ProPhoto - Premium Wordpress Theme for Professional Photographers - Single Column, big pictures - Blog Template

Q: Can I customize the sidebar/footer area at the bottom of the blog? Can I add/remove “Meta” or “Pages” or “RSS” etc.? Can I remove the sidebar/footer area entirely?

A: You can customize the bottom area sidebar/footer in your WP admin area, under Design (’Presentation’ in WP 2.3 and earlier) –> Widgets. Drag and drop things into the the two sidebar areas shown to override the defaults. Click on the little buttons on the right side of the draggable chunks to see advanced options.

If you want to delete the sidebar/footer area entirely, in your Theme Editor, go through your template files (index.php, single.php, search.php, archive.php, category.php) and look for and DELETE the line of code (near the bottom) that says

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

If you ever want to put it back, just type that line in again in each template file, right ABOVE where it says

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Related Post: Customizing font and link colors in the footer/sidebar area

Q: Can I make it so that the comments are displayed as the default?

A: Yes. In your WordPress admin area, go to “Design (’Presentation’ in WP 2.3 and earlier)” –> “AWP Managment.” Then click on “comments.” Look for a checkbox that says: Have “Comments open by default on index page?” Click it on and save your changes by scrolling down and clicking save.

Then, in your “Theme Editor” open the file called “Main Index Template” (index.php). Look for these lines of code:

<?php do_action('awp_comments'); ?>
<?php do_action('awp_comments_link');?> |
<?php do_action('awp_commentform'); ?>
<?php do_action('awp_commentform_link');?>

Delete the second line and rearrange the order of the lines so it looks like this:

<?php do_action('awp_commentform_link');?>
<?php do_action('awp_comments'); ?>
<?php do_action('awp_commentform'); ?>

Save your changes.

Q: How do I remove the entire “bio” section?

A: To remove the bio, in your Theme Editor, choose the file called “Main Index Template”. Find the line that says:

<?php include 'bio.php'; ?>

And delete it. Click “update file” to save your changes, and check your work by viewing your blog and refreshing your browser.

To add it back in, just paste it back in. Viola!

Q: I don’t want it to say “Blogroll.” I prefer “Links” or something else.

A: First of all, that’s not a question. It’s a statement.

To change it from saying Blogroll to “Links,” you need to go into your WordPress admin area and click on “Manage” –> “Links” (or just “Blogroll in older versions of WP). Edit all the links and change their category to “Links” (you’ll have to create this category). When all of your links are in the category “Links,” it will no longer say Blogroll, but Links.

Q: How can I cut down on comment spam?

A: There are several ways you can cut down on spam. First, you can make sure that comment moderation is activated under “Options” –> “Discussion” in your WP Admin panel. Also, there are a lot of free plugins that you can download for WordPress that help cut down on spam. One of these, Aksimet, is automatically included in your wordpress installation. Just go to “Plugins” and activate it.

You will need a WordPress API key, but the plugin page will tell you how to get one. Basically, you have to sign up for a free “wordpress.com” account (like you were going to get a free blog there) to get an API key.  Just go to http://www.wordpress.com/ and establish an account by setting up a dummy free blog there, and they will email you your API key.

Q: How do I add a background image like wallpaper on the background of my blog?

A: ProPhoto comes installed with no background image (actually it has an invisible image installed), but you may want to add one like the lovely paisley on this blog. To do so, save your background image as “bg.gif” and use a free FTP program or a web-based file manager utility to upload it into the “images” folder of the “prophoto” theme folder, overwriting the existing “bg.gif” file. If you are using a “.jpg” instead of a “.gif” for your background image , you’ll need to modify line 29 of the “Stylesheet” (style.css) so that it says “bg.jpg” instead of “bg.gif.”

Related Resources: finding a background image for your blog
Using a free FTP program to upload files to your webserver
Using a web-based file manager utility to upload files to your webserver

Q: Can I remove the subtle drop-shadow effect on the sides of the whole blog?

A: Yes. To eliminate the drop shadow, open up “Stylesheet” from “Design (’Presentation’ in WP 2.3 and earlier)” –> “Theme Editor” and DELETE line 146, which reads:

background:transparent url(images/hover.png) repeat-y scroll 0%;

To add it back in again, do it in reverse.

Q: Can I change the title of “Archives” or “Categories” menus to something else?

A: Yes. To change the word “Archives” in your WordPress admin panel, go to “Design (’Presentation’ in WP 2.3 and earlier)” –> “Theme Editor”, and open the “topnav.php” file. Look for this line:

<li><a href="#">Archives</a>

Change the word “Archives” to whatever you want, like so:

<li><a href="#">Old Junk</a>

To change “Categories” to whatever you want, further down, look for this line:

<?php wp_list_categories('orderby=name&title_li=<a href="#">Categories</a>');?>

Change the word “Categories” like so:

<?php wp_list_categories('orderby=name&title_li=<a href="#">Types of Posts</a>'); ?>

Q: How can I remove the search box or “Blogroll” or “Categories” or “Archives” or “Website” link at the top of the page?

A: In the Theme Editor, open the file called “topnav.php”. To delete the search bar, look for the following text and delete it. Be careful to delete all of it, but no more.

To remove the Blogroll drop-down menu, look for and delete the following line:

<?php wp_list_bookmarks('title_before=<a href="#">&title_after=</a>'); ?>

To remove the Categories drop-down menu, look for and delete the following line:

<?php wp_list_categories('orderby=name&title_li=<a href="#">Categories</a>'); ?>

To remove the Archives drop-down menu, look for and delete the following lines of code. Be careful to delete all of it, but no more.

To remove the Website link, look for and delete the following line:

<li><a href="http://www.mysweetphotosite.com" target="blank">Website</a></li>

Q: How can I get a ‘Contact’ form like I see on some of the ProPhoto blogs?

A: This may well become a feature in future upgrades of ProPhoto. For now however, you’ll have to get it working on your own, which is not that difficult. If you don’t mind a link that says “Contact” and just opens up the users email program, here’s how to make it happen.

First, open up the file “topnav.php” from your Theme Editor. Stare at it for a few minutes. You won’t understand what all the code means, but you should be able to figure out which chunk of code is for your portfolio, archives, category, blogroll, search, etc. If you’re having trouble, slap yourself once or twice and keep looking.

Once you think you know which chunks of code do approximately what, pick where you want to put your “contact” link. Type or paste in the following:

<li> </li>

Then, visit this page. Type your email address in where it asks for it, and type “contact” or whatever you want your link to say in the next box. Then click on the button that says: “obfuscate my email address.” The page will generate a bunch of random looking code. This is good, very good. This is so no spambots will fill your email box up with ads for Viagra. Copy the code, go back to your “topnav.php” file and paste that junk between those two tags that you just created. It should look something like this:

<li><script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">{document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,109,97,105,108,116,111,58,100,
111,110,97,108,100,64,116,114,117,109,112,46,99,111,109,34,62,99,111,110,116,97,99,116,60,47,97,62)) }</script></li>

Save your changes and check your work.

Alternatively, you could create a whole page with a contact form. There are some pretty easy to use free plugins out there designed to help you do just that. With a little trouble, you should be able to get one to work on your blog just fine. I would start by checking out delicious:days.