Help Deck & Easy Fixes You Might Not Know About

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

No worries. We'll find the answer.

So not everyone is a LiveJournal expert (I swear I'm not either). And, of course, there are those out there that are learning this all for the first time. So here are a few things that have come up that I hope will help beginners and people who just hadn't figured it out yet.

My Journal

1. How can I change the amount of Journal entries on my journal or friends page?


2. How do I change my Tiny Icons?


3. There is a strange block of color behind my layout. What is going on?


4. Why can't I get the Title and Subtitle to show up on my journal?


5. Is it possible to remove the Page Title from the Journal Title when I'm in my posts?

Header Section

1. How do I change the names of the links on my navbar?


2. My header image is multiplying itself. How do I stop it?


3. There is a large gap under my header image. How do I remove it?

Entries

1. Why isn't my userpic moving from Left to Right (or visa versa)?


2. How do I post a future post without it being added to my Scheduled Entries?


3. How do I remane the comment links at the bottom of my entry?


4. Why doesn't my subject text look the same as your Layout image. How do I get the font?


5. I don't want my to see my layout when I click into posts or comments. How do I make my posts theme-less?


6. Why aren't the currents music and location coming up in my journal posts?

Comments Page

1. I don't want my comments page to be customized. / I want to use the customizations my layout offers for my comments pages.


2. My userpics are fine but my comments aren't showing the threads. They are all the same width and are not indenting under each other.

Sidebar

1. How do I change the title of my sidebar sections?


2. How do I add a calendar to my sidebar?


3. I have the Calendar set to shwo up on my sidebar but it isn't working with your layout?


4. I have made multiple tags and want to change them. How do I edit my tags?


5. How do I add linked images to my sidebar?


6. I noticed you have two links sections. How did you do that?


7. How do I get rid of the sidebar all together and just have my entries?


8. I have my default userpic on my sidebar but how do I center and customize it?

Friends Page

1. I'm seeing a gap above my header image (between it at the account banner) on my Friends Page but not on my Journal's homepage. How can I get rid of the gap?

The Answers

My Journal

1. How can I change the amount of Journal Entries on my journal or friends page? Check out the Customize Your Theme>Display section. There you will be able to change the number of journal entries on both your page and your friend page in the Basic Options section


2. How do I change my Tiny Icons? Check out my Tiny Icons Tutorial.


3. There is a strange block of color behind my layout. What is going on? Are you using a Plus Account? Because chances are you are seeing some kind of advertisement block that is hindering a perfect view of your journal. My only recommendations can be that you down grade to a free account, upgrade to a paid account or move the advertisements to vertical so they are in your sidebar. You can find a tutorial about the LJ Advertisements here.
   
   example: click for larger image


4. Why can't I get the Title and Subtitle to show up on my journal? Well if you are using one of my layouts the reason is that I don't use them so I tend to enter the coding .title, .subtitle { display: none;}. If you want the .title and .subtitle you need to remove the display: none; and possibly separate the two into their own sections (example: .title { } and .subtitle { }). I ususally give them a position of relative and then use margins to get them into the exact location I want them. You may also need to give them a z-index: 199; to make sure they show up on top of all other elements.


5. Is it possible to remove the Page Title from the Journal Title when I'm in my posts? So far there is no way to remove this from the Flexible Squares layout. I have not tried on other layouts. If a coding fix for this becomes available I will definitely post about it.

Header Section

1. How do I change the names of the links on my navbar (also current text, skiplinks, and back and forward buttons)? [i.e. Recent, Profile, Archive, Friends, Back, Forward.] Really easy change. Go to Customize Your Theme>Text and you will not only see a the titles of your Header Links but the text before your current mood, music and location, the next for your comments, your back and forward buttons and all the text above your entry (skiplinks) such as Memorize, Track, Tag and Edit.


