You can’t change anything within the CSS of the theme if you don’t have the paid CSS upgrade. If you do, you can change everything.

But you can change fonts for free by using Typekit – see here for an example:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/improving-bueno-via-typekit/

If you’re interested in that, I’ll probably be able to find the appropriate selectors for you. (Note that CSS is theme-specific: what works in Bueno won’t work in Structure.)

Posted by Panos | August 10, 2010, 10:00

Thank you so much for this. It’s been really helpful!

Posted by lecaféclick | August 10, 2010, 17:40

@lecaféclick: You’re welcome!

Posted by Panos | August 11, 2010, 00:59

Hi Panos,
I’m on the way to manage my Shoes shop blog in Indonesia which will so many product images are posted.
But during a week in exploration, I couldn’t get my blog similar with demo, both http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure/
or

http://structuretheme.com/demo/

Could you help guide me:
Q1. at http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure/
on Top Homepage Featured Image, it has Image description, is it an Excerpt or just Image title? I try to make it as an excerpt or title or caption, but it doesn’t work, the result is only the Image without any text description below it.

Q2. both at (1) http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure/ or (2) http://structuretheme.com/demo/
at lower section (3 columns), on centre bar (posting), it has title as Featured (1) and Popular Articles (2)
How to make this title ? I give up :D
then
Below the featured image on each post, there is text description, is it an excerpt too or post content?
then
Below these text (excerpt/text), there is no mention / not appear Category & tag link. But when i make a similar featured posts, it always appear Category and tag link on this homepage post page.
How to make it (category & tag link) dissapear in homepage post page?
So it will looks tidy.

Q3. if we link to category link:
(1) http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure/category/featured/ or
(2) http://structuretheme.com/demo/?cat=6
those posting style of each category/tag post have an image on each post
but when i try to post a lot, there are only text show up without image in this category/tag post link. If i click fully single post link, then the image is appeared.
How do i make both summarized category/tag posts & Single post have an image on it?
and how to make “Read more” link? is it automatically generated?

Q4. How to set posts (at home page, lower page – center bar column) following determined category ?
Because currently is set based on latest post right?
Refer to http://structuretheme.com/demo/, how to set posts and displaying “Popular Articles” category only ?
(i don’t want to post for latest post in this column)

That’s all first
Sorry if my english is bad.
I’m waiting your reply soon

Posted by 364SHOES | August 12, 2010, 02:45

Hi (and sorry, your post had been withheld as spam because of the many links),

Unfortunately I’ve got one short answer re all of your questions: forget everything you can see in that demo, as it is the version for self-hosted blogs; the wp.com version doesn’t have the same features.

Posted by Panos | August 12, 2010, 16:51

Hi Panos, Thank you for your reply.
And I’m sorry for the links that I had attached, i did it for make it clear explanation… :)

Btw, i have another question:
How to make/add this page ” BLOG” on this demo link:
http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure/blog/ ?
and make some posts in this page?
is this features also include in version for self-hosted blogs?
or can be done on wp version?

Thank you

Posted by 364SHOES | August 18, 2010, 08:50

One possibility: static front page plus “Blog” page displaying your posts. See here:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/

Another possibility: some posts filed under a certain category, and that category turned into a header tab via a custom menu. See here:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/

BUT: Your blog is probably against the WP Terms of Service. See here:

http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

Posted by Panos | August 18, 2010, 13:50

Hi Panos thank you for your reply.
I hope those two resources can help me, and will try your suggestion.

Btw, I don’t understand which part of ToS do you mean?
Please help me identify concern to my blog. I think my blog’s content has no prohibited contents so far.
I try to read all ToS but i have limited grammar & vocabularies (with dictionary help also… :) ). Sorry my english is not too good. :(

Posted by 364SHOES | August 19, 2010, 02:41

I think wp.com blogs cannot be used for commercial purposes – at least not for products you don’t create yourself. But I’m not WP staff, so I cannot play the role of interpreter of their TOS; better ask them directly:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

Posted by Panos | August 19, 2010, 02:53

Thank you for your explanation.
Btw, I consider also many peoples are using blogs for some commercial too. I have browse and found so many blogs are like I have.
And also about the products itself, I ‘ve got lisence/permit from the owner to re-sell them and he (company’s owner)had no problem with his products to sell/show on my blog. And it’s should be no problem i think.
Maybe in the future I have plan to use self-hosted website for these products and my blog posting, since WP is temporary way and easy way for blogging or posting. Because I’m a newby and still learning in Blogging, and I have no idea to create simple or even complex website (especially using html language/CSS/etc).. :(
But anyway, thank you for your support Panos and I’ll consider your suggestion. Nice to know you. Have a nice day.

Posted by 364SHOES | August 19, 2010, 06:48

@364SHOES: You’re welcome.

I don’t think you’ve found so many wordpress.com blogs like yours. And it’s got nothing to do with whether you’ve got a license from the manufacturers or not. But as I said I’m not WP staff, so you don’t have to explain all that to me: you’ll have to explain it to WP when they find your blog and close it down.

Posted by Panos | August 19, 2010, 07:00

Hi Panos,

I’ve read through the comments to see if you’ve dealt with this topic and if I’ve missed something, forgive me.
Someone did have the same problem about the twitter and facebook links “(from the icons in the upper right black search bar) opening up the blog. You answered “In the two URL boxes you need to paste the exact complete URLs as copied from the address bar of your browser, i.e. these:”
But where do I find the “url boxes” for me to add my twitter and facebook links? Is it in the code editor?
Thanks in advance.

Posted by glen | August 19, 2010, 22:41

p.s.
And to add, what do or how do I connect the rss icon to actually do something?

Thanks again.

Posted by glen | August 19, 2010, 22:43

The two URL boxes (more properly “fiields”) are found in Appearance > Theme Options.

The RSS icon should be preconfigured and ready to be used (but by others, not you). Link to your blog?

Posted by Panos | August 19, 2010, 23:13

Thanks for the quick response Panos,
I’m looking at the StructureThemeWhite Theme Options and all I’m seeing is;
Home Page Featured Text and Image
Home Page Mid
Blog Page Template
Tracking/Analytics Code

Are you referring to the Tracking/Analytics Code option?

Posted by glen | August 20, 2010, 00:38

@glen: If you’re seeing these, then you have a self-hosted blog. The info you can find here is about wp.com blogs.

Posted by Panos | August 20, 2010, 01:26

Oh…
Thanks anyway
:-)

Posted by glen | August 20, 2010, 02:19

@glen: You’re welcome. Sorry I can’t help: different software, and different version of the theme.

Posted by Panos | August 20, 2010, 04:43

Thank you so much for explaining how to actually show the featured image! I have been playing around with this for HOURS trying to get it to show, but with your blogs help I managed it in MINUTES! :) Yay!
Thank you!!

Posted by Linda | August 26, 2010, 20:43

@Linda: You’re welcome!
(I find it strange that WP brings out such tricky themes without any accompanying instructions.)

Posted by Panos | August 26, 2010, 22:57

@Panos,
…giving us WordPress.com users credit for our superior instincts, intuition,and intelligence as an indication how much they respect insights and input???

Posted by Tess | August 27, 2010, 02:03

Certainly! Lots of respect (if you except the silence when our insights and input are out of line with Their one and only truth)…

Posted by Panos | August 27, 2010, 08:42

Hi Panos!

Thank you for writing this useful intro to the Structure.
I did learn a lot from the post and the comments as well, AND been drawn into fleshing my blog out for the whole weekend up until now including running around your wpbtips every time I got stuck.
Well, its addictive I think, both the blogging n your tips *_*
(smoking my kretek in your honor *cheers!)

Posted by durgajati | August 30, 2010, 22:45

@durgajati: You’re welcome and thanks for the compliments!

Posted by Panos | September 1, 2010, 00:16

thanks for this! really helped me! :)

Posted by C | September 5, 2010, 13:07

@C: You’re welcome!

Posted by Panos | September 6, 2010, 02:57

Hi, this is a great post. I love the Strusture theme but I’m struggling to find the selectors (I’ve not done it before) – do you have a list of them please? Thanks, Martha

Posted by Martha Williams | September 8, 2010, 09:55

@Martha: You can copy the whole CSS of the theme if you go to Appearance > Edit CSS and click “view original stylesheet”. If you’re using Firefox, you can also add the Firebug and Aardvark add-ons that help identify selectors. What exactly are you interested in doing?

Posted by Panos | September 8, 2010, 10:13

Thank you all contribution, very useful info. I struggled a bit with this theme, but I refuse to change it. Its gorgeous!

Posted by O. | September 8, 2010, 15:06

@O.: You’re welcome! To me the featured post is too prominent, but in general I like unusual design ideas that set a theme apart from all others.

Posted by Panos | September 10, 2010, 02:46

@Panos: You are right, but I was thinking for an art blog, to exhibit my works, it is the best option. The featured category will be like a gallery. Have a look if you wish: http://olesja.wordpress.com/. (Although I’m just getting started.) I am a bit disappointed about the slide show not being available, but I can live with that. Have a nice day!

Posted by O. | September 10, 2010, 23:07

Ah yes, for ‘special’ purposes like yours, Structure is a very good choice.

As you probably know, for a slideshow you’d need Modularity Lite, which is also an interesting theme. Or maybe you can create a slideshow via Flickr and put it in a text widget.

Posted by Panos | September 11, 2010, 00:25

Fantastic, thank you for helping us, dummies :)

1. Is there a possibility to create a “slideshow” for featured images on upper part for showcased articles. I saw your answer N4 on Aug. 08 that it is available on the self-hosted blogs. Is it possible on WordPress hosted blogs?

2. Is there a possibility to reduce that upper showcase image that you rightly call “glaringly”. At the same time I want to fix its proportions so it is set in accordance with the lower part (again you mention it on Aug 08, answer No.3). Let’s say for example I want upper showcase image to be exactly the same (440×270) as the lower or… say 10% bigger (484X297 ) but not current 620X380.

I suspect both questions I ask require some changes in CSS. I am not a programmer unfortunately, but I can ask my friends to help me if you provide some guidelines of how to do it. Again sorry for being stupid maybe I ask for too much or something in my question is not logical …

Anyway you are doing a tremendous job.
Thank you, Panos.

Oh, sorry one more.
3. Appearance – Structure Theme Options – Single Feature Image: “Show the set Feature Image on single posts”
What does that box does???
I check & uncheck it, and I cannot see any difference. I suspect this is part of my Question No 1? If it is checked I get the slideshow on self-hosted blog? If so is there a way around on the WebPress hosted blogs?

Posted by Albert | October 2, 2010, 17:13

You’re welcome (and you’re not dummies or stupid, you just haven’t dug into these details as much as I have).

1. No. As I said in that reply, the version for self-hosted blogs is different. And CSS editing only allows you to modify the appearance of any element, not change the way a theme works.

The closest you can do is insert a Flickr (or other) 3rd-party slideshow in a text widget in the Homepage Top area. See here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/gigya-2-flickr-slideshows/

Or maybe insert a WP slideshow in a sticky post if you remove the Homepage Top area altogether.

http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/post-visibility/#sticky-posts

http://en.support.wordpress.com/slideshows/

Or maybe switch to Modularity Lite, the only wp.com theme that features a FI slideshow.

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/modularity-lite-100th-theme/

2. Yes, possible if you buy the CSS upgrade. (But is it worth buying it just for that?)

3. The option has no effect on your main page: it determines whether the FI is displayed when one views a single complete post. If it’s checked, the FI will show up between the post metadata and the black divider line below them.

Posted by Panos | October 2, 2010, 20:19

Hello Panos and congratulations for the great job, really helps us!
I would like to ask if its possible to change the colour of the texts that i put on the widget “TEXT”.
I want to have it white instead of grey that is now appeared.
Thank you in advance.

Posted by theatroland | October 3, 2010, 01:18

@Panos.

Thank you very much for a detailed answer. Have a good week-end!

Posted by Albert | October 3, 2010, 01:43

@theatroland: Thanks! See here: https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/formatting-text-pt-5/

@Albert: You’re welcome. I skipped the part about CSS guidelines: if you decide to go ahead and buy the upgrade, I’ll cover it.

