The English Guy Web Design

[...] e (now version 1.1) with several new features. You can find the full list of changes on my News Time page on my blog. This post should be in it’s own wide box at the very top of the page, in the [...]

[...] quick rundown of a few things that have happened in the past few days. I have updated the News Time theme (now at version 1.1); it has some updated sidebar options, a new “featured” post [...]

[...] na, schön verrückt, dieses News Time Theme, oder? Wo ich das her habe? Vom The English Guy >> Werde ich nicht gerade hier benutzen, aber gut zu wissen, daß man sowas auch mal hat [...]

[...] This theme is a continuation of News Time Theme. It is a four-column theme for WordPress called News Print. There are three columns where the content gets written, and an additional mandatory sidebar. [...]

[...] theme is a newer version of the News Time Theme. It is a four-column (or three-column, depending on what you set it as) theme for WordPress called [...]

Great looking theme. I’ll give it a try.
Any plans on making revisions or tweaks to it?

Yes I am. The theme is in use, and is going to be upgraded to make it a little finer. I will be posting version upgrades on here (as well as upgrading this site’s Pages).

Is there any way that I can force a break in the article so that I decide where the post will be truncated?

For some reason it is ignoring the WP tag, it would also be nice sometimes to be able to force a paragraph break in the excerpt that shows on the front page although that is not any sort of huge issue.

Thanks

M

Do you mean on the first page, where all the articles are displayed in columns?

Yes there is! But it requires a bit of post writing discipline. In the “excerpt” box, write what you want the column posts to show (i.e., not the full article). Then in the larger “post” box, just write your article. The columns will show the excerpt as the article, making visitors click on the article to read it in full.

heh — now I feel like a bit of a dolt, ya see, I always use w.blogger for creating posts… I can’t actually remember when I last used the default WP content entry panel so I didn’t even consider the excerpt box.

Thanks

M

Is there anyway to justify or align the text in the columns and in the post headings to the left instead of center? The theme is beautiful, but the blank spaces between words is a bit disconcerting and hard on the eyes…

Lynndal - yes!

In the stylesheet, just change the line 202 to `text-align:left;`.

How can we get notified about this theme if it’s updated?

Hi Ken!

Well one way would be to add my rss feed to an agreggator of your choice (the block of 6 buttons at the top of the column to the right). Any comments added to this thread would show up as new and you’d know. I tried to notify people when I did update it this time, but obviously I missed a few (sorry for that!).

I’m also looking for a newsletter plugin for the WP, so if I find it I’ll experiment with it. Other than that I think rss is best or just keep checking back.

BTW Ken - the updates that were put in were requested. So if you have ideas, just shout out. This theme (News Time) is also in working action at Balanced News Blog, albeit in version 1.0 rather than the updated version (which I plan to migrate it to soon).

Richard

I installed but I only get my articles in the left column. The center column is blank. What do I need to do to get post filling up the page. I tried changing the order=0 command to 2 but that didn’t help either.

Hi,

Today I downloaded and installed your theme News Time and I am very happy with it. I had no experience working with css-files, but I managed to change some things nevertheless.
I have a few questions: as a journalist I am trained that one never should put two headers in the same font next to each other. As you see on my site there are now even three headers of the same font next to each other. I would like to put something in the middle column on top (an illustration, a poll, anything that ‘breaks’ the line of three) but I whenever I add a new post this will be moved. Is there a way to anchor something at the top of the middle column, so that new posts are added below it?
Question 2 is: apparently the blog is centered on the page. Is there a way to let it move to the left?
Thanks for the effort.
TR

Hi JB - welcome! Do you have an example running where it only shows the left-hand side? I’d like to take a look to see if I can help you.

Theo - welcome to you too.
1) Changing the middle column; go to index.php, line 129 (<div id="middle">). After that, put your poll, illustration or whatever you want to break the flow up.

2) Moving the blog to the left; offhand, I’d say open style.css, line 23 and change it to margin:0; that should move it all to the left. I think.

Richard

Thank you Richard. May I try another one: I would like to replace the header with a graphic, but although I see several references to a header in the css I cannot find a related file that I can replace with an image file.
TR

Hi Theo, welcome back. The #header refers to the div that holds the h1 title, and the menu. You -could- set the background graphic to be a jpg/gif but remember the navigation menu would appear on top of it.

Thanks again. I also find that the -tag doesnt work in News Time. I read the workaround, but do you have an explanation why it doesnt work?
TR

Well solved it, one shopuld add a new tag to The Loop. See here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/the_content
TR

Which tag, Theo?

Ha, now I see it, I put something between “” and it disappears. I was referring to the more-tag. Apparently WP wants to see a line with “the_content” in the index.php (in the Loop-section) and then it works. In the News Time index.php there is no such line. I put it back in and I can now use the more tag. This would be a better solution then the one you gave to user stageleft on august 10.
TR

Between the parenthese I expected to see the bigger than and smaller than signs as used in tags. I hoped that the parentheses would allow me to show those signes nevertheless, but apparently not.
TR

Strange: I can now use the more-tag, in the regular posts, but the contents of the featured category are now partly copied to the top of the first column as well. And the featured box does not show the more-option. That is understandable since the “featured-code in index.php is not part of the loop but above it.
When I remove the line I added to the loop (the “the_ content”- line) everything is back to normal.
But would you have a solution? (Or do you think that I am abusing your blog now?)

