I've surfed around and found a 3 column theme/template I like but the webmaster that offers it only has 3 colors available. Can I go in the skins folder and change the CSS or will that open up a can of worms?

That is what I do, to change colors, header etc.
I don't know if you have a local server installed on your computer, but here is what I do: I installed WP on my local hard drive on my computer and then I play with all the settings, CSS headers etc until it looks like what I want. Then I just copy the modified files on to the server and I know everything will be good.

Here is what I use for my local server: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Since your blog is brand new, I wouldn't worry about messing with it, no one is really going to see it.

When I mess with the CSS, I copy the original and do the change. Then I check it in the browsers. If it's okay, I move on, if not, I just paste the original back in. Works for me. Course, have a un-touched copy in case things get really messed up.

Just remember to check both FF and IE, they can and do differ, the buggers..:)

just make a copy of your theme files so if you screw it up you can go back to the origional with ease. I also suggest doing this once you have tweaked your theme.

everything is in the css or the .php for the template. you can do whatever you want to either.

i always use the wordpress editor to edit my template.

Is that pretty easy to set up? I need that, but didn't want to get too wrapped up in a complicated setup.

To be able to use the theme editor in Wordpress you have to change permissions on the theme's files, not always a good ting to do. Just use a web page editor, sure you have one of those.

Real easy, just make sure you put your web pages, WP or anything else on the folder htdocs under the install folder. (just like on a server)

OK, before I pull out what little hair I have or start drinking more, I need someone to take me by the hand and take little bitty steps and go slow. I downloaded Mike Little's zip file for his blog theme. On this page: http://zed1.com/journalized/themes/j...eme-version-2/ I got: journalized-theme-2.0-Beta-2.zip. I uploaded the "skins" folder to the wp-content/themes folder. I uploaded all the other files to the public_html folder. In the WP admin it says:

Broken Themes
The following themes are installed but incomplete. Themes must have a stylesheet and a template.

Name skins
Description Stylesheet is missing.

What stylesheet??? In the skins folder there are colors available and each has it's own stylesheet, blue-skin.css, flowers-skin.css, etc. In the main folder there is layout.css and style.css. I know I've done something really simple and stupid but I can't figure it out. Aaaaarrrggghhh!! |banghead|

Everything that goes with the theme stays in the same folder and goes in the wp-content/themes/themename folder, nothing gets separated. It's saying broken because you moved files around and didn't keep them together. Each theme folder should have a stylesheet and php files, plus usually a screenshot.png.

All stays in the one folder, you just upload the whole folder intact.

what is in a theme can vary greatly. How many files and stylesheets they have depends on how complex they are, or how much they have been modified. More important, the more files they have the more control you have over the look/layout.

I don't mean to be rude, but there are so many better looking, more professional themes than the one you posted.

Here's a good list: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008...dpress-themes/
which has even more links at the bottom of the post to other free themes.

I downloaded and ran the install...decided I need a beer...:) Are you saying you have a local copy of your files (index, etc) and you copy them to the "server" folder as you would upload them to a real server? Dreamweaver is asking me about a "test server" which I'm thinking it wants info about this local server...?

Guess I could read the manual...|huh

I did that, and uploaded all the other files to the public_html folder where all the other WP files are located. I uploaded the new index.php file but when I tried to access the blog I got a mysql error so I uploaded the original WP index.php file and the blog works, just get the missing stylesheet info in the admin.

I like the three columns and saw his porn blog and it looked good. I'll look through your suggestion and see if I can find a nice three column theme.

You did not read my post....... DO NOT SEPERATE anything from theme folder. Take the whole folder and upload it to the wp-content/themes/ folder. Thats it. DO NOT upload any files from the theme folder anywhere else. They all stay in the folder. Again, the stylesheet is missing because you uploaded it else where. It along with everything else, including the php files stay in the folder.

Thats the beauty of WP themes, you upload a theme folder, choose the theme in the admin and your done. There is no uploading files here and there.

The index file you uploaded did not work, because it is just the theme part of the real index file.

As stated above I uploaded the skins folder to the wp-content/themes folder in it's entirety. There are style sheets in that folder which are not uploaded anywhere else. There are several colors available and each color has it's own style sheet. There may be 5 or 6 each with it's own name.

They are...

Thats what I was going by. There are no files that need to be uploaded into the public_html folder, unless it is an odd theme. Plus you said you uploaded the "new index.php file", there is no such thing, that index file stays only in the theme folder and is used like a include into the main WP index.php page. Plus you said about the missing stylesheet, sounded like you moved the style sheet that came with the theme, into the public_html folder also, which you shouldn't have done.

Well if every single file that came with the theme is in the theme folder, you should be set. Just pick the theme in the admin and your good to go. Since it has different styles, there should be options for the theme in the admin, under the "presentation" tab.

Every theme I have used/tired (many), all that is needed to is upload the theme folder, thats it. There are NO files that need to be uploaded anywhere else.

OK, I got it now. All the other files that weren't in the skins folder had to be uploaded into the skins folder. I wonder why he had the skins folder a seperate folder from all the other files? Anyway, I have the theme I want now I have to tweak it.

lol.. you did not listen to what I said.. the theme folder doesn't have the index.php file because, as you said, you put in in the public_html folder with all the other php files from the theme.