2. My header image is multiplying itself. How do I stop it? This tends to be an issue for Scrapbook users. The issue is that the header image is set in the layout to be the width and height of the image I shared with you. So if the Scrapbook feature resizes the image, it leaves you seen double. In the Scrapbook, select your image and choose the "Original" link. This will show you the original image and in your address bar will be the URL for the image. Use this url instead of the one Scrapbook supplied you with. Image Tutorial


3. There is a large gap under my header image. How do I remove it? My header image coding is at the very bottom of my coding so go to the end of the coding and above the url there is width and height. The reason you are seeing a gap (or double) is because your image height is smaller than the height indicated in the coding. Match them up and things should work just fine. Image Tutorial

Entries

1. Why isn't my userpic moving from Left to Right (or visa versa)? Sometimes when messing with the userpics we don't realize that there is an option we need to change in the Customize Your Theme>Display section. Under Additional Options choose the position of your user picture.


2. How do I post a future post without it being added to my Scheduled Entries? Click Scheduled Entries to find all future posts. What I would suggest is that you post this entry for today and then go into your post and change the date after the fact. This circumvents the Scheduled Entries feature.


3. How do I rename the comment links at the bottom of my entry? Really easy change. Go to Customize Your Theme>Text and you will not only see a the titles of your Comment Links but the text before your current mood, music and location, your back and forward buttons (footer section) and all the text above your entry (skiplinks) such as Memorize, Track, Tag and Edit. The Link text to leave a comment can just be a word such as comment which I use here. But the Link text to read comments should be laid out like this 1//# or 1 comment//#comments. I used the first option here so just a number appears. You can name yours anything such as Sing as your comment link and then 1 song//#songs. That was if you have 40 comments it will say 40 songs.


4. Why doesn't my subject text look the same as your Layout image. How do I get the font? I feel as though fonts really bring something to the layout, like icing on the cake. So when I create a layout I often list the special fonts I've used. Check my layout post for those fonts and then go to the Fonts I Like To Use post to download them and find a tutorial on how to upload them into your computers system. Refresh your page and you should see the font.


5. I don't want my to see my layout when I click into posts or comments. How do I make my posts theme-less? (This is the same as Comments Page #1) Check out the Customize Your Theme>Display section. Under the Basic Options there is a "Disable customized comment pages for your journal. Choose No if you want the generic LiveJournal comments page or Yes to use the customizations in your layout coding. There is a tutorial HERE for this change.


6. Why aren't the currents music and location coming up in my journal posts? Simply answer is that I forgot I turned them off. See I don't use them so I add this little line of coding... .currentlocation, .currentmusic { display:none; }. Find this line of coding (it will be in the Currents Section) and simply delete it.

Comments Page

1. 1. I don't want my comments page to be customized. / I want to use the customizations my layout offers for my comments pages. Check out the Customize Your Theme>Display section. Under the Basic Options there is a "Disable customized comment pages for your journal. Choose No if you want the generic LiveJournal comments page or Yes to use the customizations in your layout coding.


2. My userpics are fine but my comments aren't showing the threads. They are all the same width and are not indenting under each other. Entries #1 applies here. Try changing the user picture position to reflect the changes you want.

Sidebar

1. How do I change the title of my sidebar sections? Go to the Customize Your Theme>Sidebar Section. Not only can you turn different components on and off but you can change their title or remove it all together.


2. How do I add a calendar to my sidebar? Sidebar #1 applies here for adding and removing all components to your sidebar.


3. I have the Calendar set to show up on my sidebar but it isn't working with your layout? Oops. I forgot all about turning off this ability. In the sidebar section of my coding you'll find #sidebar_summary, #sidebar_calendar, h2 { display:none!important; }. Delete this line and the calendar should show up in your sidebar.


4. I have made multiple tags and want to change them. How do I edit my tags? You can edit tags or rename tags in the Manage Tags feature. You; however, can not move tagged entries to another tag. That you have to do manually in each entry.


5. How do I add linked images to my sidebar? You are going to want to do this work in the Customize Your Theme>Sidebar Section. I have a tutorial waiting for you here.


