changing background / border color
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I recently set up a blog using origin theme. I somehow managed to present the pages with a blue background/border and I changed the blog’s title from the default black to red.
I now want to either change or remove entirely the background color. I have not been able to do this – though I did succeed in changing the title from red back to black (which I didn’t want to do).
How can I fix things? Or is this a crafty way for wordpress to push me towards paying for custom design?
Thanks,
Oliver
http://theworldelsewhere.com/The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Staff have removed the quick and easy access from Dashboard > Appearance > Background and placed it in that !@#$%! theme customizer. Have you tried accessing it through the theme customizer?
http://playaday31.wordpress.com/wp-admin/customize.php?return=%2Fwp-admin%2FSee here for using the customizer http://en.support.wordpress.com/customizer/
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Thanks for such a quick response!
I’ll try the theme customizer – but don’t you have to pay? -
No because the theme has a custom background feature http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/origin/
If you have trouble then post again here please.
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I’ll try the theme customizer – but don’t you have to pay?
Only parts of the customizer are paid options, changing the background and background color is free, and the customizer is the best place to go to do it.
have removed the quick and easy access from Dashboard > Appearance > Background and placed it in that !@#$%! theme customizer
timethief, the plan is to eventually move everything possible from the Appearance menu into the customizer in the future.
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changing the background and background color is free, and the customizer is the best place to go to do it.
Not for me. The old custom header page is vastly superior. What’s wrong with modifying the header at the Customize page? Here’s a sampling of its problems:
1. Visiting the Customize page sends my CPU usage skyrocketing. It takes over half a minute to load.
2. If you have more than half a dozen previously uploaded images, you can’t see them without scrolling.
3. If you select “Hide Image” with the Customize page tool, it doesn’t allow you to go back to displaying what you just hid, which could be either a single header or the randomized display of all uploaded images. The only choice is to upload a new image. That’s not the case at the old page.
4. Header text display and color options are missing from this tool. -
I went to “customize” and then “colors”. I’ve tried to change the color background and I’ve also to have color removed altogether.
At the top of the “color” options, there’s a message stating: “This feature is a part of the Premium Plan. Purchase to make it live or exit the preview.”
I can display a test color option, and after I save the chose color there’s a message saying “Your design has been published!” But it hasn’t been published….
Should I be doing something else?
Thanks again! -
After much playing around and with your guidance, I managed to figure out how to change or remove the background color. I still haven’t found a way to change back the color of the blog’s title on the front page, but for now that’s not very important to me.
Thanks again. -
musicdoc1, sorry you’re having trouble! Let me clarify a little bit. The customizer is the best place because the other pages will be phased out in the future. Before that happens, the developers often iterate and build on features (including listening to user feedback but also making an informed decision based on data and experience) before removing the old way of doing it. This needs to happen or the options and software will eventually become too bloated and hard to use. Constantly working to improve newer tools and make them better is how we work. Your feedback is valuable, and even though every piece of feedback cannot always be addressed, the end goal is to continuously improve and that’s a really good thing.
1. Visiting the Customize page sends my CPU usage skyrocketing. It takes over half a minute to load.
This doesn’t sound typical. It doesn’t happen for me, so there could be something odd going on with your individual setup. I am not sure what.
2. If you have more than half a dozen previously uploaded images, you can’t see them without scrolling.
I think that’s how it has to be given the amount of space. Also, most people do not upload many different header images or remove the old ones from the interface as needed. Also, you should be able to select any image again from your media library any time.
3. If you select “Hide Image” with the Customize page tool, it doesn’t allow you to go back to displaying what you just hid, which could be either a single header or the randomized display of all uploaded images. The only choice is to upload a new image. That’s not the case at the old page.
If you click the “Hide Image” button, you should be able to immediately re-select that image in the “Previously uploaded” section or click “Add new image” to select an image from your media library—you don’t need to re-upload an image since you can select the previous ones in those two different ways.
4. Header text display and color options are missing from this tool.
This is true for some themes. I’m sorry about that.
olivermarshallwriter:
At the top of the “color” options, there’s a message stating: “This feature is a part of the Premium Plan. Purchase to make it live or exit the preview.”
It sounds like you might have already figured it out, but that’s a preview of the paid features and clicking “exit the preview” will take you back to the free features.
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Thanks for the detailed response. I timed the loading of the new Customize page a couple of times. Average loading time: about 50 seconds.
If you click the “Hide Image” button, you should be able to immediately re-select that image in the “Previously uploaded” section…
You are correct on that point. My mistake. It is easy enough to scroll down and find a previously uploaded image. But the Randomizing button goes into hiding as well when you select “Hide Image,” and it took me about four hours to find it.
Whether you previously have the custom header set to display your header images randomly, or to display a single image, clicking on the “Hide Image” button leaves you with no header image, and apparently only the choice of adding a single image from either your previously uploaded images or your files. That is, unless you’re lucky enough to know, or clever enough to discover, that the Randomizing button has mysteriously reappeared at the bottom of the previously uploaded images. I don’t have that many header images, just 28. What about the guy who has 128 rotating header images? He’s going to be tired of scrolling by the time he finds that button.
But that’s not all. In addition to the minute or so it takes just to load the Customizer initially, for me that takes about 35 seconds to complete the hide the image modification, and about 2 seconds to save the change. Total of 87 seconds to do something that takes at most 5 seconds when using the old method. A minute and a half just to hide the image! We haven’t even begun to replace it yet.
I understand that others with faster internet connections, more powerful processors, etc. may not encounter such extreme speed issues on the new Customizing tool.
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Btw, what’s wrong with the old custom header page? Plenty of room there for additional features.
