Exclude Categories from Genesis – Featured Posts?

[jmrallen]

I've been using the Genesis Featured Widget Amplified plugin for some time now, and I like that it allows me to exclude certain categories from a page or widget. Generally speaking, the Genesis - Featured Posts widget has the same functionality, but it doesn't appear to let me exclude categories. Is there a way to exclude specific categories from Genesis - Featured Posts, or should I just stick with the Featured Widget Amplified plugin? I'm hoping there's a way to exclude them from Featured Posts, as that would allow me to reduce the use of a separate plugin.

[Marcy]

Stick with the Genesis Featured Widget Amplified plugin; that's probably the easiest.

---

Marcy | Amethyst Website Design | Twitter

[jmrallen]

Thanks for the reply, Marcy. I would like to stick with it, but for some reason the new Magazine Pro theme doesn't play nicely with it in the sub-feature section. When I use the Genesis - Featured Posts tool those two thumbnail images stand side by side just fine. However, when I activate Genesis Featured Widget Amplified and try that, I can't get the images to go side-by-side. Is there some CSS paddingfor the Genesis Featured Widget Amplified plugin that I'm just missing somewhere? Here's my devsite, and here's what the sub-feature area is supposed to look like. I haven't adjusted any CSS yet, this is a straight out of the box Magazine Pro installation.

If I can't figure out how to align the images there like I want to, I'll find myself back in the "how do I exclude a category from Genesis - Featured Posts" camp again. Any and all help is appreciated, including identifying whether there's some odd CSS for the Featured Widget Amplified plugin that I've just missed.

[Marcy]

Ok. Try this. I can't set it up to check now, but if you do this edit, and then post back with your site, I can help you tweak it.

It looks like featured posts amplified, uses only .featuredpost, and not .featured-content which is what Magazine Pro is using.

Find in your style.css ALL the places that it has
.home-middle .featured-content .entry

and ADD an additional line that duplicates it, with .featured-content replaced with .featuredpost.

So if you have something like:

.home-middle .featured-content .entry:nth-of-type(2n+1) {
        clear: left;
        margin-right: 3rem;
}

you would make it look like:

.home-middle .featured-content .entry:nth-of-type(2n+1),
.home-middle .featuredpost .entry:nth-of-type(2n+1) {
        clear: left;
        margin-right: 3rem;
}

And

.home-middle .featured-content .entry,
.home-top .featured-content .entry {
    float: left;
    max-width: 100%;
}

becomes

.home-middle .featured-content .entry,
.home-middle .featuredpost .entry,
.home-top .featured-content .entry {
    float: left;
    max-width: 100%;
}

---

Marcy | Amethyst Website Design | Twitter

[jmrallen]

Great thinking, Marcy. And thank you for trying to tackle it. I tried implementing the changes you suggested in the style.css file, but it didn't work out. Here's the latest. I'll continue trying to figure things out on my own, but if you have any other ideas, I'm all ears.

If only there were a way to exclude categories like their is in featured widget amplified, all would be peachy.

[jmrallen]

I appear to have solved it with some incredible help from a co-worker. Here's what seems to work:

.home-middle.widget-area .widget-wrap .post {
width: 369px;
float: left;
margin-right: 8px;
}

.home-middle.widget-area .widget-wrap .post:last-child {
margin-right:0;
}

[jmrallen]

Yep, after further testing and CSS work, it appears that the code above is the best solution. The widths obviously will change based on any other CSS customization you do, but those code combos work. I've put them just above the @media section of style.css and I've created some for the home-top and home-bottom areas as well, just to further customize each area.

I didn't achieve what I'd originally wanted to -- excluding a category from the built-in Genesis Featured Posts functionality -- but I did find a way to make the Featured WIdget Amplified work with the new Magazine Pro layout. So, I'll mark this thread as solved. Marcy, thanks again for your help.

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