Posted by Panos | October 3, 2010, 03:44

Hi there,
I have my new blog set up with the Structure theme. Last night while updating, I somehow messed up the size of the gray featured image box. The FI itself is the right size and in the right place. But the text in the widget area to the right of it is pushed down to the bottom of the gray box, which is stretched down the page. So far, nobody’s been able to tell me what I did or how to undo it. Any ideas? Thanks so much!

http://biblioden.wordpress.com/

Posted by biblioden | October 11, 2010, 20:07

@biblioden: Now that’s a first! I can easily tell what’s wrong, but not how you managed to do that.

The relevant section of the sourcecode of your page should have: the code for the featured post title, then the code for the featured image, then the code for the text widget. Instead, yours has: the code for the title of “A City of Ghosts”, then the code for the double image (so far so good), then the code for the title of “Author Interview: Betsy Phillips”, then the spot for the code of the featured image of that post (but that post has no FI?), then the code for the text widget.

In other words, the theme is trying to display two featured posts from two different categories, which in theory should be impossible.

I cannot possibly imagine how this might have been triggered, so perhaps you can help by trying to remember if you did anything strange involving those two posts, their categories, and the featured category. If not, I would suggest you delete both the Uncategorized and the Indie categories, create them anew, and select the featured category anew.

Posted by Panos | October 11, 2010, 22:08

@Panos
Thanks so much for this! I tried to follow your instructions, however apparently one is not able to delete the Uncategorized category. However, extrapolating a little on your directions, I found that if I created a new category (I called it Main) and then:
Appearance–>Theme Options–>Featured Category–>set to Main
the problem resolved itself.
I have no idea how I managed to trigger this except that I was working at roughly 2am, so… Thanks so much for leading me in the right direction!

Posted by biblioden | October 11, 2010, 22:56

You’re welcome!

In case you need it in the future:
It’s not correct that “one is not able to delete the Uncategorized category”. What you cannot directly delete is your current default category (the category new posts are automatically filed under if you don’t select or add a different one). So, to delete Uncategorized, you must first go to Settings>Writing, select some other category from the “Default Post Category” dropdown, click Save Changes.

Posted by Panos | October 11, 2010, 23:13

@Panos
This makes a lot of sense. Thanks for clarifying this!

Posted by Maggie | October 11, 2010, 23:47

Hi

I think you may have answered this but i have looked through all the posts and have now completely confused myself with all the answers.

I am trying to get the featured image to work. The title of my latest post adds itself to the home page but the image i set as featured image doesn’t (http://georgiedavies.wordpress.com/).

I added a featured image through the link at the bottom of the add a post page. I think this is correct.

Sorry if you’ve already answered this.

Posted by Georgie Davies | October 13, 2010, 15:11

@Georgie: I probably haven’t answered it, because your problem is the featured image by itself, not the theme. If you had set featured images, they would have shown up above the beginnings of the posts too. Perhaps you forgot to click Update after clicking the “Use as featured image” tab? If you didn’t forget that, maybe you tried to insert an image by pasting its URL instead of uploading it to the post?

Posted by Panos | October 13, 2010, 16:17

Hi Panos. Thanks a lot that’s completely solved the problem! Didn’t see the ‘use as features image’ tab before. Whoops. Thanks

Posted by Georgie Davies | October 13, 2010, 16:33

OMG! Help Panos!
When we were creating a new post (or editing the existing one) there was a box (right below the main text post box) where the author would put a key phrase or few phrases.
Don’t remember the name of this box (Featured text?).
Now this box has GONE from the theme! What happened?

The short text from that box would be shown right underneath the featured image on your home page. (If you would not do that it would automatically take first few words from your main text.). It was such an excellent option to announce your post. Now its gone. All it shows just first words of your post, which are not always relevant to announce your post on the front home page.

Tell me they didn’t take it away forever. Tell me I messed up something… How can they do that? And if they do – why they don’t give us an option to get it back (I would be ready to pay to get this particular feature back!).

Thank you in advance… Staying in anticipation of the good news :-)

Posted by Albert | October 15, 2010, 04:14

No it’s not gone, and no you didn’t mess anything: staff have been tinkering with the post editor, and some things may have been deactivated. While on the post editor screen, click Screen Options top right and make sure “Excerpt” (that’s what it’s called) is checked.

Posted by Panos | October 15, 2010, 11:53

Oh, I see it… Great! Thank you so much, Panos!
They tinker and we are getting killed :-)

Posted by Albert | October 15, 2010, 18:35

@Albert: You’re welcome.
(Well, not killed, but certainly annoyed…)

Posted by Panos | October 16, 2010, 17:25

Hey! Don’t know if this was answered yet, but I’m trying to show the full post with images on my home page. (www.heltonhill.com) Is this something I can fix in CSS, or do I need to edit something else? I changed the featured image to be the same and made the center column stretch so images will look better inside, just need to know how to include all of the post information. Thanks a million!!!

Posted by dalyredmetyellow | October 24, 2010, 17:41

No, that’s not something you can change via CSS. To display full posts in the blog front you need to copy all their content from the HTML editor and paste it into the Excerpt field. Will display everything except shortcode objects. See here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/the-excerpt-function/

Posted by Panos | October 24, 2010, 18:47

Panos, thank you!!!!!! You rule.

Posted by thecassandra | October 24, 2010, 19:46

@thecassandra: You’re welcome! (But why exactly? Are you dalyredmetyellow under a different username or what?)

Posted by Panos | October 25, 2010, 09:44

Ha, yes it’s dalyredmetyellow. I designed thecassandra’s blog and forgot to log out of her account when I responded. We both thank you!!! :)

Posted by dalyredmetyellow | October 27, 2010, 01:19

I published a post with photo. I set the photo to be “large” so it takes up the entire page. When I go to preview the changes, the photo is there twice. This isnt the same problem as the “home page feature photo” problem. I think i have a setting box checked but cannot figure it out. Thanks.

Posted by Steve Anderson | October 29, 2010, 06:10

@Steve: The blog linked to your name isn’t using Structure, and has no posts.

Posted by Panos | October 30, 2010, 10:26

I just recently converted from Press Row theme to Structure and can’t figure out how to have my images show up on the home page, both on the header and within the recent posts (similar to demo).

I tried updating categories & tested “featured image” on a few posts but still no dice.

Any advice? Thanks!

Posted by styleandsavory | October 30, 2010, 10:30

@styleandsavory: It’s all explained in my post.

To display an image at the beginning of a post on your homepage, you need to set a featured image to that post (which you haven’t done). To set a featured image, you click the Add an Image button of the post editor, upload an image from your computer or select an already uploaded one from Media Library, click “Use as featured image”, click Update.

To display an image in the Homepage Top area, you need to go to Appearance > Theme Options > “Featured Category” dropdown, select a category assigned to posts that have featured images, click Save Options.

Posted by Panos | October 30, 2010, 10:50

Okay got it thanks. Question – do I have to store all images in my media library? The reason why it wasn’t working was I was pulling the image from my other account on photobucket so it wouldn’t eat up my storage….

Posted by styleandsavory | October 30, 2010, 16:45

You’re welcome.

Yes you’ve got to store the images in your media library (= upload them to your blog); featured images don’t work any other way.

As for “eating up” your storage space:
Each wp.com blog comes with 3GB of free space for uploading/storing files. Those 3GB are enough for several thousands of properly sized images. Properly sized means resolution 72 (= what browsers display). I checked three of your images, and their resolution is 240; in order not to waste storage space, you need to make copies of your images, change their resolution to 72 (in an image editing application, or online), and upload those copies.

Posted by Panos | October 30, 2010, 17:43

Thanks for this post! It is very helpful.

Posted by Juan Manila Express! | November 3, 2010, 05:07

@JME: You’re welcome.

As I’ve written in my (similar) post on Inuit Types, special themes should come with special instructions, and I’m rather surprised that WP doesn’t provide that. But then again it’s a free service, so it’s probably: we give you a new toy, you figure it out and make of it what you can…

Posted by Panos | November 4, 2010, 10:00

Hi, I am trying to use this theme for a new website, but am having issues with the main image (Featured image)

http://thegarmentcleaner.wordpress.com/

I dont want this featured image to be repeated below the main field. You see that its displayed twice, how do I make it so that its only displayed in the main field?

cheers
Torben

Posted by thegarmentcleaner | November 9, 2010, 20:36

http://structuretheme.com/demo/?page_id=28

How do i make a main menu that lists up posts like this?

cheers

Posted by thegarmentcleaner | November 9, 2010, 21:27

Both of your questions have been answered in previous comments:
a) You can’t remove the images unless you buy the CSS upgrade.
b) That demo is the version for self-hosted blogs – some features not available in the wp.com version.

Posted by Panos | November 9, 2010, 23:39

Hi Panos,

Thank you for directing me here from the support forums. In your last message, you mentioned this :

“a) You can’t remove the images unless you buy the CSS upgrade.”

I have purchased the CSS upgrade, could you please show me how I can prevent the image from appearing twice in the front page?

Cheers.

Posted by genericity2010 | November 12, 2010, 10:34

I apologise for not being more detailed in my explanation. My blog can be found at genericity2010.wordpress.com

At the moment I would like to delete the smaller B&W image and leave just the bigger one as it is.

As I mentioned earlier, I have purchased the CSS upgrade and would appreciate it if you could teach me how to achieve the above mentioned.

Cheers.

Posted by genericity2010 | November 12, 2010, 10:36

@genericity2010: Check end of post!

Posted by Panos | November 12, 2010, 10:44

Thanks Panos, got it working.

One more thing : How do I change the font/colour/size of the title of the blog?

On my blog meaning the one which says “Genericity” at the moment.

Posted by genericity2010 | November 13, 2010, 19:43

You’re welcome.

Last phrase clarifies you mean the title of the featured post, not the actual blog title; CSS should be:

#content #homepagetop h3 a, #content #homepagetop h3 a:visited { color: #HEX; font-family: NAME; font-size: NUMBERpx; }

(Replace capitals with desired hex code, font name and pixel number.)

If you don’t want it italicized, you need to add this too inside the brackets:

font-style: normal;

And/or this, if you want it bold:

font-weight: bold;

PS If you’re using Firefox, add the Firebug add-on: helps you identify appropriate selectors.

Posted by Panos | November 14, 2010, 02:50

First of all, great intro to the theme, i have consulted it constantly while building my site.

Now, a question- does the structure theme have any impact on using the More tag? I have successfully used the tag on other blogs I have but for some reason cannot get it to work on my current one. I have inserted the tag using the button and by typing out ” ” myself. For example, my current featured post “Our first decision…” has the tag but does not show it on the entry page.

Thanks!

Posted by 82liters | November 17, 2010, 22:55

Structure displays post beginnings on the front page and on category/archive pages. Those excerpts are the first 55 or so words of the text.

Your example works: without the more tag, the displayed excerpt would have included “A primer on some basic facts. Buenos Aires” as well.

But, as you found out, the plain more tag in Structure produces no tab (while the auto-created excerpt ends with “…Read more”).

So inserting a more tag in Structure is only useful if you want a shorter excerpt than the default one (including no excerpt at all, just the title) and/or if you want a different tab than the auto-created one (the more tag is customizable).

Posted by Panos | November 18, 2010, 13:31

I have been trying to embed videos and a signup form into the wordpress blog. I am using structure and it is not letting me do this. Do you have any idea why? I am literally copy/pasting, am I doing something wrong?

Posted by zarealestate | November 19, 2010, 17:15

I can’t tell without more details. One thing is for sure: nothing to do with Structure in particular.

Posted by Panos | November 20, 2010, 01:08

Hello, Panos. First I’d like to congratulate you for your site/tips. (:

Let me explain my problem:
I’ve explored the theme these days and discovered good things about it, but I still have doubts.

– I’d like to reproduce the left sidebar of the demo version (http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure-white/), specifically the “art news” menu. How do I do it?

– The same for the “Portfolio” they show (http://organicthemes.com/demo/structure-white/portfolio/). I know there’s a ‘full width’ template option for the page, but I don’t know how to put my photos in that “moldure”.

PS: I have a self-hosted blog and downloaded the free version.

Posted by Uri Aleksander | November 22, 2010, 19:54

Great blog Panos, extremely useful, thank you.