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What about the guy who has 128 rotating header images? He’s going to be tired of scrolling by the time he finds that button.
Hopefully the new design encourages a person not to have that many header images, which will be better for site performance. Actually if you do things similar to the example you described, i.e. install 128 rotating header images, that could explain why you’re seeing poor loading performance. It may not be the fault of the tool. Sticky posts is another example I can think of—they were designed with the idea that there would only ever be a few sticky posts at a time, and if you start marking all posts as sticky, site performance will soon suffer. Another example is posts per page, if you change that setting from the default 10 to 100, then the loading of someone’s home page will naturally take a very very long time—especially if there are a great deal of embedded images and/or videos. In a case like that, the slow load time is not the fault of the setting, but instead caused by the misuse of it. I know that you tend to build a lot of sites with a lot of content with a lot of images, and it sounds like you are using a lot of header images. Stats tell us that most people use one or zero or a handful at most. I am not sure what settings you have created that might be causing your site to load slowly in the customizer, but I can tell you that taking 50s to load or 35s for a modification is not at all the typical experience, and you shouldn’t assume because something is a problem in your case that it is the same for everyone else. Also, features here at WordPress.com often get a lot of iterations. That means they are constantly improving behind the scenes. Performance is always on our minds, and so your feedback on something like this doesn’t go unnoticed but it’s also important to understand and try to identify an edge case if one is happening.
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Actually if you do things similar to the example you described, i.e. install 128 rotating header images, that could explain why you’re seeing poor loading performance. It may not be the fault of the tool.
I presently have 28 header images, as I mentioned above. So, no that can’t explain why I’m seeing poor loading performance with the new Customizer. Also, the same task (hide header image) which takes 87 seconds with the new improved Customizer only takes 5 seconds with the old Custom Header tool, on the same website, with the same equipment.
Sticky posts is another example I can think of—they were designed with the idea that there would only ever be a few sticky posts at a time, and if you start marking all posts as sticky, site performance will soon suffer.
I have one sticky post. I nearly always have one sticky post. In my recent tests, the new custom header tool was 15-20 times slower than the old one. It has nothing to do with sticky posts.
Another example is posts per page, if you change that setting from the default 10 to 100, then the loading of someone’s home page will naturally take a very very long time—especially if there are a great deal of embedded images and/or videos.
Why are you bringing up scenarios that I would never consider applying on this or any other website? You could have easily looked and seen that my present setting is 8 posts per page. For the past few years it has generally varied from 7-10 post, depending on the length of recent posts. Before I found out about more tags, I would have to set it lower.
I know that you tend to build a lot of sites with a lot of content with a lot of images, and it sounds like you are using a lot of header images.
With all due respect, these factors are again irrelevant. We are comparing the performance of two WordPress tools, on the same website, with the same theme installed, tested at approximately the same time, using the same equipment (desktop PC).
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I was just listing possible examples of things I’ve seen go wrong in the past based on my experience, not examples specific to you. My main point before was that the customizer is not loading slowly for everyone—so, when talking to others in the forums, saying it’s slow may not apply to them.
I’m not sure why the customizer is loading so slowly for you! The best thing I can do to help is to first try testing myself. In cases where I cannot reproduce the problem (such as this case), then what I can do is try to help you by going through all the troubleshooting steps I can think of so you can help to identify the problem or until you get to a point where you can reliably describe how others can reproduce the problem. When I cannot find the details myself or reproduce the problem, then I need to rely on the other person for details and testing.
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My front page and archive pages might be relatively heavy and slow-loading at present. However, none of the old dashboard admin menu items, or their children, are slow to load: Posts, Pages, Media Library, Links, Comments, the long lists of Appearance and Settings options. None of those pages opens slowly.
The reason the Customizer opens slowly is because WordPress has unnecessarily combined an admin page with the home page. This has the effect, probably unintended, of penalizing those with slower loading front pages. If the purpose is to force blog creaters to either
a. streamline their front page and page archive content, or
b. leave WordPress.com for another website hosting service which doesn’t try to force users to change their long-term website management habits to suit radical ideas by developers. -
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If the purpose is to force blog creaters to either
Those are not the goals.
My front page and archive pages might be relatively heavy and slow-loading at present.
Right, so loading them in a live preview mode would be the same. This makes sense.
However, none of the old dashboard admin menu items, or their children, are slow to load
Yes, but they are also an old way of doing settings that will get updated over time. As the web moves forward, WordPress.com will move forward to. There may be some pain points along the way, but I think the other alternative is that old settings become stagnant and bloated as more and more things get added. A live preview way to edit settings is new and currently opt-in as the other pages are still available for you if you have a slow loading front page. In the future, the new tools will keep getting better and eventually be the preferred way to change settings.
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Right, so loading them in a live preview mode would be the same. This makes sense.
It would make sense only if your only option for the preview page were the Home page. Aside from on the Customize page, if I want to preview a new header or background uploaded to one of the old editors, there is no reason why I must choose the Home page as my preview page. I will choose a short and light post or page to view the changes on.
My Home page is indeed relatively slow loading, but only the Customizer threatens to force the slowness of that page to be a large and urgent administrative issue. I can shorten my posts (moving the more tags higher), display fewer of them, remove some of the animated images, extra large images if any exist there, display fewer videos, etc.
I’ve tried a static page in the past and I might try it again. That was the quickest Home page I ever had.
My main point remains that the loading speed of my Home page was not previously, is not at this moment, and will not necessarily in the future be a pressing issue without the Customizer forcing it to be.
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Using a short and light post as an access point for the customizer is a good workaround in your case.
People expect WYSIWYG editing more and more. It will probably be something WordPress.com continues to work on and make better over time.
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