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Suggestion: More in Depth CSS comments for styling themes

0

I’ve worked on WP, Joomla, Mambo, and a few others and the one thing that they all lack is some commented notes in the CSS to help designers style the Fonts, layout, and colors. Often these CSS files can be very long and trying to find elements that you would like to style can be a very time consuming process and frustrating. I’ve spent hours on themes changing css and previewing to see what’s been changed. I think if developers spent a little more time commenting important styling elements designers would be eternally grateful and flock to your themes. Just an Idea!

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:07:03
  • Tammie
    • WordPress Wizard

    @Camster: Could I ask a question as it’s a good suggestion. Would you be happy with say section break downs in each file or would you be looking for more. For instance:

    /* header */

    /* sidebar */

    /* content */

    etc… maybe with a definite indicator that stands out beyond code like

    /***************************************************************************** navigation */

    Sorry to ask but love to know what you’d want in your ideal comments.

  • Tammie
    • WordPress Wizard

    @drmike: So you’d like to see that in the xhtml / css? I’d say cool for any we add to a theme but in the default code we use like BuddyPress files that would not be possible to do due to the updating. I think though the main wrappers already have that in BuddyPress though.

  • camster
    • Flash Drive

    As per your question above Tammie:

    Could I ask a question as it’s a good suggestion. Would you be happy with say section break downs in each file or would you be looking for more. For instance:

    /* header */

    /* sidebar */

    /* content */

    etc… maybe with a definite indicator that stands out beyond code like

    /***************************************************************************** navigation */

    One of the themes I’m working on right now (Magazeen) is really well organized and titled as you’re asking about which really helps. In addition to that it would be nice to have specific comments on main elements that affect the appearance of a theme. I spend the most time trying to find in the CSS:

    1- typography

    trying to figure out which font in the CSS affects what in the theme eg. commenting the main elements such as post title, body copy, widgets, ect.

    /*post body copy, footer*/

    /*post title, widget title, nav*/

    2- layout

    comments on some of the main columns and containers would be nice for styling the backgrounds and changing column widths.

    Images and graphics are usually pretty easy to figure out where they are being used so thats not a problem. I wouldn’t expect everything to be commented but from a designer viewpoint an ideal theme would have the css organized as you say by section with a few specific comments on key elements that affect the look of the theme. This would save code challenged designers like myself a wack of time.

    good suggestion as well by drmike, sometimes its hard to figure out what </div> goes with what.

    Thanks