Balance 1.0 – I want to move menu & sidebar

[aaron1728]

A picture is worth a thousand words, so the following image shows the 4 things I'm trying to do in a Balance 1.0 theme:

http://www.autoins.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/autoins-formatting1.jpg

Move the menu from the top to the bottom.
Move the genesis_before_content_sidebar upward to fill the gap left by the moved menu, to directly beneath the header
Move the Primary Sidebar down a few pixels.
Change the attributes of the titles on the home page.

I'm getting used to the new forums, so please forgive me if I've put this in the wrong section.

Thank you in advance.

[Susan]

You posted in the right section, but I recommend just asking one question at a time, it makes it easier for those who are helping.

1. To move your menu to the bottom of the screen (just above any footer credits), add this to your functions.php:

To move the menu to the bottom of the page: (insert into theme functions.php

/** Reposition the primary navigation menu */
remove_action( 'genesis_after_header', 'genesis_do_nav' );
add_action( 'genesis_before_footer', 'genesis_do_nav' );

[aaron1728]

Thanks for helping me with #1.  That worked.

Should I break out the rest of this post into 3 different ones for items 2, 3 & 4?

[Bill Murray]

I respectfully disagree with Susan on the "1 question per thread" concept. That applied in the old forum, but this is arguably a community forum with looser rules. If I have to look at your site to make a recommendation, it's easier to look at all of your issues in 1 place than 4 threads, especially since that involves following a link to your site. I tend not to answer people that make rapid-fire multiple posts, but that's just me.

1) Glad Susan's suggestion worked, but there are many approaches to this. Another approach is to not move the menus at all, just disable primary/secondary navigation (ie, leave those settings blank). Then, either use CSS to adjust the width of your footer widgets where the left most one has 100% of the width, or drop 2 of them and adjust the CSS. In the 1 footer widget, put a custom menu. The best approach depends on your comfort level making different types of changes. A typo in PHP changes in functions.php can break your site; a typo in CSS rarely will.

2 & 3) This is CSS. When 1 element isn't there, others will move up. Grab Firebug if you're using Firefox. If you're comfortable editing PHP and adding/removing actions, CSS is easier. If you can't figure out which CSS elements to adjust, post back. Make all CSS adjustments in your child theme stylesheet.

4) Like 2 & 3, this is CSS. What change do you want to make? Changing titles is easy to do, but it will be influenced by how you add content. That is, if you add content via featured post/page widgets vs text widgets, the answer might be different. Since styling is an easy change, I recommend you identify HOW you'll get content onto your home page (ie, which widgets you'll use). The content can be random text. But with that approach reasonably finalized, you'll get better CSS styling tips.

Hope that helps.

---

Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform

We do managed WordPress hosting.

[aaron1728]

Yeah, I wish some of these 3-footer themes had an option for a full-width section that would either fit just above or just below the footer.

With Firebug, I was finally able to isolate the rest except for the attributes of the sticky title on the home page.

[Bill Murray]

1) For "sticky title", are you referring to the company name at the very top, above your banner in the ID #header? This is a bigger issue than it seems, because if you remove it (which you can), you'll lose an H1 tag on the home page and end up with an empty title tag. Is your goal to make the banner the top of the page? Perhaps you could move it below the banner? That keeps the on page SEO elements.

2) Re footers: Check out Dave Decker's Genesis Widgetized Footer plugin. You can easily add your own full width widget area above or below the 3 footer widgets, or drop 2 of the 3 existing widgets.

3) If you're making changes like adding widgets and moving elements, be sure to check how your site looks on mobile devices and adjust your stylesheet accordingly (see mobile responsive elements at the bottom).

---

Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform

We do managed WordPress hosting.

[aaron1728]

1) No, I meant the attributes of the title for the Sticky Post on the homepage.  I was able to change the background-color to a darker color but then lost the attributes of the title text linked to the article..

2) Thanks for the tip.

3) Good point.  I need to work on the box that contains the quote form so that it'll work.

 

 

[Bill Murray]

1) It appears you are using the "green" color, so you have to pay attention to the fact that you have a body class of balance-green. Therefore, the CSS below will target the sticky post title and anchor, provided you stick with green:

.balance-green .sticky h2, .balance-green sticky h2 a {
PUT YOUR STYLING RULES HERE
}

---

Web: https://wpperform.com or Twitter: @wpperform

We do managed WordPress hosting.

[Author]

Posts