I’ve created a custom menu but I seem to have lost the home page. How do I get it back? Will it return if I delete the menu and start again?

Posted by Geoffrey Williams | November 22, 2010, 23:34

Sorry, clarification: lost the homepage tab!

Posted by Geoffrey Williams | November 22, 2010, 23:54

Thanks both for the compliments!

@ Uri: As I’ve explained in other comments, a) the version for self-hosted blogs has different features than the wp.com version, b) I’m experienced in wp.com blogs only. So I’m sorry, I can’t help.

@ Geoffrey: If you’re talking about a wp.com blog (it always helps if you link to the blog in question), Appearance > Menus > Pages module: click View All, tick Home, click Add to Menu, click Save Menu.

Posted by Panos | November 23, 2010, 05:39

Yes, I was talking about the wp.com blog and thank you very much, works perfectly!

Posted by Geoffrey Williams | November 23, 2010, 09:12

tks for this post

Posted by dutchezjuma | November 24, 2010, 15:18

@dutchezjuma: You’re welcome. (But you’re not using featured imagesin your blog, so I don’t see why use Structure at all.)

Posted by Panos | November 25, 2010, 15:30

Hello Panos. This design is very good, I am using it for a school assignment in web design, therefore I thank you. I have a question, why can’t I see the Plugins menu in the Dashboard, is it because of the theme or something else in my end? Thanks in advance.

Posted by lumceku | November 27, 2010, 19:32

No it’s because wp.com blogs don’t support plugins.

Posted by Panos | November 28, 2010, 09:19

Two questions:
– Can you put a caption on a featured image?
– When I posted my last post from Posterous with an image, it came up on the front page without image. Is there a way of telling wp.com to set incoming images as featured image?

Thank you.

Posted by Geoffrey Williams | November 30, 2010, 00:20

No and no. Featured images don’t support the regular image options, and they have to be uploaded to the blog.

Posted by Panos | November 30, 2010, 18:45

I must be completely missing something, but I have a new install of wordpress 3.02 and I don’t have a “featured image” tab or button at all. I know where it’s supposed to be, but it’s just not there. What am I missing?

Posted by Roger Thoman | December 2, 2010, 03:04

Hi,
You’re missing my tagline as well as previous comments to this post: my blog is about wp.COM blogs, wp.com and wp.org software aren’t the same, Structure for wp.com and Structure for self-hosted blogs aren’t the same version.
You need to search here:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page

Or inquire here:

http://wordpress.org/support/

Posted by Panos | December 2, 2010, 15:19

I understand. Thanks so much for your reply. For those interested, apparently the free, self-hosted version of Structure does not include the Featured Image feature.

Posted by Roger Thoman | December 2, 2010, 18:29

@Roger: You’re welcome – sorry I can’t help.

Posted by Panos | December 4, 2010, 00:40

Hey im wondering how do I get my blog to display “next page” or “prev entry” . Is this possible??

Posted by Anderson | December 11, 2010, 00:33

@Anderson: See previous comments, for instance this one.

Posted by Panos | December 11, 2010, 00:46

wow, i just noticed the micro smile hidden in the theme, that’s so good!

Posted by wherearethetextiles | December 11, 2010, 16:15

@wherearethetextiles: Hate to disappoint you, but it’s not decorative and it’s not unique to Structure. See here:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/smiley-on-your-blog/

Posted by Panos | December 11, 2010, 22:17

well, that’s not disappointing. it’s anyway small and hidden and I never noticed it before

Posted by wherearethetextiles | December 12, 2010, 12:15

Hi there.

in regards to the featured image option I am having one problem:

Is it not possible to have the featured image as one from a URL as when I input an image url in the add image option, It doesnt seem to give me the option to add it as a featured image, even if i click on add as featured Image in the first place when making a post.

Thanks for any help in advance

Posted by roblyo | December 26, 2010, 21:01

Hi, great theme.

In the example i see that the main post (the big image), is not repeated below on the front page.

How do you make this work? To me it seems like you need to have this post twice, like in my example:

http://thegarmentcleaner.wordpress.com/

But looking at their example they dont repeat this image.

Please pretty please, can someone explain this? :)

cheers,
torben

Posted by Torben | December 26, 2010, 21:51

Is it possible for the right sidebar widget area to be changed on different pages? It looks a bit static to always have to have the same content in this widget area, across the entire page.

regards,
Anders

Posted by thegarmentcleaner | December 26, 2010, 21:57

@roblyo

Quoting from my post: To set a featured image, you click the “Add an Image” button or the “Set featured image” tab of the Featured Image module (on the post editor screen), select from computer, upload, click “Use as featured image”, [etc.]. Featured images are a special function: this function only works with images uploaded to the blog.

@Torben

The front page displays your latest posts. The Homepage Top area displays the latest post from the “featured” category. So if the latest posts aren’t filed under that category, you don’t get the same image twice; if they are, you do. You can’t change that unless you have the CSS upgrade.

@Anders

You can’t have different widgets on different pages. What you can have (assuming you’re talking about static pages such as your “About Us” etc.) is no sidebar at all; see here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/widgets-on-pages-or-single-posts/

Posted by Panos | December 26, 2010, 23:05

@Panos Thank you. But i dont want the post that is listed in the Homepage Top area to be displayed on the front page below at all. I dont see how your steps provides a work around for this. The Home Page top area news will also be listed below, it just gets bumped down further and further as new posts arrive, right?

I find it hard to believe that there is no easy way to solve this without having to touch the css.

Posted by thegarmentcleaner | December 26, 2010, 23:27

“it just gets bumped down further and further as new posts arrive, right?”

Of course not (as I said, your front page displays your latest posts, not all your posts). The default is 10 posts per page, and you can change it in Settings > Reading (“Blog pages show at most [n] posts”).

Posted by Panos | December 27, 2010, 00:19

Thank you Panos, you are of great help.

Can you or anyone help me with this:

1) Images in Light boxes. I would like them to be clickable and scale up to a higher resolution.

2) Embed javascript and other html to get etc Facebook page in to the right on the widget area. When i paste html into the Text or HTML widget the code shows.

Cheers

Posted by thegarmentcleaner | December 27, 2010, 13:24

You’re welcome. As for your new questions, please search the wp.com forum: they have been addressed repeatedly. Short answers are: you can’t use javascript, for security reasons; you can insert a Facebook badge; you can’t insert a Light box but there may be a workaround.

Posted by Panos | December 28, 2010, 15:34

Very helpful post on this theme, it’s a lot more complicated than I realized. I’m still not having any success with my feature image being shown on my main page, even though I’ve done everything you suggested. Any thoughts?

Posted by malura | January 11, 2011, 11:45

No success although you’ve done everything is a contradiction in terms! In order to help I need to check your blog. But the URL linked to your username isn’t valid.

Posted by Panos | January 11, 2011, 12:57

Sorry about that, it’s caffesseur.wordpress.com. Thanks for offering to help!

Posted by malura | January 11, 2011, 19:12

There seems to be no malfunction in your blog: you just haven’t set any featured images at all. So the paragraph you should pay close attention to is this:

To set a featured image, you click the “Add an Image” button or the “Set featured image” tab of the Featured Image module (on the post editor screen), select from computer, upload, click “Use as featured image”, wait till it saves, close box.

Think where you might have gone wrong. Some users insert images the normal way only (like the ones I can see when I click to view each one of your posts alone): won’t show up on the front page. Some users try to use the URL of an image uploaded elsewhere: won’t work as a featured image. Some users forget to click Update after setting the featured image (if the post had already been published before that).

Posted by Panos | January 11, 2011, 22:14

Haha, oh it’s always the simplest mistake… thanks so much again for your help! If you can’t tell already, I’m quite the amateur.

Posted by malura | January 12, 2011, 07:44

i can not get a full image on the frontpage home, only at the side as a widget! How is this possible as shown on the image in the top with the red chairs.

Posted by thomasthorgaard | January 24, 2011, 17:57

i can get it on the prontpage but does it reallt have to be a post?

Posted by thomasthorgaard | January 24, 2011, 18:06

Yes it has to be a post – that’s how the theme works. Tell me what you have in mind and I might be able to suggest another theme.

Posted by Panos | January 25, 2011, 11:46

i cant seen to find “featured image widget :(

Posted by rezkhan | January 31, 2011, 22:27

There’s no “featured image widget” in Structure – or in any other theme, for that matter.

Posted by Panos | February 1, 2011, 06:50

.homepagethumb { display:none; } is great for if you don’t want any thumbnails on the homepage. But, is there a way so to make it so that the featured image/post is not repeated on the home page? (but to leave all of the other thumbnails visible?)

It looks a little silly to have the feature image, and then have the same image repeated right below it on the home page.

One other thing – is there anyway to add thumbnails to archive lists?

I would appreciate any assistance, I’m new at this!

http://www.amyintheapple.com

Posted by Amy in the Apple | February 1, 2011, 20:39

1) Not that I know of: there’s nothing in the CSS of the theme that would allow you to isolate the latest post.

2) By default, category and other archive pages in Structure display the beginning of each post stripped of all code, which means no links, no formatting, no videos or other objects inserted via shortcodes, and no images. To make archive pages display thumbnails you need to add the image HTML (plus the text you want) in the Excerpt module of the post editor. Drawback: that’s what you’ll get on the front page too.

Posted by Panos | February 1, 2011, 23:43

Hi, Panos,
What an amazing string of Q&As. I do not see these yet.
1. Any idea whether I can rearrange the order of the pages in my top nav bar? I want to put Contact Me at the end. http://kathleentodd.wordpress.com/

I am using this blog as part billboard .. the top .. and part blog. I’ve created a Home Page Feature category for that top large feature image. That will stay there for a while. My client is posting once or twice a week and those appear below.

I’d like to add video to the widget in the top, next to the large image. Have you worked with video on this theme?

Thanks for your help… great info. .. Robin

Posted by Robin J Phillips | February 6, 2011, 05:03

Hi,

Neither changing the order of the top nav tabs nor inserting a video in a text widget are theme dependent.

1) Two ways – see here:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/page-attributes/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/

2) See here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/gigya-shortcode-1-videos/

Can be easy or tricky, depending on where the video is hosted. If you find you can’t work it out, give me the URL of the video in question.

Posted by Panos | February 6, 2011, 19:02

[Username link removed – P.]

Hello and thanks a lot for this theme.

Here is an interesting website based on this theme that suits independent men well.

[Blog link removed – P.]

Your feedback is appreciated.

kind regards,
Torbe

Posted by Torben | February 6, 2011, 22:24

hey panos

here’s a simple question (or 2) – is a choice of fonts available for text widgets, and can they be coloured up in any way – the text and the background –

cheers matey – and I’m finding the theme just about perfect for my old dribble

pete

Posted by peterbowes | February 13, 2011, 05:51

And here’s two simple answers:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/formatting-text-pt-5/

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/background-color-to-text/

Posted by Panos | February 13, 2011, 07:29

thanks panos – can you handle one more?

is there a widget that I can use in either left or right sidebar that contains a video link?

Posted by peterbowes | February 17, 2011, 05:17

You’re welcome. As for your new question, you mean just a text link to another webpage, or an image linking to another webpage, or the actual video in small size?

Posted by Panos | February 18, 2011, 03:19

(1) just an image
and (2) an actual video in small sizr

either / or

Posted by peterbowes | February 19, 2011, 01:10

See here for 1:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/codes-useful-for-text-widgets/

And here for 2:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/gigya-shortcode-1-videos/

Posted by Panos | February 19, 2011, 02:43

thanks panos, now I have a problem populating the site with images everywhere

how do I stop?

pete

Posted by peterbowes | February 19, 2011, 04:57

Why stop? Nothing wrong with a colorful blog!

The only problem would be loading time, if you had 10 posts on your front page with 10 images each, like some users do. But this cannot happen in Structure.

Posted by Panos | February 20, 2011, 15:02

- jeez, .. now’s there more

Panos old mate, how can I get rid of ‘ categories ‘ in the left sidebar? I’m sticking everything onto the other side

When I go into widgets the left sidebar cupboard is bare, so to speak

pete

Posted by peterbowes | February 22, 2011, 03:31

I reckon it has a lot to do with the two col or three col theme option – ??

