WordPress.com Forums » Topic: Sidebar/Widgets on AutoFocus Theme

designsimply on "Sidebar/Widgets on AutoFocus Theme"

designsimply — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:43:42 +0000

Could you pls clarify if by swinging the menu down and to the right if the email subscription would be possible to add there?

Moving the menu down wouldn't allow you to add the subscription widget to the AutoFocus home page, but there are a couple things to keep in mind that may help.

Even though you might expect subscribers to always see the home page first, it's often not the case and so readers may see the widgets on pages more often than you think.

Readers without WordPress.com accounts can follow a blog with the button that appears in the lower right-hand corner of WordPress.com sites. Here's what it looks like:
http://en.blog.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/follow-5.png
http://en.blog.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/follow-6.png

Readers with WordPress.com accounts who are logged in can follow a blog any time using the "Follow" button in the gray toolbar.

You might also consider adding a page named "Subscribe" or "How to Subscribe" to the main menu and then just encourage readers to subscribe using the Follow Blog widget that you add to the sidebar area through Appearance → Widgets.

timethief on "Sidebar/Widgets on AutoFocus Theme"

timethief — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:38:52 +0000

Last option.. I saw that you could buy the AutoFocus 2.0 via http://fthrwght.com/autofocus/

There is no FTP access to free hosted WordPress.com blogs and we cannot upload any third party themes. The only themes we can use are found here > Appearance > Themes

That version of the theme can only be installed on a WordPress.org install.
http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

thetrendery on "Sidebar/Widgets on AutoFocus Theme"

thetrendery — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:30:44 +0000

Thanks so much for the info.

I am not sure I want to move to the self-hosted wordpress installation as all I really need is the widget for Follow Blog: Email Subscription SOMEWHERE on the home page.

Could you pls clarify if by swinging the menu down and to the right if the email subscription would be possible to add there?

If that's not possible I think I will just choose another format : (

Last option.. I saw that you could buy the AutoFocus 2.0 via http://fthrwght.com/autofocus/

It appears that that version does allow widgets on the homepage. Can anyone confirm if that's the case and how easy/difficult that would be to install?

designsimply on "Sidebar/Widgets on AutoFocus Theme"

designsimply — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 17:05:17 +0000

The WordPress.com version of AutoFocus does not have the option to add widgets to the home page. We could probably help you swing the menu down and to the right with CSS only though. If that sounds like a good compromise to you, please reply back with a link to the blog you're working on.

If you would like to have full control over the code including the ability to change the function of how a theme works, you can switch to WordPress.org. We have posted hosting recommendations at http://get.wp.com/hosting/ if you are interested.

thesacredpath on "Sidebar/Widgets on AutoFocus Theme"

thesacredpath — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 02:39:40 +0000

The solutions you find out on the internet will almost always be for self-hosted wordpress installations where they can hack the underlying theme PHP script files to add functionality. We cannot edit the underlying theme PHP script files at wordpress.com and there is no way to do it via CSS. CSS is a styling document used by the browser to style the different elements of a web page and cannot be used to add functionality.

thetrendery on "Sidebar/Widgets on AutoFocus Theme"

thetrendery — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 01:20:14 +0000

I've searched hours in forums for a solution that works to add a sidebar/widgets to the AutoFocus theme. It IS possible to add on the homepage.. see proof here: http://hohoho.iblogger.org/

I just need to know how to add it in CSS. Most of the solutions I found are from older versions so I need something updated that works.

Thanks!