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 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.
<form id=”searchform” method=”get” action=”<?php bloginfo(’home’) ?>”>
<div>
<input id=”s” name=”s” type=”text” value=”<?php echo wp_specialchars(stripslashes($_GET['s']), true) ?>” size=”9″ tabindex=”1″ />
<input id=”searchsubmit” name=”searchsubmit” type=”submit” value=”<?php _e(’Search’, ‘ProPhoto’) ?>” tabindex=”2″ />
</div>
</form>
</li>
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.
<ul name=”archive-dropdown” onChange=’document.location.href=this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;’>
<?php wp_get_archives(’type=monthly&show_post_count=0′); ?> </ul>
</li>
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.
Q: I can make my own fancier flash header movie, or I know a guy. How do I embed it?
A: First, you need to grab this file and upload it into your prophoto folder. (You may need to right-click it and choose “save file as…” or something like that.) This file will help you embed the movie in such a way that doesn’t produce ugly borders when you hover over it in Internet Explorer. (Why are you still using Internet Explorer? Slap yourself and then get Firefox.)
Next, you’ll need a .swf file with the dimensions of 980px x 250px. Save it as exactly: “flashmovie.swf” and upload it into your prophoto folder. Then open your “header.php” (may be called just “Header”) file from the Design (’Presentation’ in WP 2.3 and earlier) –> Theme Editor. Right BEFORE where it says:
</head>
add a new line and paste in this:
<script src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory') ?>/AC_RunActiveContent.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
Then, look further down in the “header.php” (aka: Header) file for these two lines (there’s a bunch of code in between):
<div id="header-masthead">
(…a bunch of code in here…)
</div><!--end div header-masthead-->
DELETE everything between those two lines of code and then INSIDE those two remaining tags, copy and paste the following code:
<script type="text/javascript">
AC_FL_RunContent( 'codebase','http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0','width','980',
'height','250','title','','src','<?php bloginfo('template_directory') ?>/flashmovie','quality',
'high','pluginspage','http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer','bgcolor','#FFF','wmode','transparent','movie',
'<?php bloginfo('template_directory') ?>/flashmovie' ); //end AC code
</script>
<noscript>
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0"
width="980" height="250">
<param name="movie" value="<?php bloginfo('template_directory') ?>/flashmovie.swf" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<embed src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory') ?>/flashmovie.swf" quality="high"
pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="980" height="250"></embed>
</object></noscript>
Save the changes and check your work.
Q: I would like a scrolling or moving header like I saw in some of the example sites. Is that included?
Yes and no. The newest version of ProPhoto does come with a built in functionality to create a fading slideshow header like this one. If you want a side-to-side scrolling header or something more complicated, you will have to create and embed a flash movie (.SWF) file yourself.
Related Post: How to embed a custom Flash header
I don’t want to use a logo image. Can I delete it? How do I get rid of the text that shows through when I delete the logo image file?
The best way to get rid of the logo is just to upload a blank white (or whatever your background color is) JPG image into the correct spot. Name it header-logo.jpg, make it 397pixels wide by 108 pixels high, and upload it into the “images” folder inside of your “prophoto” theme folder. This will also cover up the text below.