6. I noticed you have two link sections. How did you do that? Go to Customize Your Theme>Links List. Here you can put in titles of links and link addresses. If your create a title without putting in a link you get another link list section. The first link list title can be edited in the Sidebar Section of the Customize your Theme.


7. How do I get ride of the sidebar all together and just have my entries? We can do this. Please check out the No Sidebar Tutorial which is for using a layout coding which is already set up for this. Or there is the Sidebar/No Sidebar Tutorial for changing layouts with sidebars into no sidebar layouts.


8. I have my default userpic on my sidebar but how do I center and customize it? Chances are, if you are using one of my layouts, that it is missing coding for the default userpic or just hasn't been customized. I don't usually have my userpic on my sidebar so it is something I tend to forget. The coding for this is .defaultuserpic { text-align: center; padding: 10px; margin: 0 0 8px 0; } and I would add this to the Sidebar section of your coding. This coding gives the userpic some padding and centers it. You can add additional coding such as a border though because of the padding the border might not be flush with the icon. To remedy that I would suggest removing the padding and using the margin for spacing.

Friends Page

1. I'm seeing a gap above my header image (between it at the account banner) on my Friends Page but not on my Journal's homepage. How can I get rid of the gap? This was something I couldn't quite figure out until I stumbled on a post about Friends Page indentations at s2flexisquares. There is a coding solution but it can come with problems attached... See MIND THE FRIENDS GAP tutorial.

Click on image sot see what parts of your journal are called.

If the above doesn't help you, please...

1. Supply example of your problem. If it is in a community please give me a link.


2. Sometimes it can take me a little while to find the information asked for, so please be patient.


3. I'm not currently taking requests but I'm more than willing to help you figure out problems with coding.


4. Do NOT message me with a request for assistance. Please comment to a layout you are having trouble with or below. Replying to messaging with coding and other explainations is harder and prevents others from finding the solutions to the same problems.

Comments

[nenya_kanadka]

Bookmarking this page! Thank you!

And two questions:

1) I've seen a couple of people ask this in other comms but never seen an answer: when I click through to a single-entry view, the title displays both the journal title AND the subject of the entry, in the same line instead of just the journal title. (e.g. "Nenya Kanadka - Orphan Black: holy shit" when I just want it to say "Nenya Kanadka" like the Recent Entries view does.) On Dreamwidth, I can do this by saying .pagetitle { display: none; } in the CSS, but I can't make that work on LJ. Do you know an equivalent code?


2) My comments aren't indenting, despite going to the Customize Journal > Display page and setting the icon position to Left. I'm using this layout, and while I've changed some of the coding for the header etc, I haven't touched comments. Any idea what might be wrong?

Both issues currently showing up on this entry: http://nenya-kanadka.livejournal.com/107779.html

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

1. I don't think there is coding for that. What I would recommend is creating the same effect with a .headerimage. This means you get the same look without that annoying subject jumping up there.

2. Let me look into this.. I feel like there is something obvious in the coding I'm just missing. I may have to consult with another coder.

I'll let you know what I find out.

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

Okay so what I discovered is that the layout maker likes hers to not indent and has some margins set but this means if you remove that bit of coding everything goes haywire so I had to do a little rebuilding....

Replace your entire comments Page section with this one...
/*------------Comments Page--------*/ .box { width: 65%; padding: 5px 5px 5px 10px; margin-left: 172px; text-align: left; clear: left; } form div.box { text-align: left; } .reply { position: relative; margin: 20px 30px 10px 30px; padding: 25px 10px 10px 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #000000; } .replytosubject { font-weight: none; } .commentreply { position: relative; margin: 10px; color: #000000; } .commentbox { align: left; padding: 50px; margin: 10px; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), inset 0 0 50px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), inset 0 0 50px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); box-shadow: 0 0 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), inset 0 0 50px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); } .commentboxpartial { border-color: #000000; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; padding: 10px; margin: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; } .commentinfo { background-color: #f1f1f1; margin-top: 5px; width: 100%; }

[nenya_kanadka]

Thank you! That fixes it perfectly for the comments. I've fiddled around a bit with the widths--made the whole comment section a little wider--but otherwise it works great. (I'd like to make the indents a little deeper if I can, but can't quite figure out which line to modify (I'm doing this by the seat of my pants :P), but even if I can't figure that out, this is awesome. Thank you!)

