Simple:Press will use 100% of the width that the WP template gives it so if it is not utilising the full space you really do need to look closely at the WP page template being used I am afraid.

Hi Andy, I want to widen the left sidebar a tad or two.

After deciding on going without a sidebar i figured it best to use another subdomain for the site. And strip out all the blog posts and plugins not needed. Got it up here. But when using reboot child theme, whats the code to widen the left sidebar?

Thanks, Ed

I’m not sure wheat you mean by the ‘left sidebar’. I assumed you were meaning the overall width the forum takes up which is 800px on that page as it is dictated by the WP theme class of ‘art-sheet’. If that is not what you mean could you please explain a little further?

I guess y’all don’t call it a sidebar.. Me and terminology sometimes does not compute..

The part where the members avatar and details is.

Would like to make it a tad bit wider.

Ok, Gotcha.

Take a look in the overlay file you are using with your Reboot theme (in the styles/overlays folder). Look for the section that looks like this:

# TOPIC VIEW ================

$ColTopic_1 = array();
$ColTopic_2 = array();

$ColTopic_1[0] = ‘15%’;
$ColTopic_1[800] = ‘15%’;
$ColTopic_1[720] = ‘16%’;
$ColTopic_1[600] = ‘16%’;
$ColTopic_1[480] = ‘16%’;
$ColTopic_1[360] = ‘17%’;

$ColTopic_2[0] = ‘84%’;
$ColTopic_2[800] = ‘84%’;
$ColTopic_2[720] = ‘82%’;
$ColTopic_2[600] = ‘82%’;
$ColTopic_2[480] = ‘82%’;
$ColTopic_2[360] = ‘81%’;

These represent the two columns so $colTopic_1 is the one you want to change – although you will need to change both. The element number (800, 720, 600 etc.,) represent the display width of the screen being used with 0 (zero) being the desktop so, unlimited.

So you will see for a desktop the left column is assigned 15% and the right 84%. For a small phone no wider than a 360px display, it is 17% and 81%. 

Play away!

As always we recommend the use of a child theme to ensure changes are not lost when upgrading. There are now Child Theme Frameworks available to download for all of our themes to make this simple and full and extensive details can be found on our Codex – Creating a Child Theme page: https://simple-press.com/documentation/codex/themes/theme-basics/creating-a-child-theme/

Hi Andy, so i would add the above code to my reboot child theme and adjust the sizes?

I’m so totally lost in code.

Thanks, Ed

Yes – that should do it…

Nope no change whatsoever.

My apologies Ed.

I was tired, I have a raging cold and I didn’t think it through.

What you need to do is copy the overlay file itself (the ine you are using) from the parent theme to your child theme ‘styles.overlays/’ folder. Rename it to something you choose.

Then edit the column data in there, Also change the details right at the top for the new name.

Then go to the forum admin > themes and select this new copied overlay for your site. That will do it.

Hi Andy, Thanks so much for your help. That worked!

Now if you can do me one more favor, do i edit that same file to make hyperlinks blue with an underline so it is more apparent there is a link there? Now any links mostly match the text and have no underline.

I’m trying to show a few old time members from my old classic Fidonet bulletin board system that’s been online since 1991 to a new way of doing things. That old system is text based but still quite popular. bbs.docsplace.org it runs on an old dell pc on my network. If anyone wants to check it out use guest as the login and password.

you need to be a bit more specific about which links you want to change…  I dont see a forum at that link?

Actually I did mean to deal with this as well.

Go back to your child stylesheet…. This needs to be a CSS file so you can not use php variables. So that line:

$postLinkColor = $baseColor5;

needs translating to proper CSS. SO what you need is more like:

#spMainContainer .spTopicPostSection .spPostSection .spPostContentSection .spPostContent a:link,
#spMainContainer .spTopicPostSection .spPostSection .spPostContentSection .spPostContent a:active,
#spMainContainer .spTopicPostSection .spPostSection .spPostContentSection .spPostContent a:visited {
        color: #XXXXXX;
}

where the XXXXXX s the hex number of the color you want to use.

Thanks, Andy..

Going to dig into that shortly.

Good luck!