Posted by peterbowes | February 22, 2011, 07:07

You can get rid of the Categories by adding some other widget(s) to the left sidebar. More details on this quirk here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/the-no-widgets-paradox/

(In Structure there’s no 2-col or 3-col option really – meaning you can’t choose: you get both sidebars when viewing the main or archive pages but only the right when viewing a single post or static page.)

Posted by Panos | February 22, 2011, 08:24

BRILLIANT … !!!!! I don’t know how it’s done, but done it is – now I’ll look for somefink else

cheers panos, the cheque is in the mail

Posted by peterbowes | February 22, 2011, 10:34

You’re welcome. But with nothing in the left sidebar the theme looks dislocated. Better think of something to add to it.

Posted by Panos | February 22, 2011, 20:33

Panos, I’m not having much luck with formattimg text with background colour – despite your advice – am I right in just cutting and pasting the Hex number into the spot ie; darkblue(SVG) #00008B – ?

Posted by peterbowes | February 25, 2011, 05:35

Please link to the post in question and point to the text you want to highlight.

Posted by Panos | February 25, 2011, 05:40

It’s the text widget in the top right hand corner ‘ spot the shaper ‘

Posted by peterbowes | February 25, 2011, 05:48

The right HTML is this:

<div style="background-color:#00008B;padding:12px;">
WIDGET CONTENT HERE
</div>

But a) I don’t think this color fits the rest of your page, b) If you want a color like that, you probably need to change the text color too.

Posted by Panos | February 25, 2011, 06:00

thanks panos, I’ll give it a shot

Posted by peterbowes | February 25, 2011, 06:25

lovely, works as advertised – where do I send the money old chum?

thanks

Posted by peterbowes | February 25, 2011, 06:29

Hi there

Just wondering if you can keep the featured image as static and how? Or if you can select 4 images and rotate them? I dont want every new blog post to make the grey square appear. I am setting up a wedding blog to inform people of our plans and I would like a static collage of us to be in the home page at all time.,..

Posted by Aoife and Jamie | March 1, 2011, 17:22

Hi,

As my post says, the featured post is the latest post filed under one particular category. So, to keep it static, you create a post with the image and the title you prefer, file it under a category you won’t use for any other post, and select that category as your featured category in Appearance > Theme Options.

Posted by Panos | March 1, 2011, 22:22

Panos, here’s another …

Can I use the same command that colours up text in a widget to add colour to a widget title itself ? – I’ve tried it out on a dummy blog (same theme) but didn’t get a result

cheers

Posted by peterbowes | March 3, 2011, 23:34

No, title fields don’t accept coding. But you can achieve what you want by leaving the actual title field blank and simulating the title in the main text field:

<h4 style="color:#000;">SIMULATED TITLE HERE</h4>

000 is the original pitch black; replace it with the hex for the color you prefer.

Posted by Panos | March 4, 2011, 01:22

ta mate, I’ll give it a shot after the game

Posted by peterbowes | March 4, 2011, 11:17

Is it possible to keep the featured photo at the top, but swap out a different image above the post below?

Posted by pacificwhim | March 5, 2011, 05:21

“Swap”, no. Can be two different images only if the featured post isn’t the latest post.

Posted by Panos | March 5, 2011, 05:35

hey panos, can I put a subliminal message on the site that will encourage folks to send me large amounts of money ??

.. just kidding mate – thanks for all your help, I am sure to think of something new soon

Posted by peterbowes | March 6, 2011, 10:18

Panos ~ If I want to stretch my right sidebar down with images etc – the post column remains blank and all I have is space in the middle – Am I able have more posts on the page to fill up this void – pete

Posted by peterbowes | March 15, 2011, 23:28

Settings > Reading > “Blog pages show at most [N] posts”: change N, click Save Changes.

Posted by Panos | March 16, 2011, 00:22

I looked and looked – cheers mate

Posted by peterbowes | March 16, 2011, 02:08

a moment – I cannot find ‘ settings ‘ as you demonstrated – though I have found – posts / screen options / show (n) posts on screen / apply – but I tried it for 25 posts and no go

Posted by peterbowes | March 16, 2011, 02:16

sorry – got it – ‘ta

Posted by peterbowes | March 16, 2011, 03:18

Panos, one more?

How do I nest a command to change text colour within a command to colour a text widget – like the blue text widget on my home page

pete

Posted by peterbowes | March 20, 2011, 11:23

a) Please be more precise: you mean colored text inside a colored background, and you mean all of the text or part of it?

b) This question has nothing to do with Structure. I’ve got posts on text color, bg color etc., so please post your questions to relevant posts (so that others who may be interested in the same issue can see them).

Posted by Panos | March 20, 2011, 13:50

(a) I mean coloured text inside a coloured background – all of the text … and should this question be posed in another place?
I don’t understand what you mean on (b)

Posted by peterbowes | March 20, 2011, 22:36

I mean your question should have been posted here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/formatting-text-pt-5/

Or here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/background-color-to-text/

Q&As on a certain issue should appear under a post on that issue.

If you want to apply color to all the text, then this is just one more attribute of the whole section comprising that text; so you don’t nest the command, you just add it to the rest of the style attributes for that section. For example:

By the way, if you’d like to have a regular arrow, you can replace this:
< – – –
with this (minus the space):
& 8592;

Posted by Panos | March 21, 2011, 14:30

I am using structure but cannot seem to get an image that say is taller then it is wider to fit in the featured image screen, i have the CSS upgrade but am very new to code and was wondering how to have my whole image show! any ideas!!?

Posted by Lord Baltimore Florist | April 13, 2011, 22:25

The FI window has fixed dimensions – doesn’t adapt to the image you set.
But if you have the CSS upgrade you can change those dimensions.
But in my opinion you shouldn’t make the FI window accommodate portrait-shaped images, except if the height is small (otherwise you waste too much space and visitors will have to scroll down for the rest of the content).
Anyway, if you’d like me to give you the CSS for changing the dimensions of the FI window, I can do that, but I need to know what height and width you want.

Posted by Panos | April 14, 2011, 12:06

After a year of near-perfection with Structure, the showcase post has disappeared leaving white space. What happened? What do I do? http://berkshireonstage.com/

Posted by Larry Murray | April 20, 2011, 01:37

Ah I see now. Switched my test blog to Structure, got the same issue no matter what the category. So it’s not the usual problem I had thought of, it’s WP messing with things backstage again… Report to staff:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

[Update: reported by others too, reportet to staff, fixed.]

Posted by Panos | April 20, 2011, 02:45

Switched my blog to Structure, got the same issue no matter what the category. So it’s not the usual problem I had thought of, it’s WP messing with things backstage again. Report to staff:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

Posted by Panos | April 20, 2011, 02:45

Ah yes, I see now. I switched my test blog to Structure, and I’m getting the same problem no matter what category I select. So it’s not the usual issue I thought of at first, it must be WP messing with things backstage again… Report to staff:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

[Update: bug reported by others too, reported to staff, fixed.]

Posted by Panos | April 20, 2011, 02:45

This happens when you delete the category you’ve set as your featured category, or when you edit it and change its name. What is/was your featured category?

Posted by Panos | April 20, 2011, 01:51

It is “Top Pick”. Looking at the post list it says that it has no categories, but on the post itself it has several categories checked. Something is going on. I tried rechecking the categories on the quick edit but they don’t seem to register. Keeps reading no categories.

Posted by Larry Murray | April 20, 2011, 02:08

Forget the post list for the moment. Go to Appearance > Theme Options and make sure “Top Pick” is selected in the Featured Category pulldown.

Posted by Panos | April 20, 2011, 02:26

Been there, done that. It is the category selected.

Posted by Larry Murray | April 20, 2011, 02:29

Switched my blog to Structure, got the same issue no matter what the category. So it’s not the usual problem I had thought of, it’s WP messing with things backstage again. Report to staff:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

[Update: Reported by others too, reported to staff, fixed.]

Posted by Panos | April 21, 2011, 15:01

Hi thanks for this great thread, loads of brill answers.
MY question is how can I remove the FI post title
if you have a look here http://daisydumas.com
Is there a way to make it like this

http://tralalafashion.wordpress.com/

or even to get rid of it completely?

thanks!

Posted by jimbob | May 9, 2011, 11:06

@jimbob: Only if you have the paid CSS upgrade.

Posted by Panos | May 9, 2011, 23:43

cool, thanks for the reply
any idea what bit of the CSS I need to remove/amend?
have scanned the blog but couldnt find if you had answered that or not…

cheers
jimbob

Posted by jimbob | May 9, 2011, 23:48

You need to add this to your CSS:

#homepagetop .textbanner {display:none;}

Posted by Panos | May 9, 2011, 23:57

brillaint thanks
(legendary thread -over 1 yr old, nice work!)

Posted by jimbob | May 10, 2011, 00:00

You’re welcome (and thanks)!

Posted by Panos | May 10, 2011, 00:03

Just activated this theme and added first post tho the Structure Theme has a large blank space for my ‘homepage mid’ (sandwiched by sidebars) and the Theme Options to add a Featured Category is non-existent. Am I missing something like a certain Plugin or Widget?

Posted by jtho | May 17, 2011, 01:27

Link to the blog in question please.

Posted by Panos | May 17, 2011, 01:37

excuse the mess but I’m in the editing stages: http://joslynthoresen.com/_trouve

Posted by jtho | May 17, 2011, 01:48

Excuse me too, but as I suspected you have a wp.org blog; see point 1 here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/comment-guidelines/

Posted by Panos | May 17, 2011, 02:35

Anyone one know how to make the featured image on your homepage alternate between different posts that share the same catorgey?

For your info I’m working off of a iPad so I can’t use flash nor download any plug ins

Posted by @Kip_Dynamiite | May 17, 2011, 03:14

As my post says, the featured post is the latest post filed under the category you select as your featured category; that’s all there is to it.

WordPress.COM blogs don’t use plug-ins.

Posted by Panos | May 17, 2011, 10:48

Thanx dude. Very helpful.

Posted by Panos | May 20, 2011, 10:30

You’re welcome namesake!

Posted by Panos | May 21, 2011, 16:54

Hi, I’m having trouble uploading an animated .gif as a feature image. It uploads but doesn’t animate.
I have uploaded it as the exact size of the feature image. Any other problem solving tools?

Thanks

Posted by sassicapra | May 22, 2011, 16:33

It won’t animate, because the theme is configured to crop the featured image no matter what its size.

If that’s the reason why you chose Structure, you can select any other theme, set a static page as your front, and upload/insert the image into it as a regular image. Or you can select a theme that supports header images and upload a different version of your gif as your header image.

Posted by Panos | May 22, 2011, 17:28

I tried inserting a gif there but it does not appear to have the capability on the featured block of the home page. Gifs work fine embedded in stories, though.

I would also like to embed a video or slide show in that featured spot to grab readers, but haven’t been able to do that either.

It’s such a unique theme, and I see them tweaking it all the time, so one can hope….

Posted by Larry Murray | May 22, 2011, 17:29

@Larry: Sorry, I only saw your comment after I published my previous reply. But my reply applies to your comment too, I’m afraid. And no, you cannot embed videos or slideshows in the featured image area.

Posted by Panos | May 22, 2011, 20:21

It’s such a shame. Is there nothing I can manually turn off in the theme that will stop it from cropping etc?

Posted by sassicapra | May 23, 2011, 01:04

No there’s nothing you can turn off (if there was, I would have told you)!

And I don’t think it’s a shame: Structure is designed to highlight a certain post while you are interested in a permanent front page (I think). If I have understood correctly, Structure isn’t the right theme for you.

Posted by Panos | May 23, 2011, 03:00

Hi Panos

Thanks for this excellent thread.

I’ve been reading through the Q&As above. But I might have missed the answer to this one. When you sort the postings through categories, in our case: see juavert.wordpress.com/category/nar-du-hyr/
The featured images to the posts do not longer show up, as they do at the front page.

– Is this possible to fix with the CSS-upgrade?
– And in that case, do you know how?
– Or is it doable in some other way?

