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Sidebars disappearing or moving

  1. newingtoncricket
    Member

    I am using the Pilcrow theme and one of my sidebars has dropped to the bottom, the other has disappeared completely.
    http://newingtoncrickettour.wordpress.com/

    I have read different questions about this and I have ticked the 'WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically' and refreshed for each post and that seemed to work once but it instantly refreshed to disappearing. I have looked at the page in 3 different browsers, it's the same in each. I can't find an option to change the content width but I haven't adjusted any image sizes to large enough proportions so I'm not convinced it's that either. Other pages with the sidebar-content-sidebar format are fine.

    Please help! It's important that I have the sidebars displaying properly.

    The blog I need help with is newingtoncrickettour.wordpress.com.

  2. newingtoncricket
    Member

    Might I also add that when I preview a post it appears fine.

  3. newingtoncricket
    Member

    Also when I click 'View post' after editing rather than looking at the page URL it also appears fine

  4. mmadfan
    Member

    Hi, newingtoncricket -- Have you fixed this? I just viewed it in Firefox 5, and it looks fine. You do have a couple widgets in the footer, but I believe this theme, Pilcrow, allows for a couple of widget areas in the footer, as well as the two sidebar areas. In your site, I see sidebar-content-sidebar with a search widget and a category widget in the footer. Are those last widgets supposed to be in a sidebar? In your left-hand sidebar, I see an "about" widget, and in the right, an email subscription widget & a recent posts widget.

  5. newingtoncricket
    Member

    I had some </ div > breaks in the html code of some posts which I removed, that seems to have been the problem, does that occur often?

    Previously the gravatar, text and recent posts widgets had disappeared and the calendar and subscription widgets on the right were pushed to the bottom, but as you noted, I seem to have fixed it

  6. mmadfan
    Member

    Yes, that can happen. I had an extra /div in a widget that pushed all the widgets under it to the bottom of the page. I always keep that "correct invalidly nested XHTML" checked, too, but it apparently didn't pick up my extra close div in the widget.

    I'm glad that you found & fixed your problem! Have fun with the kids. :-)

  7. 5arebral1
    Member

    WordPress.com blog using pilcrow - my secondary sidebar widgets are under my primary sidebar making for a really obnoxious long sidebar. HELP!
    http://www.garnergoingson.wordpress.com

  8. timethief
    Member

    The reason your sidebar has fallen and is displaying below your posts is either due to copying and pasting or it can also be a result of importing text containing invalid HTML.

    Typically this is caused by an open HTML tag in one of your posts or in a text widget. You must locate it and close it.

    Go to Settings > Writing and select “ ___ WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically” and then scroll down and click “Save Changes.”

    Now, starting with your latest post, open it in the editor, make one minor change such as adding a space and then deleting it, and then click “Update Post.” Check your blog and see if it is back to normal.

    If it’s not, then look for an open HTML tag and close it. Check your blog again and see if it is back to normal. If it’s still “messed up” then open the next post and do the same thing post by post until it goes back to normal.

    If you have been copying and pasting text from elsewhere without using either icon 5 or icon 6 in Row 2 of the visual editor, please see here so you know how to do this correctly in the future. http://en.support.wordpress.com/visual-editor/#pasting-text

  9. 5arebral1
    Member

    WordPress.com blog using pilcrow - my secondary sidebar widgets are under my primary sidebar making for a really obnoxious long sidebar. HELP!
    http://www.garnergoingson.wordpress.com

  10. timethief
    Member

    @5arebral1
    I answered you here > http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/sidebars-disappearing-or-moving?replies=9#post-660718

  11. timethief
    Member

    Also note that I just viewed your blog using Firefox 5.0.1. At this time the sidebars are exactly where they belong so I assume you have a browser issue. Whenever anything wonky happens and we cannot see what others see we immediately go into browser troubleshooting mode. > http://en.support.wordpress.com/browser-issues/
    If your browser version is outdated you can upgrade it here http://browsehappy.com

  12. 5arebral1
    Member

    Thanks - I've checked the XHTML box. I've changed a space in my most recent post and it didn't fix at least in my little world. I'll check sig other's mozilla tomorrow.

    Incidentally, it was just fine until I added an image to my footer area earlier this evening. The image box did not resize the image and it was HUGE. This is when the sidebars got wierd...

    Not to say that your reasoning is not it, but adding the image had an affect...getting some lightning so I will continue this in the am.

    Thanks very much! Really appreciate the help

  13. mmadfan
    Member

    Check your html in your sidebars. That's not included in the automatic xhtml correction -- you may have an open tag or some other problem with your html. It's conceivable that the browsers are handling the problem differently. I once thought I'd fixed the problem I had in a sidebar widget, but it still moved everything down to the bottom when the page was viewed in IE, and I still had one misplaced tag that hadn't interfered w/ it in firefox or Opera.

  14. timethief
    Member

    I just checked using IE8 and the sidebar is at the bottom of the blog.

  15. mmadfan
    Member

    Weird stuff -- IE's always got to have a different way of doing things. I try to steer people away from IE and to another browser when I can, but that doesn't help the fact that the page will look really wonky to a large percentage of the visitors.

  16. mmadfan
    Member

    Huh . . . I just looked at garnergoingson, and the sidebars are side-by-side in both Firefox 5 & IE 8.

  17. timethief
    Member

    @mmadfan
    If your hunch is correct and the problem in invalid HTML in the widget then fixing it will cure the problem. If not then it's a contact Staff situation

    @5arebral1
    If you cannot locate any invalid HTML in the text widget such as an open tag and no closing tag then here's the link to contacting Staff http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/ Type "sidebar at bottom of blog in IE8" into the searchbox. After you use the searchbox at the bottom of the page there will be a section that says “Have you found the answer to your question?” You can choose either “Yes I found the answer to my question.” or “No I didn’t find the answer to my question and I would like to contact support for help.” The no option will reveal the contact form.

  18. panaghiotisadam
    Member

    Widget HTML is ok.

    @5arebral1: The image you have used for "Welcome to the Garner's" is huge (2560px wide). This might be one of the things that the miserable Explorer can't cope with. First thing I would try in your case is make a copy of that image, downsize it in an image editing application to around 400px wide, and upload and insert that copy.

  19. 5arebral1
    Member

    Wow. I'm deeply appreciative and humbled by all of you taking time, and offering your expertise and advice!

    I did check on my husband's mozilla this morning and it looks fine, but still wrong on my browser.

    I have to run some family errands this am, but I will work on resizing the feature photo when I get back. I thought that when you resized the picture in upload process that was the same thing, but will do it in photoshop first and then upload.

    I will also check the html thingies.

    Thanks so very much!

  20. mmadfan
    Member

    It doesn't actually resize the image; it simply directs the browser to display the image with particular dimensions. After reading panos' post, I was astounded last night when I looked at the original pic, myself, to see how ginormous it was, since obviously, the "image info" showed it to be 400-by-something, since that was what was in the html tag.

    Strangely, when I view your site through IE 8, I do see the sidebars side-by-side, so it is a confusing situation. It could be the image size is throwing it off for some installs of the browser.

    Good luck getting it looking right!

  21. 5arebral1
    Member

    Hi everyone - Thanks so much for all of your help. I resized a feature photo in photo shop, uploaded it and replaced the bigger photo. At least for now everything is back where it needs to be.

    I'll also be more careful how I do html stuff too. I did not know that cutting and pasting was a problem...Seems like I've learned a lot from all of you!

    Thanks and my very best regards to each of you!

  22. mmadfan
    Member

    Great! Glad to hear it! :)

  23. timethief
    Member

    Best wishes with your blogging. :)

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