I will try .headerimage for the page title thing--I'd wondered if dealing with the header section itself instead of .title & .subtitle might be a good idea anyway, because it would simplify the box shadows. (Which were a pain in the ass to set up since title and subtitle are two different boxes, but I wanted one shadow around them. Layout creator had set it to no title at all.) Are you thinking I should just type in the journal title and subtitle as text in the .headerimage section? Hmm, would that override the titles of my friends page and tags page? (Not a super important issue, admittedly, but I'm holding onto the oldschool friends page as long as possible. :P)

Anyway I'll try it out, and if I get stuck after googling, may come back and ask you. Thank you again!

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about how to change the offset of the indents. I've never messed with that. If you figure it out or find out how to do it, drop me a link. I would love that knowledge.

I won't give up the friends page without a fight. Plus I'm thinking if we all ignored their change and continued with the old the message might get across.

Actually, what I'm thinking is what I did above.

Make it an image and use that image in the headerimage section. If you want another header you can use multiple headerimages (http://layout-lounge.livejournal.com/33399.html).

This way the Title and Subtitle don't get all messed up and you can make it look however you want.

You can apply that white box with the box shadow as the "background" of the headerimage section and then overlay a transparent image of your text on top of it.

This is essentially what I did on this journal.

See transparent:


Though I believe this might throw some stuff off....

[nenya_kanadka]

Hmm, yes, I see what you mean. I figured an image was the other option. I'll play around with it and see what I can come up with! I know basic header and background procedure, but the tutorial for multiple background images is super helpful! Thank you.

Thank you so much for your help. <3 And if I ever figure out the comment indents, I'll let you know.

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

I did this over at workshop_rees.

[nenya_kanadka]

One thing I don't know how to do is get transparent images (I'm using, erm, PhotoFiltre, not actually Photoshop or anything) but I suppose I can get a similar effect with an image with a white background (on a white box), yes?

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

Well, that box you had wasn't perfect white so make sure the code is the same which I think was #fafafa.

Hmmm... I don't know anything about PhotoFiltre. The way it works in PhotoShop is you basically have a starting point like a "page" almost and you just don't have a color on that part.

If you need help with that I can create something for you. It wouldn't be hard and I could do it pretty quickly.

I can also use the current font on your LJ or a custom one which if you are a member you can find in the members only section of the links on our sidebar here.

[nenya_kanadka]

Oh yes, that's right, it wasn't a perfectly #FFF background. :D

The version of PhotoFiltre I was using didn't have layers, but I had seen/used images with transparent background in them before. Just couldn't remember how. :P I now have the most recent free version, which supports layers, so! One needs to save the file as a....hmm, png or gif or something, not jpg, to preserve the transparency, is that right?

I do want to give it a shot myself because I'm trying to teach myself these things. (And knowing me, I'll want to change it in a month or two anyway, and would hate to ask you to do work that became obsolete quickly.) I might end up taking you up on your offer, though. :)

I'm using a Google font which came with my Dreamwidth layout, and which I adore, so it would be super awesome if I could get it into the header. :D

[sireesanwar.livejournal.com]

That is great. Layers are important, I think. Give you a way to easily change things. I like PNG best because it have a better quality. Anything animated has to be gif though.

Good for you. I hope you succeed. It really isn't a hard thing because text will come out being transparent background anyway.

Can you download those fonts? I don't know. I'd look into that so you can use the font in the program.

I'm loving Google fonts by the way. I just figured all that out after combing though your coding. Thank you for that.