Start from scratch..... find the zip for the theme. unzip it somewhere. Once unzipped you should have a folder, upload that complete folder in to the wp-content/themes/ folder on your sever. DO NOT move any of the files around, leave it as is! That is all you need to do, as i keep saying. Upload the complete, original folder and do nothing more with that folder or it's files.

After that go to your WP admin, then to Presentation, click on the theme you uploaded and it should be up on your blog. From the sound of the theme, there should be some options in the presentation section for that theme.

Glad to here you got it. They probably have a separate folder to keep things straight and for easier upgrades, ect.

Looks though, that you need to put the original theme stylesheet, that came with the them, into the theme folder.

All the files are in the skins folder which is in wp-content/themes/ and I have the three columns I wanted but the colors are missing and "powered by WordPress" is in the calendar. |banghead| I'll mess around with it....

I just looked at your blog and I'm pretty sure that you're missing the style sheet for the particular skin you have chosen. Check the skins/ folder within your journalized theme to make sure all the .css files are present (should be 6).

Yep, all six are there.....|huh

I did notice when selecting which skin to use that the png wasn't visible in the Journalized Theme Options page where I can select which skin to use and when I select a different color nothing changes.

I just downloaded the theme your using. After unzipped it gives you a folder of "journalized" thats the folder that shoould be uploaded. If I was you, I would start over. Unzip the theme and uupload the folder.

In that folder there is style.css, it's there, you just moved it or uploaded it to the public_html folder, it needs to ONLY be in the journalized folder, no where else. Same for all the php files that came with the theme.

Upload the "journalized" folder into the wp-content/themes/ folder?

I concur. Delete the entire theme from your server and start from scratch.

Yes.. and nothing more. Long as it's the original, untouched version.

That got it. Whew! Thanks! |waves|

Now, can I get rid of that Blogroll crap?

I'm gonna have another drink and go outside and smoke...

Yes you can dumbass, play around with it a while and you'll figure it out....

From reading about the theme, it looks like you will need to dig into the code to change it around. Maybe there are options for that?

Here is why I praise widgets. Widgets allow you to basically build your blog and the layout by dragging blocks of code. No need to go into the pages to change the layout or to change parts.

LOL |jester|
Glad you got it to work, it only gets easier from here. And I agree with Ronnie, a widgetized theme is the way to go.

But I want this theme (pout). Yeah, maybe I'll keep looking for a widgetable theme that I like...

But right now I'm going outside to smoke and have yet another drink |rasta| |cheers|

You can widgetize a non-wigetized theme, but it involves some php and messing with your templates. I just did one the other day, but it was just one sidebar, pretty easy. Not to mention getting everything to work with your CSS.

I am curious what you see in that theme? As UW would say, it's so 1998.

There are plenty of higher quality 3 column or more if you want. Also the side bars look so small, hard to fit much in there and it still look nice. Did you look at that link I gave you?

I looked at about 80 themes and didn't see any with three columns. I may go back and look through them all. I originally saw the theme here and liked it. Well, a pretty "pussy pink" color would be better. :D There are some banners in the middle column that are fucked up but for the most part the two side columns work pretty well. If it's "so 1998", that's what I know about blogs, zilch. :D Now that I know how/where to upload files I may do some more looking and find something more with the times.....What do "nowadays" blogs look like?

I can't settle on any theme, maybe UW should suggest 3-4 and let me pick one |jester| I have no clue what looks "now".

One quick suggestion...

If you want to use a 3-column theme with your posts appearing in the middle column, you can look for a theme that uses CSS to let you to put the content of your center column first in the source code instead of after all the stuff in your left-side menu.

FWIW

I think I've figured out how to get stuff where it goes but how can I tell if a theme uses CSS the way you suggest?

....and when I look at the code it's all been compacted up and to the right so I have to scroll waaaaaaay horizontally to look at it. Any way to spread it out vertically without messing things up?

Licker, usually the themes which do that are referred to as "SEO-friendly" or something like that by their creators. It's something that can be done with any number of columns, but the 3-column versions are the ones I've seen most often. Here's one version so you can see how it works.

I've never looked at the theme source code for the theme you mentioned, but as far as the code formatting goes, you should be able to reformat it so that it's easier for you to work with. Just make a copy of the page first and keep that to swap back in case the changing the formatting does screw things up somehow. I have a source format profile in my text editor which lets me look at all code formatted the way I like. Then I can always compact it before uploading if I want to make it hard for others to read. :)

I usually don't mess with the CSS layout that much. For one I am no CSS layout expert. Second, there are differences between FF and IE and trying to get them both to play nice can be a pain. You have to know the little fixes for certain situations. Not to say you can't make little changes, just be aware you might run in to problems. Just from my experience...:)

With that said, there are SO MANY wordpress templates out there, I don't see why can't find one you like. Least find the layout you want, changing colors is pretty easy and your not messing with the layout.

I've seen tons of three column themes, left, right and on both sides. There is something for every one.

You can use the theme viewer at Wordpress and even sort themes to fit your criteria, though it's not real exact on the sort. The only drawback to the theme viewer is that it seems like they don't have many of the higher quality themes.

And of course there is always Google...:)

I am kinda liking compact CSS, don't have to scroll down forever to move around.