Create site margins in Balance Theme?

[Sara]

I am a complete newbie and I am using the Balance Child Theme at thehealthysanctuary.com

I want the post to look distraction-free, so I have gotten rid of all sidebars.  Now the post text stretches widely across the site.  Is there any way to put margins on the site by reducing the width of the page?

For example, the forum we are on right now has grey margins on either side.  That would be awesome to have, but if not, white space would do!

Thanks

http://thehealthysanctuary.com

[Brad Dalton]

Why not use the landing page template and remove the remove actions for nav, header and footer so they display but you keep the full width layout:

Remove this:

remove_action( 'genesis_header', 'genesis_header_markup_open', 5 );
remove_action( 'genesis_header', 'genesis_do_header' );
remove_action( 'genesis_header', 'genesis_header_markup_close', 15 );
remove_action( 'genesis_after_header', 'genesis_do_nav' );
remove_action( 'genesis_after_header', 'genesis_do_subnav', 15 );
remove_action( 'genesis_after_header', 'genesis_do_breadcrumbs' );
remove_action( 'genesis_before_footer', 'genesis_footer_widget_areas' );
remove_action( 'genesis_footer', 'genesis_footer_markup_open', 5 );
remove_action( 'genesis_footer', 'genesis_do_footer' );
remove_action( 'genesis_footer', 'genesis_footer_markup_close', 15 );

Ends up like this:

<?php
/**
 * This file adds the Landing template to the Balance Theme.
 *
 * @author StudioPress
 * @package Balance
 * @subpackage Customizations
 */

/*
Template Name: Landing
*/

// Add custom body class to the head
add_filter( 'body_class', 'add_body_class' );
function add_body_class( $classes ) {
   $classes[] = 'balance-landing';
   return $classes;
}


add_filter( 'genesis_pre_get_option_site_layout', '__genesis_return_full_width_content' );

genesis();

Or simply use the full width layout in the layout settings.

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[Sara]

Thanks for responding!

Actually, I have the full width layout, that is how I removed the sidebars.

What I want to do is decrease the full page width and increase the white space on either side of what I already have.  The text of my posts is enormous and the headlines are gigantic.  I just want a normal looking blog, not an elephant sized one.

Where can I adjust the width of the full page?

 

[Brad Dalton]

Did you try what i suggest with the landing page template? It will decrease the full page width.

You can see the width in the style.css file:

.full-width-content #content {
	width: 960px;
}

.balance-landing #content {
	width: 700px;
}

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[Sara]

Oh no, I tried adding the landing page template to the style.css and it looked worse.  So I took it back out.

Then, I tried adding it to the functions.php and I got Internal Server Error.  Now I can't access my dashboard!

HELP!

[Sara]

I had to restore my site.  Now, I am very cautious about changing things in css and php.  I would LOVE to have the landing page template, but I have no idea what to do with the code you posted.  Any idea why my dashboard crashed?

[Brad Dalton]

Its the default CSS from the style.css file. You can change the values in that file. You must have pasted it in the functions.php file.

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[Sara]

Thanks for all your help!

[Author]

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