wordpress template is screwed up

June 1, 2008 11:47 AM

Wordpress/web design problem-my custom template is screwed up and I can't figure out how to fix it. Please help.

I just started a wordpress site for my blog. I created a custom template for the page. However, while the code is right, the design is screwed up. The sidebar is at the bottom instead of being at the side. You can see it at raillery.tv/blog

What am I doing wrong?

You can see the code here http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2718078&pagenumber=26#post344233403

posted by clockworkjoe to computers & internet (9 answers total)

Add float: left; to #content in your css stylesheet.

#content {
float: left;
width: 632px;
text-align: left;
overflow: hidden;
}
posted by Memo at 12:18 PM on June 1, 2008

Avoid negative margins and lots of floats as a rule of thumb. For two column layouts, I like to float the left column and add a margin to the right column. In the HTML, my left column goes above the right column. I optimize this so the content is always first (apparently search engines like this but I am no SEO expert), but that's the general idea.

Applying this specifically to your layout:

1. Add #content { float: left; }
2. Remove #sidebar-one { float: right; }
3. Change #sidebar-one { margin-left: -306px; } to #sidebar-one { margin-left: 632px; }.

posted by theiconoclast31 at 1:05 PM on June 1, 2008

I made those changes but it remained the same. I did not design the template so I don't know the specifics of it.
posted by clockworkjoe at 1:41 PM on June 1, 2008

When I just made the first change, it worked!
posted by clockworkjoe at 1:46 PM on June 1, 2008

I'm not sure how interested you are in catering to people on the "bleeding edge" but in Firefox 3b5, #sidebar-one now shows up "under" the main content section. Maybe you haven't applied the changes yet? Anyway, to fix it, I had to do this:

#sidebar-one {
float:left;
width:306px;
margin-left:10px;
overflow:hidden;
font...
}
posted by jbullion at 2:08 PM on June 1, 2008

All right. I changed that. Does anyone else see a gray bar under the header for the blog? How would I get rid of that?
posted by clockworkjoe at 2:37 PM on June 1, 2008

Ugh. It looks awful in IE7.
posted by clockworkjoe at 2:51 PM on June 1, 2008

clockworkjoe said,

I did not design the template so I don't know the specifics of it.

Maybe it's time to contact the author of the template or learn the specifics of it. In Firefox 3b5, it looks like this.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 3:38 PM on June 1, 2008

Here's where I think it's screwing up.

After the main loop, where it posts the relevant entries, it has this

?php endwhile; ?

PREV AND NEXT LINKS


?php else : ?
OOPS WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
?php endif; ?



?php get_sidebar(); ?
?php get_footer(); ?

But when I try that, it gives me a fatal error at the ELSE. What's wrong with that php?
posted by clockworkjoe at 3:59 PM on June 1, 2008