Thesis Tutorial – Sidebar Widgets and Comments

So, I thought I would give more details about some simple changes that one could implement on their site/Thesis theme. Also be advised that this could also be used on other themes as well, I’m sure it should work but you have to see how your theme handles it.

This will be part of a series whereby I will note a few simple and quick changes that one could implement in a few minutes.

The reason for the post is to help those and myself when questions are asked about making simple changes to their theme. I have decided to answer those questions as simple as possible and keep it direct.

1. Change colour of all widget headers

Widget header change all colour

This is a simple css styling and will change all the widget headers on your site. You could use the individual widget colours as well at the same time.

Adding one line of css code to your customs.css file can make a huge diiference. This will at least make your widget headers different to what the default is.

Have a look at the image to the right, I have highlighted the change.

2. Change colour of individual widget headers

All widgets have a class that gets referrenced, all we simply do is referrence that same class id and add one line to the custom.css file. You can of course change the colours and font size to your sites layout if you want.

You will have to look at your source code to see the class being referrenced. You will see the id being referrenced as id=top-commentators.

The styles changed the colour of my top commentators and recent comments header brown and green. I have also changed the font colour to white, any colour will do here.

Example of changing header colours of widgets

3. Change space between widgets

If you think the default space between widgets is to big for you, you can change it to be less or even more if you desire that effect. This is very simple and should not take you to long to find the desirable space size. This is just a small hack where you set the margin-bottom.

I am curious to know what you have set yours to. I know some users like big spaces as to not clutter everything to close. Let me know by leaving it as part of your comment.

4. Change colour of Comments Bracket

You can change the colour of the comments bracket. This can one way to make your Thesis theme as unique as possible. Please refer to download file for CSS styling code.

5. Replaces “0 Comments” with “Be the first to comment”

Replace the default wording of Thesis with your own. I think anything can go here, but do try and keep it simple and direct. Also note that this also removes the brakets. This is the only function in the file.

6. Remove {0 Comments} Entirely

Place one line of PHP code in custom_functions.php and you will remove the entire link. the hook is ‘thesis_hook_after_post’.

7. Hide “Comments on this entry are closed.” Message

If you don’t wish to allow any comments on all of your Pages, then you can go to the Thesis Options panel, and under Display Options, expand the “Comments” section, then check the option for Disable comments on all pages. This will have the added effect of removing the “Comments on this entry are closed.” message from all of your Pages.

Note: This setting applies only to Pages, not to Posts.

Download: Thesis Tutorial - Sidebar Widgets and Comments (217) 891 bytes

I have edited this post and put the CSS and PHP in a text file. Download the zipped file and get it working on your site in less than 10 minutes.

Final Thought

This is my first part of my series of Thesis tricks one can do to make your theme unique. There will be more posts explaining more changes, be sure to check back.

How were the changes for you? Did you do some of them and has it made a difference to your themes look?

The title has changed as I thought it was better suited.

Tagged as: custom theme css, thesis css styling, thesis trick

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Author Information

Article by George Serradinho

I am the proud owner of Serradinho and have made this my second home. I'm into blogging, downloads, WordPress and the internet in general. I also love meeting and helping others and learning new techniques.