customizing the look of the comments page
 

Hi there.

I have been reading a lot of the posts in the comments, trackbacks & pings part of this forum for a few days. It's clear to me that in order to customize the look of my comments, I need to edit comments.php and commentpages.php (?)

So, my first question is, where exactly would I find comments.php, etc. I assume when I connect to my FTP, I'll find the files in there, but am having trouble locating them.

the things I would like to do are:

Remove the line entirely that says X comments to "blog post title"

Move the date/time stamp to the end of the author's post, on a separate line right justified and change the color of the date time stamp.

Change the text of the author's name to read "Author said:"

Remove the line Powered by HashCash

I may be biting off way more than I can chew, but any advice on any of these questions would be most appreciated.

Thanks
Genevieve

WP version: 3.0.1
ATO version: 3.4.9
url of page in works with a couple test comments: http://www.genwithag.com/what-happen...our/#comment-5

Take a look in ATO>Edit Post/Page info items. Some of what you are looking to do may be in there. The removal of HashCash is related to some plugin so check with the authors for that. Some of what you asked is just fiddling with the CSS. How are you at finding selectors and tweaking CSS?

Larry

I'm all right with finding the selectors. I'm getting a vague sense of what's going on. But as far as editing them, I'm very challenged. It's like I can sort of read it, but I can't speak it, you know?

Which is why I wonder if I bit off more than I could chew with some of the changes I want to make.

the w3schools site is somewhat helpful, but sometimes I don't even know what I'm looking for. As is the case here, I guess. it's overwhelming, but very fulfilling when i finally figure it out.

I will go to the Post Page info items, as suggested and poke around a bit and see if I can make heads or tails of it. And will visit hashcash forum for that particular edit.

thanks
gen

after checking out what you recommended, i don't think that's where i'm looking to change things.

i like the way the actual posts are formatted. it's not the kicker, byline, posts, or footer that i want to change.

the area that i want to reformat is when people click on the comments link to either read or leave them.

i have spent a good deal of time the ATO>style and configure comments, but none of the options listed there touch on the items that I want to change as listed above.

a lot of people have asked similar questions (not exactly what i'm trying to do, but similar) in the forums, and they're all being pointed to comments.php and i think commentpages.php. could this maybe be it? if so, where in the ftp files would i locate these?

They are in the root of the theme folder. They are comments.php and comments-paged.php. I have changed the wording there but never the formatting. Be careful which wording you change. Some it is what is visible on the site and some is part of the code and something you don't want to change.

Larry,

Before I go changing anything, can you give me a basic explain of the function or purpose of each file?

Does one deal with the formatting of each individual comment and the other deal with the formatting of multiple comments, or... ?

Essentially, what is the difference between comments.php and comments-paged.php

thanks
gen

I honestly don't know the specifics. I usually don't change any theme files except for bug fixes since you have to remember to change them again if you upgrade the theme. The only time I changed these files was when someone wanted the wording to be different than the standard "Leave a Reply". Most all styling can be done with CSS.

oh, then i definitely don't want to change the php files. i don't want to have to do this over and over if i upgrade.

so, are you saying that a css insert would essentially be able to do what i want, but wouldn't require me to redo it any time i upgrade?

gen

Most placement and styling can be done with CSS if you can determine the selector. The words are a different issue.

well, i bit the bullet and changed the php files. though, couldn't see where or how to change the way the author name and time stamp read. a little too complex for me, at this point. perhaps later on. but got rid of one thing that i really wanted to.

what's your opinion on upgrading? is it necessary if you build your site on older platforms to upgrade? if you get it looking the way you want on an older platform, are you doing yourself a disservice not to updgrade or endangering your site in some way?

gen

I like to keep everything upgraded. It is a lot easier and less problematic to upgrade in little increments IMHO.