I really loved the online status indicator in the older SP version. In this new template it’s taking up additional space adding much more height to replies.
Is it possible to move the “old” status icon back to the top of replies? It would be a much better placement, and I would only like to use the colored circle indicate a member is online or offline.
sorry, not sure what you mean… the old version is almost a year old – closer to two for us developing 5.0… so I dont really remember what the difference is 
but its a theme now… so you can do whatever you want… move the online from where it is in your sp theme to where you want it… change the icon if you like… you have almost complete control with a theme…
As always, we recommend you make your own sp theme before making changes so you dont lose changes on upgrades… see:
http://codex.simple-press.com/codex/themes/theme-basics/creating-a-theme/
Ok, I guessed there maybe was a variable to set to show it like “old” ways 
i’m looking into the templates part now. I’m using the css-only theme and changes are in a separate css file in my wp ‘template_directory’ directory, so I won’t lose anything 
that will work for css changes – of course that custom forum css will get loaded on every wp page…
look in css-only/temlates/spTopicView.php… that is the template file for topic view… you will see an online template function… just move it to section where you want…
but if you change a template file, you really need to create your own theme…
Yes got it working already, thanks for pointing in the right direction, appreciate all the help.
I have disabled permalink and print button also immediately in that same file.
Do you know where the padding/margin beneath the buttons (pm, delete, edit, quote) is coming from? I can’t find it and there seems to be like 20/24 px padding or marging between those buttons and the horizontal ruler / border. See my screenshot above.
my guess is the padding is coming from your wp theme… applying some styling globally to images… but cannot tell without a link and being able to inspect the css…
Excluded all my wp theme css and js to test, but still occurs. I have send you the url in PM.
its cause by your implementation of the callout arrow to the user info section… the relative positioning of the arrow is causing it to push down the content section…
one solution is to make the spPostContent class also have a relative positioning.. and maybe a top of -20px… as an example…
Hmm ok, I copied the code for the callout arrow exactly from one of the other topics so didn’t think it came from there. I fixed it with this css:
.spPostContentSection { position: relative; }
.spPostContentSection .spAuthorArrow { position: absolute; left: -33px; top: 22px; }
Aligning it absolute and negatively right instead of right.