GG

Posted by GG | May 25, 2011, 23:22

That’s the way the theme is configured. No you can’t change it with the CSS upgrade: CSS editing allows you to change appearance, not function. Yes it’s doable in another way: you need to insert the images in the post, cut their code from the HTML editor and paste it in the Excerpt module, along with the text you want (can be the actual beginning of the post or a different text).

Posted by Panos | May 26, 2011, 01:17

Hi Panos. I’m new’ish to CSS and WordPress and was wondering how I can change the size of the font in a text widget inside my Homepage Top Right widget.

Posted by Jennifer Katona Portfolio for CCE | May 28, 2011, 00:00

Hi,
You can change it via inline CSS in the widget text field itself, but I understand you mean change it once for all in the CSS editor. You need to add this:

#homepagetop p {
font-size:12px;
line-height:20px;
}

Change 12 to the value you prefer. If you increase it much, you’ll need to increase the line-height too (otherwise that command is superfluous).

Posted by Panos | May 28, 2011, 00:17

hello,
i need your help please.
i was wondering if it is possible to add additional fonts using typekit to the CSS for the structure theme?

i have the embeded code that typekit gives you.
would i just paste it next to say this:
font-family: (Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif;) and replace the words in brackets with the code given?

for example:
font-family:
try{Typekit.load();}catch(e){}

If this is not possible then:
* if i change the settings for lets say side bar widgets and i change the font weight to ‘normal’ – does that mean that all the widgets i add in there will not be in bold any longer, regardless of what i add?

* would that also apply to colour – so if i change the colour to another #123456 – would all widgets now going into that side bar come up with that colour?

sidebar_right .widget ul li a, #sidebar_left .widget ul li a {
display: block;
color: #000000;
font-size: 12px;
font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Trebuchet MS, Verdana;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
line-height: 16px;
padding: 2px 6px 2px 6px;
margin: 0px 0px 8px 0px;
border-left: 5px solid #ffffff;

Thank you for your help.

Posted by voyageindesign | June 4, 2011, 14:23

Hi,

• First of all, you don’t add or replace anything in the original CSS of the theme: you add the right commands for whatever you want to change (and those commands override the original ones). For example, if you wanted to change the color of the elements you pasted above to, say, light grey, you would add this:

#sidebar_right .widget ul li a, #sidebar_left .widget ul li a {
color: #ccc; }

• If you add the above code, it will change all similar items in all similar widgets: in this case linking list items in widgets such as the Categories or the Pages widget. Same thing if you add a command for the font-weight or whatever.

• No that’s the right code for adding a Typekit font via CSS. You click Add to Kit in Typekit then click Advanced, copy the CSS names of the font, and use them with the right CSS. For example:

#sidebar_right .widget ul li a {
font-family: “”steinzeit-1″,”steinzeit-2″; }

• Having said all that: what exactly would you like to change in your blog?

Posted by Panos | June 4, 2011, 22:44

Thanks very much for this.
I am brand new at this and lots of it is going way over my head.

Basically, I dont want bold or capital letters in the sidebars, and i want the font changed for the posts (everything in one font) and in black

Bold??
#sidebar_right .widget ul li a, #sidebar_left .widget ul li a {
font-weight: normal;}

Capitals??
I saw this in some of your tips to change the capital / lowercase etc, but in this case where would i put it, since i cant find it in the original script?
TEXT HERE

Text??
ok, so this code goes where??

try{Typekit.load();}catch(e){}

and then here i would add this???
#content #homepagetop h3 {
font-family: “league script no. 1″;}

-> does this also mean that only one text style will be used?
as i see in the posts the heading is capital in one font, then the body is different, the read more is different and so is the Filed Under – can I control all of that too??

Posted by voyageindesign | June 5, 2011, 05:17

Sorry…

Also, where do I put all these code changes??

Edit CSS -> CSS stylesheet editor
? do i just put in the code into that area that I want changed?
or, do i copy and paste all the code into there and then change what I want?

CSS settings – add to this or start from scratch???

Posted by voyageindesign | June 5, 2011, 05:23

You’re welcome.

1) You can control everything that has to do with appearance (including removing things), nothing that has to do with function.

2a) CSS settings: add to this. Start from scratch is for real experts who can discard all the original CSS and rebuild the whole appearance of the theme from zero..

2b) You add your changes in the CSS stylesheet editor, the way I explained in my previous reply: selector for the element you want to change – opening bracket – command ONLY for the property you want to change (not all the properties the element has) – closing bracket.

3) Apparently you copied those codes from somewhere. The Typekit one ( try{Typekit.load();}catch(e){} ) doesn’t go anywhere: it’s javascript, can be used in self-hosted blogs only, not in wp.com blogs.

For some of the rest you must be more precise. For example, “I dont want bold or capital letters in the sidebars”: what does that mean, widget content only or widget titles too?

But for the moment I won’t reply to the rest anyway, because your blog is empty. Apart from the fact that you’ve got your priorities wrong (you should build some content first then worry about details of appearance), the only thing you have added is a link to a commercial site: blogs that exist in order to drive traffic to such sites are against the wp.com terms of service. If I don’t see real blogging content in your blog I’ll have to report it, and it will be suspended instead of improved!

Posted by Panos | June 5, 2011, 09:54

Great, thanks for everything and I have noted the feedback!

Posted by voyageindesign | June 5, 2011, 10:52

I’m horrid with setting up blogs. Must say, I couldn’t follow the instructions. Do you mind writing up a very detailed, step-by-step account for uploading the main image to replace the grey box? I’m a complete newcomer.

Posted by theloverofjude | June 7, 2011, 06:39

Structure is a bit tricky: in my opinion, not the most reasonable choice for a new blogger who isn’t familiar with the way “regular” WP themes work.

First you must get used to filing your posts under meaningful categories instead of the default “Uncategorized”.

Then you must think if and why you need the “Homepage Top” area. That area is meant for highlighting one particular post. What would that be in your case – the latest post or some other post?

And that’s another reason for not using Structure (yet): there’s no point highlighting a post when you only have one!

Posted by Panos | June 7, 2011, 21:58

Hi Panos,

I wanted to know if there is anyway I can remove the black search block and RSS icon from the top right corner of the home page?
I would rather add them as widgets to the footers.

Is this possible? Yes, I do have the CSS upgrade.

Posted by voyageindesign | June 9, 2011, 06:40

Hi again,
Yes of course it’s possible – and answered in an older comment too:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/05/01/introduction-to-structure/#comment-3670

Posted by Panos | June 9, 2011, 07:06

Hello,
I’m hoping for some help as I’m close to tearing out my hair. I cannot get any images to show up on my blog page for each posting. The featured image at the top is fine, but the list of blogs are not showing the picture that is within them unless you actually click to go inside the full posting. Can you help please?

Thanks in advacne :)

Posted by Angel | June 9, 2011, 13:50

If you check this page of posts:

http://lov3d.wordpress.com/page/8/

you’ll see that the theme is working correctly.

Your main page isn’t supposed to display the images you have inserted as part of the content of your posts: it displays the images you set as a featured images (which you haven’t done for any post other than the oldest one). Instructions in my post.

Posted by Panos | June 9, 2011, 16:09

Thanks for the reply, on the demo there is a featured image then a set of images above each post. Also I have seen other blogs using this theme and they also have an image above each post on the main page, so to do this I have to create multiple featured images? I don’t just want the one image at the top, my page looks boring compared to all the others. I thought the featured image was just for the big one at the top.

*sorry, I’m not very experienced in all this, but I’m trying REALLY hard to get it :) *

Posted by Angel | June 9, 2011, 16:32

also, I didnt want the large picture at the top to change as I add new blogs, I guess this links in with where I’m going wrong as I cant seem to remember how I did it……typical me :)

Posted by Angel | June 9, 2011, 16:39

As my post says, the featured images will also show up at the beginning of each post on the homepage. If you want an image above each post title, you need to set a featured image to each and every post.

And don’t worry about the other thing, you’ve done it correctly. The image and the title you’ve got at the Top area won’t change as long as you don’t file any other post under the category you’ve set as your featured category (in your case, “Welcome”).

Posted by Panos | June 9, 2011, 16:44

THANK YOU!!!! I got it now :O)

Posted by Angel | June 9, 2011, 16:47

Obviously you did – you’re welcome!

Note that the featured image can also show up when you view a single post, if you prefer (Appearance > Theme Options).

Posted by Panos | June 9, 2011, 16:52

VERY helpful, bless you :O)

Posted by Angel | June 9, 2011, 17:19

Hey Panos, thanks for the great help….

I have the CSS Upgrade, and I would like to add widgets to the HOMEPAGE TOP section, in place of the featured image.

I have already plugged in the CSS to remove the featured image from the #homepagetop, but how can I add in space for Homepage Top widgets? Currently, Homepage Top Right is the only available space for widgets there.

Thanks!!!

Posted by Bo P | June 24, 2011, 09:06

Hi,
a) What exactly did you add to your CSS?
b) What exactly do you want to add to the Homepage Top section?

Posted by Panos | June 24, 2011, 18:27

Can’t seems to make use of functions.php? Any idea, guys?

Posted by Marshall | July 1, 2011, 17:23

@Marshall: link to the blog in question please.

Posted by Panos | July 1, 2011, 17:44

Yet another “featured image” question, with a bit of “category” question in it as well.

I would like to keep the same image in the featured image area while at the same time seeing the latest blog entry link at the top.

I know that the only way to display a “featured image” on the home page is to attach a photo to a post, and mark that photo as a “featured image”.

But as soon as I create a new post, with photo or not, the “featured image” section on the home page goes back to being a blank white square. (Because my “featured category” choice is “most recent post”) I found two ways to remedy this:

1) Add that same image to every new post and tag it as a “featured image” each time.

2) Add the image I want as a “featured image” to a single entry and label that entry only with a specific tag. Then go to my theme options and under featured category, choose the category that’s only attached to the one entry with the image.

There are clearly numerous problems that arise from option 1. But the single problem I see with option 2 is huge: It means the top area of my blog will always display a big link to an old entry, and visitors will have to scroll down to see the latest entry.

So… my question: can I keep a “featured image” in the “featured image” area while in addition, displaying my latest blog entry at the top, even if that latest blog entry has nothing to do with the photo.

Because the way it seems now, the only way to keep a single image in the “featured image” area on the homepage while also keeping the latest blog entry up top is to always add that same photo to every new entry. I clearly don’t want to do that.

Thank You,
Jessica

Posted by jesgamble | July 2, 2011, 02:20

In short, not possible without the Custom Design upgrade. The only workaround would be to add an image in a text widget and reposition it in front of the featured image area via extra HTML code. Unfortunately the coding of Structure doesn’t allow this.

Posted by Panos | July 2, 2011, 06:29

Ah, alright. Thank you so much for your help. I’ll consider my options.

Posted by jesgamble | July 5, 2011, 07:19

I adore this theme!

Posted by fluffymocchi | July 20, 2011, 16:45

Not one of my favorites, but definitely a theme that has its own character instead of repeating the same tired old scheme most themes adhere to…

Posted by Panos | July 23, 2011, 04:34

anyone know how to remove the title that always appear above the featured image on the homepage?? I understand that this may require the css upgrade..

Posted by plogmagazine | July 23, 2011, 23:54

Also I’ve worked out how to remove the featured image from appearing twice at the bottom of the home page, but I cant figure out how to make sure the post doesnt appear at all? Any suggestions?

Posted by plogmagazine | July 24, 2011, 00:28

one more question whislt im at it lol … I understand how to change the the right side bar and the left content width restrictions, however on the main hompage, what css do i need to change the middle posts width?

Posted by plogmagazine | July 24, 2011, 00:52

Do you have the Custom Design upgrade? And what exactly do you want to do with the site? (Are you going to be publishing posts regularly or not, and do you want the featured post to be the latest post or not?)

Posted by Panos | July 24, 2011, 02:04

Yeah I have the CSS upgrade so I’ve been using that to alter it how I want. Okay I’ve worked out to remove the title of the recent post from the homepage. I’ve figured out how to utilise the featured post to what I want so no worries there.

The only thing I havn’t worked out now is how to change the width of the middle column at the bottom of the homepage. I just want it to line up nicely with the top right widget. Yeah I will be posting a fair amount at times.

Posted by plogmagazine | July 24, 2011, 12:50

So,

1) You figured that out.