Ok, first, you’re more than welcome to post questions about the theme, don’t worry about how many

WP expects the_content() in index.php yes. But, I moved all the posting code to the post-featured.php, post-left.php, post-right.php, and post-middle.php files. You can find it in the #post-middle div. If it’s on the front page (the if(is_home()) line) then it shows the_excerpt(), otherwise it shows the_content().

The featured code is still part of the loop, just a special loop (<?php $my_query = new WP_Query('category_name=featured&showposts=1'); ?>) that finds the featured category posts and displays only the latest one.

Right, so the only solution is to type in in separate excerpts and full texts. Did you do this to force your users to put short texts on the frontpage? Wouldnt it have been easier to leave the more-function intact and tell your users that they should use the more tage often to get the newspaper lay out. Or was there no ther way to get these 4 columns?

Theo - you can alter the code itself easily enough in the post-featured, post-left, post-right, post-middle. Admittedly, the theme was originally designed around Balanced News Blog, which had excerpts showing on the front page, so I never altered it. This was forced because often, writers forget about the “More…” tag (<!--more-->), so I just chose to make it use the_excerpt() as default.

What I’ll do is add the changes into version 1.2, so people can choose whether they have excerpts on the front, or the full content (With the “More…”).

Wonderful, thank you!
TR

You are right it is easy enough to do it myself. I replaced the ‘if(is_home()) lines)’ etc in the separate php-files with ‘php the_content(’more’);’ (in the correct format of course) and it works. Thanks again.

Glad you got it fixed Theo. I will however, try to make it optional if I can, like the settings are in the index.php

awesome theme. I have only one question. When I put something as “bold” when posting, it doesn’t show up bolded. Is there an easy solution to this? thanks

Hi Manon and welcome!

Where are you putting it as bold? Are you using css to do so? Are you using <b> or <strong>? In the content, or the excerpt? Got a URL I can look at?

it’s just in the post page on WP. I am using the quicktags to make it

oops
to make it (strong)

Hi,
In News Time Each post ends with a line, but apparently the whole blog ends with a line over 3 columns as well. This last line ennoys me: how do I remove it or tell WPP to move with the text?
Thanks again

Hi Theo - yes I’m working on that. That in fact, is the only thing that bugs me about the theme. I will post any updates. This btw, only occurs in IE…

Hi Rich,
that bold thing isn’t an issue when the ONE post is focused on… so no sweat… but it’s just one of those things that puzzles me. Is there a way to add a “previous” or “next” entry at the very end of the page?? So far I can only go to entries not shown by using the calendar or the archive links.

Hi manon - I see what you mean, I’ll get that included in the next release.

Hi Rich,
I got rid of the 3-column wide line as described in nr 34. I edit my css-file with Fronpage and I changed the .post-bottom tag’s wrapping from none to left. Tah did the trick (although I do not know iof there are side effects. My styl;esheet now reads: border bottom: 1px solid #000000;; padding-left:0; padding-right:0; padding-top:0; padding-bottom:10px; float:left
Do you agree with this solution?

Hi Theo, yes that gets rid of the line (in IE) but I still think the underlying problem exists somewhere. I’m still looking for it though.

I’ve made room in the theme for a top banner, we all like them don’t we

Added the following into the css sheet


#banner {
background-image: url('my-banner.gif');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: center;
height: 80px;
width: 650px;
padding: 18px;
}


replaced

in the index file with

Obviously the banner width, height, and location values need to be adjusted to suit the banner used. I also had to adjust the value in #header in the css sheet to make room for everything.

There may be a better way but it works for me.

OI - the other code tags didn’t seem to work - can ya fix that for me?

I am also wondering how to display a full archive listing, for some reason only the first part of the month displays.

Is there any way of limiting the number of post by column? I would like to have just one post per column. Thanxs.

Hmm the code never came through stageleft, nor in edit either.

Jd, just change the $column_max to 1

Thanxs so much!

This is a really good wordpress theme.

I am using it on http://www.profitsguru/blog and I am currently trying to get it to do everything I want it to do. I will be checking back regularly for any updates.

Nice work, Richard.

Ray

Ooops!

That should have been http://www.profitsguru.com/blog

Sorry,

Ray

Hi Ray, glad you found a use for it! If you have suggestions or improvements you’d like to see, just shout it out. Version 1.2 is going to be out soon with a few fixes so if anyone has anything they need say so.

Hi Rich,

Just one or two little fixes.

The last post on my front page http://www.profitsguru/blog always has a second bold ‘number of comments’ link on the line underneath the first. I think stageleft.info displays the same problem (usinr IE).

A second problem, which happens intermittently, is that the text on the third column drops by about 2 - 4 lines - but only sometimes.

