“Let’s Fix Your Website” Recap for March 17, 2020

Video recording of the March 17, 2020 “Let’s Fix Your WordPress Website” meetup

This post recaps some of the exchanges and tips from the WordPress Toronto – Let’s Fix Your WordPress Site | Meetup event 2020-03-17. This was our first online session using the Zoom “meeting solution.”

Anique: 404 error page (means the post or page wasn’t found.

… I’m attending this event to fix my website that won’t allow viewers to click my links to leave the page. It just gives a 404 error page.

Nadia Zanini

I’m trying to figure out how to add sub-categories to current categories as well as change fonts/colours of the text! Seems simple but it is not. I currently use sprout & spoon theme.

The Customizer provides the primary way for most users to control fonts and colors. Themes vary in the extent to which they use the Customizer as well as the way they use it.

There are many plugins to provide sub-categories. Robin: Try sub-category | WP.org (a category) and sub-categories | WP.org (keyword search).

Rebecca Catching

… a couple of issues I’m facing [on http://www.rebeccacatching.com/].

  1. My website when viewed on Safari will not scroll down using touchpad controls.
  2. I often get a “page not found” when I Google one of my [pages] and click the Google link. It does not take me that [page on my site].
  3. Problems with photo resolution look like garbage but I uploaded them at a decent resolution, problem with resizing?
  4. Image captions are often longer than the image. Site was designed by someone else but I’ve been trying to tinker with it using the CSS.

The scrolling problem is the touchpad’s input doesn’t result in scrolling as it should. Same result when touch is used in a Magic Mouse. Scrolls normally using arrow keys and grabbing the scrollbar. The home page works normally but posts don’t respond to touch input. The right scrollbar is customized and may have a bug.

Jim Courtney: The theme isn’t responsive.

Alex: Redirection plugin to correct 404 errors. redirect | WP.org category/redirection | WP.org keyword search.)

The caption text is centered with the caption but the caption is left aligned rather than centered. Resolved by Dan using the browser’s builtin Inspect command to find and identify the style controlling the alignment and then pasting that style into the CSS option in the Customizer and zeroing the margins. The alternative method would be to modify the relevant stylesheet, a task requiring a little more knowhow.

The gallery block image caption text is centered within a containing element but that element is left aligned. Dan found the relevant style using the browser’s Inspect command. Use the Customizer to add CSS rather than modify the stylesheet in question.

The CSS in the Customizer over-rides any other CSS and worked. Issue resolved.

Alex: You could use the free Web Developer Chrome extension.

Robin: Is Permalinks working normally? I saw a few posts with post IDs.

Mackenzie Clement

The issue I am hoping to resolve [is that] every time I update my site, it crashes and I’m not sure what to do at this point. I now have over 20 updates that need to be done.

Omri Mako

I have a [map] portfolio website for a while, but I didn’t do much with it until now. I would love to learn which tools and plugins are recommended. And tips on how to create more traffic.

Dan: use the map embed block and a Google Maps URL. Don’t use a gallery plugin.

Alex: Find other sites doing what you want to do and figure out what themes and plugins they use and evaluate them for use on your site.

SarahLi F

I can’t figure out how to fix my menu. I’ve tried going into the customize theme section and fiddle around but no go. I want the menu options to only line up at the top with right alignment but it doubles up when I select that option. Also, if I don’t have this selected, the hamburger bar doesn’t show up in the mobile version. On top of this there is a doubling up of menu options in the mobile version as well.

Realistic Travels, OceanWP theme. She assumed that OceanWP would be trouble free given its popularity.

Alex: Start with viewing Appearance/Menus.

Jacques: The Sticky Menu plugin? Elementor Pro enables a header menu except she doesn’t have that plugin.

Dan: Look at widgets.

Back to the Customizer and experimenting with various settings and options.

Robin: You could configure the left top menu to have the search and social icons and then change its alignment from left to right with CSS in the Customizer.

Jacques: I’m an expert with this theme but don’t have any experience with Elementor and the block editor.

Robin: Look for a forum to ask this question. As a last resort, on OceanWP’s Twitter username (handle) or Facebook page, ask where to go to ask your question and get help.

Alex: Let’s try another theme in Live Preview such as TwentyTwenty.

Jacques: Or Astra.

Robin Macrae

Andrew: There’s a white bar in the footer. How do I remove it?

Alex: Or buy the premium version for the support.

Dan: It’s the entry-footer and page-view styles and the latter is added other than through a stylesheet. Use the Customizer to add the 2 target styles and modify them by making their margin values zero.

General discussion of this experience with Zoom. Everyone thinks that this works although we miss the social interaction of an in-person session.