2) There’s nothing in the CSS of the theme to distinguish the latest post from the rest, so you cannot hide it from the front page via CSS editing. What you can do is manipulate the dates so that the featured post isn’t the latest post, and limit the number of posts per page (in Settings>Reading) so that the featured post doesn’t show up on the front page.

3) The easiest way to make the middle column line up with the homepage top widget is to leave its width untouched – just increase the width of the right sidebar and decrease the width of the left sidebar accordingly. If that’s ok with you, add this to your CSS:

#sidebar_left {width:150px;}
#sidebar_right {width:310px;}

If that’s not ok, let me know (if you wish to change the width of the main column, you’ll need to take care of the featured image width too).

Posted by Panos | July 24, 2011, 14:29

Geat idea about changing the date, did not think about that! Will do that to ensure it doesn’t show up twice, thanks.

Hm, I’ve had second thought about lining up the middle column with the homepage top widget.. ideally it would be nice if I could reduce the width of the right sidebar as I feel it takes up too much space, especially when on other pages such as the ‘About’ page.

Yeah I see, so the only way to extend the main column is to change the width of each featured post and the width of the image as well.. how tedious/complicated would that be? and would I have to change the css everytime I make a new post to ensure the width is how I want it? Thanks very much for your help.

Posted by plogmagazine | July 24, 2011, 14:49

Agree with your second thoughts, because your first thoughts make the right sidebar too wide!

No you don’t change your CSS every time you add a new post, because you don’t change the width of one post, you change the width of the posts column.

So, instead of the previous suggestion, add this:

#sidebar_left {width:180px;}
.homepagemid, .homepagethumb {width:440px;}
#sidebar_right {width:280px;}

The numbers are the default ones. Play with them till you get the result you prefer – just make sure their sum remains 900.

(All that assuming you don’t want to change the column margins as well.)

Posted by Panos | July 24, 2011, 15:14

Okay cool, I’m nearlllyyy there! I’ve managed to make the midle column the width I want using the css you gave me. However the images have not cropped, or changed width accordingly. See here; http://plogmagazine.wordpress.com

Any css I can add that automatically adjusted the width (and maybe height too ensure they stay in ratio) of the images in the middle section? Thanks again

Posted by plogmagazine | July 24, 2011, 15:23

Ah, sorry, when I worked out the previous suggestions I only decreased the main column width and neglected to try the opposite as well. Now that you noticed the problem and I tried it too, I’ve got bad news: the max width of the featured image is not defined in the CSS, it’s defined in the underlying files of the theme, which we cannot access. So you’re stuck with images that can’t be any wider than 440px. If you really want a wider main homepage column, the only thing I can suggest is enclosing the image in the same grey bg as the rest of the post. Try these three versions and see if you like any one of them:

A – Image flush left with the text:

#sidebar_left {width:180px;}
.homepagemid {width:552px;}
.homepagethumb {
width:532px;background-color:#eee;padding-top:20px;padding-left:20px;
}
#sidebar_right {width:168px;}

B – Image centered:

#sidebar_left {width:180px;}
.homepagemid {width:552px;}
.homepagethumb {
width:552px;background-color:#eee;text-align:center;padding-top:20px;
}
#sidebar_right {width:168px;}

C – Image and text centered:

#sidebar_left {width:180px;}
.homepagemid, .homepagethumb {
width:552px;background-color:#eee;text-align:center;
}
#sidebar_right {width:168px;}

Posted by Panos | July 24, 2011, 16:41

Ahhh nooo, sad news then :(

Okay I’ve had quite a play with what you’ve suggested, and I think I just have to accep that the middle column can’t really go much larger as it just looks odd when the image doesnt increase with it.

But I have used your idea of using the grey box around the image as its centered the middle column which I quite like. But would I be able to just center the column without the need of the grey border?

Posted by plogmagazine | July 24, 2011, 18:01

Sorry just to make it clear, this is what I’ve done with the grey border; http:plogmagazine.wordpress.com just want to know if I can position the middle column like that, but without the need of the border. Thanks

Posted by plogmagazine | July 24, 2011, 18:05

You mean center the image in relation to the column. Sure you can, by simply changing the homepagethumb command to this:

.homepagethumb {padding:20px;}

But I don’t find it a very reasonable thing to do, as the image will float alone, losing its connection with the post.

Posted by Panos | July 24, 2011, 18:44

Thanks a lot for your help, yeah I see what you mean! Think I’m just going to stick to the grey border then.

Just posted a question about the alignment of a slideshow here; https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/custom-frame-around-slideshow/#comment-23236

not sure if you’d know about that too?? Thanks very much for your help!

Posted by plogmagazine | July 24, 2011, 18:58

1) You’re welcome!
2) Yes I know about that too.

Posted by Panos | July 24, 2011, 20:17

Has anyone else noticed that their categories are actually tags? For example, this post is filed under certain categories but when you click them they are actually tags: http://overtherhine.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/queen-city-reality-show-sneak-peek/

Posted by Seth | July 25, 2011, 11:56

Thanks in advance!

Posted by Seth | July 25, 2011, 12:05

@Seth: If you mean your sidebar, no. If you mean search engines and global WP pages, yes. We explain that in the forum all the time – here are are some sample replies of mine alone:

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/categories-acting-like-tags?replies=3#post-267287

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/categories-link-to-same-place-as-tags?replies=2#post-303186

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/categories-tabs-and-sub-categories?replies=3#post-304785

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/categories-link-to-blogs-about?replies=3#post-324105

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/odd-categorytag-behavior?replies=2#post-337404

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/categories-vs-tags-and-their-links?replies=2#post-403635

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/tag-and-categories-search?replies=21#post-409722

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/what-is-the-point-of-tags-ignore-last-post?replies=2#post-453360

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/tags-link-at-the-end-for-the-post?replies=2#post-482808

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-to-hide-tags-from-appearing-on-pages?replies=10#post-486398

http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/bugs-in-neutra?replies=12

Posted by Panos | July 25, 2011, 14:39

The no. of posts visible at the homepage is 10, can any one help by telling how to reduce the no. of posts visible at the homepage?

Posted by Bite Games | August 2, 2011, 20:39

Settings > Reading > Blog pages show at most [n] posts.

Posted by Panos | August 2, 2011, 21:39

Can someone please help me with this structure theme question I have? I want to use it a bit differently than most do. I don’t want to use it as an image theme. Here is the question and the description of it.

In terms of content width, being able to change the background color easily, the layout, structure is the best theme I’ve found for my site. However, the content width, on the home, normal page, when it’s set to showing latest posts, is not broken up into the usual content-sidebar layout. It’s like a magazine layout, so my posts don’t even show up in the middle of the page. Instead, there’s this grey square where it almost looks like there’s supposed to be a photo uploaded. And even though my settings are set to showing the latest posts, and the full posts, it only shows a summary of the posts beneath this picture area. You can see what I’m talking about here.

http://puckcircle.wordpress.com/

And in theme options, there is no layout selector, no way to select content-sidebar, or to change any of this.

However, when you go passed the home page, to one of the other (test) pages I have, it looks almost exactly like I want it to. There’s a nice 630px width content area that I’ve been looking for in a theme, and a sidebar to the left.

You can see that here. http://puckcircle.wordpress.com/main-page/

Because the pages look like this, I know this layout is installed in the theme. I don’t know much of anything about CSS, but I’m betting the way to make the home page look like the other pages is my moving the page layout code in CSS into the home layout code area. I’m hoping that would do it, anyway, or that there’s some other way.

Can someone please help me make my home normal page look like the supplemental page look?

The closest to remedying this I could come without getting CSS help was by changing the blog to a static home page, and then making the “posts page” in the settings the same one as the static page. So I made it a static page, but then I made it so all my posts showed up on the static page. It looks a lot like a normal non-static home page would look, except you couldn’t click on the names of each post, and the biggest problem, you couldn’t comment on them individually. There was just one comment box at the very bottom of the static page for all the posts, not one for each post. It’s like they weren’t individual posts, even though they were individual titles.

I thought I’d fixed it there for a second, but of course, it’s always something it seems.

Can someone please help with this? Thank you very much!

Posted by puckcircle | August 3, 2011, 03:00

This is not a forum, this is my blog, so please cut the “can someone” and “can someone” and “can someone”: there are no someones here other than me.

My post explains how Structure works. When you write that “there’s this grey square where it almost looks like there’s supposed to be a photo uploaded”, this shows that you probably didn’t even bother to read the post.

“And in theme options, there is no layout selector”. Why should there be? Most free themes come with no such luxuries.

Sorry, you lose the bet: CSS editing allows you to change how a theme looks (fonts, colors, sizes etc.), not how it works. The way a theme functions is determined in the underlying PHP files of the theme, which we cannot access in a wp.com blog. You simply cannot “make your home normal page look like the supplemental page look”. The most you can do via CSS editing is hide the homepage top area.

In short, if you don’t like the main page of Structure (I don’t either), just forget this theme and look for a different one.

Posted by Panos | August 3, 2011, 04:04

Panos, I wrote that post on a forum, and the description was before I read your post. I knew this wasn’t a forum, but I saw a lot of comments, so I figured a lot of people posted here who knew about the theme, thus the “can someone.”

As for not being able to do this in CSS, as you said, fooling around with it myself (testing every line of code to see what it does, then editing it accordingly), I have been able to cut the picture area out. All I need to do now is take out the left side bar where it says “categories,” and change the post type from how it’s just showing part of each post now, to the full thing.

The first one of these I actually did by accident for a few minutes, where categories disappeared and the text took up the left side bar and the rest of the page besides the sidebar like I want it too, but then it stopped working. I think it might have been something going wrong or I dont know.

But are you sure this cant be done? Ive already made it so my post previews now take up the whole main column in the middle, nothing on top. I’m not sure you can see my previews, but if you can, if you can see here. Are you sure I cant finish the job? I thought the whole theme was written in CSS. What you see in CSS is the theme, the code for the theme, and everything can be changed. If that’s inaccurate, I hope the part I want to be changed can be changed. If you’re 100% sure I can’t then you’re sure and i’ll stop trying, but so far I’ve been able to change a lot, and there’s still 3/4 of the CSS to go through.

Here is the preview of my blog.

http://puckcircle.wordpress.com/?csspreview=true

Posted by puckcircle | August 3, 2011, 04:39

No I cannot access your dashboard – only staff can.

As I already said, CSS editing changes appearance, not function. Changing the appearance includes changing widths and hiding things, but not turning excerpts to full posts.

Posted by Panos | August 3, 2011, 04:52

Panos – I think Structure has enough user options to enable me to make it look like an online cultural site for an entire community. The featured post and the ability to format photos and text excerpts on the home page, plus add videos and other widgets proves its flexibility.

My blog: http://berkshireonstage.com/

I just work within its parameters and don’t try to make it something it isn’t. Goodness knows I have looked at every WordPress.com theme and this is the one that works for me. With more than 600 posts and a thousand plus photos it is an amazing format for those of us who want to go magazine style.

And when there was a glitch a while back, you guys fixed it quick. So thanks.

Posted by Larry Murray | August 3, 2011, 06:24

@Larry:

Don’t thank me, because I’m not one of the “you guys” either! I’m an experienced user and volunteer in the forum, not a WP employee.

Yes, Structure lends itself to content like yours, thanks to all the characteristics of its unusual main page.

“I just work within its parameters and don’t try to make it something it isn’t.”
Exactly (because you start by selecting a theme whose chief features are useful to you). If the main page of Structure doesn’t suit you, then you don’t need Structure: you pick a different theme.

If you’re saying this because of the comments above, see what puckcircle did with the front page:

He thinks he achieved most of what he wanted; I think he simply maimed the theme.

@ puckcircle (re your nice little tirade in the forum):

Get it now? At first I wanted to discourage you from doing that, that’s why I didn’t give you all the details.
When I said “you lose the bet”, it wasn’t in terms of how many of the things you wanted were possible, it was in response to this (100% wrong) remark:
“I’m betting the way to make the home page look like the other pages is my moving the page layout code in CSS into the home layout code area.”
And of course I didn’t proceed to the accurate answers you would prefer, because in the meantime you went back to the forum with this gem:
“Which exactly was the part that was supposed to be impossible? Did you guys even look at the theme before answering?“

Posted by Panos | August 3, 2011, 14:22

Really ! I eliminated the featured image and the empty grey box at the homepage. But I changed it, and now I can´t get my page as it was before.
Does anybody know?