Not big problems but I’d like to know if they can be sorted.

Finally, when I tried to add your Yahoo RSS link to My Yahoo - so I could keep up to date with new verions of this theme, Yahoo says the link is broken.

Anyway, good luck with v 1.2.

Ray

Hey Ray - I fixed the Yahoo thing, thank you.

Hello. I love this theme! Thanks for posting it. I have one question: is it possible to add thumbnail images to go with stories on the front page? Thanks

Ian

Also, sorry to be a pain - but any guidance on how to customise the navbar along the top so it links to certain pages would be fantastic!

Yes it is Ian. This approach is used at Balanced News Blog. You a div.post-info in post.php like this:

<div class=”post-info”>
 <a href=”<?php bloginfo(’url’); ?>/?cat=2″>
 <img src=”<?php bloginfo(’template_url’); ?>/images/left_uksm.jpg” alt=”<?php category_description(’11′); ?>” />
 </a>
</div>

Float it to the right (float:right;clear:right;) and style as you wish.

So I just paste that code into post.php? Does it matter where?

Looking at the code (I’m not too familair with PHP, sorry) I can’t work out how the code knows which category your post is - or how it knows which thumbnail image to choose. I can see on your site that each category has its own different thumbnail. But in the code you posted, there doesn’t seem to be anything that says ‘if category is 5, then choose foobar.jpg’.

Am I being thick? Sorry to be a pain. I chucked you a small donation to say thanks for the theme and the help.

Hi Ian - put this code just beneath the <div class="post">:

<div class=”post-info”>
<?php if (in_category(’1′)) { ?>
<img src=”<?php bloginfo(’template_url’); ?>/images/category1pic.jpg”
alt=”<?php category_description(’11′); ?>” />
<?php } else if (in_category(’2′)) { ?>
<img src=”<?php bloginfo(’template_url’); ?>/images/category2pic.jpg”
alt=”<?php category_description(’2′); ?>” />
<?php } else if (in_category(’3′)) { ?>
<img src=”<?php bloginfo(’template_url’); ?>/images/category3pic.jpg”
alt=”<?php category_description(’3′); ?>” />
<?php } ?>
</div>

The above code is for 3 categories, with the appropriately named 3 images. You can of course greatly increase this to encompass all the categories, with more images.

Remember to style this div, positioning, floating etc.,

Thanks for the donation, much appreciated.

I still can’t get it to work! I pasted the code below the bit in post-left.php and uploaded some correctly named images to right directory, but nothing appears.

1) Do I have to do anything else to trigger it?
2) How do I ‘float’ it? What’s the code for that?

Thanks again - you’re ace.

Ian

To float it, do this:

div.post-info {
float:right;
clear:right;
}

Sorry - so I’ve copied the long bit of code beneath the div class=”post” bit in post-left.php (and tweaked the URL of the images) but where abouts do I paste the float code exactly? And in which php file?

You paste that float code in the stylesheet (style.css).

Doh - I still can’t get it to work. I must be doing something simple wrong Could you take a look at my site? I’ll toss you another $20 as a gesture if you can make the thumbnails work!

I’ll mail it to you Ian.

it was the greatest theme i ever seen. i’d like to thank you! just perfect job buddy. please try to make this greater.
king regards

Serdar, thanks, you’re welcome

i’d like to ask you something. now 4 coulmns exist, is it possible to have top (extra) column only for 1 (recent or newest) post?i mean, there will be 1 top coulmn which shows 1 recent news and other columns (standart) will show rest of the news.
could you help me…

Don’t suppose you’ve any idea how to add a second sidepanel? So you’ve got one on the left hand side of the screen, and one on the right?

Thanks

Ian

Hi,

I installed News Time theme, all I could say is wow! I have populated it with rss feeds, and have just installed some google adsense banners. Here comes the problem.

Looking at my page using Firefox is Fine, there is no problem. However, when I use MS Explorer, the columns move away from each other, and the top and bottom banner ads are cut off.

I’m not sure about other browsers (Opera, Safari, etc.) If I delete the banners, everything is fine in MS Explorer! Or if the banner is at the bottom, everything is fine in MS Explorer.

I’ve been moving the code for the top banner around, and no solution has been found.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you,
Gil

Richard - thanks so much for this lovely theme! I like it so much that I have modified it only minimally! I had posted this in the Wordpress support, but I guess you’ve stopped checking that (?).

I have a minor suggestion: Why don’t you include all the common stuff from index.php, post-single.php, category.php, page.php, searchform.php etc. into the header and footer files?

These lines can go into the header.php from:

to:

And these lines can go into the footer.php from:

to:

This will make things very convenient for making changes to the Navigation links or including stuff in the header!

Also, I think it would be nice to put the ‘Powered by Wordpress’ tag in the footer of the theme when you distribute it, although you need not put it on your site.

still experimenting with this, but love the possibilities. for some reason i see the full text of my posts on the main page and it seems this version was coded to truncate posts on the main page. any ideas?

this is what i’ve looking for, good job richard and keep up the good work ;).