WordPress.com is an easy way to start blogging. Get a blog, check out our features, read the latest announcements, choose from great themes, or learn about the team behind it.
Need help? Check out our Support site, then
On our blog we use the Mistylook theme but when we install widgets in the sidebar then all the posts/archives listings disappear and all that is visible is the widget. Why is that? And how can we install the widgets and still view the categories/archives? Hoping somebody can help us here.
The blog I need help with is thebamboosea.wordpress.com.
When you first start a blog, and before you add any widgets, what you are seeing in the sidebar is a theme-generated display of widgets simply there so you can see what it will look like with widgets, and to keep from having a big blank spot.
When you add a widget to the sidebar for the first time, the sample display goes away. Simply drag the additional widgets you want to have in the sidebar over and into the sidebar and arrange them as you wish.
ok many thanks for your time my friend, we will try that now.
Yes, that works no problem, but can't add the categories widget for some reason, any thoughts?
Can't drag widgets over to the sidebar have to click "add" then arrange them numerically but can't do that with the "categories" widget, I add it but it just doesn't show up in the sidebar or on the page display. Any ideas?
The categories widget has nothing (no data) to display until you create a post and assign category to it and publish the post.
/wave to TSP
@thabamboosea
Please post the complete url for the blog you are referring to starting with http://so we can view it and help you.
Have checked the support pages and the video. Maybe its this theme, but as I said before you cant click and drag to change the order or to add widgets as Sacredpath advised or as it appears in the help video. You have to do it by choosing its position by number. I can do that with all the other widgets no problem, but the categories widget, which is probably the most important one, refuses to be added. Does anybody please have any idea why?
Above you said: "Can't drag widgets over to the sidebar have to click "add" then arrange them numerically "
Your statement mystifies me. The word "add" does not appear on any of the widgets or on the widget page that we currently have at wordpress.com and there is no numeric order for widgets.
You have also said: "You have to do it by choosing its position by number."
This statement also mystifies me.
In some cases when one cannot drag and drop widgets to where they want them to display in the "sidebar" boxes it can be due to browser issues. Which browser of and version of it are you using? Have you tried these troubleshooting approaches?
http://en.support.wordpress.com/browser-issues/
i use firefox, and that is how the widgets appear to me - there is a small add on the right hand side of the bar, then when you click on that, you have to choose from a drop down menu as to their position in the sidebar
I'm using Firefox 3.5.5. and I do not see the word "add" at all.
"there is a small add on the right hand side of the bar" - there is no small "add" word in the display I see.
This is what I see on the inside of the opened Categories widget
Categories
Title:
Show as dropdown
Show post counts
Show hierarchy
Remove | Close ............. Save
there is an add label I click to get to the opened Categories widget and then I see this...
Select both the sidebar for this widget and the position of the widget in that sidebar.
I see the same as you have said above but, I also see this
Sidebar Position (drops down and you select the position - 1,2,3,4 etc.)
and then below that there is...
Cancel Save Widget
There is a symbol that looks like a faded ^ is that what you mean?
No I see nothing like that either on the parent Widget page or on the opened Categories widget page.
I am very sorry but I am backing out of this thread because I do not know what you are talking about.
(1) I cannot see the word "add" on the widget page.
(2) I cannot see this string of words anywhere on the widget page: "Select both the sidebar for this widget and the position of the widget in that sidebar."
(3) I cannot see this string of words anywhere on the widget page either:
"Sidebar Position (drops down and you select the position - 1,2,3,4 etc.)"
The "add" is in light blue on the Widget parent page at the end of each bar on which the widget's name is written - Categories Add
Ok well thanks for your time TImethief. Much appreciated, but that's what's in front of me. And the "select both the sidebar..." was cut and pasted from the page, so it is definitely there.
On the Widget parent page is the word "add" in light blue next to the name of the Widget e.g. categories in the "Available Wigets" box. I click that and then it takes me to this -
Widget Categories
Title:
Show as dropdown
Show post counts
Show hierarchy
Select both the sidebar for this widget and the position of the widget in that sidebar.
Sidebar Position
Sidebar 1
Inactive Widgets
Cancel Save
(The above is cut and pasted from the page.)
That is what I see and that is what is there. But when I choose the position and Save as I have done for the other Widgets visible on our page, it doesn't show up unlike the others.
Can anybody else help?
If you have accessibility mode turned on from the screen options tab at appearance > widgets then the "add" link will appear at the right end of the widget title bars. For some browsers such as IE, that seems to the only way to get them to work on the widgets page, and it actually seems to be more stabile when you have accessibility mode turned on.
Thanks Sacredpath.
I disabled accessibility mode and that allows me to click and drag and gets rid of the "add" on the title bar. I did that for "categories", dragged into sidebar then saved but when I visit site "categories" do not appear and when I go back to the Widgets page, the "categories" widget has disappeared from the sidebar.
OK, I've had some issues with the widgets page similar to what you are describing. Drag the categories widget over to the sidebar, move it around till the grey outlined box appears and then you can release the mouse button. Click the "save" link, then click the "close" link, and then force refresh that page before going to your blog. If after force refreshing the page the categories widget disappears, drag it over again and save and close, then again refresh the widgets page. If after refreshing it still appears in the "sidebar" then you can go to your blog and it should be there. Make sure and force refresh your main blog page as well just in case your browser is looking at a cached version of the page.
@TSP
Thanks for wading in. I have bookmarked this thread.
No, I have tried that for the last hour. It doesn't work I'm afraid. The dragged, saved and closed categories widget always disappears when I force refresh the page. I will keep trying but it doesn't look like that's going to work.
It seems that you will have to contact Staff and ask for their help http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/
Best wishes for a happy ending. I'm sorry I was unable to help you.
No problem. Will do. Many many thanks for your time TT and SP. Very much appreciated.
Joy and peace,
The Bamboo Sea
This topic has been closed to new replies.
thebamboosea