Posted by umamovilidadurbanasostenible | August 5, 2011, 17:58

The blog linked to your username is using Twenty Ten. If you’re talking about a different blog, you need to link to it. Also, what do you mean by “eliminated the featured image and the empty grey box” (by mistake or via deliberate CSS editing)?

Posted by Panos | August 5, 2011, 19:44

The blog I mean is http://inovamark.wordpress.com/. I would like to eliminate the grey box on the left homepage or make it smaller.
¿?

Posted by Anonymous | August 7, 2011, 21:47

Do you have the Custom Design upgrade? If not, you cannot eliminate the grey box and you must use the theme as it’s intended to be used. If yes, you mean eliminate the whole Homepage Top area (including the big title and the text widget) or just the grey box? In the second case, put what in its place?

On another issue: Don’t use the same phrase as both a tag and a category. Tags and categories are exactly the same thing for search engines and for the global WP tag pages, so there’s no point duplicating them, plus you’ll run into technical problems if you do.

Posted by Panos | August 7, 2011, 23:17

OKAY well..can someone do mine?!

Posted by tamtruth | August 13, 2011, 03:35

Sorry?

Posted by Panos | August 13, 2011, 03:56

Hi there, anyone knows how to remove the “Filed Under” and “Tagged With” labels in the middle part of the page?

Just like from the sample site: http://structuretheme.com/demo/

Under the Popular Articles, it just lists the posts, and there is no “Filed Under” and “Tagged With” section after each posts..I meant, just from the Main/First Page..

Inside the post itself, there is a label for “Filed Under” and “Tagged WIth”.

Thanks!

Posted by donutbai | August 17, 2011, 17:47

Hi,

As I’m fond of saying when I see questions starting with “anyone”, this is a blog, not a forum: there are no anyones here other than me.

The demo you linked to is the version for self-hosted blogs; the wordpress.com demo is this:

http://structuredemo.wordpress.com/

The post metadata are present in all wp.com themes, and you can’t remove them unless you have the paid Custom Design upgrade.

Posted by Panos | August 17, 2011, 19:13

Hi Pano,
I’m sorry about that “anyone” thing. I guess I was just carried away with loads of comments on this page.

Thanks! :)

Posted by donutbai | August 18, 2011, 14:02

You’re welcome and no problem. (And sorry for the bad news!)

Posted by Panos | August 18, 2011, 14:07

Hi Panos,

I’m trying to create a custom header with an image I created in Photoshop. It looks nice and sharp in Photoshop but it becomes a bit “dirty” and blurry after i upload it in the custom header section in wordpress. I’ve tried creating the image to exactly 960 x 120 pixels but I still have the same problem.

The image has been compressed in Photoshop but it still looks sharp and clean after compression. I’m not sure if that’s still a contributing factor to the problem?

My blog is http://ohsowonderful.wordpress.com/

I would really appreciate your help! Thanks! :)

Posted by lovechelsa | September 21, 2011, 10:35

The sourcecode of your blog gives this as the URL of the header image:

The word “cropped” in the URL means that the version you have uploaded was not in the right dimensions.

If you wish, you can upload the original via Media > Add New and give me the URL you’ll get so I can see how the original actually is.

Posted by Panos | September 21, 2011, 11:49

Ohh yes you are right, I must have used the wrong file. I adjusted the dimensions and it looks good now. Thanks for pointing it out! :)

Posted by lovechelsa | September 21, 2011, 18:26

You’re welcome – image much clearer now!

Posted by Panos | September 21, 2011, 22:03

Hi Panos, sorry I’ve encountered another problem. When I publish a new post, the post on the main page eliminates all paragraphing, bullet points and alignment (my post runs in a single line).

However, when I click on the title which brings me to the single post page, the alignment, bullet points and paragraphing are there. Is this something to do with the theme or am I doing something wrong?

Posted by lovechelsa | September 22, 2011, 07:17

Another question:
Under appearance >> theme options, i set the featured category as ‘featured’ and checked the ‘show the set feature image on single posts’ option.
After that, I created a new post with an image and categorized it under ‘featured’.
However, the image doesn’t appear in the featured section at the top. It only appears when I view the single post on its own.

:( appreciate your help!!

Posted by lovechelsa | September 22, 2011, 12:21

1) That’s standard behavior in all themes that display auto excerpts – see note 3 here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/full-posts-in-archive-pages/

If you want correctly formatted excerpts on your main page, you must add content in the Excerpt module of the editor and format it via HTML (as you would in a text widget).

2) Study my post again: for an image in the Homepage Top area, you don’t need a post with a regularly inserted image, you need a post with a featured image.

Posted by Panos | September 22, 2011, 12:50

Hey! Lots of comments here. Very helpful!

I’m just wondering how I could go about completely removing the left sidebar and re-sizing the main content area to replace it. Any tips?

(I do have the CSS upgrade)

Oh, also, the footer bar at the bottom of my page (http://utahraptorgames.com/) is white, and looks hideous when juxtaposed against my dark theme. Any tips for changing/getting rid of that completely?

Posted by Ryan Rigney | September 25, 2011, 21:58

a) To remove the left sidebar and resize the main content area of the front page, add this to the CSS editor:

#sidebar_left {
display:none;
}

.homepagemid {
width: 620px;
}

But if you’re going to use featured images for the posts on your front page, you need to resize the images too. I can’t find how to do that – you’ll have to ask at the CSS section of the wp.com forum.

b) WP doesn’t allow removing the credits. You can remove the upper part of the footer (the part meant for widgets), and change the color of the lower part, by adding this:

#footertop {
display:none;
}

#footerbg {
background: #000;
}

Posted by Panos | September 26, 2011, 02:58

Excellent! It looks significantly classier now. Thank you!

Posted by Ryan Rigney | September 27, 2011, 06:44

You’re welcome. Sidebar or no sidebar is a matter of choice, but the white footer is plain bad design: looks as if a sloppy worker forgot to finish a paint job!

Posted by Panos | September 28, 2011, 03:44

Hello-

I am trying to create a blog that has a static home page that looks like the home page with the featured image. But I am having trouble creating an actual “blog page” that captures the most recent posts. When I create a page titled “blog” and choose settings>reading>static home page it seems to flip flop the two pages.

I know this is confusing so can you help me create a static page and a separate blog page?

thanks,
neal

Posted by Neal | October 7, 2011, 07:49

Hi Neal,
I can help, but the blog linked to your name is using 2011, not Structure. I need a link to the blog in question.

Posted by Panos | October 7, 2011, 10:39

Hello! Lovely theme. But can I ‘turn off’the search box top right, so it’s just a black box, and not actually a search toolbar?
Cheers
James

Posted by adorefilms | October 18, 2011, 21:43

Hi James,
No, you can’t change that or remove it unless you have the paid Custom Design upgrade.

Posted by Panos | October 19, 2011, 02:24

hi there, i am trying to combine the structured theme with e-shop. Have you any experience with that? i am confused how to get the shopping struct of products and categories compared to pages in the main menu. This is probably a more e-shop thing than structure related.

Also i want to get ride of the comment on a blog thing but it seems i cannot shut it down, suggestions?

Posted by mercedes | October 23, 2011, 01:15

Hi, but sorry, if you’re talking about something like the site linked to your gravatar, it would be against the wordpress.com terms of service.

http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

You need a self-hosted blog, and I can’t help with that – see point 1 here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/comment-guidelines/

Posted by Panos | October 23, 2011, 13:50

Hi
I’m working with the Structure Theme but I can’t seem to figure out how to make an image show in the featured image box. I’ve created articles with images and selected for them to be featured images but they never show up. Am I doing something wrong? Could you please help me out?
Thank you :)

Posted by Emilie Deschenes | October 29, 2011, 17:25

My article explains exactly what you need to do: you must set a featured image to each post, and the image has to be in the right dimensions or larger. So you either haven’t set featured images at all or the images you tried to set as featured images are smaller than the recommended dimensions. Are you seeing the “Featured Image” box in the post editor? Is there an image in it?

Posted by Panos | October 29, 2011, 19:16

I took a big picture, and I can see the box and there’s a picture in it but after I publish the article and I go back to the blog page, it’s still just an empty space.

Posted by Emilie Deschenes | October 29, 2011, 20:00

a) Go to Media > Library, hover under the image title, click Edit, copy File URL, paste URL here.
b) Describe exactly what you did in the post editor, step by step.

Posted by Panos | October 29, 2011, 20:08

Hello,

You told me in a support forum that:
“How blockquotes look is the theme designer’s choice: each time you switch to a different theme, your blockquotes will change. (That’s why personally I avoid using the blockquote tag and style my quotes the way I prefer in the HTML editor.)” [http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/theme-conflict-the-morning-after-vs-structure?replies=8#post-719358]

Does this mean I am stuck with ‘Structure theme’ until and unless I buy CSS upgrade or mannually edit my posts?

Or, are there Themes which have block quote style compatible with ‘Structure theme’?

Thanx.

Posted by Daniel Berhane | October 31, 2011, 02:55

No I doesn’t mean you’re stuck with a theme: it only means it’s something you have to keep in mind, because more often than not the appearance will be different (a little or a lot), in some cases not necessarily to your liking. For instance, if you like the Structure bqs then maybe you won’t like the strong emphasis in TMA (personally I find it bad as bad can be) or the background and the big quotation mark in Vigilance:

http://themorningafterdemo.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/block-quotes/

http://vigilancedemo.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/block-quotes/

Are there themes which have block quote style compatible with Structure? Sure there are. But the way you put it, the question is too vague to be answered more precisely than that. Bqs in Structure are indented, with a left-side border, larger font size, and italics (but the italics of the font family used in Structure look like a different font). What does “compatible” mean? Retaining all those exact features? Or you wouldn’t mind if one of them was absent or a bit different, or if another feature was present in addition? And if so, which differences would or wouldn’t matter? I can’t give a list if I don’t know the answers to these questions.

Posted by Panos | November 1, 2011, 00:51

HI there,

I’ve been using the Structure theme for over a year now but have been having trouble recently with the Featured Image tool. With my last two entries, the picture appears in the article stream, but not in the main box under the header; I just get a blank box. Seeing as it had been working ok until the last month, I wondered if this might be a glitch?

Thanks

Posted by gemmaiobrien | November 2, 2011, 14:53

No it’s not a glitch – see here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/on-the-recent-featured-image-issues/

Posted by Panos | November 2, 2011, 15:17

Hello. I’ve used Structure theme for more than 1 year and never had problems, but now I have this: the featured image shows only in my blog’s home and not in the single post page. For any post.
Even the old ones: same thing. The featured image results in the editing page, is shown in the home, but nothing in the post page. I haven’t changed anything in the last week (in which the problem occurred) other than adding perhaps a post.
All my featured images (nearly) are exactly 620×380.
What could it be?
Thank you in advance.

Posted by Ema | November 4, 2011, 14:16

sorry, hadn’t read the last comment. So I have to change dimensions for ALL of my posts? Funny.

Posted by Ema | November 4, 2011, 14:20

Funny? Outrageous, I’d say! As I’m saying in my post “on-the-recent-featured-image-issues”, they should have thought of this from the start, or at least soon afterwards (not after countless users have been using featured images for more than a year). Or Structure should have been better designed and have the homepage FI and the single post view FI be the same dimensions: what’s the point of making the one 20px wider than the other?

Instead of creating new versions of your images and re-uploading them, I think it’s easier to insert the existing FIs as regular images at the top of each older post.

Posted by Panos | November 4, 2011, 14:41

oh well actually it’s a bit easier, thanks to the built-in scaling feature. I’m going through the blog gallery and scaling up every image used as featured.
But yeah… annoying. Really. I think it’s my business if an image on my blog looses definition. Leave it to my judgement…

Posted by Ema | November 4, 2011, 15:41

I didn’t suggest that method because that way you lose image quality. But I totally agree with your second paragraph: since they didn’t think of this from the start, they should have left it as it was, that is, our business.

Posted by Panos | November 4, 2011, 20:35

Hi Panos,

I’m looking to alter the color scheme of Structure but haven’t had any luck. I’ve attempted to make the changes through CSS, and my color hash-tags show, but no changes appear. Thanks for your help!

Posted by Jake Claro | November 9, 2011, 04:52

Hi, but first link to the blog in question please.

Posted by Panos | November 9, 2011, 08:48

Well, I don’t have as such specific preferences about block quotes.
It is just that I wish to switch to a theme – which is simple, formal, more suited to a news blog (eg. a theme with Quote post format), light front page with several menu options, but without the featured image, etc. (I can write a full description of the theme style I want if it helps)

Therefore, all I want regarding ‘block quotes’ is that:
They be easily distinguishable from the rest of the article – (a quote should not be confused with my comments in the post)
AND
they don’t be ugly.

TMA theme turns the blockquotes distinguishable but ugly.
That is why I considered it ‘incompatible’

Thanx for your patience.

Posted by Daniel Berhane | November 16, 2011, 02:39

a) To see demos of all the themes in action, you visit the Theme Showcase site:

http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/

b) Themes that Support the Quote format listed here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/alternative-post-formats/

c) I don’t understand what “several menu options” means.

d) The default style of a theme’s blockquotes is one of the (many) things I check each time a new theme is launched. I’ve got the data for all the themes but I haven’t published that survey yet. I have several candidates for a new post, but since you ask about blockquotes I can select that as my next post.

If you are in a hurry and want a reply now:
• In some themes the only differentiation is indentation.
• Some themes have some typographic differentiation as well (such as italics, different font size or different font).
• In some themes there’s a color difference (either the text itself or a colored background).
• Many themes have some additional graphics (a vertical bar, or a large quotation mark, or a frame).
If you tell me where you draw the line between the “easily distinguishable” and the not easily distinguishable, I can give you a list of which themes to avoid or which to prefer.

Posted by Panos | November 16, 2011, 08:59

Hello Panos, I am trying to get my featured image / post to show in the upper section. I have read loads of the support forum pages and believe I have done what has been suggested, but I just get a grey box with a small question mark in the top left hand corner. If I click on this I go through to the post and image. I have got the image the correct size (620×380), I have made sure it is a featured image, I have selected ‘featured’ as the category.

The only think that I can’t seem to find is the bit you say about
“You set this in Appearance > Theme Options > “Featured Category” pulldown. Select “None: use the most recent post” if you prefer option 1, select the right category if you prefer option 2a or 2b. For 2b, you must of course file the post under a category unique to that post.” I just get category names like ‘featured’ ‘blog’ nothing like ‘None: use…’

Can you help?
Thanks Simone

[Username link to commercial site removed – P.]

Posted by Simone | December 7, 2011, 17:38

Not without a link to the blog in question.

Posted by Panos | December 7, 2011, 17:45

Here you go

http://www.theculbone.com/

Thanks
Simone

Posted by Simone | December 7, 2011, 17:53

Sorry, that’s not a wp.com blog. See point 1 here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/comment-guidelines/

Posted by Panos | December 7, 2011, 18:04

By the way, your username links to this instead:
http://theculbone.com/
Is that intentional?

Posted by Panos | December 7, 2011, 18:07

Opps – sorry. Do you know where I can get some help from?

Thanks very much
Simone

Posted by Simone | December 7, 2011, 18:11

I’ve already answered that:

See point 1 here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/comment-guidelines/

Posted by Panos | December 7, 2011, 18:17

Again sorry. Didn’t read it till after I asked you the question! I’ve gone a bit stir crazy trying to work this out for the last few hours! Completely new to all the Word Press stuff. Thanks again. Simone

Posted by Simone | December 7, 2011, 18:38

Is there any way to retain the two bottom page sidebars, but have both aligned left, with the middle post then aligned to the right side of the page? I have CSS upgrade…

Posted by leftoff77 | January 11, 2012, 07:57

Sure – you simply add this in the CSS editor:

.homepagemid {
float: right;
}

#sidebar_right {
float: left;
}

But in my opinion this will only look ok if you manipulate the content of the sidebars and the number of posts per page in a manner that will give you three columns of roughly equal length, otherwise the result won’t be balanced.

By the way, there’s no point having your usrname link to your gravatar when your gravatar page is empty: make it link to your blog instead.

Posted by Panos | January 11, 2012, 15:10

Hello again. Is there any non-tricky way to implement “spoiler” blocks in Structure theme?
I mean some content which opens and closes via link showing/hiding text.
Thank you in advance.

Posted by Ema | January 11, 2012, 15:17

No: this would require javascript, which we’re not allowed to use in wp.com blogs.

Posted by Panos | January 11, 2012, 15:51

Thanks Panos! I agree with the number of posts and balance. I’m would like to use the front page more like a homepage in the structure theme, so the number of posts will be quite limite. Sorry about the gravatar link…I’m still in the search and discovery stage, and wanted to settle that question before I adopt the structure theme. Many thanks again…

Posted by leftoff77 | January 11, 2012, 20:31

Featured Image is a nightmare. Menu’s that are listed in the instructions cannot be found, or cna’t be found very easily. The instructions are EXTREMELY lacking in detail or accuracy. All the other components are easy, this “Featured Image” thing is what was saud above “Infuriating”.

Can someone explain how to set “featured Image” with concise, accurate, specific and result oriented instructions that doesn’t leave gaps in how it’s done?

Posted by wardenhallis | January 27, 2012, 02:08

Are you referring to the WP instructions or to my instructions in this post?
(And who would that “someone” be? You’re in my blog, not in a forum.)

Posted by Panos | January 27, 2012, 04:18

Hello!

My website is using the Structure theme and I have never been able to figure out how to get the “read more” link to pop up on the homepage. The only way to access the entire post is to click on the title of the post but some of the readers don’t know if there’s more content to read if they can’t see “read more.”

Any tips to help?

Can’t wait to hear from you soon! Thank you.

-Janice

Posted by Janice | February 11, 2012, 04:07

Hi, but sorry, you won’t really hear from me! See point 1 here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/comment-guidelines/

Posted by Panos | February 11, 2012, 06:12

Hi,

I am having trouble with the homepage for the structure theme.

My blog used to show the featured image in the big grey box on the homepage. but all of a sudden it wont work! no matter what i try.

what do you think could be the problem?

http://easymovetoturkey.wordpress.com/

Posted by Ricky Carbis | February 28, 2012, 18:50

I’m seeing this image:

Did you resolve this or not? If not, you’re probably having a browser or connection problem. Start with clearing your browser’s cache and cookies.

Also, the image is too large. For best results you should use an image editing application to scale down your images to the right dimensions for Structure, and upload those copies.

Posted by Panos | February 29, 2012, 05:45

I’m so sorry if this has already been posted in the comments ( I tried to read through them all) but, what is the default width in pixels for the right sidebar? I’d like to create a custom image that “points” to each channel of social media we’ll be using and want the image to be the full width of the right sidebar. Thanks in advance for your help!

Posted by Naturally My Dear | March 7, 2012, 07:11

That’s covered elsewhere! See here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/sidebar-width/

Posted by Panos | March 7, 2012, 09:07

I was just wondering why my photos show up so small in my slideshow? Although they are large photos, they are scaled down inside this huge slideshow box on my Structure theme blog: http://norenegoodandassociates.wordpress.com/

Posted by Norene Good & Associates | March 9, 2012, 04:03

Because the WP slideshow is badly designed. When the images are wider than the available width, the slideshow is supposed to scale them down to a little less than that width, to leave some space for the grey frame. But the width it takes into account is the regular width of the theme: it doesn’t understand that you’ve hidden the sidebar.
What you should do is forget this stupid slideshow, scale down the images yourself in an image editing application, turn them into an animated GIF, upload and insert that GIF. Before you do that: would you prefer a full-width image with no frame at all, or with a thin colored frame around it? (In contrast to the WP slideshow, a frame around an image can be any width and any color.)

In addition:
a) If you do what I’m suggesting, your front page will be too short. Would like to make the text above it larger?
b) Since you have no use for the special main page of Structure, then I don’t really see why you selected this theme: its ugly black footer doesn’t match your elegant logo. If I were you I would use a different theme.

By the way, I think “aids the immune system” is an unfortunate choice of word.

Posted by Panos | March 9, 2012, 08:47

“Showcased posts must include a featured image, otherwise you get an empty grey box in its place – no way to eliminate that.”

My showcased post has a featured image, and yet I still see the grey box. What is causing this? Is the image in the wrong format or something?

Posted by thechrysanthalis | March 9, 2012, 17:17

Read my post more carefully please: the answer is a couple of paragraphs below that.

Posted by Panos | March 9, 2012, 17:40

I read the post several times. It’s possible I’m being a bit thick, but would it be too much trouble to point me to the correct paragraph? Thanks.

Posted by thechrysanthalis | March 9, 2012, 17:55

“Important: the images must be 620×380 pixels (or larger, if you don’t mind that they’ll get cropped).”

See here as well:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/on-the-recent-featured-image-issues/

Posted by Panos | March 9, 2012, 18:59

Thanks Panos. A few questions:
1) How do I make the gif. images into a slideshow? I don’t really care about having the border – I think the WP border looks awful and would like the option to customize the border.

2) What theme would you suggest? I wouldn’t mind if the text stays the same or is larger. I agree the black footer doesn’t really work.

Posted by Norene Good & Associates | March 9, 2012, 19:18

Fixed; thank you.

Posted by thechrysanthalis | March 9, 2012, 19:22

@TC:
You’re welcome!

@NG:
1) You don’t make the GIFs into a slideshow, you make your JPGs into an animated GIF. GIF is a filetype that supports animation, by displaying a series of images in sequence; example here:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/html-allowed-in-comments-2/#comment-2637

You can google for an online GIF generator, feed it your JPGs, set the time interval you prefer, create and copy the GIF, then upload and insert it like any other image.
But:
a) Animated GIFs lose the animation if resized by the theme you’re using, so first you need to scale down the JPGs to the right width.
b) GIFs support only 256 colors, so your images will look bad if turned into a GIF: you’d need to create simpler images. So you’d better look for a different theme instead.

2) Different theme and larger font size are not related: I meant you can use some coding in the HTML editor to increase the font size, no matter what theme you’re using.
As for selecting a more suitable theme, that’s up to you. You can see all the themes in action here:

http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/sort/name/

Since you seem to want no sidebar on your front page, you need to look for themes that allow you to deactivate the sidebar on individual pages, or maybe themes that have no sidebar at all, so check these posts:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/widgets-on-pages-or-single-posts/

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/02/26/sidebars-and-other-widget-areas/

You can also hide the awful border of the WP slideshow by using a hack I have worked out:

https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/custom-frame-around-slideshow/

Posted by Panos | March 9, 2012, 20:11

Hi Panos, I used your hack to hide the awful grey border of the WP slideshow. Is there any way to decrease the size of the hidden border? Specifically the height? http://norenegoodandassociates.wordpress.com/

Posted by Norene Good & Associates | March 12, 2012, 20:55

Not directly, because my workaround doesn’t (cannot) change the original: it only puts a colored mask in front of it. The WP slideshow has a fixed 410px window height (plus 20px of border around all four sides), so if the proportions of your images are very different you get all that extra frame. You can’t customize the WP slideshow unless you have the paid Custom Design upgrade.

I can work out extra code that would move the upper part of the slideshow behind the upper text and hide the lower part, but I doubt if Explorer will understand this little monster of a solution (I’m a Mac user, so I cannot test things in Explorer). So I could do this only if you can check what it looks like in Explorer.

More reliable alternatives: create different images that match the proportions of the stupid grey box, or switch to a wide theme with no sidebar.

Posted by Panos | March 12, 2012, 23:06

HI- I recently started using Structure and, I know this is a broken record, I can’t get the featured image to display properly. I have have tried every dimension you listed thinking I just misunderstood. All of them end up cropping the bottom of my picture. What am I doing wrong?

Posted by lefromagelle | March 15, 2012, 15:56

How can I tell without a link to the blog in question?

Posted by Panos | March 16, 2012, 01:01

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Introduction to the Structure theme

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